unfortunate circumstances // milo manheim ✰

movie theater monday.

lanie's pov

We drove up onto the familiar road and parked in Maya's driveway before getting out of the car to walk to her front door.
"Hey guys! Come on in!" She said as we walked in to see an amazing interior.
"Nice place you got here Maya! It looks amazing!" Milo said as we took in the space.
"Yeah! How long did it take for you to decorate like this!" I asked in awe.
"Well, according to my father, we've had this house for a pretty long time and I've been living here for about 4-5 years?" She explained.
"Hey Maya. Do you want me to help out with dinner?" Mason asked.
"Yes please. Oh shoot I totally forgot to ask. Lanie? Do you mind going to the store and grabbing some drinks for us?" She asked us.
"Sure! We'll see you soon!" I said as Milo and I walked out. We got into the car and as we pulled out Milo suggested,
"We should text Lauren to let her know to come a little later since you haven't gotten a tour around the house yet."
"I got it. So we know that the house belongs to her, at least her father. And she's been living there for the past 4-5 years. So the timelines match up." I reminded him. "Alright I texted him and let's go get the drinks." We pulled up to the nearest grocery store and grabbed some iced tea and coke. After we paid, we drove back to the house and met Maya and Mason in the kitchen.
"Alright we got the drinks!" Milo said carrying the drinks and placing them next to the food.
"Thanks guys! So sorry. It completely slipped my mind." She apologized.
"Hey Maya. Do you mind giving me a tour of your house? I really like the architecture and plus I wanna see where my childhood best friend grew up!" I laughed.
"Of course! Mason, are you good to finish up while I give Lanie and Milo a tour of the house?" She asked as Mason nodded. "Alright so you've already seen most of the downstairs. The only thing left here is the guest room which is down that hall." She explained as we made our way up the staircase. I made sure to take in my surroundings to see if anything sketchy was in place. "Okay so this is the upstairs. To your right is the first masters bedroom, that is where my father stays. And down this hallway, is the loft. So this is where I usually hang out when I have spare time. And it's connected to my bedroom!" She said as we walked into her room. As soon as I saw the balcony door, I knew that was where Lauren and Owen were going to enter.
"Hey! You have a balcony like I do!" I said with a smile.
"Yeah! I love using it to get down to the driveway without going through the loft and everything. I can be pretty lazy sometimes." She said laughing.
"Hey I understand!" I said laughing along with her.
"Yeah. Sometimes I enter through her balcony door because I don't want to use the front door." Milo told her laughing.
"Hey! I mean if it works, it works!" She said laughing. I looked around her room seeing all of the things she had in there. I walked over to her bedside table seeing the different pictures she had hanging above her bed.
"Oh my gosh. Maya! You still have this photo?" I asked pointing to an old photo booth strip.
"Of course! That strip was from our last movie theater Monday before I had to move if I remember correctly." She said pulling it from her bulletin board.
"I miss those days. I was never able to go back. I just missed my best friend too much. Every time I went back to that theater, I just missed you too much. No one would crack jokes with me during the movies." I said reminiscing over the good times I had when we were younger.
"You guys look so different!" Milo said looking closely at the picture.
"I mean we were going into our freshman year. We were just learning how to do makeup and how to be teenagers." I laughed.
"I think we look like little babies. We literally are so bare faced but I mean we look pretty similar in my opinion." She said pinning the photo strip back into the bulletin board. I began looking around her room before I saw a door behind a suitcase in her room. I made a mental note to tell Lauren and Owen to investigate that.
"Hey Maya, Lanie, and Milo! Food is ready! It's best to eat it while it's hot!" Mason called from the kitchen downstairs.
"Alright guys lets head down!" She said walking out of her room.
"Milo, stall her. Tell her I'm going to go to the bathroom up here. I'm gonna look around real quick and text Lauren." I whispered to him as he nodded and walked away to catch up with Maya. I quickly walked over to the suitcase in her room and checked the door to see if it was unlocked. "Oh maya. You never learn. Keep your keys with you." I said to myself looking at the key in the door. I quickly put everything back before leaving the balcony door unlocked and walking down to the kitchen. "Hey guys. Sorry just needed to use the bathroom." I said grabbing a plate.
"It's all good! Grab a plate and some food. We're gonna watch the conjuring while we eat. Remember when we would go to your house and watch horror movies with Sammy?" She asked.
"Yeah. She misses you by the way. So does Mama and Papa." I told her.
"I miss them too. You guys were the family I never really had. Alright! Let's watch this movie!" She said as we all walked to the couch.

lauren's pov

lanie skylar adalair <3

hey lo. Maya's bedroom has a balcony with a staircase like mine. I left it unlocked. There's a red suitcase and behind it is a small door. The key is in the lock. Make sure to investigate what is inside. text me when you're done and out so I can go lock the door to make sure Maya doesn't suspect anything. We're watching the conjuring. That should buy some time. I'll make sure to turn up the volume to cover up any noise.

thanks lanie. we're five minutes away.

"Owen. We're entering through a balcony. The door is unlocked. It's like Lanie's. There's a little door that probably leads to a room or a cabinet. That's most likely where we'll find the evidence." I told my brother as we drove into the neighborhood.
"Alright. Where are we going to park?" He asked me.
"We can't park in her driveway. It's going to be too obvious. There!" I said spotting an open parking spot a couple spaces away from her house. "Let's park over there. It's not directly in front of any houses so it's all good." I told him as he drove over to the spot.
"Okay Lo. Are you ready to get to the bottom of this?" He asked me.
"Ready O. Let's do this." I said as we got out of the car. We walked over to her house and quietly ran up the stairs while crouching to avoid any spotting from neighbors. Luckily, the sun had finished setting and it was completely dark. I gently opened the door and put shoe covers over our feet so we wouldn't leave any dirt behind and we wouldn't have to take our shoes off in case we got caught.
"What are we looking for?" Owen whispered as we heard the movie's sound effects taking full range of sound downstairs.
"Lanie said something about a red suitcase." I told him quietly as I closed the balcony door.
"There." He pointed out as we tiptoed across the room. "Okay, remind me to move the suitcase back to where it was." He told me as I nodded my head.
"What do you think is inside there?" I asked.
"The door looks too small to fit but it's possible." He told me before opening the door.
"Holy shit. What has she been doing in here." I asked him.
"Shit. Check if there are any cameras." He said as we began scrambling to check any and every corner of the room.
"I don't see any." I said looking around the room.
"I don't see any either." He said as I spotted a bulletin board in the corner. I switched my flashlight on.
"Oh my god. Owen take a look at this." I said dragging it out.
"It's Lanie. There's Milo, Mason, me, and you." He said looking at it.
"What does that say in the middle?" I asked.
"Time warp?" He said trying to read the messy handwriting.
"Take pictures. I need to look for other evidence." I said. I walked across the space and saw a laptop in the corner. "Owen. This must be the laptop where she controls everything."
"Lauren. Look at that." He said pointing next to me. I grabbed the journal.

dear journal,
I successfully completed step one of my mission. Lanie got what she deserved. She didn't realize how much she hurt me. She didn't realize how much she took from me. She always thought I had the perfect life. She thought I was happy when my parents divorced. What she didn't know is that I have two other half siblings. One of them is older and the other is the same age as me. She helped carry out my plan. I won't name names. You never know who might be snooping around on you. And, if you are reading this, and you are spying on me. Be careful. I will find out and make sure I ruin your life. Lanie will get what's coming to her. If it means I have to warp time more than once, I'll do it. She'll pay for the pain she caused me.

"Owen. Take pictures of this. This is crazy!" I whisper yelled.
"She is actually psycho. And half siblings? Warp time? How is she this powerful?" He asked.
"Owen. I have a feeling we're dealing with something that is not normal. Something that is from another world." I told him beginning to panic.
"It's okay Lo. Let's just keep looking." He told me as we began looking at more things.
"Have you found anything Owen?" I asked him reaching multiple dead ends.
"Nope nothing. She does a good job of hiding things." He told me defeated.
"Okay. Let's get out of here then. Better safe than sorry. We need to add this evidence to the binder. And more importantly, we need to go back to Lanie's grandmother. We need to find out what we're dealing with." I said as we crawled out of the room and placed everything back where they belonged. We ran out of the room before closing the door and running to the car. We took off the first layer of our spy clothes before driving back home.
"You think we'll be able to solve this Lo?" My brother asked me.
"I'm taking that rat down whether she likes it or not. No one hurts me or my friends and family." I said determined to get my way.

A/N: there's part 1 of the double date! Let me know down in the comments if you have any theories about the story because I wanna see where people's imaginations are taking them! Also, half siblings? new twist in the story! alrighty, hope you're enjoying the book so far! don't forget to leave a comment and a vote! love you all! xoxo, lanie😽