One Stupid Thing

1:7:26

"Welcome to Crackhead Wasteland," Sarah announces.

I couldn't have described it better myself. The man's home is an absolute shit show. It is obvious that he has never even touched his yard and his trailer looks like it could fall apart at any moment.

"I don't know about this, man," Pope says. I look around at the property, hoping to find anything that will convince me that this place isn't as sketchy as it seems. Unfortunately, nothing is comforting me. "Dude, why are we at Barry's?"

"Yeah," I begin. leaning forward to lay a hand on JJ's seat. "Maybe we should just head back. We got the gold back and that's all that matter's, right?"

JJ avoids my gaze and shakes his head stubbornly. "This'll only take a second." He gets out of the Twinkie, slams the door behind him, and storms over to Barry, the man's, house.

"Where are you going?" John B asks him.

"Yo soy justicia," JJ replies. I only took two Spanish classes and I didn't learn much, but I do know that that was not entirely correct.

"Did you glean anything from that?" Pope asks, leaning out the side of the van.

"You know somebody should probably—" Kiara begins, but John B cuts her off.

"Yeah, I got it." He hops out of the van and hurries after his best friend.

"Right." Kiara watches him walk off and then her gaze turns to me.

"What?" I ask her. "I can't do anything." Avoiding everyone's eyes, I look down and anxiously pick at my nails.

"Uh, what do you mean? Of course you can. I mean you guys are... y-you know," Sarah hints.

"No. I don't know. There's nothing going on," I continue looking down, afraid that if I don't that my expression will betray my heart.

"Girl. Then explain what happened in the pawnshop, huh? That certainly wasn't nothing," my sister says. I feel her accusing stare burning into me.

"Yeah, actually. We all saw it. Right, Pope?" Kiara pokes him in the back.

"Uh, what?" he asks, clearly not listening before. "Oh, yeah, no. Leave me out of this." Pope gets out of the van and goes to sit against a tree.

A painful silence fills the air. I finally look up and both Kiara and Sarah are staring at me expectantly. "C'mon, you guys. He just needed to come up with something quickly and we had to convince the old bat. Besides, it didn't even end up working."

"Oh, you cannot possibly believe that!" Sarah's jaw drops wide open in disbelief.

"Yeah? Well, I do," I climb out of the stuffy van, but the two girls follow after me. "Nothing is going on with JJ and I. We are just friends and that's all we will ever be!" I snap. "He's truly like a brother to me, so anything more would be uber weird."

Kiara and Sarah share a knowing glance, "Yeah, a brother she wants to kiss!" Sarah whispers, loud enough for me to hear, but I ignore the remark.

"All right, so we're looking at five grand each for reparations for putting us through that bullshit," JJ yells. He walks over to the rest of us and shows us a black bag stuffed with cash. "Sorry about that, ya'll."

"So that's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" Kiara asks him.

"This Barry guy's gonna find out," Sarah adds. "And he's gonna come after us."

"Yes, he will," Pope agrees. "This is not the time to start wilin' out."

"How'd you like havin' a gun pulled on you?" JJ asks us sourly.

John B walks up to JJ and gets close up to his face. "Relax."

"He had it right here on you, bro." JJ ignores his pleads and points at his friend.

"Look," John B starts, pushing JJ's hand away. "We've gotta go get the gold, okay? Just give me that shit." Right when JJ isn't looking, John B swipes the bag of cash from his grasp. "We're putting it back."

JJ, as soon as he realized the bag was no longer in his possession, reacted impulsively. He pins John B against the Twinkie and holds him back with a hand, ironically full of cash.

"Do you feel like a tough guy? Huh?" John B eggs him on. "What are you gonna do when he comes for us?"

"We punch him in the throat," JJ answers.

"Yeah, good fuckin' idea, JJ," John B spits. Sarah stares at the interaction with worry. All of us want to interfere, but cannot bring ourselves to.

"I'm not putting it back," JJ says stubbornly. He side steps into the Twinkie and takes a seat. "You guys getting in or what?"

I look around at my friends, but my feet will not move towards that van and neither will theirs. None of us budge. Realizing that we all still remain outside of the van, JJ climbs back out and looks around at all of us. "What?"

"We're sick of your shit," John B responds honestly.

"Oh, my shit?" he asks, clearly offended.

"Yeah. Yeah. Your shit," his friend says.

"Yes," Kie butts in. "Your pulling guns on people shit."

"You acting like a maniac—" Pope starts, but JJ won't allow him to finish.

"Okay, Pope, I took the fall for you, man!" JJ yells. His voice cracks with emotion. "Know how much I owe because of you?"

JJ clearly hit a soft spot and guilt-tripped Pope until he broke. "I'm gonna pay you back, and I didn't ask you to do that!"

"I just did! Pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself," JJ pauses and he looks to me for support, but I can't pretend like I don't agree with everything his friends are saying. "You know what? That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself." JJ slings the bag of money over his shoulder and walks away, not knowing where he is going, but not caring about it.

Feeling guilty for not stepping in, I begin to walk after him. "JJ...." I call, but I feel someone grab my wrist. I look back and it's Sarah, shaking her head slowly.

"Just let him go," she tells me. I nod hesitantly and follow her back to the group.

I cannot help but feel so, utterly guilty for not speaking up, and I cannot stand knowing that I hurt him.

"C'mon, guys," Kiara breaks the awkward silence. "We can figure out what the hell to do next at The Wreck." Kiara offers.

"Okay, yeah. Good idea," John B sighs and tossed his keys in the air.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Sarah agrees, heading for the passenger door. Pope, Kie, and I climb into the back.

"This place gives me the heebie-jeebies," I say and shudder dramatically, trying to ease some of the tension.

John B starts up the engine and drives us out of there as fast as the Twinkie will go. If it weren't for the music, the van would have been silent. I try to think of a plan, but I can't stay focused. My mind continuously drifts to JJ. I know he will come around eventually, but I just feel so guilty about how things left off. Just please, I think to myself, don't do anything stupid, JJ.

——
Our girl is in denial (not in the way she should be) and everyone can see it, but her.