I couldn't help but laugh at Henry's face, he looked like he had been put in front of all his ex-girlfriends who went to 'Kids in the Woods', plus I don't blame him, Jasper and Charlotte had really shown off with the decoration, that, and the thousands of Dog Judge posters, and there were also a lot of churros, oh and season 2 of Will & Grace, what a great season, yes, this was all so Henry.

"What is all this?" Henry asked, still petrified, but smiling.

"Happy Birthday?" I said as I stood next to him, "It was Charlotte and Jasper's idea."

He looked everywhere, and again at our friends, again around him, and now he looked at me.

The truth is that I was afraid of how he would react, it was Henry, it was difficult for him to get angry at anything, but to be honest I expected another reaction from him when seeing all this. He didn't seem upset, just surprised.

"Guys..." oh no here it comes "DOG JUDGE! CHURROS! WOW!" there it is "this is awesome, thank you very much ah!" He gasped, "Are those flares?"

"Flares!" Jasper shouted.

There were flares, flares, that meant one thing, that we would play the dodge the flare game with Henry's hyper mobility, or... truth or flare.

"Yes, flares," I said with a forced smile. "Char, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Ummm, yeah," she responded.

We walked over to where the Auto-Snacker was, leaving Henry and Jasper excited about the flares.

"We're not going to play Truth or Flare," I said whispering, "I don't want to play Truth or Flare."

"It's Henry's birthday, he decides what to do with them, besides, I didn't bring them from the basement, Jasper did."

I looked at Charlotte a little worried "Char, you know that last time we played Truth or Flare..."

"It was when Piper got excited about making you a Hart," she interrupted me, "which by the way I support the idea."

I opened my mouth hesitantly "No, that was a year ago, in the summer, days after my birthday, when we were at Junk N' Stuff and Jasper made me do..." I rolled my eyes remembering that strange moment ".. .that".

"Ohhh! It's true," she said, "yes, I forgot, but remember that you enjoyed it."

"Ugh, shut up!".

"Okay, okay," she was laughing. "Kai, relax, it's just a game, I don't think Jasper will make you do that again, he's so dumb."

"That's why," I looked at her with a grim expression, "that game is very stupid and he is very stupid."

"Just ignore him, and if he does anything about it, I'll stop him."

I didn't know whether to trust that, I mean, I trust Charlotte with everything, and I know she never says anything and always has my back, but when it comes to the 'Henry & Kai' thing, she could turn against me to ally herself with anyone. In order to make that 'reality' or something that has to do with both of us, it was something that everyone close to us did, his family discreetly, our friends, his sister was the most interested, even my family. But even if they try and try, it will never happen.

"Girl Code," I said, raising my arms in the air, now I couldn't do anything.

"Girl Code?"

I nodded triumphantly "Girl code."

"Okay," she let out a huff, which was more like a tired sigh, "girl code."

Girl Code or Girl Code, a code that was difficult to understand, but that was very important between us, and had a lot of value.

"Let's go with the boys before they kill themselves and realize that those weapons are in melt mode and not in stun mode," she said with her Charlotte look.

I looked at her confused, melt mode? But I understood when I saw Jasper and Henry playing with guns and Jasper shot at Ray's mug, which had a picture of Henry's mother, and it melted.

"Yeah, come on," I responded.

(...)

Everything that had happened was very simple, we had watched the entire second season of Will & Grace, half of the third season of Dog Judge, a horror movie that for some reason didn't scare Henry at all, and we ate many, many, many churros, we had also ordered a wheel of ribs and meat from Bro-Maha, but there were a lot of churros.

The emergency alert also rang several times, but every time it rang Henry shot her with her laser, making her shut up, and what could happen, Ray could go alone.

Now we were playing dodge the flare with Henry, he was near the elevator, and we were on the monitors lighting the flares and throwing them at him, it was fun, and the way Henry moved kept impressing me... okay, that it was heard wrong.

"Pause, pause," Henry said as he bent down to take a breath. "I'm tired."

"What kind of sidekick are you if you can't handle a few flares!" I screamed as he threw another one at him, but he obviously dodged it.

"100 flares, Kai, you guys threw 100 flares at me."

Jasper grabbed another flare and threw it at him.

"101" he corrected it.

"I give up".

Henry walked to the swivel chair and sat down, putting another churro in his mouth, okay this guy really loved churros. Jasper, Charlotte and I went after him and copied his action, except for the churro part.

There was a silence that was not uncomfortable, a silence that said too much, like for example that we were already bored, and it was barely 9:00PM, we still had an hour before Ray and Schwoz returned from whatever they did today, and already We had nothing to do, great.

"Now what do we do?" I asked with a sigh.

"We still have a lot of flares," Jasper said, pointing to the large box of flares. "Truth or Flare!"

"Yes!" Henry shouted.

"No!" I shouted, causing puzzled looks from my two friends. "No, I don't want to play Truth or Flare, strange things always happen when we play it."

Jasper nudged me in the ribs, ouch, "Come on, Kai, it's just Truth or Flare, it's not like it's Truth or Dare."

"Exactly," Henry continued, "and it's my birthday, and I decide that we're going to play Truth or Flare."

NO! I wasn't going to play, not even if they forced me, although on the other hand I would feel bad, and it's exciting when we play it, because of the truths that come out and when someone chooses Flare... but no, no, no, and no, I wasn't going to play it and there was nothing that would make me do it.

"It's my birthday, code for birthdays" except that. "If you play this today, on my birthday, you choose what to do on my birthday next year."

It was a dumb code, but we made it up the time we went to see the Boo Man Group at Schwoz's RV, and oh, who cares, Ray made it up, so imagine how ridiculous that is, but it was something we took seriously. Serious.

"Birthday Code," I said with my eyes closed, I was going to regret this. "Okay."

"Bring the flares!" Jasper shouted.

This isn't going to end well, at least I don't think so.