Cracks

I'm done- Dylan's POV

Dylan's POV-

I sat there at the cluttered kitchen table with a grin on my face as my brother and Presley danced around the small house and sang together. They were running amuck and giggling together. It was absolutely adorable.

Most people would say that Presley wasn't the type of girl to wife up or think about a future with. However, as I sat there and watched how good she was with my brother, that's all I could think of.

Presley was amazing with Scotty. She encouraged him to be himself while gently steering him in the right direction. I loved the way that she would play with him and be goofy; he loved it too. With my parents trying to keep him cool and calm forever, it was nice that Presley gave him room to be wild and fun like he really wanted to be. She helped him do it in a creative and fun way instead of the destructive ways that it sometimes manifested in him after he had been kept couped up too long. She encouraged him to be the fun and free kid that he was.

"Come on!" She exclaimed after pausing the new song that was beginning.

"What? Absolutely not," I shot down quickly.

"We need a Zazu!" Scotty exclaimed with a laugh.

"A who?!"

"Zazu!" Presley answered. "The bird from The Lion King. You can't sing I Just Can't Wait to Be King without Zazu."

"Absolutely not," I said with a snort. "One of you can be the bird. You can't both be king."

"One of us?!" Scotty scoffed.

"No way!" Presley agreed. "You're much more of a Zazu than one of us!"

"I am not!" I defended myself.

"You totally are!" Scotty said with a laugh.

"Come on, Dilly! Only a fool sits by while the music plays!" Pres said with a sweet smile on her face.

The way her eyes were alight with cheer and laughter made my heart happy. I had seen her with dark and dull eyes far too many times to not appreciate the lightness on her face right then. Her happy and excited smile was far more beautiful than her sad and defeated pout.

Without thinking of my words due to being consumed with thinking about how pretty Presley was, "Okay," slipped through my lips unconsciously.

"Yes!!!" Scotty yelled while fist pumping in the air and danced a little jig.

Presley's smile widened even further, and I knew, right then, I'd do absolutely anything to keep that beautiful smile on her face forever. There was no room for that pout when that radiant smile took over her face. It was the most breathtaking thing that I had ever seen.

So, even as I danced and sang the part of Zazu in 'I can't wait to be king' from The Lion King, I did it with a grin. I couldn't be disheartened or begrudged when I looked at Presley's smiling face. Even with her mother missing, her life being a series of neglect and abandonment, and her house being a parade of patched up holes and stains... She was able to smile and be happy. In that moment, she was happy. And it made me happy that she was happy.

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"Presley," Scotty said in a soft voice as he ate a caramel chunk cookie that she made all of us after dinner.

"Sup, kid?" She replied as she slid the geography quiz my way to grade.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

It was an innocent question. One that a lot of kids ask their elders. The question caught Presley completely off guard though. I could see it in the panic swimming in her caramel-colored eyes.