𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 || joel miller ¹

[ 𝟎𝟑 ] 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞

─ ❝ THEY WERE RAISIN COOKIES! ❞

──── ⋆◖◍◗⋆ ────

"JESUS, WHICH BANK DID YOU rob?" Renee stared at the young Miller girl as she pulled a sizable wad of cash out of her back jeans pocket. Sarah shuffled through the assortment of five and ten dollar bills, counting under her breath.

"Here's sixty." She said nonchalantly and set the folded roll atop the pine green box in Renee's hands. The woman remained still, waiting for the girl to explain where the cash even came from. While she highly doubted that Sarah was even capable of stealing money, especially that much, she knew it didn't appear out of thin air.

"Unless you got a job and failed to tell me or Joel about it, you've got 'bout thirty seconds to tell me where you got this."

Sarah sucked her teeth, green eyes wandering away from Renee's. "How was work?" The Miller girl asked suddenly, giggling when Renee started jokingly shaking her head.

She took the money off of the top of the watch box and shuffled through the bills, trying to draw a conclusion as to where she got it from. It was then that she remembered the scrambling around she heard in Joel's room that morning. Renee shot the girl a stunned look.

The sheepish guilt that spread across Sarah's face only confirmed her theory. "Hey, I'm not mad. I asked him if he had cash for gas and he told me he didn't. There's a watch repair shop in town, right?" Renee asked as she slipped the bills into her back pocket. Sarah eagerly nodded, her brown curls bouncing along with her. "Alright, c'mon. Maybe I can hit the market afterwards."

Sarah trailed behind Renee as they crossed over the driveway and to Renee's car. "What sounds good for dinner?" Renee asked when the two ducked into their seats. Sarah hummed as she locked her seatbelt. "Something your father will actually enjoy, please."

"Oh, okay, okay." The young girl feigned an eye roll and leaned forward to aggressively crank the volume up when Hey Ya! flooded Renee's car speakers. She watched her neighborhood drift past as the two headed back into town.

⋆ ◖◍◗ ⋆

"LOOK AT THAT," RENEE HAPHAZARDLY pointed towards the desolate strip she drove through, "The bakery's the only place open." Sarah peered out of the driver's side window, observing the emptiness.

It was true; the bakery was the only store with its shutters partially open and outdoor lights on. It was a quaint, fairly newer bakery run by a woman who lived just outside of their neighborhood and her younger sister. Renee had met them briefly once before when she was picking up Sarah's cake for her tenth birthday.

Joel had been asked to work a double shift that day, and Tommy wasn't answering his phone calls, so Renee was the only remaining candidate to pick the cake up before Sarah got home from school. She had only known the Millers for a couple of months, but had grown decently close with Joel and his sweet daughter, so the request was not too far out of the ordinary.

Joel had even gone the extra mile over the phone and invited her to have dinner and a slice that evening.

The bakery was hardly busy when she had arrived, but the wait was a lot longer than expected when the cashier (who Renee would soon learn was the owner's sister) had difficulty finding and boxing the small cake. The poor girl moved around the kitchen quite sloppily, like she was hungover or very tired.