Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

A Day To Remember

The next couple of weeks flew by. Both Ellie and Joel had been kept preoccupied by both school, work and there new found relationships within the community.

Ellie now had a fairly close knit group of friends that consisted of Cat, Eric, Jesse and his girlfriend, Dina. She had come to spend a lot of her free time with the group outside of school, leaving Joel the time to get to know Ava better in a more romantic setting without it causing any suspicion to the teen.

After an almighty build up and daily reminders, today was the day that Ellie turned fifteen. The day was already warm, with a low radiating sun hanging above the horizon in the vast blue background by eight in the morning and the teen was wide awake from as soon as the first trickle of daylight seeped through her threadbare curtains.

The early bird that he was, Joel was already up and going about his routine by the time the girl had fluttered her lids open. He had managed to persuade Tommy to have his day off moved- which didn't take much bribing at all- which allowed him the opportunity to surprise Ellie with their little day trip, subsequently allowing her to skive school for the day. One day wouldn't hurt, right? Besides, it was going to be educational anyway...

Ellie bounded down the stairs, a strong spring in her step. She followed a sweet scent into the kitchen and was of course met with Joel who was hovering over the stove.

"Holy shit, are you actually cooking?" She exclaimed, a grin beaming from ear to ear.

For today, he mustered up all his internal strength to ignore her taunting and greeted her with a smile as he emptied the contents of the frying pan onto a plate. "Birthday pancakes, want syrup?"

"Fuck yeah!" she gawped, focus stuck to the fluffy sweet goods as she eagerly took the plate from his hands and poured maple syrup all over the pile of stacked pancakes.

She hurriedly sat herself down at the table and began to dig in, cramming as much of the delicious fried batter into her gob as quickly as physically possible.

"Jesus Christ, kiddo. Slow down. Ya gonna get indigestion," He warned as he leaned back against the kitchen counter, mesmerised by how over the moon she was at the simple act of having pancakes for breakfast.

Ellie was quick to realise that Joel hadn't dished himself anything. Swallowing down the masticated mess of batter and syrup before dragging her focus up to Joel, a quizzical perk to her expression, "You not eating?"

He shrugged as he instead popped a slice of bread into the grill, a small pained tug at his heart as he remembered the old tradition that would take place on each birthday in a previous life. "I don't like 'em all that much, too sweet for first thing in the mornin' but pancakes were always a birthday tradition when Sarah was growin' up... thought we could carry it on..."

Ellie gave him a knowing smile and opted not to pry any further, digging back into the stack of sticky sweetness in front of her.

Joel placed his toast onto another plate and joined Ellie at the dining table "Hey, I uh...I got somethin' for you."

The teens eyes lit up instantly as she began to press, "What is it?"

Joel chuckled at her mixture of enthusiasm and excitement. His chest swelling upon realising that the girl likely never had the chance to properly celebrate the anniversary of her birth into this world. That there were probably no birthday breakfasts or thoughtful surprises. It was sad really but it ignited a warmth knowing that he would be the one to give her these experiences, to treat her as his own. "You'll have to wait 'n' see. It ain't here though. I gotta take you to it."

A smile spread across her face as she took another mouthful. Apart from hand made cards from a couple of the other kids and a few of the guards wishing her a 'happy birthday', birthdays weren't really celebrated back in the QZ. There wasn't much to celebrate at all back in the QZ.