Chapter Text
Joel huffed, hobbling over towards his car, crossing the large blacktop parking lot of the building he worked in.
He was tired and sore, his hands aching and his skin stinging from all the cleaning products he’d had to use.
He made his way to the old, beat-up pickup truck he used, fiddling for his keys in the pockets of his dirty jeans that stank of detergent. He felt the jangling, fishing the keys out with two fingers.
“Fuck! Fuckin’ shitty goddammit motherfucking hell fucking douchey asshole!” A voice shouted to his right. It didn’t sound like whoever had spoken was in trouble, but still Joel pushed himself forward step by step.
“Everything okay?” He shouted to whoever had spoken.
“Uhhhhhhhh…” The voice replied awkwardly. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Didn’t sound fine .
Joel made his way towards where the voice came from, a beat up green Prius at the end of the row. He heard the sounds of metal and the clattering and frustrated groans.
He circled the car, taking in the sight in front of him.
A young woman sat at the back tire, seeming to be pulling on it, her hands and gray hoodie smudged with darkness from the tire and the pavement.
“What’s going on here?” He asked. The woman—girl, more like. She couldn’t possibly be older than twenty—jumped, spinning awkwardly around in her sitting position to face him.
She looked at him wearily for a second, holding his gaze suspiciously, but it was light out and the parking lot was far from empty, so she seemed to accept his intentions were pure.
“Flat tire.” She muttered, gesturing next to her. The tire she’d been pulling on had a nail stuck in the bottom, glinting against the pitch black rubber.
“And you’re… pulling on it?” He asked, gesturing to her stained hands.
“I thought it would like… unscrew.” She told him with an embarrassed shrug. Joel fought down the urge to laugh.
“You were trying to unscrew the tire… with your hands?” He asked slowly.
“Fuck you, dude!” The girl snapped back. “I—”
“No. no, it’s fine. Makes sense.” Joel cut her off, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Just surprised is all. You need some help?” The girl glanced at the tire, then down at her hands, then towards the open trunk of her car.
“Yes… yes please.” Joel nodded, pulling out his phone and awkwardly typing a message, his thumbs too large to hit the correct buttons on his IPhone Mini.
Joel🤍🩶🖤 >> Sorry, gong to bfe latte
Sarah💝 >> 👍👍👍
“Alright,” Joel said, grunting as he kneeled down next to the girl. “First, you’re gonna need a jack. Do you know what a jack is?” The girl nodded.
“Yeah, of course I know what a jack is. It’s… uh, it’s a type of… wrench?” Joel shook his head slightly. “A… large… drill?”
“It’s the thing you use to lift the car.”
“I have to lift the car?!” Joel couldn’t help a small laugh from escaping his chapped lips.
“Yeah, sorta, I s’pose.”
Nearly a half hour later, he eased himself back up to standing, wiping his now grimy hands on his jeans. After the girls lost expression, he’d completely redone the tire with slower commentary.
She was smart. Attentive. She looked up at him, her arms still raised from her celebration after she’d attached the new tire herself, a smudge of black grime on her face.
“Holy shit!” She half shouted, gesturing at the tire wildly. “Holy shit!” Joel chuckled, stretching out his back with a pop. “Thanks, dude!” She said excitedly.
“Happy to help.” He told her. He watched as she pulled out a wallet from her jeans, opening it and pulling out a bill.
“Uh, here—” Joel shook his head, putting his hands out to stop her.
“No, no need to pay me.” He told her, even though he could use the money. Southern upbringing still sticking with him in Boston.
“You sure?” The girl asked. “It’s really no problem.” He just shook his head.
“I ain’t takin’ your money. You just repay me by drivin’ safe, alright?” She bit her lip, nodding.
“O-okay. Thanks.” He nodded, turning to walk away.
“Glad I could help.” He told her over his shoulder, smiling just a bit.
“Sorry I’m late.” Joel said into his phone, laying on his shoulder in speakermode as he iced his back. “Some kid didn’t know how to change a tire, so I had to teach ‘em.” Sarah snorted, her voice crackly through the phone as she spoke.
”That’s the most ‘ you ’ reason to be late, oh my god.” Joel snorted.
”So, how was your day, sweetie?” He asked, trying to shift the ice but failing miserably, dropping it on the floor.
He stared at it for a moment, debating if it was worth the effort of picking up.
”Good, yeah.” Sarah told him. “It’s definitely that time when everyone’s just waiting for summer.” Joel huffed.
Sarah was in her second year of college at Columbia, studying to become a pediatrician. Something she’d decided after many hours of agonizing at the kitchen table of their old house over her future.
He couldn’t be prouder of her, the first in their family to go to college, even if it was staggeringly expensive.
“How’s your back?” She asked. Joel nodded, even though she couldn’t see him.
”It’s good. I’m managing.” He lied, his eyes dropping to the melting ice pack on the floor.
Nearly a year ago he’d had an accident on a jobsite, an excavator and a bad car-break leading to one of his vertebrae being crushed and replaced.
He’d had to spend six damn months in a wheelchair, Sarah nearly dropping out to care for him. He wouldn’t do that to her, so he’d moved to Boston to be closer to her and Tommy just in case.
He’d been back on his feet for six months, but only got the janitor gig last month after he was cleared for work, since he couldn’t go back to contracting with his bad back and he was too poor to afford living in his body.
”Glad you’re doing well.” Sarah told him, doubt clear in her voice. “You went to Tommy’s last night, right?”
“That I did.” Joel responded. One of the best parts of being in Boston was being close to Tommy and his family, a fiancé named Maria who Joel couldn’t help but be a tiny bit afraid of, and her son Kevin who Tommy was a hell of dad to, even if on the occasional bar nights they’d went on he rambled about constantly failing.
”Y’know, those first couple of years with Sarah I felt like I was fucking everything up ,” Joel had told him once. “ Like I was failin’ her in my sleep. But let me tell you, you’re a damn good father to that kid, even if you make some mistakes. Hell, Sarah turned out pretty alright with my dumb ass as a dad .”
”Well,” Sarah continued. “Yesterday we were doing this assignment about stereotypes in media, and—” A loud crash came from the phone, someone shouting something Joel couldn’t make out. “Shit.” Sarah muttered. “Um, I actually hafta go.” Joel chuckled a bit.
”Yeah yeah, call me tomorrow.” He told her.
”Always.” Sarah replied, her voice through the speaker interrupted by a shout from her roommate. “Jesus Christ! Why’d you let Mr. Rattles out of his cage?! He’s probably slithering to the Delta Beta clubhouse by now—”
The call cut off.
Joel walked into the large office of the company he worked for, the massive ‘ AbelCode ’ sign hung on the door of the modern-styled building, wood and white walls and glass. Lot’s of fucking glass to clean.
He hobbled over to the supply closet, looking through his key ring for the right one.
”Holy shit!” He turned around, recognizing the voice immediately.
The girl he’d helped the previous evening was standing behind him, hands in the pockets of her black jeans mostly covered by the oversized button up she wore, black with skull patterns printed in a grid. “You’re the fuckin’ dude!” He chuckled, putting his key ring back into his pocket.
”Caught me.” He told her. “You work here?” She nodded, her brown hair pulled into a messy ponytail, part of the front down.
“Yeah, I’m a coder.”
“Didn’t realize they were usin’ child labor.” He joked. She huffed out a breath in mock offense.
”Fuck you, I’m nineteen.”
“My mistake.” He replied sarcastically. She snorted.
”Yeah yeah. Hey, you wanna go grab a coffee?” He gave her a weird look. “Ew, don’t be gross.” he chuckled.
”Just makin’ sure.” He told her. “But no, I don’t think I can. Got a lot of scrubbin’ to do.” The girl raised her eyebrows, looking behind him at the ‘ supply closet ’ sign on the door.
“I think it’ll be okay.” She told him. “Trust me.” He huffed.
”If I lose my job, it’s on you.”
She nodded in mock seriousness. ”I’ll take that bet.”
”Here you go,” The girl said, handing him a paper cup of coffee she’d made from the machine in the kitchen area of the offices. She had a cup too, but Joel could see that it was filled with apple juice. Either that or this nineteen-year-old was drinking alcohol at nine in the morning.
“Not a coffee fan?” He asked, taking a sip. She shook her head.
“Nope. It tastes like burnt shit. Plus people tell me I’m already hyper enough.”
Joel nodded. “I see.”
“So, you new here? I definitely don’t know you.”
“Yeah, I’ve been working here for about a month.” He told her, shrugging. “It’s alright, though I don’t know jack shit about the company other than that it's somethin’ tech related in some way.”
The girl snorted. “I mean for your generation that’s very impressive.” Joel rolled his eyes. In all honesty he’d just been keeping his head down and counting the thousands of days until retirement. “No, but it’s pretty cool, actually. Basically ‘ AbelCode ’ has this software that’s used by a bunch of the biggest platforms in the world to stop, uh… illegal content.”
Joel raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yeah!” She told him, seemingly pleased by his interest. “So, it’s a Computer Vision Algorithm, where—”
Joel spent the next five minutes listening to her explain the technology, using animated hand gestures to show how the system flowed. It didn’t make a lick of sense to him, but her enthusiasm was nice to watch. It reminded him of Sarah, talking for hours about the shows she loved and hidden meanings in the dialogue.
“Well that’s mighty interestin’,” he told her once she was done talking, taking another sip of his near-finished coffee. She covered her mouth to try to unsuccessfully suppress a giggle. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Nothing, just the ‘mighty interestin’.” She told him, trying awfully to mimic his voice. He huffed.
“Shut your gob, girl. I’m from Texas.”
“No shit?”
“Yes shit. I moved here ‘bout a year ago.”
She made an interested noise. “Oh. You liking Boston?”
Joel shrugged. “Pros and cons, I s’pose.”
The girl nodded. “Fair, but at least now you’ve got a better baseball team.”
Joel’s jaw dropped in mock offense. “How dare you?”
“Hey, I’m just saying the obvious!” He scoffed.
“Who one a series more recently? Astros.”
“They got lucky!”
“Damn Red Socks couldn’t win a little league game!”
“Fuck off! You sound as senile as you look!” The girl burst out laughing at her own comment, quickly glancing up at him to make sure she didn’t go too far, looking almost surprised at Joel’s silent laughter.
“Ain’t pullin’ no punches, are we?” He asked, his shoulders shaking.
She grinned up at him. “Not if you're gonna be stupid.” He snorted. “But I’ll give Texas one thing, you’ve got some fucking legends outta tumbleweedville. George fuckin’ Strait? The best .” Joel raised an eyebrow.
“You a George Strait fan? Thought he’d be a bit before your time.”
She gave him a half shrug. “I had this Walkman when I was a kid. It had like, five songs. I swear to god I’ve listened to ‘ Carrying Your Love With Me ’ hundreds of times.”
“ When you were a kid?”
“Go to hell. No, but the point is George Strait was the best fuckin’ thing about my childhood.”
Joel chuckled. “You and me both. I actually know how to play that one on guitar.” The way her brown eyes shimmered in admiration made Joel feel prouder than he’d like to admit.
“I’ve always wanted to learn how to play it on guitar.” She told him. “Never was able to, though.”
“Y’know, I got a spare guitar I could bring in tomorrow. It used to be my daughters, but she was never a huge fan of playin’.”
“You seriously don’t hafta do that.” She said quickly, putting her hands out in ‘ stop ’ gesture. “You’re being way too nice to me already.” He waved off her protests.
“Don’t be crazy, kid. I’d be happy to.”
“You sure?”
He nodded. “‘Course I am. Tomorrow mornin’ I’ll bring it in, yeah?” She nodded hesitantly.
“Jeez man, any more good deeds and I’m calling the cops ‘cause you're definitely a spy out to steal my credit card number.” She joked. Joel scoffed.
“Doubt there’s anything worth stealing.” Her jaw dropped in mock offense.
“I’ll have you know that I’m obscenely rich.” Joel snorted. “What? Do I not seem obscenely rich to you?”
“No, my mistake madam billionaire, I missed the LV bag.”
She flipped him off, finishing her apple juice/alcohol with a slurp. “That was my timer.” She told him, shaking the massive amount of ice still in the paper. “I gotta go back to making my zillion fucking dollars and shitting on peasants.”
“Jeez kid, raised in a barn or something?”
“Worse, US foster system.” Joel let out a laugh, feeling almost bad about it.
“Fair enough.” He told her, placing his cup down and easing himself up to standing. “Well it was nice talking to you…” He frowned, realizing he hadn’t gotten the girl’s name.
“Ellie.” She told him.
“Joel.” He responded, reaching out to shake her hand. “Well it was nice talkin’ to you, Ellie. I’ll see you tomorrow.
“You too, Joel.” She said, grasping his hand. “It was awesome.”
Ellie was waiting for him at the supply closet the next day, a white company sweatshirt with ‘ AbelCode ’ printed in black on the fabric hanging down to his knees.
“‘Sup, dude?” She asked, punching him on his gray-flanneled arm. “Get enough beauty sleep?” Joel shook his head mournfully.
“Not nearly.” He said, “c’mon, guitar’s in my trunk.”
“Nice day?” Sarah asked, voice crackling through the phone on his shoulder. A parrot that sounded strikingly similar to his kid.
“Pretty good.” Joel replied, “You were right, I think I finally made a friend at work.” He smiled, thinking back to the lunch break spent proudly watching Ellie stumble her way through the chords of ‘ Carrying Your Love With Me ’, getting slightly faster each time.
“Seriously?!” Sarah asked, shocked.
“Well you don’t need to sound that surprised.” Joel muttered. “But yeah. The girl I helped with the flat tire. She’s a good kid, a coder. I actually gave her your old guitar, since she was interested in learning.” There was a long pause.
“You what ?!” Sarah asked loudly. Joel felt his heart drop.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I thought you didn’t use it anymore and I sent you a text asking and you reacted with a thumbs up—” He paused, glaring at the wall as Sarah burst out laughing, light and breezy through the static. “Fuck you.” He muttered.
“I got you so good.” She wheezed. “You were terrified .”
“Yeah yeah.” Joel responded. “You been spendin’ too much time with Tommy.” Sarah scoffed.
“Nah, you shoulda seen that one coming, dad.” She joked. “But your friend sounds cool. Was she part of the Google deal?”
“The what?”
“Yeah, your company signed with Google last month. Here lemme send you the article.” Sarah told him, “Just… gotta… find it… here we go.” His phone chimed, buzzing as the message sent.
He grunted, reaching up to pull his phone off his shoulder.
“Why’s this important again?” He asked, messing up his password twice before finally getting in.
“Just thought you should know what a big deal that place is.” Sarah told him nonchalantly. Joel wasn’t listening though, his eyes wide at the picture of the article.
“Holy shit.” He muttered. “Holy shit .”
“What’s up, dad?”
“This is Ellie.”
“What?!”
“‘ AbelCode CEO Eleanor Williams Signs 8 Billion Dollar Deal With Google ’.” He read out. “The girl on the front is Ellie!”
“Flat Tire Girl is Eleanor Williams?!” Joel leaned back, running a hand over his face. “Jesus Christ.” He muttered. “I shoulda let her fuckin’ pay me.”