Even Angels Fall

                                    ~~~~~Mike~~~~~

"You sure you wouldn't rather be doing something else right now?" my boss, Steve, asked as soon as the door closed behind a particularly unpleasant customer. 

"Why?" I glanced up from my inventory sheet. "You trying to get rid of me?" 

"Definitely not," he said. "You've been a godsend these past few weeks, but you're a kid. You shouldn't be working so much. It's not healthy. You need to have fun sometimes."

"I'm fine," I said, my annoyance piqued. I couldn't agree with him more. I'd love to be having a little fun right now.

"Besides," Steve said. "What about your girlfriend? How does she feel about you being here so much instead of with her?"

"Apparently, she's fine with it," I muttered irritably, slashing through the last few numbers on the paper. 

I glanced at Steve when he remained quiet for a minute. "What?" I snapped, seeing the curious look he was giving me.

"This the same girl that's had that stupid grin on your face since you walked into my store?" He was, apparently, not bothered by my tone.

"Yeah. So?"

"Alright." He crossed his arms and leaned on the counter. "Tell Doctor Steve what the problem is."

I couldn't help smiling a little at his dorky expression. "Are you a psychiatrist now?" 

"Try me." He was still joking, but the offer was real. 

I eyed him for a minute, trying to decide if I wanted to do this. I liked Steve, but I didn't know if I was comfortable talking about my relationship with him.

"While I'm still young, if you don't mind."

I sighed and looked away. It might be nice to unload a little. I certainly couldn't talk to my father about stuff like this, and Jeremy had never been very helpful. His solution to any girl problem was to punch me in the arm and tell me to suck it up and get over it.

"Christina's busy," I grumbled.

"That's it?" He watched me skeptically. "She's just busy?"

"She's really busy," I amended, realizing that I needed to explain. That did sound pretty whiny. "Like too busy to give me more than a few minutes a day. I feel like I'm just a prop or something. I'm there when she needs a quick break from everything else she's got going on. I finally snapped last night."

"Is she avoiding you?" 

 "No." I shook my head. "Nothing like that. She just-"

"Is she canceling dates because she's washing her hair or for some other stupid reason?" 

"No, she doesn't cancel on me," I said. "She really is doing stuff. She volunteers a lot and has a lot of school stuff to work on. I know she wants to be with me, but she can't very much."

Steve pursed his lips. "So, what's she doing now?" 

I looked at my watch. "She's probably at the kids home right now." 

Steve raised an eyebrow at me. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I just told you-!"

"Yeah," he cut me off. "You told me she wants to be with you but she's got stuff to do."

"Yeah?"

"Are they going to kick you out if you try to volunteer along with her?" 

That brought me up short. "I guess not."