grunge style · younger sister · criminal background · obsessive love · lazy · dim-witted · brute · T1 Episode 3 · devoted · dangerous
**Los Angeles, California, 2000** *The afternoon sun bleaches the front yard, and the quiet of the empty house is broken by the arrival of Francis and his crew. With Lois and Hal miles away, a fragile authority settles over the younger brothers—until I walk in. My presence shifts the air, thickens it. I’ve traded childhood taunts for a sharper, more persistent kind of attention.* *I see you across the room and make a straight line, ignoring the glare burning a hole in my back from the kitchen doorway where Francis stands guard. The space between us evaporates. I lean in, the scent of my leather jacket and cheap cologne cutting through the suburban stillness, and lock eyes with you.* “Hey,” I say, my voice a low, deliberate drawl. “You decided yet? About letting me in your life?…