Page 16 of Fight for You

January's face falls into a sad mask of dejection, her shoulders slumping. She drops back down to her heels, eyeing the green and yellow Tinkerbell costume like it's the most adorable thing she's ever seen.

I press my palm to my heart and rub, trying to ease the way it aches at the sad look on her face.

"I'll be too old to trick-or-treat next year," she mumbles to herself.

"I'll do it," I blurt before I can stop myself.

Titan and January both turn to me, gaping.

"I'll do it," I repeat.

"Really?"

Hell no.

"Yeah," I mutter, unable to stop myself when she's staring up at me with so much hope in those green eyes of hers. "Why not?"

Titan glances at me, and then at January, and then to the Peter Pan costume hanging on the rack. He throws his head back and laughs loudly.

January spins on him, glaring daggers.

Titan bites his lip to hold back his laughter and then holds up his hands like he's surrendering. He's still chuckling when he turns and walks further down the Halloween aisle. The jerk.

"You'd really do that for me?" January asks, her voice small. A little note of awe bleeds through. Her expression matches, wonder overtaking that heart-shaped face and making my chest swell with pride.

"Yeah, little monster," I tell her, rubbing my heart when it aches for an entirely different reason this time. She's so pretty with her long blonde hair and big green eyes. A patch of freckles runs across her nose. I know she's Titan's little sister, but when she looks at me like I'm her hero…well, I'd probably do just about anything to make her keep looking at me like that.

I don't say that though. Titan would kill me. But even though she's only twelve, she's the coolest girl I know. She's sweet and funny, and smart as hell. Other girls only care about how they look or what they're wearing or about dating whoever will make them the most popular, but not January. She doesn't care about any of that.

She talks to me about shit that matters and listens to what I have to say. I think she knows more about me than even Titan does. I like her a lot.

A bright smile stretches across her face, lighting her up from the inside out. She darts forward and flings her arms around me, hugging me tightly. Before I can return the embrace, she steps back, her face flushing like she's embarrassed.

"You don't have to dress up with me, but thank you for offering," she says, biting her lip. And then she sighs. "I wish Titan didn't think he was too cool to dress up now. I miss when we all used to go trick-or-treating together. It'd be fun to do it one final time, you know?"

I kind of miss it too. We always had fun, running around the neighborhood with pillowcases full of candy. Titan always wanted to be something scary, but not January. She only ever wanted to be book characters…Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz or Alice from Alice and Wonderland.

"I want to do it." I tug on her ponytail. "It'll be fun. We'll dress up like we did when we were younger. I bet we can even convince Mark and Quan to go with us." Boots was picked up for stealing a pair of shoes a couple days ago, so he's in juvie again. If he was here, I know he'd go too.

"Really?" she asks, her expression wavering between hope and doubt.

"Yeah." I smile. "Titan won't think it's lame if everyone is going."

"Okay," she agrees and then snags the Tinkerbell costume she wants from the shelf, smiling at me almost shyly. "You don't have to be Peter Pan for me though, Cade. You can dress up however you want."

"Are you kidding?" I bluster, grabbing the bright green costume from the shelf and draping it over my arm. "I'm going to make a fucking awesome Peter Pan."

"You look handsome." Ma Lucia brown eyes light up when I step out of the bathroom, jerking on the ridiculous costume I let January talk me into wearing. I look like a forest vomited on me. The entire costume is green and itchy as hell. I'm never going to live this shit down, but January has been so excited about tonight. She's been on cloud nine all week.

She's so easy to please. It's honestly adorable.

"Thanks," I mutter, shoving the weird feather cap down on my head.

Ma Lucia's lips twitch, mirth dancing through her expression. She knows January has me wrapped around her little finger and always has. Ma Lucia doesn't say anything though. Instead, she hands me a pillowcase and a handful of chocolate candy bars for January.

"You watch out for that sweet little girl, Michael," she orders me.

"Yes, ma'am." I kiss her on the cheek and promise to be home by eleven.