Manwel
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I think those are the right questions in this case. Texting a friend that she's "in trouble" and then not much later saying that she "figured it out"; pacing around a Tim Hortons and asking a stranger for help getting a hotel room; then exiting and entering different entrances and watching cars pulling up while checking her phone. There seem three possible circumstances: 1) She was waiting for someone who promised to help her and failed to arrive; 2) someone planned to collect from her and she didn't have all the money; or 3) Tim Horton's is a red herring and she was just there trying to "figure things out" while nervously looking around to see if her mother or neighbor came in. #IMO
Then there's the angle of whether her social media accounts had attracted attention from someone online who victimized her. It's interesting that this news item suggests Mekayla took apart her phone in the Tim Horton's. If the phone was paid for by her mother, then her phone records would show who she was making calls with. But from my understanding, there were no records of phone calls during that time at the Tim Horton's. This fact coupled with video footage makes me think she replaced the SIM card for the phone with one provided by the POI in order to communicate. This would explain why the mom kept trying to call her and only got voicemail. If the SIM was taken out and replaced with another, Mekayla's phone would likely be direct-to-voicemail. What I find really interesting is the police claims that her phone was "shut off" the next morning. I don't understand the context of that. Do they mean it wasn't working anymore? In that case, wouldn't that be a phone service provider issue rather than the phone itself?
My guess, based on the evidence, is that she planned to leave town based on the visits to the bus stop and alleged comments from a school friend about her backpack being uncommon for her. (I'd like to know more from the mother about what clothing or personal items may have been missing from her room that could have been in the backpack.) She asked about bus tickets but didn't have enough, so she tried to pawn stuff, but that didn't work. Then she tried to ask for help getting a hotel room, which could have been an attempt to get money from the woman, rather than help setting up a booking; it's not really clear how that conversation transpired. Given that she previously wanted to go to the bank and claimed to a friend she had a lot of money, I wonder if a kidnapper said he could send her money, but knowing that would be traceable, came up with a bogus excuse for not sending it? Perhaps the person made promises and then just offered to come pick her up later in the day, so she wandered town until they showed up. (This is grooming the kid to think it's her idea to leave, and then put her in a bind where she's desperate for their assistance and is willing to give away her location in a remote town rather than a larger city with cameras.)
So with that in mind, I would look at her movement from the Tim Horton's to the Trail Stop restaurant. Witnesses said she was at the restaurant from noon until 1:45 and identified the male with the cross tattoo there at the same time, though it's unclear if they interacted. For the girl to wait in that restaurant for almost two hours, she was certainly using it as a likely meet-up location. Since she went there directly and waited the whole time, I assume she didn't know how long it would take this person to get to her. To me this indicates three possible conclusions: 1) the person she was waiting for was local but had to get out of what they were doing to come to her; 2) the person was not local and had to drive to her from a distance; or 3) the person was local but she wanted to meet them in Regina, then allowed a pick-up thinking they were going to Regina.
I'm leaning toward Possibility 2 or 3. Why was a bus depot involved if not for her to leave town? While it appears in the video that Tim Horton's was a pick-up spot, it could also be that she was killing time to figure out how to get to Regina and get money for this trip, and she was only watching entrances and cars in the parking lot because she was concerned someone would recognize her. (It's a small town, right?) It doesn't make sense that she would go to a Tim Horton's for a pick-up minutes after inquiring about bus tickets nearby and then also phone friends for help if she was already waiting for someone. It seems to me more like she was trying to leave the town on her own and then settled for a pick-up later. It's possible she wanted to leave on her own and be careful about her decisions, but was so dedicated to leaving that she was willing to accept the pick-up. But once you put yourself into someone else's hands, you have no control.
Where are you Mekayla 
