TWENTY-SEVEN SO MUCH WORSE
◥✥◤
The day so far was certainly interesting, to say the least. First, Pope made them a plan to go down and get the rest of the gold which was supposedly worth 400 million dollars which was going to be quite the heavy load for them to get out. Now, they were currently taking a blow torch to the cleaned gold bars they did have in an attempt to get the wheat symbol off so they could be pawned. Yeah, this was far different than Norman's beach days with his friends. Of course, Norman was only watching as Kie and JJ tried to melt down the gold enough to get the very obvious label off of it, leaning against a tree with John B next to him. It really was strange how quickly his life had changed for the better, he realized as he sat with the boy. That being said, he could certainly get used to this.
"Dude, why is this taking so long?" John B asked with a laugh, his question met with JJ flipping him off.
After a moment, the boy turned off the blow torch, saying, "All right, all right, that should be good enough, it's fairly unrecognizable, right, Kie?"
The girl observed the gold and nodded, "Yeah, I say let's hit the road."
They all got to work packing up their things from their spot in the trees near the beach before they all piled into John B's van once again. Norman was starting to get used to his place in the passenger seat, even if they yelled at him for playing Alt-J whenever he got the aux. It was weird to think how a couple of weeks ago they had been strangers to him and now they were friends. Sarah was still on the rocks, but he didn't mind her being there as much as he thought he would. If it made Kie happy, Norman was happy, too. Something he especially loved was the way John B would always reach to hold his hand on the center console like it was something they had always done. He often had to ignore the way JJ would fake gag, but most of the time he would just flip him off.
As they pulled up the pawnshop, JJ looked at the gold and commented, "Hell of a job melting it down, Dr. Frankenstein."
Kie scoffed, rolling her eyes as they climbed out, "Ugh, like you could have done better."
"I could have," the boy said with a shrug, "I took a welding class."
Kiara looked less than impressed with this comment, asking, "Oh, really? When?"
"Guys, guys," John B interceded with a calm tone, "Chill out, okay?"
JJ scoffed, holding the bag up as he said, "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to pawn this piece of shit off. How did I get this job anyway?"
"'Cause you're the best liar," Pope answered with ease, smiling at JJ's offended expression as they entered the pawnshop.
"Afternoon," JJ began cautiously, clearly letting his nerves get to him just a little bit, "I see you buy gold?"
The older lady at the counter didn't look amused, speaking in a harsh tone to say, "That's what the sign say, don't it?"
"Well, I hope you buy a lot of it because I'm about to blow your mind," JJ said as he opened up the bag and handed her the chunk of gold with shaky hands. Even Norman was nervous and he wasn't even the one trying to make the deal. "How 'bout them gold apples?"
Norman rolled his eyes, whispering to John B, "I wish he'd be more serious, I'm scared."
The boy only shook his head, whispering back, "It'll be fine, JJ's got this. I trust him."
"Me too, but something just doesn't feel right."
The woman looked at the chunk and chuckled, "That ain't real. It can't be."
JJ shrugged with a casual ease that Norman envied. Good liar or not, he would be nervous trying to pawn off this much gold in one go. Considering the fact that they hadn't exactly acquired this gold legally made things about ten times worse for Norman's nerves.
"See how much it weighs," JJ countered with a cocky smile. "Yeah, let's get some light on that."
The woman inspected the gold, settling on, "Spray-painted tungsten."
"Spray-painted tungsten?" the boy asked, channeling arrogance and a challenge into his tone, "Why don't you, uh, see how soft it is?" The woman continued with the inspection to which JJ kept making cocky remarks. "Wow, would you look at that?"
"Hold your horses," the woman, still unimpressed, cut him off. "We ain't got to the acid test yet."
"Ooh, the acid test!" JJ exclaimed, but the woman's expression was still unchanged. "My favorite, guys!"
"Shut up," Norman couldn't take it anymore, sighing as he tried to make his tone a bit kinder, "Just let her do her job."
The woman shot Norman a look that looked almost relieved that someone had said something and Norman's nerves eased just a little bit. If he could get at least one of them in her good graces considering she was their only chance at having access to the money, he would throw on as much southern island rich boy charm as he could just to make sure she didn't call the police the second they started acting suspiciously. In their case, they had been suspicious since the moment they stepped foot into the pawnshop so he was just grateful she wasn't dialing 9-1-1 under the counter while this whole deal went through.
"It's fine, it's fine, I got this," JJ muttered before shooting the woman a winning smile while she continued with the tests.
The woman frowned, "Well, it ain't painted and it ain't plated."
JJ was obviously getting impatient as he explained, "Ma'am, I'm telling you. This is as real as the day is long."
"It looks like somebody tried to melt it down," she observed, her eyes clinging to the gold with wild curiosity.
"My mom," JJ lied through his teeth, "She had all this jewelry lying around the house and she thought it was best to melt it down to make it easier. Ya know, for you. To "consolidate" it. She asked me to bring it over here because she's so sick right now... we really need the cash for the medical bills."
The woman didn't look impressed and Norman wondered if for a moment she saw through him. Placing the gold on a scale, she looked at him skeptically before saying, "Seven pounds. That's a lot of earrings."
"Okay, to be honest ma'am, it's really hard to see my mom fall apart with Alzheimer's. The whole neighborhood feels bad for our family so they chipped in a bit to help," the blond kept his head down, putting on quite the act.
"Give me a minute," was all the pawnbroker said in response, disappearing into a room off the side of the counter. She returned a moment later, saying, "So I uh talked to my boss, and here's what I can do. Fifty thousand."
JJ halted, frustration beginning to show on his features, "Fifty thousand? You think I walked in here not knowing the spot price? Ma'am, I know for a fact this is worth one-forty. At least."
The woman chuckled cruelly, "Well, sweetie, you in a pawnshop. This ain't Zurich. Do I look Swiss to you?"
"Ninety. Or I walk," he sighed.
"Seventy, half price," the woman settled, "And I uh don't ask questions about where you got this."
Norman had an absolutely terrible feeling about this. Something in the crooked smile of the woman and the unwavering arrogance of JJ's stance proved everything about this scene was off. There was something the woman wasn't telling them and Norman could feel it, but they were so desperate to pass off the gold that no one else was concerned. Sarah was smiling even. Something was gnawing at his stomach as his shoulders were a straight line of density as his nerves were written clear as day all over his face and body language.
John B seemed to notice this as he reached over from his position of leaning against the counter and squeezed Norman's hand, whispering, "Relax."
Norman only shook his head, keeping a close ear for JJ's next words. The blond spoke with harsh determination, saying, "I'll be taking that in large denominations, please." Thus, the deal with an unknowing devil was signed.
"Well, here's the snag --" Norman knew it, "I don't have that much in denominations. Not here, anyway. I can write you a cashier's check."
"Cash, no, ma'am I want cold hard cash, that's what the sign says," JJ argued, getting even more frustrated than he had already appeared to be. "Cash for gold and that's what I expect. I'm gonna get it in cold hard."
"Well, I have to send you to a warehouse they have the money there, all right?" the woman offered and Norman's stomach sunk.
"Where's this warehouse?"
Norman's bad feeling got worse. So much worse.
i know this is a short chapter but i had a long day, i'm exhausted and i didn't update yesterday so i wanted to get a chapter out for y'all so that's all y'all get a small chapter and you're gonna shut up and eat your damn food