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Chapter 18 - Kirsten

“Need the car keys,” I whispered while his eyes were still locked with mine.

“On the table in the kitchen,” while he uttered the words I was already heading to where he’d said, blowing him a last kiss to finally leave the room just like Angel had done. “Have fun girls!” I heard his voice from inside and I smiled, knowing I would, indeed, have a lot of fun with that sweet little girl.

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“You ain’t gonna buy anything else, Angel. Look at this,” I pointed at the several bags in my hands, each one with a different doll. The little girl had asked for money on her birthday, so instead of getting lots of unwanted presents, she could actually buy them. Every single guest had given her a small amount of money – after all, with what would she spend so much? – and she begged me for weeks to take her downtown so she could finally get her the dolls she’s been dreaming of for as long as I can remember.

“Pleeeeeeeease, Kirs. Just need to go to one more place, then you can take me home. I promise it’ll be fast.” She pouted and looked at me with those puppy eyes I just couldn’t ignore. That was totally not fair, she knew she could get anything she wanted from me by doing just that; she was blackmailing me!

“Ugh, I hate when you do this. I truly hate it,” Angel smiled from ear to ear, proud of herself, while taking my hand on her little ones and guiding me through the streets, almost bouncing of sheer excitement. “Hey, hey. Calm down there little kangaroo. I’m gonna put the bags in the car, there’s no way I’m gonna keep walking with it. And you’re gonna help me, so here, hold these ones,” I handed her the smallest bags and grabbed her hand again, carefully crossing the street before finally unlocking the car and opening the door so we could place everything on the seats.

“It’s not even this heavy,” she noted, and I laughed completely amused.

“Of course it isn’t, you’re holding the small ones.” Angel shrugged, closing the door and excitingly holding me once more, basically dragging me to the other side again while walking towards the store she wanted to go. “Can I know where we’re going now? You seem pretty sure of how to get there.”

“We’re going to the CD store. I need to see if there’s still that Phil Collins’ LP that’s missing on my collection,” she said as if it was obvious, and I smiled, still not believing how obsessed with Phil Collins that girl was. She had basically every single DVD of his shows, every LP (or almost) and CD since the beginning of his career and also loads of posters pinned to the ceiling of her room. She had asked Lana to print the photos herself, considering that it wasn’t that easy to find Phil Collins’ posters at the stores and newsagents.

“I thought you already had them all,” I finally said while trying to follow Angel’s hurried steps. She slightly shook her head, winking at me as if I was a kid, and I couldn’t help but giggle.

“No, no. I still need ‘Both Sides’, and then I’ll have them all. I just couldn’t find it anywhere and I really, really need it.”

“What makes you think you’ll find it here?” I looked up at the store we had just arrived, the glass walls allowing me to see the several rows of CD’s. Though it was quite big, I haven’t seen any LP’s, and to be honest, I didn’t think she would find something that antique in there.

Instead of answering me, Angel just let go of my hand and pushed the door open, running inside the story in a way that made me feel ashamed for being the one looking after her right now. Couldn’t she just control herself and walk into the store as a normal person would do? If the LP she wanted was there, it definitely wouldn’t runaway. As I shook my head reproachfully, I walked in, watching as the little girl disappeared in the rows, tilting her head to the side, trying to find what she wanted while I tried not to take my eyes off of her long blonde hair, moving from one side to the other as she ran around the room.