Beyond the 'Banks

13.

Later that night Kie, Pope, and I pulled up to the Chateau in Pope's pick up truck. Since it was a pick up truck there was only one row so we were all quite literally squished.

"Gotta be done before my scholarship interview in the morning" Pope said as he parked the car.

"You gotta be focused" Kie said

"Agreed but this is also a huge thing for him" I added in

"I know I know. We get John B and JJ inside the well, Molly and I are up top, and you and Sarah will be outside transporting" Pope said to Kie.

"Yeah we got this" She replied

"Cool. Uh I got a winch. That tin can hold over like 200, 300 pounds."

"It's so crazy.. how we're getting actual gold." I said while they both nodded their heads in agreement. I could see Kie was about to say something until these lights turned on out of nowhere.

"What the hell?" Pope asked

"Who the hell is that?" Kie asked as we all went over to the source of the confusion. It was JJ who looked incredibly wasted. He was sitting in a hot tub with a glass of champagne in his had along with wearing a pair of glasses... at night.

"JJ?... what did you?" I asked him as he smiled proudly

"I got a jet going straight to my butt right now. Y'all should get in immediately. You hear me? Salud!" He said as he poured himself a glass and then drank straight out of the bottle instead. We all looked at each other with confusion.

"How much did this cost?"

"Well, with the generator, the petrol, and oh! hey, express delivery.... pretty much all of it yeah" our eyes shot wide open with our mouths agape.

"All of it?!"

"Yeah all of it"

"You spent all the money in one day?"

"Yeah burned a hole right through my pocket. But I mean like come on guys! Like look at this"

"This looks like a frat party just threw up here" I commented while looking around

"Finest in jet based massage therapy. That's what they told me. What Kie? Can't a man have a little luxury in life? Come on! All this scrimping and scraping'... I mean we only get to live once right? Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on"

"I'm sorry the what?"

"In the Cat's Ass. That's what I named her. Oh hey yo, I almost forgot" JJ pressed a switch and then all of the suddenly tiny streams of water sprouted out in an upwards direction and the water turned into different vibrant colors.

"Yeah that's right I know. Disco mode! That's right baby!"

"Are you kidding me? You could've paid for restitution!" Pope yelled out

"Literally given it to any charity" Kie said

"All in one day JJ?" I didn't want to be mad at him but the amount of money he had spent in so little time had me baffled me beyond belief.

"You could've helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well!"

"Okay well you know I can't do that!" He said before unconsciously getting up, revealing the purple bruises that were over his stomach. Our moods and attitude towards JJ immediately changed.

"I got a hot tub! For my friends. I got a hot tub for my friends. You know what? No, you know what? Screw friends. I got hot tub for my family and for my... for my girlfriend damn it!" I didn't care that he had just told Kie and Pope that we were dating, we could all see that he was in pain.