When all you want to do is cry you can't give up. You have to swallow your tears, stand up on your own two feet, and show the world how strong you really are.

I close the door to my car and walk into Starbucks. I had on a simple three-quarter-sleeve teal sweater with a charcoal colored scarf around my neck. I had on my black booties and a pair of dark skinny jeans. I wear skinny jeans often, in case you haven't realized. My charcoal beanie was fixed on my head and of course my silver necklace was around my neck like it always is.

 I grab Claire's hand as we cross the street. I stand in line and look around the store. No sign of Niall. I check the time on my clock. I was right on time. It was 12:01 when I walked in. Maybe he meant a different Starbucks. Maybe I should just-

"Hey," I hear a familiar voice say from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. I turn around and see Niall along with four other familiar faces smiling at me. I smile back.

"Hey."

He brought his friends. Good. At least he didn't think it was a date. Just friends, I remind myself. I see them all glance at Claire.

"Oh, uhm, this is Claire. My little sister," I introduce. She gives a shy smile and hides behind my leg. "Come on Claire. Don't be shy," I say, moving out of the way so she can say hello.

"Hey there Claire! How old are you?" Louis asks excitedly.

"I'm four years old," she says proudly.

"Wow! You're old," he says, making her giggle. I smile. Louis takes Claire back to the table with Harry, Zayn, and Liam while I get my coffee. Niall stays with me so I'm not all alone.

"Your sisters cute," Niall says, watching as she laughs at something Harry said. I smile. "She looks kind of like you."

"Well we're siblings after all," I say, smiling at her from across the store.

"Yeah. Did she want to come for some reason?" he asks curiously.

"Nah. She couldn't stay home alone so I just brought her along."

"Oh. Your parents work on weekends?" he asks, obviously just curious. I hide the emotions that question triggers.

"No. They're just...not home," is all I answer, smiling at him like nothing is wrong. He gives me a weird look, but doesn't say anything else. I get my coffee and walk back to the table behind Niall. I need something to pick me up today. I usually feel like that, given I'm a daily Starbucks customer.

"So what should we do?" Zayn asks.

"I honestly don't mind. Whatever you guys feel like doing," I say, sipping my coffee.

"CAN WE GO TO THE PARK?" Claire asks me, her wide eyes filled with hope. I smile and nod.

"Sure. If that's okay with the guys," I say, looking at each of them.

"Yeah, there's one right across the street," Liam says, smiling. We all walk over since there's no need to drive. Claire and Louis run to the swings. Harry, Zayn, and Liam all try to race down the kiddy slides at the same time. I decide to sit on a nearby bench and sip my coffee. I was examining the green Starbucks logo on the side of my cup when I hear someone come up beside me. I look over and smile.

"Hey there," Niall says, looking at me.

"Hi."

"Why aren't you out there having fun?" he asks me. I shrug.

"I'd rather sit back and watch." He gives me a look that says Are-You-Serious?

Before I know it he jumps up and tags my shoulder saying "You're it!" before running away. I smile and place my coffee on the ground, running after him. Soon enough he gets tired and rests his hands on his knees, out of breath. I tackle him to the ground laughing. I lay on my back and look up at him.

"Gotcha," I say, smirking. He smiles. "You're slow," I notice before hopping off the ground and jogging away from him.

"Where are you going?"

"You're it!" I remind him. He smiles and rolls his eyes as he starts to run after me. I climb up to the top of the slide and smile at him on the ground. He looks up at me.

"I changed my mind. This game is tiring," he says. I smirk at him and roll my eyes.

"How about this. If you can tag me then we'll stop playing," I say, reaching my arm down for him to tag. He smiles and is just about to tag my hand when I pull it away. "Not that easy." I sprint off and he groans as he chases after me. Eventually, I get tired and just lay down on the grass, probably getting leaves in my hair. He lightly kicks my foot as he slows to a stop.

"You're it," he teases before collapsing on the ground next to me. We both sit there, out of breath for a bit. Suddenly he brings up a fragile topic. "So what do your parents do?" he asks randomly. Something tells me he asked because of our little conversation in Starbucks today. I sit up on the ground.

"Why do you want to know?" I asked. He shrugs.

"It's a good thing to know."

"And it has nothing to do with anything."

"Well...I just...I want to find out more about you."

"Asking what my parents do won't make you learn about me," I mumble, staring at the ground. I look up and see him staring at me.

"You don't have to tell me what happened to them if you don't want to," he says softly. That took me off guard. My expression turns sad for a moment before changing back to its normal mask. I almost always hide my emotions. It's become a habit.

"How do you know anything happened to them?" I ask quietly.

"I can tell. You just seem...tense...when I ask about them." He's still staring at me as he talks. I take a deep breath and look up at him.

"Are you sure this won't end up in the magazines or anything?" I ask half-jokingly, half completely serious. He smiles and nods.

"I'm sure. I won't tell a soul. You can trust me." I look into his eyes. He doesn't seem like the type of guy to go around spilling secrets. I know, I just met him. I could be completely wrong about him. But something tells me I'm not. Something tells me I can really trust Niall.

Don't cry, I tell myself as I begin my story.

"When I was fifteen someone broke into my house. I don't know who they are to this day, and I don't want to. He got a hold of me. My parents were in the corner, scared out of their minds. My dad, he begged for the man to let me go. Just like that, they were both gone. Shot. I was left with my brother and sister," I say, my voice trembling. I blink back the tears. I won't let them fall. I don't cry in front of people. At the funeral I cried so much. I wouldn't stop. Now, I rarely ever cry in front of anyone. Not even my brother if I can help it and especially not Claire. I need to stay strong for her. She's so young.

"How did you get out of there?" Niall asks, looking at me with glistening eyes. It looks almost like he might cry. All the guys are back playing on the playground with Claire.

"The police came. They took the man away," I say.

He asked about my parents, not about Jake. He didn't need to know about him anyway. I'm sure one day, if we remained friends, I would eventually tell him. But right now just admitting what happened to my parents has me on the verge of tears. Telling Niall about Jake would surely break me.

 I only cry over serious things and even then it's only when I'm completely alone where no one can hear me. Usually it's in the middle of the night, sometimes after one of my dreams or nightmares, on my porch or something where no one else can hear me. I'll sit down and look at the stars and just let the tears pour out. I don't know why I'm like that. Where I refuse to show my true feelings. I guess it's because I see crying as a sign of weakness and I can't afford to be weak. My strength is what's getting me along and if I lose that then what do I have left?

"I'm so sorry," he says, just above a whisper. He wraps his arms around me in a hug.

"Thanks," I say in a scratchy voice.

"Where do you live now?"

"I don't live in like an orphanage or anything like that. My brother, sister, and I all live in a house together. It's not much but it's enough. My brother and I work hard. We look out for each other. Together we try to let Claire grow up normally even though we could never be the parents that my Mom and Dad could. We practically raised her on our own after they died." He looks at me as I speak, a look of disbelief written on his face.

"How are you so...brave about all this?" he asks. I shrug.

"I have to be."

A moment of silence passes before I hear footsteps and Claire tackles me, laughing. I look up and laugh with her, trying to forget everything I just spilled to Niall. I see the boys emerging a few steps behind her. Niall drops the subject and doesn't bring it up for the rest of the day. We stay at the park hanging out for a while before the sun starts to set.

"I think we should go soon. Claire, it's time to leave," I call to her as she comes down the slide with Liam right behind her. I smile at them together. All the guys seem to love Claire. I think it's adorable when they all play with her.

"But I wanna stay!" she begs.

"Claire, we have to go home sometime." She sighs.

"Okay." She gives a hug to each of the boys. Niall pulls me aside.

"I've been thinking. You're welcome to stay with me and the lads. I'm sure where you're living isn't the best of conditions so if you'd like we have a few extra rooms. The lads don't have to know why. I'll just say that your parents are out of town for a while or something until you get comfortable enough to tell them the real reason."

"What about Claire and my brother, Austin?"

"They can come too of course. We all love Claire and I'm sure Austin's a cool guy." I sigh.

"I'll think about it. Thank you, Niall." I hug him. "Text you later."

"And Alex?"

"Yeah?" I turn around.

"If you need anything....anything at all....just call me." I smile and nod.

"Thank you." I hug the rest of the guys and take Claire's hand as we cross the street to our beat up old car. I keep replaying Niall's offer in my head on the way home. By the time we pull up to the house it's almost eight at night.

"Someone's had a busy day," Austin says to me. I smile at him.

"I had a fun day." Microwavable dinners sat out on the kitchen table. I took one and began eating.

"Well I'm glad you had fun," he says smiling and taking a bite of food.

"Niall offered me something," I say, examining the food on the plastic tray.

"What did he offer you?"

"A home," I mumble. Austin stares at me. Claire perks up.

"I wanna live with Niall, Louis, Liam, Hazza, and Zayn!" Claire says excitedly.

"What about us?" Austin asks in disbelief.

"Of course you both would come too," I say to Austin. "I wouldn't leave you here." He hesitates before saying anything else.

"Claire, can you give Lexi and me a minute to talk please?" She nods and obediently goes upstairs. "Why did he offer this?"

"I told him. I told him what happened to Mum and Dad."

"Does he know about what happened to Jake?"

"No. I'll tell him that when I'm ready."

"You just met this boy Alex!"

"I know! But, I feel like I can trust him!"

Why is Austin reacting this way? He should be happy! We're being offered a place to live besides this rat hole! He stares at the ground and takes a deep breath.

"Who are those other boys Claire was talking about?"

"He's a celebrity,” I explain. “He's in a band. Niall, Harry, Louis, Zayn, and Liam are a famous boy band called One Direction. They came in for a photo shoot and Niall and I became friends. It's not a big deal."

"Yes. It is. You should have told me sooner." I stare at him. That's what he's upset about? "I got a job offer today," he mumbles. "In America." I continue to stare at him.

"Where in America?" I demand.

"California."

"How are we supposed to move out of the country when we have no money?"

"They said they would pay for the expenses."

"That's great!" I smile.

"No. The problem is they pay for one person to go," he explains. My smile fades and I feel my heart break.

"You should go. I can take care of Claire. I can handle things on my own. I'm 18. You need to go and earn money. We need it."

"I can't leave you and Claire alone. I can't abandon you guys," he protests.

"Yes. You can. You're not abandoning us. You're helping our family make income," I reason.

He sighs and nods.

"I'll take the job. If anything goes wrong I'm coming home though."

"Nothing will go wrong." He gives me an unsure look but eventually wraps his arms around me in a hug. "I love you Austin."

"I love you too Lex. Take care of our sister. And be careful."

I nod. "When do you leave?"

"I give them my final answer tomorrow and then if I say yes they fly me out of London first thing on Monday morning."

"That's two days," I realize. He nods.

"I'll call you. We'll talk. I won't leave you and Claire. We're a family in our own way."

I smile at him and give him another hug.

"I'll go put her to bed. Get packing," I say, tossing out my unfinished dinner in the trash and walking upstairs to Claire's room. She was already in her pajamas. "Time for bed, Claire bear," I say as she climbs under the covers. I tuck her in.

"Lexi, are we gonna live with Louis and Liam and Harry and Zayn and Niall?" I smile at her.

"We might. I'll tell you everything tomorrow." I kiss her head and leave, flicking on the nightlight and closing the door.

It's definitely going to be different without my brother. He's always been there for me and things won't be the same if he's across the world in another country. I'll definitely miss him.

I sigh and flop onto my own bed. I say a few prayers and climb under the covers, drifting off to sleep with my purple frog Momo in my arms.

"Hello?!" I look around at nothing but white walls, floors, and ceilings. It looked like I was in the middle of nowhere, literally. "Hello?!" I say louder.

"Come with me," I hear a creepy voice say to me. I turn around and see him standing there. The killer.

"No." In an instant he's behind me, his hand on my shoulder. I try to run, but I can't. He's not even holding me tightly, but it's as if my feet are glued to the floor.

"Please let her go," I hear my dad's voice say from my left. I turn to look for him.

"Dad?!" I don't see him.

"Don't hurt our daughter," I hear him say from my right. I don't see him anywhere.

"DAD?!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"We'll do anything," I hear him say again. His voice continues to echo around the room of emptiness but his face never appears. I remain unable to move.

"He can't save you now," the killer says, now holding a knife. I scream for my dad one last time before the killer forces the knife in my direction.

I wake up, out of breath. That was the worst dream this week. I grab my guitar and go out to the porch. I sit in the rocking bench and lay my guitar flat in my lap. I let the tears stream down my face as I run my fingers over the smooth wooden finish.

I look up just in time to see a flash of light shoot across the sky before disappearing completely. A shooting star. I could tell it wasn't an airplane or a helicopter. The way it disappeared made me positive it was a star. I close my eyes and think of a wish.

"I wish I could really be happy," I whisper before opening my eyes and letting more tears fall.

AUTHORS NOTE

like the song? I thought it was appropriate C: STRONG GIRL LEXI IS <3 Lexi the Fighter :D haha stayin strong for her lil sis :') The girl on the side is Claire(: anywayss vote/comment/fan mostly comment cuz i love comments. Love you poptarts <3 :) Tell me what ya think. and ik its a sad story so far :( maybe things will get better ;) you never know. BYE<33