All That Glitters

Maybank Men

"JJ, can we talk about this for a second?" Pope tightened his grip on his shoulder. Pulling him toward the kitchen.

"What? What is it?" JJ moved with Pope's guidance. "I thought we were on the same page."

Pope ushered JJ to sit against the counter. The vibrant sun shined bars of light through the vague cloud of dust that swirled in the air constantly at the Chateau. The way it caught Pope's eye, reflecting back a dark amber with flecks of ink, made JJ's eyes widen.

"You don't have to tell him everything." Pope said quietly.

"He could probably help us find out more about curses. And gold itself. Get us unrestricted access or whatever."

"JJ, we've fought to keep your secret between us as much as possible. He's still Topper."

"Maybe I'm tired of keeping it locked up. It's not like my dad doesn't know something is wrong with me." JJ shook his head slowly. Mostly to drive the exhaustion away as much as he could.

"Yeah but he doesn't know . Topper might not blab but are you willing to risk it? After everything? Sure he may have access to resources that could prove valuable but is that worth the chance that he isn't just doing this to get us back later for sinking his boat?"

JJ leaned forward rubbing his eyes. "You're right. As usual. Fuck." He let out a frustrated groan. "He's not just gonna accept that I'm cursed though, Pope. What can we tell him that doesn't tell him too much but just enough to answer some of his questions?"

"He knows you're cursed. He doesn't know any specifics. Besides that you blackout sometimes. And when you blackout your eyes change."

"Right. The gold shit." JJ hung his head. Breathing deeply. "Fuck, why did it have to be him? Like I know I have the absolute worst luck but... shit, man. You'd think the universe would gimme a break, yeah?"

"He doesn't need to know magic exists. He's mostly just concerned about you. Since you weren't in good shape yesterday."

They stared for a moment. JJ ran his hand along the edge of the bandage through his shirt. "God, I wish I could remember what happened."

Pope's eyes grew wide. "It's probably better you don't."

"You don't know what it's like, Pope." He bit his lip. "Like I know you and John B are dead set on letting me not remember doing this to myself. As if I'm not fucking aware of the fact that I'm self destructive. What I don't get is why you'd tell Topper before me. Like, it's my body. My curse. I'm not gonna break because of it. I'm still here."

"JJ, this isn't about you hurting yourself."

"Isn't it though? Topper's only here because he found me half dead in the park."

"Since you wanna get into it, fine."

"No, Pope, that's no—"

"You decided to go to your dad's after we basically told him to fuck off. You still went. You think I'm not pissed that you went behind our backs? I wish you woulda just told someone what you were doing. Instead I had to find out what happened from Topper. Who, mind you, is still sitting in the living room, mad as hell that we won't tell him what he wants to know."

"Pope, I'm sorry!" JJ shouted. Not daring to look Pope in the eye.

"Now you say it?" He responded coldly.

JJ raised his arms sort of without pulling at his stitches. "What do you want from me?"

Pope clenched his fists. Piercing his eyes through JJ's.