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Texas days where it's so hot you can't even breathe. People that scrape their teeth on silverware. Meat that fights back so hard that it's just annoying.
All things Drayton hates, but there's one thing on this planet that he hates the most:
Her.
The girl.
The new resident in their makeshift hideaway.
He doesn't know what Bobby sees in her, really. She's just some girl with batting lashes and a kind, if not ditzy, disposition. No different than any other girl that's made her way under Grandpa's mallet.
She's sweet, she's kind, she's pretty. And she won't touch meat. What the hell was that boy thinking?
Her voice is annoying, the hairties she leaves all over the place is annoying, the way Chop slacks off his work to follow her around all the damn time is especially annoying, and if Drayton had his way she would've been in his world-famous-locally chili months ago.
But no. His brother just had to go and find himself a girl to love.
Disgusting.
From the hair on her head to her light blue jeans, Robert "Chop-Top" Sawyer just couldn't get enough, nor could he shut up about her.
It had to be the music, honestly. The loud psychedelic rock and roll they were constantly playing. Like right now. At 2 AM.
Drayton should've been asleep hours ago, but instead he's trudging down the stairs, angrily, bitching all the way about how some people actually have responsibilities and all that.
"I've told you boy to shut that shit-"
He trails off once he reaches the bottom, taking it in.
It's a slow song this time, something sweet and melodic and grating on his ears. But he can't help but stop and just... not think about it.
Because there on the couch is his little brother, asleep, wrapped up with that damn girl, who's got her head tucked under his chin and by god if it isn't adorable.
Drayton sneaks in, shutting off the record player. And as he's leaving, he looks back over at the couple and their sleeping faces and their entwined hands and-
There's a tug on Drayton's long cold and dead heart, because he hasn't seen his brother this at peace since before the war.
Maybe it ain't so bad, he thinks. Chop-Top has been calmer, less under his feet with her around. And hey, if this thing is that serious, maybe someday it would be Bobby that passes on the Sawyer name.
And maybe she really isn't all that bad afterall.