Not According To Plan (Preath Fanfiction) (Co-written by @uswntloves1723)

7: Maxine's Mush

Tobin's POV
Time: Sometime in "Day Two"

"I think we made a mistake," Allie says, picking at the laces on her runners. She, Kelley and I are now in the same cell I was in before.

"You think?" Kelley struggles to mask her irritation. "Now we might not eat at all."

"Hey, it's not just Allie's fault," I say. "We all freaked out."

Honestly, I should've known that Maxine giving us free rein of the kitchen would be a trick, but I'd been too hungry to care. After Kelley and I had opened the freezer, we shut it so fast I barely saw what was in it. Allie can't seem to forget.

She chews on the edge of her ponytail. "Well, yeah, of course I freaked out. Did it look like cow meat to you?"

"It looked like something you'd see at Dollarama two months before Halloween actually happens," Kelley says. "They were trying to mess with us."

I'm not sure if I agree with Kelley, but I don't really have anything to back me up if I say something. Was I supposed to be able to tell the difference between frozen severed animal limbs and frozen severed human limbs in a snapshot?

"Real or fake," I say, "call this wishful thinking, but I don't think they want to kill us. Let's not jump to conclusions. And Kelley, at least we don't have to talk through a vent anymore."

"You're right," Kelley says. "They probably want to do worse than kill us."

"For God's sakes, Kell," Allie throws her hands up. "Lighten up. Nothing they could do to us could be worse than dying." She clenched her jaw. "So let's survive. What plans do we have?"

Kelley looks at me. "Uh, Allie, there are no plans."

"Really?" Allie whines. "'Cause I was kinda hoping one of you w-"

"Shh!" I hush her. "Someone's coming."

Familiar black tights flash across the bars. Maxine tinkers with a bike bell she's tied to the padlock on the other side of the door. She rings it a few times before slide-kicking three trays through the small space under the door. I catch mine awkwardly.

"L'heure du dîner," she smirks. Lunch/dinner time. "Since you scared Enzo out of his wits from all the screaming earlier, you had to wait a bit longer. You should really learn to be more polite with strangers."

"Oh yeah, like you?" Kelley says, guarding her tray immediately like a dog with leftover scraps. "All have you know, I'm vegan, so missing meal number one was a good plan." Allie and I grab our trays too, fearing they'd be taken back.

"Oh yes, that was not for you," Maxine squats down to our level. "If you had looked deeper, there were microwavables in there. Like the cornbread? I know it's a bit soggy."

"But... this is just corn and bread," Allie says.

"Tuhmayto tuhmahto," Maxine shrugs. "We don't have cornbread in France."

Kelley's face suddenly turns white. "We're not in France, are we?"

Maxine shrugs again. "Does it matter where we are? It's not like you're a tourist."

"More like you're the tourist," I say. "Watching us in here like paintings in the Louvre, smiling like you're Mona Lisa herself. What do you want from us?"

Her smile widens. "It's not what I want from you," she taunts. "It's what I want from your friends." Then she stands up, brushes the dust off of her black clothing, and disappears from sight.

Kelley and I delve right into our food without another word. It sounds like jail food, and it looks like jail food, but it's almost decent—or maybe that's only because we haven't eaten in more than twenty four hours. Suddenly I realize one of us isn't eating. Allie moves her food around, examining it.

"Al, what's wrong?" I say, then laugh. "Don't worry, I've never heard of poisoned corn before-"

"It's not the food," she says. "I've seen these trays before."

Kelley slowly stops eating. "Where?"

Allie takes another deep breath, like she's about to tell us she is pregnant or something. "It's from the mall food court," she says plainly. "Where I got kidnapped."

Kelley and I look at each other—something we've done a lot of lately, as it seems that the situation is just starting to hit Allie the hardest, even though we're all on the same playing field.

"I also just remember the van was very big too," Allie says, and Kelley's ears perk up. "Like, enough to fit like ten people in. Harry, you were taken in a cop car right?"

I nod my head. "That's what it looked like."

"Another thing they could've faked," Kelley points out. "So, are your memories starting to come back?"

"I don't know," Allie says. "It's just the tray that made me start thinking. Everything else is so fucking blank." She runs her fingers through her scalp.

Kelley looks at me. "What about you?"

I've been trying to remember, but it only comes back in little streaks. Little rips from a larger photograph, little blurry lines on a car window. "I'm the same way. I've been hoping that I'll have a dream and wake up with the answers. By the way Kelley, why do you think Maxine put you in our cell this time?"

"She needed the room for something," Kelley replies. "She didn't say what."

Though she and Allie are still in anger mode, I'm happy Kelley is here, even if it just means Allie can use her as a pillow instead. These hard cold concrete floors aren't doing it for me, and dogpiling with Kelley and Allie on anything but a soccer field is both wrong and not worth the discomfort.

"I just can't believe Alex and I didn't ask security to come in with us," Allie says. "I'm such an idiot."

I pat her back. "No offense to Would-Be Allie, but he would've gotten you either way. It was premeditated."

"Ooh, premeditated," Kelley grins. "That sounds like a Christen word."

Probably. "She likes anything that involves meditation. She even taught me."

Kelley cackles.

"What?"

"Tobin," Kelley giggles, "I'm sorry, but you can't even sit still when Coach is talking to us. I find it hard to believe that Pressy got you to sit still long enough to meditate."

I slap her arm playfully, thinking, if there was any place to meditate, this would probably be it. But the light moment suddenly gets interrupted by a series of erratic stomps.

"Shit," Kelley says. "Quick, let's sit against the wall."

Bracing for the worst, I shield myself with my tray to my chest. The footsteps are loud and clacking, but not heavy. And then I hear it... giggling.

"What the hell?" Kelley mouths to me.

I shrug my shoulders, trying to listen.

"I know those giggles."

Then out of the blue, I do too.

A man grunts—likely Enzo—as he tosses the two girls in the space in front of us that we've conveniently made by clinging to the wall. They land on their butts, totally unfazed.

"We're fucked-up!" Ash rattles her head like a punk artist, punching the air in front of her.

"Hiii," says none other than Megan, holding the 'i' a lot longer than an "unfucked-up" person would.

Once again, Kelley and I look at each other, and I know that we're both thinking the same thing:

Wow. This explanation better be good.

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A/N: Don't forget to vote and comment! -HollieRosewood and tfree96