Nights Like This One { a joel miller fanfiction }

V.

A.N. hi! since ya'll are so nice to me and far less judgmental than my friends over on tumblr and AO3, i'm giving you this chapter a whole week early. have a lovely weekend and happy reading! <3

"I could let you have it, you could be my habit." — Still Woozy, Habit

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March 31, 2003

"You were s'posed to be my sitter today, Tommy, that's why I gave you the fuckin' day off, not so you could go out and get wasted," Joel was standing over his brother, berating him as Tommy threw his arm over his eyes, grimacing, strewn out over the couch.

"M'sorry man, I fucked up, but could you please be quiet, my head's pounding."

"Good," Joel scoffed, purposely raising his voice even louder, watching his brother wince in response.

"Why does Sarah even have today off, it's not a holiday?" Tommy muttered, burying his face further into his arm.

"It's some staff meetin' day and it doesn't matter," Joel said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I told you I needed you to watch her last week, and you agreed."

"Just take'r to the job site, or drop her at the Adler's, I owe you okay, but I can't fuckin' do this right now."

Joel muttered out a curse, stalking a few steps away from his brother, pushing his fingers through the front of his hair in exhaustion.

Why did he always have to be the responsible one?

Sarah was sitting in Tommy's kitchen, digging a purple crayon into her Lisa Frank coloring book. "You're saying a lot of bad words, dad," she uttered accusingly, her hazel eyes flickering toward him like she was the parent scolding her misbehaving child.

"I know, babygirl, m'sorry, your uncle is driving me crazy," he uttered, flashing a glare at Tommy who just shook his head.

"Look, how 'bout I watch her Friday night so you can finally go on a date with that pretty client you're so fuckin' obsessed with," Tommy said, his arm dropping from his face to dangle off the edge of the couch.

Joel scoffed despite the heat quickly crawling up his neck.

"Dad's gonna go on a date?" Sarah squealed, eyes wide, cheeks crushed by a broad grin.

"No," Joel spat out, shaking his head at Tommy as his lips tugged up into a knowing smirk.

"You're hopeless," Tommy muttered, then groaned as he tried to reach for his water cup— perched at the edge of the coffee table.

Joel brought his leg up and pushed the coffee table further away with his boot, completely out of Tommy's reach.

"Hey!" Tommy spat out.

"I'm hopeless..." Joel scoffed, turning away from his brother and stepping into the kitchen. "C'mon kiddo, looks like you're comin' with me to work today."

"Yay!!" Sarah erupted out of her seat, clutching her coloring book in one hand and her crayons in the other.

Joel wished he was as excited as his daughter.

Bringing her to a job site was unprofessional.

Bringing her to Lily's house was surely going to be a fucking disaster.