Disclaimer: This fic is loosely based on the film Pulp Fiction, which I do not own. Neither do I own Glee. I am writing this just for fun. :)
Chapter One - The Plan
On a rainy Sunday morning in the small town of Lima, Ohio, in an average diner, customers from various walks of life sat, eating breakfast and chatting amongst themselves. Waitresses bustled back and forth between diners and the kitchen, getting orders, filling coffee cups and barking orders to the chefs. It was just an ordinary day in Lima.
Or was it? There's a saying that are no such things as ordinary days; that everyone goes through life living a not-so ordinary life; that everyone has a story to tell. And what we do will ultimately affect the life of someone else in the blink of an eye. One of the waitresses at the diner, for example, is dating one of the chefs. But she does not know the chef is already married. Quite a scandal for a waitress living in a backwater town, isn't it? Is she also not aware what the consequences of the sordid affair could result in? Is she not aware of how her fate will be if the chef's wife were to learn of the affair?
But let's not focus on the waitress. Let's focus on the stories of several people; complete strangers, all linked together in one twisted tale.
Outside, it was humid, damp and dreary, but inside the diner, it was dry. Amongst the hungry customers, sat a young woman sat across from her dark-haired boyfriend in a booth, playing with her scrambled eggs while her dark-haired boyfriend sat and smoked his cigarette. The two were sitting amongst the other customers, in a heated discussion about a plan. The young man had brought his girlfriend with him to a diner to discuss his latest ingenious plan he had developed.
The young man took a long drag from his cigarette before he talked.
"No, forget it, honey. No. It's too damn risky. I'm through with all this stupid shit."
The young woman shook her head. "But you always say that," she pointed out. "And it's always the same thing. 'I'm through' or 'never again' or 'No, it's too dangerous'."
The young man sighed. "Yeah, I know that. I always say that and then..."
"You always forget it in about a day or two," the young woman finished for him, smirking.
The young man smirked back. She can read me like a book, he thought.
"Well, babe, the days of yeah, well, the days of me forgetting are over. And the days of me remembering have just begun."
The young woman gave her boyfriend a wry chuckle. "You know what you sound like right now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow mischievously.
"Yeah, I do, actually," the young man retorted. "I think I sound like a pretty fucking sensible man right now. I think that's what I sound like."
The young woman chuckled again.
"No, you sound like a duck right now."
She continued to tease him then by imitating a duck.
"Quack, quack, quack," she quacked. She then burst into a fit of giggles.
The young man shook his head and rolled his eyes at his girlfriend. "Well, don't you worry because you'll never have to hear me quack again."
The young woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" she teased, smirking. "After tonight."
The young man leaned over and kissed her, running his fingers through her hair. Her hair smelled of lavender shampoo and baby powder; two of the most heavenly scents the young man had ever loved to smell on his girlfriend. Her lips were always soft. He loved it.
The young woman smiled after the kiss, smiling her radiant smile, just like she always did when the mop-top would kiss her.
The young woman smiled back.
Their moment was interrupted by a leggy blonde waitress wearing a short uniform dress, holding a coffee pot full of hot coffee. She was also wearing stilettos and a smallest hint of her black bra was peeking through her dress, showing off some of her cleavage. Her tag read 'Terri'.
"Anyone like s'more coffee?" Terri asked, giving the young man a flirtatious smile. The young woman glared at Terri.
The young man nodded. "Oh, yes, please," he said, handing the waitress his cup. He seemed oblivious to Terri's flirting.
"I don't understand why you always take me to these damn places," she hissed to her boyfriend after Terri had poured the young man his coffee cup and left. "All this greasy food. And these sluts. Ugh. That bitch was lucky I didn't stab her with my fork."
She then shuddered in disgust.
The young man laughed at his girlfriend's jealousy. "What can I say?" he asked. "It must be my sex appeal," he teased, snickering. His girlfriend only glared at him. He then stopped laughing. "But seriously, babe, this place is has better food than that dingy, cheap motel we're staying in. And don't worry; And I only have eyes for you, my darlin'. "
The young woman chuckled. "That's true. Just don't expect me to eat here. The food here is appalling and I know I'll kill that slutty Terri bitch the next time I see her."
The young man rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Can you forget about that trampy whore, please?" he begged. "We got bigger things to worry about here. OK, so listen here to my plan. I've got it all figured out," he announced, leaning closely to his girlfriend to talk softly.
"The way things are now, I mean the way it is now, you're taking a huge, fucking risk! I mean, the banks are easier. From what I understand, federal banks aren't really supposed to stop people anyways. Know why? Because they're insured, that's why! So why the fuck should they care? You don't even need a damn gun when you're in a federal bank. I heard about this one guy, right? He walked right into one with his cell phone and handed the phone to the teller, right? And the guy on the other end of the phone was saying some shit like 'Listen, we have this guy's little baby. And if you don't empty out all your money from that fucking safe, we're gonna kill it!'"
The young woman drew in a sharp breath in shock and put her hand over her chest. The thought of killing a poor, defenseless baby!
"Oh, my! Well, did it work?" she asked.
"Hell yeah it worked! The idiot walks into the place with a fucking cell phone! No gun, no knife, no weapon of any kind and he still managed to take that bank to the cleaners and nobody there does jackshit."
The young woman blew her bangs away from the front of her face. "Well, did they hurt the baby?" she asked concernedly, wondering what had happened to it.
The young man lit up another cigarette. "I haven't a fucking clue. There probably wasn't even a baby. Who knows? Who cares? The point of the story isn't the baby, honey. The point of the story is that these folks robbed a bank with a goddamn cell phone."
The young woman nodded slowly. "OK...I see. So...what you're saying is that you wanna go and rob banks?" she asked.
The young man shook his head. "Nah. I don't wanna rob no bank. I'm just pointing out that if we did, it would be a hell of a lot easier to do that than what we're already doing."
The young woman nodded slowly again. "So, you don't wanna be a bank robber?" she asked, puzzled, wondering just where her boyfriend was getting at with this plan.
"No, honey. I mean, look at all these people in Ohio already. They're all going down the same road. They're either in jail, doing time or they're dead. No...I'm staying away from that shit. This backwater town has enough Lima Losers already."
"No more liquor stores, either, right?" The young woman asked.
The young woman groaned in exasperation. "What the fuck I am I just talking about here? Of course no liquor stores! Besides, robbing them aren't great as they used to be. Half the folks in those places can't even speak fucking English! You gotta yell like fifty times 'Open the fucking register!' and they don't even know what the fuck you're saying. It's too personal, babe. They get you aggravated and then the next thing you know, you wanna shoot 'em."
The young woman folded her arms defiantly. "Well, I'm not killing anybody," she said stubbornly.
The young man took a long drag from his cigarette before finally putting it out in a nearby ashtray. "I don't want to kill anyone, either, babe," he said. "But these people will put us in the kind of situation where it's either us or them. These store-owners don't fuck around, baby. They got guns hidden and will seriously try to blow your brains out if you try to fuck with them and their money. You try to rob a store with only a telephone and let me know what the outcome is."
The young woman bit her lip. "So, what is there for us? Day jobs?"
The young man gave her a wry chuckle. "Forget it, babe. Not on your life."
"So where else?"
The young man grinned slyly. "Well, I'm getting to that, babe. You think I didn't have a plan? Right here, of course. Why did you think I brought you here? We're gonna do business here today."
The young woman''s eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets. "What? You mean, right here? In this diner?" she squeaked. "How the hell you expect to pull off something like that?"
"Well, why not? We're looking at a fucking gold mine here, honey. What's wrong with this place? Bars, liquor stores and gas stations will shoot you down you come trying to rob one of 'em. But a restaurant, on the other hand, is a hell of a lot easier. No one's thinking of getting robbed because they're all trying to relax and stuff their faces."
The young woman suddenly perked up at the idea. "Hmm...I like where this is going," she replied. "I'm betting that in a place like this, you could easily cut down on the heroes."
The young man nodded, smiling smugly. "Yep, that's right, baby. Restaurants are kinda like banks. They have insurance. The managers don't care because they're trying to kiss the customers' asses. The waitresses don't give a shit, either. They're not gonna take a bullet for the register. Same for the cooks and busboys. And the customers are all too busy eating to worry about somebody sticking a gun into their back. One minute, you're enjoying your stack of pancakes and next, someone has a gun right in your face."
The young woman nodded, her eyes wide with excitement. "Baby, you are a genius! I could just kiss you again right now!"
The young man laughed, smiling arrogantly. "Well, there'll be time for that later, after we get through this first," he replied. "Remember that last joint we stuck up? All those customers that kept coming in?"
"Yeah."
"And then it was your idea to take everyone's wallets?"
The young woman smiled. "Yep," she said proudly.
"That was a real brilliant idea, babe."
It was the young woman's turn to look arrogant. "Well, thank you," she replied.
"We made a hell of a lot more money from those wallets than what was in the register," the young man pointed out.
"Hmm...we sure did," the young woman replied. She quickly scanned the restaurant. It was full of oblivious and hungry customers, tired waitresses and busboys.
"We sure did," she said again. A huge smile suddenly broke out on her face. "OK, count me in," she replied. "I'm ready. Let's do it," she said, high from the suddenly adrenaline rush flowing through her. "Let's do this. Right here. Right now."
The young man squeezed his girlfriend's hand affectionately. "OK," he replied, pulling out his gun out his pocket and put it on the table. "You got crowd control, alright?"
The young woman nodded. She took out her pistol out of her purse and placed it on the table. "Right," she replied, squeezing her boyfriend's hand back. She looked up into her boyfriend's eyes. She gave him a half-smile.
The young man reached out and brushed away a few strands of his girlfriend's hair from her face. He licked his lips and smiled back. "I love you, Rachel," he said softly.
Rachel smiled back. "I love you, too, Finn," she said.
And with that, Finn and Rachel rose up from their seats and took sudden and complete control of the restaurant.
"Alright, everyone! Be cool! This is a robbery!" Finn announced loudly, with all the coolness, calmness and collectiveness he could muster. He held his gun held high.
Rachel leap onto the table, her gun also held high. "Anyone that just so happens as to move one fucking muscle, I'll kill everyone of you fucking pricks, understand?" she shrieked.
Finn smirked to himself as he pointed his gun at the unsuspecting and frightened customers. He loved when Rachel took on her crazy, psycho persona whenever they robbed a particular place. It made him absolutely wild.