unfortunate circumstances // milo manheim ✰

way back.

lanie's pov

I woke up the next morning excited but nervous. Today was the day. I would be able to start my college studies and possibly find out who turned my life around. I got up and walked to my bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready for the day to come. I stuffed my music in my backpack with the rest of my school supplies. I grabbed my ukulele and my guitar and headed down the stairs.
"Hey Lanie. You ready?" Owen asked me.
"Ready as I'll ever be. Where's Milo and Mason?" I replied.
"Uh Mason doesn't start until tomorrow and Milo is putting the stuff in the car. Do you want to eat before we leave?"
"I'll just grab a granola bar. I think I won't be able to keep a lot down today." I explained walking to the pantry. We walked out with our things to see Milo starting the car.
"Hey babe. You wanna put your stuff in the trunk?" He asked me.
"Yeah. Unless Owen wants to be crushed by my instruments." I laughed.
"Oh that would be an honor." Owen joked along. I quickly put my instruments in the back of the car and took my backpack into the front seat with me. We drove along the freeway to USC where we picked up our parking permit and parked in the student parking lot.
"I'll see you guys later? Where do you want to meet?" I asked Milo.
"Uh what about that cafe over there? We all end at 1 so we can head out after that. Maybe get some food and then we'll go to the address?" He planned.
"Sounds good. I'll see you later. Have fun." I said giving him a kiss.
"Bye Owen. Make sure Milo pays attention in class for me please." I said hugging him tightly.
"Will do Lan. Now go to class. You're gonna be late on your first day." He reminded me.
"Owen. My class is literally right there. I'll see you guys later." I fired back waving at them as I walked to the performing arts building with my instruments. "Okay Lanie. You can do this. You have great music. You're going to be okay." I told myself walking into the class grabbing an empty seat setting my instruments next to me. I took out my music and began proofreading them when someone sat next to me.
"Is this seat taken?" He asked me.
"Oh no! No one is sitting there." I said with a smile.
"Thanks. I haven't seen you on campus before. Are you a transfer student?" He asked pulling his music out.
"Oh no. I'm a freshman." I clarified.
"Wow. You're a freshman and you're taking this class? You must be good." He said shocked.
"Oh no I'm really not." I told him.
"Well, your music looks really complicated. What genre?" He asked.
"Oh uh I learned classical music first but I've moved to composing and creating more pop music. I'm trying to be an artist." I explained remembering my life when I was signed to Capitol Records.
"Well, you're going to love classes here. I'm sure you have what it takes to be in the music business." He smiled.
"What's your name? If you don't mind me asking." I asked curiously.
"Oh sorry. I totally forgot. My name is Ashton." He said holding his hand out to shake it.
"Lanie. It's nice to meet you." I said as the professor walked in.
"Hi everybody. Welcome to Advanced Music Composition. Today is a shorter class since it is the first day. We will be going over the syllabus but I want to get to know a little about each of you. Tell me your name, where your from, what year you are in, and hmm what you want to get out of this class. We'll start with you." She said pointing to me.
"Oh. Hi. My name is Lanie Adalair. I'm from the Bay Area, I just moved to LA, I'm a freshman, and I want to be able to gain confidence and explore my compositions." I said confidently.
"Nice to meet you Lanie. You said you're a freshman?" She questioned.
"Yes, that is correct." I said smiling.
"Okay. We rarely have freshman who qualify for this class. What's your musical background if you don't mind me asking." She asked curiously.
"I started the violin at age 6. After that, I fell in love with music and branched our into more stringed instruments. Ever since then I've picked up the viola, cello, guitar, and ukulele. My dream in life is to be a recording artist and I believe I can be if I put in the effort I have." I said smiling at her.
"That's ambitious. You're going to need to put in a lot of effort in this class. Especially since you're a freshman. That goes for all of you. Just because this is a music course does not mean I will be going easy on you. I will work you harder than you have ever worked before." She told all of us. After class was over I grabbed my unopened instruments and began walking out of the class.
"Hey, do you want to go grab lunch or something?" Ashton asked me jogging to catch up with me. "What corridor do you live in?"
"Oh I don't live on campus. I live with my boyfriend and our friends. He's a theater major." I told him. "I actually have plans today. I'm sorry maybe another time?" I asked.
"Sure. Tell your boyfriend to take care of you." He told me.
"Wh-What?" I asked concerned.
"Los Angeles is not the kindest place." He said.
"I grew up near Oakland and San Francisco. I can handle LA." I reassured him.
"Alright. See you next class Lanie." He said walking away. I walked to the cafe where I saw Owen and Milo staring at me.
"Hey Lanie. How was class?" Owen asked me.
"Who's that guy?" Milo asked following Owen's question.
"Uh, it was okay. My professor is really strict and that guy is just a kid in my class." I said to them. "You guys ready to go investigate?"
"Yes! Let's go!" Owen yelled getting up from the table.
"How was class Mi?" I asked as he held my guitar and I held his other hand.
"Boring. I didn't even get to do any theater stuff today." He said pouting.
"Maybe, it's because that was an English course." I said giggling. "Your theater class is tomorrow. And I'll be there!"
"You will? We have a class together??" He asked excitedly.
"No. You guys are putting on a production apparently and my class will be doing the music for it." I told him as we got to the car.
"Can you guys hurry up? I'm so gosh darn excited!!" Owen asked impatiently. I laughed as Milo unlocked the car and we put my instruments and backpack in the back I grabbed my phone and my wallet and brought it with me to the front.
"Okay so where are we going?" Milo asked getting into the drivers seat.
"Uh looks like Beverly Hills." Owen said connecting his phone to the car. "Okay. You're gonna get on the freeway towards Beverly Hills and then I'll tell you which exit you need to get off of." Owen instructed as Milo nodded. Milo drove us through Beverly Hills when we saw the house. I grabbed my phone and took photos of the cars that were outside of the house.
"I got the photos. Let's go turn around." I told Milo. When we went down the court as we were approaching the house, we saw the door open.
"Milo wait a second. Someone is coming out of the house." Owen said as he put the car in park and we all peered out the window. We rolled down the windows slightly so we could fully see what was going when a middle aged guy came out of the house and got in one of the cars parked outside. As he pulled out a girl with blonde hair ran up to give something to him. When she turned around to go back to the house, we saw her face as she waved goodbye to the man.
"Maya?" Milo asked confused.
"What the actual fuck." Owen said in shock.
"Maya Brooklyn Davis is my stalker? She's the one who did this to me?" I asked them.
"I mean that is the address. It has to be her." Owen explained.
"I mean you know her from way back right? It matches up. That's how she knew about your relationship and how she knew how to hurt you." Milo added.
"This is absolutely psychotic. Why her though? She was the one who hurt me! She was the one who left her supposed best friend!" I said angrily. "I swear I'm gonna beat her up so badly." I said unbuckling my seat belt. I heard a car door open as Milo held me back.
"Lanie stop. You can't." He told me holding me back from running to her house.
"Why! Why can't I! Why can she hurt me and I can't. Why did she ruin my life." I said breaking down in tears.
"Come on. Let's go get some food and then we'll go home and talk about this." He said bringing me back to the car. He drove off as Owen continued taking photos of the house. We stopped at in n out to get some lunch before heading back to our house. We all walked up to my room as we grouped together and formulated a plan.
"How do we get her to confess?" I asked.
"We need to make sure she lived there for years. We need to make sure she's lived there for the duration of time you had before everything was screwed up." Owen stated.
"We need to find records. We need to find out who bought the house and see if we can connect it to Maya." Milo said.
"We need to go over there too." I said as they turned to look at me. "But, she needs to invite us over."
"She has to have some sort of proof in her house." Milo agreed as Owen nodded.
"Okay. Here's the plan. I will go print these photos and add them to the binder and the board. I am going to go check the website to see if anything is updated. Lanie, you and Milo need to find a way for all of us to go over there or at least you two. I can try to sneak over there." He concluded.
"Owen. I know you're not gonna like this. But, we need to get Lauren involved. You need an alibi. Just in case something goes wrong. You need an alibi." I told him.
"I don't want her to get hurt." He said.
"Man. She's not gonna get hurt. We'll make sure of it." Milo told him taking my hand in his.
"Okay. I'll talk to her. What about Mason? Do you think he knows anything?" Owen asked.
"I don't know. But he cannot know about Maya. Because if we're wrong, the whole thing can go wrong and he will never forgive us." I said.
"We need to keep this between the three of us. And then when Lauren finds out and gets involved, she'll be able to cover up for us." Milo added.
"Okay. Start on working on the plan while I add to the evidence." Owen said leaving the room as we nodded.
"Are you ready Lanie? This won't be easy." Milo asked me.
"I'm ready. I've been ready ever since it happened. I'm not letting her get away with this." I reassured him with determination in my voice, my soul, and my mind. I was going to get my revenge on Maya. And she was going to pay for what she did to me.

A/N: okay! sooo maya is in some deeep shit. I hope you're enjoying the book and I will say that there are going to be a lot of action packed into the next few chapters. Don't forget to leave a comment and a vote! xoxo, lanie💞