All I Ever Wanted

Chapter 3

Hope stares up at me pleadingly. "Mommy..."

"Hope..."

"Can I please please please go get candy?"

A small groan escapes my lips. As soon as it got dark around six o clock, I took her out for an hour around the neighborhood down the street, and she collected quite a bit of candy. My plan is to watch scary movies for the night and relax, but I guess she has other ideas for Halloween is this year.

With a sigh, I give her a small smile. "Sure, hun."

"Yay!" She yells excitedly as she runs to get her royal sack to collect candy in.

Ok, so maybe another thirty minutes to an hour of trick or treating, and then scary movies it is.

The sound of the front door opening catches my attention, and as soon as I turn to see who is at the door, my eyes almost buldge out of my head.

"Umm, Ava? Where's the rest of your costume?"

It's not hard to tell who she is. Ever read the Teen Titans comic book? Well, she's rocking Starfire right now, from the long radiating red hair to the very revealing purple Tamaranean outfit.

Ava grins at me as she walks further into the house.

"This is it, girl. I'm getting a treat tonight, if you know what I mean," she winks at me, but her smile disappears as she eyes my gray and black joggers, black UGGS and black hoodie, "but you aren't. Why aren't you dressed up in the costume I bought you?"

"Because I don't need to be dressed up for what I plan to do tonight," Which is true, because the couch isn't going to judge my outfit and neither are Freddie and Jason.

She sighs dramatically before pulling on her red wig.

"You can't go to the Masquerade Madness Bash without a costume! Come on! I have two tickets for us to go, and anyone who is anyone is going to be there," she says, before getting closer to me and whispering suggestively, "even a certain shooting guard..."

That familiar pain fills my heart as I recall the last time I spoke to him, which was a week ago at the breakfast outing.

Ava must notice the frown on my face, because she looks worried. "Logan? What happened that day, anyways? You never told me much about it."

Before I can say a word, Hope comes running up to me and grabs my hand. "Ok mommy, ready!"

"Umm...where are you guys going?" Ava looks at me skeptically, while Hope looks up at me expectantly, and suddenly I'm feeling tired.

"Hope wants to go trick or treating again, so I am taking her out," Ava opens her mouth to argue with that, but I quickly beat her to it, "and then I am coming home and watching scary movies."

Ava glares at me before bending down to Hope's level and giving her a dazzling smile. "Princess, how would you like to go trick or treating with Lina and my mom?"

Hope squeals excitedly and jumps up and down before nodding her head vigorously. "Yes please!"

Ava smiles at me triumphantly, and I glare at her before giving Hope a small smile. "Okay, Hope, just remember what I said: Don't eat too much candy. You get three pieces tonight, alright?"

Despite the warning I give her, Hope quickly grabs onto Ava's hand, and Ava waves me off as they start talking excitedly about how much candy she is going to go get. If I have a child with a stomach ache by the time I get home tonight, Ava is so cleaning up the mess.

. . .

An hour later, I am following behind Ava through the throngs of people into the very spooky looking entrance to the Oakland Convention Center. It's funny because the bodyguards are all dressed as Count Dracula, and if looks could kill, there would be a lot of dead bodies around right now. Even though I really didn't want to come, the more decorations I walk by and very convincing costumes I see, the more into Halloween I am getting.