𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

XXI. Rixon's Cove.

HE GLANCED at her up and down and gestured, "uh, you look nice... that's a... pretty dress." He stammers with his words and she chuckled, smacking his arm gently as she moves to stand next to him. "I didn't expect to see you here." She looks at him.

"I didn't expect to accept the job either... I was gonna say no but when I saw how much, I couldn't turn it down." He says, looking back at her and she nods. "Makes sense..." She says and Jake sighs, leaning against the bar. "I should probably do my rounds," he says when he spots JJ and Pope hugging each other.

"Oh, yeah... sorry for keeping you from very important work." She says as she stood up straight and he chuckled. "I'd rather sit here all night and talk with you, but sadly I'm working." He says, looking at her and she grabs his arm. "Oh, my God, did you see Rose's headband?" She asked him and he laughs.

"Yeah, reminded me of Statue of Liberty. I went to their table to serve them some drinks and I nearly poked myself in the eye." He says and they laughed together. "Hey, Lennox! Quit flirting and get to work." The man bartending behind the counter tells him and he looks at him, furrowing his brows together. "I wasn't flirting, Kiara's my friend." He defends himself to the man who merely scoffs at that.

"Right... well you should get back to work." Kie chuckled and pulled her hand back awkwardly before she walked away and he went around again, taking orders from people before going back over to the bar and telling the bartender what drinks each person ordered.

While walking around, Jake looked over to see JJ causing a scene and grabbing some poor man's drink and drinking it. Before Jake could go and tell him he can get him another one, JJ raised his hands, "it's okay, everybody! Do not panic. Let's leave it to the men and women in uniform, huh? Let's hear it from them. Rose! You look like Lady Liberty." JJ pointed at her as he then turned around.

"Oh, hey, buddy, can I have one of those?" JJ asked as they reached where Jake was, holding a tray of drinks. "Let go of him!" Kie shouted as her parents try and stop her. "You can't just boot him!" She says to the security guard. "Excuse me, ma'am?" The man looks over. "I invited him here. I'm a member of this club." She says as JJ shoves the guard away, grabbing one of the drinks from Jake.

"Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's, Jake, Kie," he looked back and forth between them before downing the drink and setting the empty cup onto a table nearby, turning around. "Pope, you as well, alright?" He says, pointing at the boy as Jake lets out a loud sigh.

"Rixon's Cove. Let's roll." He said and waved the two boys. "Alright, Kie. Come on." He also says to the girl and ultimately, Jake gives in as he sets down his tray and walk towards him. "Workers of the world unite." He says as JJ approached John B and Jake shows up behind JJ. "This better be worth it, I'm literally missing out on work for this." He says to the two.

"This is way more important than a shitty job that makes Kooks walk all over you, buddy." JJ says, patting his chest as Kie came running, smiling widely and Pope joins her, running over to them as well with Heyward shouting at his son. Pope hugs John B as Kie runs over to JJ and Jake, throwing her arms around their necks. "Later, losers!" John B shouted.

At Rixon's Cove, Jake sat down as JJ and John B got a fire going and they all sat in a circle. "Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope asked as he sat down.

John B just looked at JJ and pointed at him. "Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed." The blond boy replied with as Kie just looks at the boy then at John B next to her. "You ready for this?" The curly haired boy asked and looked over at Kie who nods. "Yeah."

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant." He starts off with and Jake looks down, shaking his head. "Oh, my God. Here we go again with this." Pope says, sounding annoyed and JJ looks at him. "No, alright, wait. Hear him out, alright?" He tells him as John B looked between the two.

"It's been here the whole time."

John B then looked at Jake, "it's on the island." He says and the other teen boy just stared at him with a confused look. "Are you serious?" Jake asked as he glanced around before looking at John B again. "Oh, my God." Kie says when the realization sets in. "I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope says to them.

"I'm sure you would, Pope." John B stood up. "But can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" He said and stood up on a log, raising his arms. "Proceed." Pope gestured. "Alright, so, in my backpack," he digs in before taking out folded up papers, "I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." He turns back to them.

"Who the hell's that?" Kie asked, glancing at the papers in John B's hands. "Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out." He unfolded the paper and Kie glanced at the others. "What?" She says, "here you go." He says to her as he hands over the paper and Jake moves to sit next to her so they can both read it together.

"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom." John B explained as JJ whistled and Kie hands Jake the papers which the boy then stood up to pass to JJ.

"After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is..." He says as they all began slapping their knees together. "Tannyhill Plantation." He announces. "Tannyhill?" Kie says, taken back. "Yeah. So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves. And then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decided to lynch him. So on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold." He walks over to Kie and Jake.

"Where?" Kie whispers, smiling. "Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water." He quotes the line from the letter. "Except..." He pointed at Kie. "There's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out." He went over to Pope. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water." He pointed and Kie laughs.

"Holy shit." Pope stared at the papers. "All we need is an original survey lap of the property, and we've found the gold." John B tells them. "Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true." Pope tells him as JJ got up and walked over to JJ. "Dude, it's like King Tut." Kie says and Jake chuckled as JJ then hugs John B, lifting him up. "Woah, hey, be careful, you're next to an open fire." Jake's usual instincts kick in as JJ then sets down John B.

"I'm so proud of you right now."

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you." John B puts his hands onto JJ's face before pulling them back and turning away. "Okay, so, one question," Jake spoke up, making them look at him. "What's the plan?" He asked them.

"Good question." John B says before walking around JJ. "So, Sarah Cameron's coming tonight." He tells them. "She's gonna bring an original survey map--" "wait, wait. Hold on. Sarah? Wh-why Sarah?" Kie asked as she glanced at JJ and Jake before looking back at John B. "Um..." He merely says. "This is gonna be good." JJ took off his cap.

"Sarah, um, she--she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday, and that's where I got the letter." The curly haired boy explained and Kie sat up straight. "You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?" She sounds angry and Jake looks at her right away.

"Yeah, um--" "he was mackin' on her." JJ interrupted John B, completely throwing him under the bus. "I wasn't macking." John B rolls his eyes. "You were totally macking Sarah Cameron." JJ says, looking at him. "I wasn't macking on her, okay? I was using her for access." John B defends himself.

"There was access, alright."

A.N.
"there was access alright" when jj said that i stg my reaction was "jj... i love u but stawp"