iselldrugstothecommunity | There Are Flowers in the Garbage [Musebox]

There Are Flowers in the Garbage [Musebox]

Expecting that school, both correspondence and not, was going to keep Howard and Diana busy was probably a vain hope. Howard's sleep schedule keeps him from usually having evenings free (either he's napping or he's zombified), but occasionally his and Diana's free time overlap. Tonight is one of those nights.

See, it's after Christmas, and the grocer down the street throws away most of the turkeys that weren't sold by that day. Some of them are well rotten by now, but some of them were frozen before they were tossed, and as such they're still more than edible. Howard told Diana about this heinous crime, and they spent the last night unable to really sleep without thinking of all the meat going to waste.

So tonight they're striking a blow for justice. Or for hunger. Whichever. Howard's donned black clothing to blend in with the background, and has brought his backpack and a shopping cart. At the very least they can get some emergency stores for the freezer. He waits outside Ian and Barbara's house for Diana, tapping his foot.

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Howard presses himself against the wall and slides down behind the trash bin, hoping no one comes in.

It's a vain hope. There's a voice outside. "I know you're in there, you little brats! I can see the footsteps!"

The door swings open and Mr. Frederick, the grocer, comes in with a large flashlight. He shines it around the room, stopping on Diana's face.

Diana goes pale, rooted to the spot, her blood feels like it's dropped a few degrees.

She opens her mouth, points just behind the man and screams loudly to distract him before dashing out of the spotlight and behind the shelves.

Mr. Frederick does turn and look, but he snaps back to attention soon enough to close the door after him and cut off the escape path. He slams his hand on the lightswitch and the whole room lights up.

Howard tries to sink further behind the bin, but Mr. Frederick reaches down and grabs him by the upper arm, hauling him up. "I've already called the police on you! You think you can bring your little girlfriend with you and steal my things and maybe snog her in my store room after hours? Is that what you think?"

He drags Howard in front of the door, so Diana can't get out either. Howard twists and thrashes like a cat stuck in a trap, yelling something or other, but whatever it is it'd make most people's ears turn white.

Diana had only just managed to get over the blinding experience of having a flashlight in her face when the lights come on.

She's not sure what to do. If this were FAYZ, she'd attack without thought, it was how you survived but this place had consequences, she couldn't just assault someone and not expect repercussions.

But as she sees Howard struggling, she lets panic and adrenaline take over her. Diana picks up one of the boxes containing some cabbages and hurls it at the man to stun him, her good aim winning out. As the heads roll across the floor she runs into him, smacking into the man with her shoulder, hoping the combined weight of her and Howard will knock him off his feet so she can grope for the door handle.

Howard wrenches away and also goes for the door handle - unfortunately, he and Diana mostly get in each other's way. Mr. Frederick gets up and grabs them both by the back of their shirts - he's a big man, and it's not difficult, despite the struggling.

"I have them in here!" He yells when he hears a car engine, and two police officers open the store room door. "They're trying to run!"

Howard goes slack seeing they're outnumbered, and puts his hands up. He knows logically Brit police aren't armed, but he's smaller than them anyway. One of the officers pries Mr. Frederick's arms off the two teens.

"Alright, let them go, they're not going anywhere. Let's find out what's going on here. No more roughhousing."

Diana doesn't appreciate being held by this man but stops struggling the moment she hears the engines.

She complies, standing still with her hands up. Great, they were being arrested. This was going to put Barb and Ian over the freaking moon.

She doesn't say anything though, just casts a glance at Howard. What excuse can they really come up with? She hopes Howards got a good one because otherwise she's going to have to improvise quickly.

Howard, on the other hand, can't come up with anything clever and instead just goes with honestly. "We were just going through his trash. Is that illegal?"

Well. Yes. But.

One of the officers pulls Mr. Frederick to the side and starts asking if he owns the store, so on so forth. The other stays with Diana and Howard and looks as if, while he's not going to browbeat them, he'll still stop them if they try to make a run for it. "Alright, whose idea was this?"

Diana didn't jump straight at the question, that would be too suspicious, but she did make sure to talk before Howard.

"It was totally his idea. I don't know why I let him talk me into these things." She sighs, as if expired with the whole situation. "It must be those puppy dog eyes."

"Hey, it wasn't..." Howard shoots her a look. Traitor. They're so screwed. "You know, the door was open, and we were looking for a dark place to, you know..."

He really doesn't know how playing up the dumb horny teenagers angle will work, especially since he and Diana aren't exactly the same race, but it's better than nothing. He just hopes they buy that the first story was an attempt at getting out of admitting the truth. "You won't tell our parents, right? I mean, she'd be in huge trouble..."

It looks like it's about to work when the other officer comes over. "The owner says he's seen the boy skulking around a few times before, and caught him stealing once. Doesn't recognize the girl. We should probably bring them both in overnight."

Dammit.

She would try to look offended at Howard's look but honestly, he's thought worse of her than that.

"What?" Diana glances back and forth between the officers, looking every bit the shocked young girl in over her head. "Overnight? For making out in a store room?"

She sticks out her bottom lip and gives Howard a pathetic look, for the officers benefit more than his, of course. "I told you this was a bad idea."

"For trespassing. The owner says that the store room is locked with a padlock every night, so there's no way you two just slipped in here. And he's going to take inventory to make sure you didn't steal anything." The first officer shakes his head at Diana. "Don't try the doe eyes on me, young lady. I have a daughter your age."

"Come on," the other says, leading them towards the car. "Be well-behaved and I won't cuff you on the way there. You can call your parents when we get there, no way this grocer's letting you use his phone."

"Well, this is great." Diana mutters as she gets into the backseat. "I'm sure Barb and Ian will just love being woken up at this hour."

She leans to look out the window before glancing at Howard. "You do remember their number, right?"

"Of course I remember their number." He has a memory for detail, especially the important ones. He looks especially morose as he gets in the backseat. "They're going to kill us, if they don't kick us out."

"They won't do that." Diana waves her hand, as if batting away his worrys like they're no bother. "They'll probably just sit us down for 'a talk'."

"Pretty brave talk from a girl whose parents shipped her off to boarding school when they got sick of her," he sneers.

Despite Diana's issues with her parents, she still has the best poker face. "No. They shipped me off because I'm a terrible, horrible child, remember? At least get your facts right, Howie."

"We're still terrible, horrible children. Now we're just terrible, horrible children in jail." He bites at his fingernails. "Terrible, horrible children in jail who make phone calls at one in the morning."

"It's only one? Really? Huh, it feels later." Diana rolls her eyes at Howards chewing habit, hoping it won't trigger her own.

"Will you stop worrying? The worst we're going to get from the Happy Couple is a slap on the wrist and a talk. You should know that better than me."

He rolls his eyes back at her, knowing full well she chews things too. "No, I won't stop worrying. What do you think's going to happen to us if they give us the boot? It's not going to cushy, anymore. I mean, we've lived through worse, but..."

And yes, he is that worried that this will happen.

"They are not going to give us the boot, Howie." She sighs. "You really think Barb, of all people, is going to kick us out? No. I've know them much shorter than you have and I know at least that."

"You haven't had as much time to get on her nerves as I have." He moves from chewing his nails to chewing the drawstring of his jacket. "Even really loving people have a limit to how patient they can be, you know? Someday we're going to cross over that line."

"Stop it." Diana was trying to focus on how they were going to deal with the police, hoping they wouldn't have to ask too many awkward questions and Howards talking was distracting and getting her down. "Well, it's not going to be today. You're her 'golden boy', you'll be fine."

"Uh huh." Howard doesn't sound at all like he believes it. He lowers his voice. "So are we going to wait it out or make a run for it?"

He's in favor of waiting it out, in this case. They'll just get in more trouble if they run, with minimal chances of success. The rules here are different than in the FAYZ.

"Yeh. I don't think they'll be too pleased with 'resisting arrest'. And I don't want them adding it to the whole 'breaking and entering' thing. Better to just get there and call Ian so he can sort it out."

She pauses then looks at him, dropping her voice really low. "You don't still have your lock pick, do you?" Diana does not want them finding that, especially on Howard, but Howard, like her, didn't throw things away.

"I hate sitting still," he whines, loud enough that the police officer driving them can hear him. Better he think that they're just sitting in the back complaining and stressing about how mad their caretakers will be than possibly plan an escape.

And then, in a whisper:

"Up my sleeve. I'll stash them before we get to the jailhouse." They're small enough that he can slip them out and into the street and come find them later. That's probably the best course of action, unfortunately. "The bump key just looks like a house key."

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