Even Angels Fall

Chapter 9

                               ~~~~Christina~~~~

"Mom?" Mike called once we were inside his house.

"In the kitchen," she called back.

He closed the door behind us, took my hand, and led me towards his mother's voice. The pleasant aroma of baking cookies greeted us as we came into the kitchen and his mom looked up from her photo album on the counter.

"Hi Sweetie. I didn't expect you home so early." She said it to Mike but she was watching me with interest.

"Yeah," Mike said, "neither did I."

I glanced up at his sarcastic tone and fought the urge to stick out my tongue. I gave him a smug smile instead. 

"Mom, this is Christina."

"Nice to finally meet you, Christina." She emphasized the "finally" and gave Mike a look that similar to the one I had. She'd probably tried to arrange this meeting as much as I did. She gave me a conspiratorial smile and said, "you're just in time. I was looking at family photos and I just started on Mikey's baby pictures."

I grinned, knowing I was going to like her.

"Nothing too embarrassing, I hope," I said because it felt like the good girlfriend thing to say. I glanced at Mike who was trying to look annoyed, but wasn't really succeeding. I could tell he was happy despite his protests to keep me away.

"Come on, Mikey," I teased as I pulled him over to where his mom sat. I couldn't wait to see the pictures.

                                             ~~~~~Mike~~~~~

Mom and Christina looked at pictures of me for a while, spending way too long on the ones taken before I was actually old enough to do anything photo-worthy. I know my mom loved me and Christina liked me, but honestly, how could that many pictures of any baby be that interesting? They were all basically the same thing. The only things that changed were the clothes and facial expressions. Five or ten, sure. I understand that. But mom must have had a few hundred in there. When I pointed that out, they assumed I was just embarrassed and proceeded to "ooh and ah" more exaggeratedly while they laughed. I just rolled my eyes and smiled.

I suppose most guys would be embarrassed about their baby pictures being shown off. Had it been a slide show at school or something, I might have been too, but I didn't mind Christina seeing them. Besides, the worst one in there was of me getting a bath in the kitchen sink when I was about six months old - not terribly humiliating. The water came up to my belly button anyway.

"Hey, I remember this!" Christina said, after they'd gotten to the later years of my childhood. "Our kindergarten Christmas program." She smiled down at the album. "You were so cute!" I must have heard that a few hundred times already. 

"I forgot you were a shepherd. Look, I'm in the background."

I was finally interested in the pictures. "Oh yeah." I looked over her shoulder. "You were an angel. How appropriate." 

She made a face at me, thinking I was kidding. "I hated that costume. It was so itchy. I think it gave me hives." She laughed.

I looked at her radiant, five-year-old face, smiling down at the baby Jesus. It was a little blurry since the quality wasn't so great and she wasn't the main focus, but it was enough. Even then, she'd been beautiful. How could I have been so blind for so long? I made a mental note to swipe one of those pictures later.

"Mommy, I'm hungry." My sister came into the kitchen.

"Dinner will be in a little while, Honey," Mom said. "Do you want an apple until then?"

"No, I'm only hungry for cookies." Melanie used her most serious tone as she eyed the cookie in my hand.

Mom laughed. "Well, I guess I can't argue with a woman who knows what she wants." She handed her one of the cookies that was cooling on the counter. "But just one." 

"Who are you?" Melanie asked Christina as she took a big bite, smearing her mouth with chocolate.

"I'm Christina," she said. "Are you Melanie?" 

Melanie nodded. "I'm almost six," she announced proudly.

"No!" Christina looked at her skeptically. "You must be about seven already. You're so grown up."

Melanie beamed. "You wanna come see my room?" 

"Sure." Christina smiled. 

"Come on!" Melanie excitedly grabbed Christina's hand and pulled her out of the kitchen.

"Looks like you've got competition." Mom smirked at me.

"I guess so," I said shoving the last of the cookie in my mouth and swiping another one.

Fifteen minutes later, when I went to "rescue" Christina, she was sitting on the floor with Melanie, surrounded by Barbie and all of her friends. She looked like she was having just as much fun as my sister was. Of course. 

"You know, Christina is here to see me, Squirt." I stood in the doorway. "She's my girlfriend."

Melanie barely looked away from her doll. "She likes me better. She said so." 

I raised my eyebrows and looked at Christina, amused.

She tried not to laugh. "I said that I thought you were probably better at playing barbies than Mike is," she clarified.

Melanie shrugged, as if to say that was the same thing.

"I couldn't agree more," I said.

"You can play too if you want," Melanie very graciously invited me. "You can play with Ken."

Christina really did laugh this time. "Yeah, how about it? I think I'd like to see that."

"I don't think so." 

"You never wanna play with me anymore." Melanie sighed.

"We'll do something later," I said. "Besides I want to show Christina something."

Christina looked at me curiously and set down the doll she was holding.

"But we're not done!" Melanie whined.

Christina and I exchanged a look before she turned back to my sister. "Mike and I planned to spend time together today," she said. "But how about we all go to Chuck E. Cheese one Saturday soon?"

"Really?" Melanie asked and looked at me skeptically.

I wasn't crazy about the idea of using up one of our rare free days to babysit my sister, but the look on both of their faces made it hard to argue.

"Sure," I said. "But you better listen to me."

"I will!" she promised, grinning.

"She's adorable," Christina said once we were settled in my room. "I always wanted a little sister." 

I raised an eyebrow. "So is that trip for her or you?" 

"Both." She laughed and then looked around the room. "So what did you want to show me?"

"Just this," I said before I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. She sighed happily and put her arms around my neck.

"You're right," she said breathlessly after a few minutes. "This is better than barbies."

"Well, I should hope so."

She giggled and started kissing me again.