One Stupid Thing

1:5:18

Sarah and I spent the entire night in the hospital. My sister didn't even want to go home to change in case she missed an update on John B's condition.

Pope had called an ambulance. Expenses were the least of our concerns and both Sarah and I promised that we would cover it despite any protests.

Thankfully, the doctors said he would be okay. From that high of a fall, the only injuries that he sustained were a concussion and a broken wrist. He was extremely lucky.

The rest of the Pogues went to the Chateau to collect some of John B's things for him. So now, it is just Sarah and I.

"Sarah, there is something I need to tell you."

She looks over at me. Her eyes are still puffy from her tears. "Okay. What is it?"

"Do you remember that day last week when I had kinda disappeared?" I fiddle with the fabric of my dress nervously.

"Yeah, of course I do. I was so worried."

"I was with them. John B, JJ, Kiara, and Pope," I confess. It felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

"What?" Now I've got her attention.

"Yeah.. and that wasn't the only time I've been with them either. The day that I stayed home to clean? That was a lie. I know about their gold hunt. And I'm sorry that I hid it from you, but I was so afraid of what you'd think and say," I explain.

"It's okay, El. I wish you had felt comfortable enough to tell me, but I understand. It's the same reason that I didn't tell you about John B right away." She pauses. "So, that morning, after you had spent the whole night with the Pogues, when you avoided telling me whose shirt you were wearing, it was because it was John B's?"

"What? No, no, no. It wasn't John B's," I assure her.

"Oh my God. It was JJ's wasn't it?" she realizes.

Busted. I try my best to maintain my composure, but I feel my cheeks go red at the memory. "Yeah.... It was. But nothing is going on between us. He was just being nice because he didn't want me sleeping in his bed with a wet swimsuit on."

"Uh huh. Okay." I know she probably doesn't believe me, but she is going to have to. She looks at me again, but this time with a newfound excitement. "I want to know everything about this treasure hunt, Stella. I don't want to be in the dark anymore."

I sigh. "Well, the first day that I spent with them was a few days after the hurricane. They had come across Scooter Grubbs's Grady White wrecked in the marsh and needed the scuba tanks to explore it. John B volunteered to dive and in the waterproof container we found his dad's compass."

Sarah stares at me, hanging onto every word. "Okay, so why would someone like Scooter Grubbs have Big John's compass?"

"That's exactly what we wondered," I tell her. "Anyways, we were nearly caught by Shoupe, John B almost ran out of air, and then as soon as we thought we might've gotten away with it, these guys in a speedboat chased us through the marsh with a rifle."

"Oh my God! You guys were shot at?" Sarah covers her mouth with a hand in disbelief. "You could've been killed!"

"But I wasn't. Everyone was okay. Thankfully he had terrible aim," I assure her. "Anyways, it was too late to come home and John B was pretty upset about the whole discovery, so I just stayed the night at the Chateau. John B brought me home the next morning when he came to return the scuba."

Sarah nods in acknowledgment and gestures for me to keep going.

"And then the day that I convinced Dad to let me stay home, I biked back to the Chateau because they had found out some more information about the compass and how Scooter was connected to all of it."