𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 || joel miller ¹

[ 𝟎𝟏 ] 𝐚 𝐫𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

─ ❝ I'M EATING OVER HERE! ❞

──── ⋆◖◍◗⋆ ────

[ AUSTIN, TEXAS — 2003 ]

    THE BITTER MORNING COLD HIT Renee Santos just as the sound of her landline blaring did. It roused her from a deep slumber, the type that was like a siren's song and made you want to ball yourself underneath a heavy duvet and return to it for the rest of the day without so much as a second thought.

Truthfully, she could. It was a Friday - she wouldn't be needed at work, and any grading she had to complete wasn't due until next week. And the oh-so-enticing warmth that encapsulated her sleep-stiff body was simply far too great to pass up.

But that damn phone didn't let her. Ear piercing ring after ring that shattered the morning peace, it kept on until Renee no longer believed it was some pesky telemarketers trying to get her to buy their expensive product. At least they knew when they were being ignored. She raised her head and squinted at her alarm clock. It was 6:17 in the morning.

A sudden prolonged silence from the phone gave her an inkling of hope that whoever was bothering her at the crack of dawn had finally gained some sense and she plopped back down into the warm little nook she made under her hefty mountain of covers.

Ring... Ring...

Renee flung the covers off of her and heaved herself over the edge of her bed and snagged the phone off of the receiver, preparing a fiery mouthful to heave at the person on the other end when a familiar voice cut her short.

"Do you have pancake mix?"

Sarah Miller, her neighbor and boyfriend's twelve-year-old daughter asked, absolutely oblivious to the scolding she narrowly missed. Renee hummed thoughtlessly while she dragged a hand down her face to try to regain her composure. She finally answered after a deep breath, "No, honey, why?"

"Did you forget?"

Forget? Renee perked up at the phrase she had become so accustomed to hearing at work when she would be reminded of an overdue deadline of a task she had yet to even start and she frantically dove for the calendar she had pinned above her small work desk. The phone's coiled cord jerked her back when she had gone too far, the heavy base shifting an inch from the recoil on her nightstand.

Her eyes scanned the month of September for any outstanding notes until she found what Sarah was talking about in bold black lettering.

Joel's B-Day.

"It's Dad's birthday!" Sarah groaned on the other end. Renee could sense the girl's eye roll from next door. "I was gonna make him pancakes, but he never bought the mix. Do you have any?"

"No," Renee glanced at the small grocery list she had tacked onto the corkboard next to her calendar. At the bottom of the note, right underneath 'milk', she had messily scribbled 'pan mix' because her last box had been finished when she and Sarah decided to make breakfast for dinner a few weeks back. "We used it all, remember?"

She barely picked up Sarah's static-y, indecisive sigh on her end. "Well, do you have anything else? We only have eggs over here."