Justin cracked open his door. The hallway wasmostly dark, the only light what was coming up the stairs from below. He could hear the TV on. Wrestling, it sounds like. If Dad was watching wrestling, Mom was most likely reading.

Slipping out the door, Justin shut it carefully behind him, then went into the bathroom, where the emptied the glass of water Theresa had gotten him into the sink. He shook it twice, took the corner of a towel and ran it around the lip of the glass. Thus assured that nothing would drip onto the hallway floor, Justin went to his sister's door and carefully placed the glass against it, then his ear against the bottom of the glass.

After a moment, he started to hear it - soft, barely audible even with the glass, but definitely there. Small, slow sobs, a few seconds between them. She's crying. And it's my fault.

Swallowing, Justin straightened up, holding the glass down at his side. After a moment, he went back into his own room, put the glass on his night table, then back to Alex's door. For a moment, he stood, trying to decide what he would say. The moment stretched, became half a minute, then a full minute. Still, Justin wavered - but then he heard the sound of feet on the stairs, and he immediately opened Alex's door and went inside.

Oh, heck, he thought, don't be coming up to check on one of us. Please. He pressed his ear against the door, wishing he still had the glass. He couldn't hear anything, but the door didn't open, and he started to relax - and then heard a distinct sniffle.

"Justin? Is that you?" Alex's voice asked, and Justin turned around, saw Alex silhouetted against the glow of her night-light as she sat up in her bed.

"Yeah," he said, nodding and walking over to her. "I... I wanted to check on you." Justin looked down at his sister for a moment, then blurted, "Are you crying because of me?"

There was another sniffle, and then Alex shook her head, the motion making her hair bounce. "No," she said, too quick and too loud. "I... I had a nightmare."

Justin knew she was lying, but didn't call her out on it. Instead, he took his little sister in his arms and hugged her. Her arms slipped around him in return, and she buried her face against his chest, sniffled into it.

Justin rocked Alex side-to-side a little, the way their mother would when comforting either of them, and stroked her hair slowly. "Hey... I'm sorry I snapped at you. You know you're my favorite girl, right?"

"Really?" Alex sniffled, and Justin nodded.

"Really."

For a few seconds, Alex was silent, and then she hugged Justin hard. "I love you, Justin."

"I love you too," he said, then after a few seconds, let go of Alex - but she didn't let go of him. He waited a good five seconds, and Alex still wasn't letting go. "Umm... I should go back to my room," he said then.

Alex shook her head against his shoulder, said, "No. Stay here."

Justin opened his mouth to protest, but then Alex said, "If you leave, I'll cry again," and he was stymied.

"Justin - what are you doing here?" He blinked his eyes open, looked up at his mother, and it took a moment before he realized that he was in Alex's room, another before he remembered why. Justin was on his back, and Alex was curled up against him, using his shoulder as a pillow, an angelic smile on her face.

He blinked again, said, "I heard Alex crying last night. She said she had a nightmare, so I stayed to help her get to sleep."

Theresa smiled down at him, the ruffled his hair with her fingers, said, "Well, aren't you the good big brother. That was very nice of you, Justin."

He smiled in return, then turned his head to the side, looked at the still-sleeping Alex, then back up at his mother. "Okay," she said then. "Get into your room and get dressed. You need to go to school."

"Okay," Justin said, then reached for Alex's pillow, carefully moved her head onto it, then slipped off the bed.

That evening, neither of them said anything about the night before. Alex was put to bed, then Justin - and Justin once again slipped out of his bed, but this time, went to his desk, found crayons and stiff paper.

"Mommy! Mommy! Come see what I got!" Alex jumped up and down on the stairs, then ran back up them as soon as her mother looked from where she was in the kitchen. Sighing and shaking her head, Theresa went to the stairs, muttered a "Yes, I'm coming, baby," as Alex stood at the top of them, jumping up and down there as well.

A minute later, Theresa opened the door to her daughter's room - and saw on her nightstand a hand-made card the size of a sheet of typing paper, sitting among a dozen painstakingly cut, folded, and colored paper roses. Alex bounced to the nightstand, grabbed the card and bounced back to her mother, holding it up and asking, "What does it say?"

Theresa sat on the bed, pulling Alex onto her lap, held up the card in front of them, read "Happy Valentine's Day, Alex" from the front, then opened it. She smiled, then read it to Alex.

"Sorry I couldn't buy you flowers. I made you some instead. I hope you like them.

Justin

P.S. I'll have to owe you the candy."

Alex went bouncing off again, this time in search of Justin, while Theresa ran downstairs, looking for her camera. This Valentine's Day needed to be remembered.

February 13, 2008

"I hate boys," Alex said as she flopped herself onto the Russo's living room couch, following it with, "Give me the remote."

"No," Justin replied calmly from the other end. "I'm watching this."

"Didn't ask, don't care," Alex said, as she half-stood to reach over him and grab the remote from where it was resting on the arm of the couch beside Justin. "It's a stupid show anyway."

The narrator's careful explanation of the evidence for dinosaur migrations was abruptly cut off as Alex flipped the channel. "What number is Cartoon Network again?"

Justin hooked his arm around his sister, pulled her back down, landing her in his lap with an "Oohf!" from her. She stuck her arms straight forward, trying to keep the remote out of his reach, but Justin's arms were longer, thanks to his most recent growth spurt, and he got a grip on the end of it, snatched it out of her hand again, then held it up as high as he could and flipped the channel back.

"No fair!" Alex called out, turning around and getting on her knees. Justin pivoted his arm down and back and kept the other around Alex's waist, keeping it from her.

"Alex," he growled, "I'm trying to watch this. Ten minutes and it'll be over, and then you can watch what you want!"

Alex made a frustrated cry, put her hands on Justin's shoulders and pushed. Unfortunately, since he was already leaned back, the only effect her effort had was that she pushed herself backward and fell onto the floor. She hit the floor with her fist, giving out another frustrated cry, then stood up, gritted her teeth at Justin, said, "You're all alike, aren't you! Just grab what you want, and the hell with everybody else!"

Justin blinked in surprise at his sister's outburst, started to say, "Alex, what -" but cut himself off as she was already past him and running up the stairs. Her door slammed hard enough to make Justin wince, even down in the living room, and he sighed, gave a last glance to the dinosaur trackways on the screen, then flipped off the TV and started upstairs to talk to Alex.