One Stupid Thing

1:4:14

The next day, Sarah had paid John B a little visit. When she came home she told me all about it.

"Yeah, so, I told him that I had nothing to do with him getting fired," she told me. "And then, you know because I'm just so kind and generous, I gave him a bag of his favorite brand of popcorn."

"Well, that's good. Hopefully that clears the air a bit. Consider the Skinny Pop a peace offering."

Sarah gave me a weird look. "Wait... I never said it was Skinny Pop. How did you know that?"

Shit. How could I be so careless? I stammered over my words in response. "Uhm, lucky guess? Skinny Pop is pretty popular."

"Ah huh, okay. Sure," she says, unconvinced. "I have to run to Scarlett's, but I will be back in a few hours."

"Okay, see you later."

Now, as I am sitting in my bedroom reading a book, I hear footsteps clamber up the stairs and above my room. Sarah must be home early.

Curious, I walk down the hallway, up the stairs, and search for her. That's when I notice voices coming from the study. I open the door and say, "Sarah? What are y-"

Sitting on one of our dark leather couches, is John B. John B Routledge in Tannyhill. I shut the door behind me quickly. "What is going on in here?" I whisper.

"Sancho, here, decided to run from CPS and managed to give himself a gnarly road rash," Sarah says. She lifts up the hem of his shirt to reveal the wound.

"Jees, okay. I'll go get something. Be right back." I close the door quietly behind me, grab a first aid kit from the bathroom, and return to the study in a few moments.

Sarah grabs the kit from my hands and rushes over to John B. I stand there, not knowing what to do for a moment, and eventually settle into a arm chair. Sarah picks through the kit and mutters something. "I need something. Stay here you two."

"Not going anywhere," John B says, but Sarah is out the door and likely didn't hear anything. I turn to look at John B and find his gaze already turned on me.

"What?" I ask him.

The corner of his mouth turns up in a tacky smirk. "She doesn't know does she?"

"No, she doesn't, and we are going to keep it that way." I cross my arms defensively.

"How come? Are you ashamed of us?" His eyes narrow accusingly.

"Um no. I'm a little offended that you'd regard me so low, but that's not the point. The point is she would ask so many questions. Ones that I don't really have the patience to explain right now, okay? So just do me a solid and not say a word."

"Alrighty then." That smirk returns to his face. "So... is this giving you some mad deja vu?"

I glare at him, but I know exactly what he is referring to; when I cleaned up JJ's wound in his bathroom. I roll my eyes but I can't control the smile that creeps up on my face. "Shut up."

"Yeah that's one thing that JJ is incapable of doing. It's all 'Stella this' and 'Stella that' with him lately," he tells me.

"Whatever." But it isn't whatever. The thought that JJ talks about me is enough to bring butterflies to my stomach. "I'm sure Kiara just loves that."

John B lets out a small laugh and is about to reply when Sarah walks back into the room with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a towel. We both wipe the smiles from our faces to try and act natural, but Sarah still eyes us suspiciously.

"Lift up your shirt," she says as she walks over to John B and sits beside him on the couch.

"Um, okay," John B says warily and he folds his shirt up. His wound does look pretty rough and at the sight of it he grimaces.

"That's gotta be disinfected." Sarah opens the kit again and grabs a cotton pad. Then she saturates it with the alcohol.

"Wait, is that rubbing alcohol?" he asks her. He seems uncertain as he peers over at what my sister is doing.

"Yes," she says flatly. "It's the only way to be safe."

John B looks over at me with wide eyes. I just shrug and give him a weak smile. Rubbing alcohol probably wasn't the best thing to use to disinfect his road rash, but I'm not going to waste my breath trying to tell Sarah what to do.

"Okay, close your eyes." She caps the alcohol and turns to John B with zero sympathy. "On the count of three."

John B sighs and lays back to prepare himself. I grimace just thinking about how painful it is going to be.

"Ready? One, two...." As soon as Sarah presses the cotton pad onto John B's stomach, he screams like he has just experienced the pain of childbirth. Sarah quickly slaps her hand over his mouth. "Shh! Are you kidding me? My God."

I can't help but laugh a little at the interaction. John B apologizes for the outburst but he is still breathing heavily.

"Never heard anyone whine like that before," Sarah says as she continues wiping the scrape mercilessly. John B groans and swats at her hand. Sarah looks up at him with annoyance. "Excuse you."

Again, John B apologizes hastily, but his face screws up in pain. In an attempt to distract himself, he asks, "Who, uh... who's the dude on the wall?" He points to a large painting.

Sarah looks up. "Oh, it's Denmark Tanny, founder of Tannyhill."

"Founder?" John B exhales.

"Mm-hm," she replies.

"So, how did a slave found a cotton plantation?" he asks. His curiosity seems intentional and it interests me.

"He was a free man." I say. Sarah swiftly gets back to work. "He's kind of a mystery. He showed up out of nowhere and paid for all of the land around here in gold."

John B looks over to me. Even from across the room I can see his eyes dilate with realization. "In gold?" I nod in response. John B stands up and walks over to his backpack in hurried steps. Sarah watches him with frustration. "Hey, wh— I'm not finished, Sancho."

The guy digs through his bag and takes out a piece of paper. "Denmark Tanny. I— I recognize that name."

"Stella!" Rose calls from downstairs. "Your laundry is done!"

"Okay, coming!" I call back. I groan and peel myself off the chair. "Have fun with your history lesson. I'll be back in a bit."

I exit the room, shut the door behind me, and scurry down two flights of stairs to the basement. Tannyhill's basement is pretty unfinished and mostly storage, but our laundry room also happens to be down there. I transfer my clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, start it, and rush back up the stairs, but when I enter the room John B and Sarah are gone. Seemingly disappeared into thin air.

——
Hmmm... where could they have possibly gone ;)