I didn't wake up to the usual soundtrack of financial desperation and instant coffee that tasted like liquid regret. No—I woke up to actual bacon sizzling and coffee that didn't smell like it came from a gas station bathroom.
What the hell is happening?
The sound of my family laughing drifted upstairs, and for a hot second I thought I'd died and gone to some parallel universe where we weren't broke as shit. Because my family laughing? Together? Without someone crying about bills first? That's some Marvel multiverse bullshit right there.
I stumbled downstairs rubbing sleep out of my eyes, expecting to find out this was all some fever dream induced by too much internet porn.
But no—Mom was actually humming while she cooked, looking like she'd been body-snatched by someone who didn't carry the weight of sixteen years of "choose between rent and food" on her shoulders.
