joe's foster home // fillie

e i g h t

eight

december 22nd, 11:34 am

upon opening her eyes, millie's first thought was food.

hungry. she was so incredibly hungry that she couldn't even think about anything else but food and how much she wanted bacon. no, not just bacon—-bread. she really wanted bread. like a good slice of a crunchy french baguette, like the one from the market that her mom always used to get.

even a slice of toast would do. she just felt like there was a black hole in her stomach, and she felt like it was about to consume her whole if she didn't have bread.

she shot up from her bed, and after planting on her two feet, she realized she got up too fast, with her brain feeling like it was spinning inside her head. her head hurt and she stared at the floor for a few solid seconds before she even realized the vertigo that overtook her vision.

with one hand on her bed, she tried to balance on the floor, keeping equal weight in both feet. and she hated it because it was keeping her from her bread.

"are you okay?"

the voice pierced the thick silence so suddenly that millie screamed, turning her back to the bedframe and slid down it, trying to see the source of the sound. with her dizziness dying down, millie glanced over and her eyes focused on sadie, who was sitting on her bed with her legs folded, her eyes wide at millie.

oh. oh yeah. she shared a room. she felt her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink as sadie addressed her again.

"millie, you good?" she asked again. there was a notebook in her lap, and she put down the pencil she was holding.

millie nodded, shaking her head from how stupid scared she got from a signle person asking if she was okay. she cleared her throat before tentatively answering, "umm....yeah,"

suddenly, they both heard the creak of stairs and the pounding of the running the person seemed to be doing made the stairs creak. she wasn't quite sure what it was, but somewhere in the back of her mind, the seemingly excited climbing of stairs she heard brought her back to her old house in her old town, and her heart screamed, it's your sister coming up to wrap her arms around you. she's coming! she's here! and everything's going to be okay!

she winced as soon as she realized how preposterous it was. millie shok her head, and glanced owards the doorframe, where millie drew her eyebrows together and suddenly, joe appeared in her doorframe, his chest heaving up and down.

he was wearing a plain, black apron on top of his worn out jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, his hair kind of poofy from the clearly sudden sprint up to her room.

out of breath, joe said, "everything okay?"

millie nodded and held up a thumbs up.

"okay. i heard a scream so i—"

"i got scared. sorry. i didn't mean to---," millie said, cutting him off. then she chastised herself— why did you cut him off? why didn't you just let him say what he needed to say, it's probably more important than what you said. he probably things you're a rude person, oh my god.

millie shook her head, "sorry, sorry, sorry. i just—-"

"no, no, no," joe said, "no need to apologize. i just overreact a lot,"

"JOE THE GRILLED CHEESE IS BURNING," yelled noah's voice from downstairs.

joe smiled, shaking his head, "okay, so we're all good up here?"