We were running all over Man Cave, screaming.

Schwoz was hitting his head, I was running with Charlotte around the couch and Jasper was running back and forth. The Man Cave was full of chaos, full of anguish, worry, damn it! Whistlin'Susie was still here.

"Hey!" Charlotte shouted, and she stopped running. "Let's not panic!"

"Atomic bomb!" Jasper responded in the same way. "Panic!"

I quickly shook my head "Charlotte is right, perspective – I inhaled a huge amount of air "okay" I exhaled ", we need to call Ray and Henry."

"Okay, okay."

I took my phone out of my back pocket, looked up Henry in my contacts, and pressed his name so I could call him.

One tap, two taps, three taps... nothing, absolutely nothing, just a woman's responder voice saying "We're sorry, the phone you're trying to call has been burned, badly, please don't try again."

I frowned in confusion, "Weird."

"Did they answer?" Jasper asked running towards me, I denied "Oh no!"

It was all quite strange, the phone every time I called said the same message, although it was impossible that they were already burned, Whistlin' Susie was here, it was not possible that they were burned, it wasn't possible!

"Did they answer?" Jasper asked again, but this time to Charlotte.

"No," she responded, "I just keep getting the same message every time I try to contact them, listen."

"Sorry, the phone you are trying to call has been burned, badly, please do not try again."

"Let's try again," said Jasper, "I don't know what else we can do!"

I rolled my eyes, "it says that to me too, it's Just too weird."

"And it doesn't make sense, Whistlin' Susie is still here."

"I know, that's why I said..."

"Come on, come on, come on, come on," someone started to say, we turned to the elevator, and there was Schwoz, who had a rather elegant white suit along with a hat of the same color, and a brown suitcase. Son of a b...

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, frowning, and he quickly stood casually on the frame of the elevator. "Are you trying to flee in the middle of an emergency?"

Schwoz walked up to us and started laughing nervously.

"No, here's the thing..." he paused "yes!"

"What?" Charlotte asked confused.

"Come back here Schwoz!"

Jasper went to where he was and picked him up by his legs to put him right in front of us, I must admit it was a funny scene.

"There has to be a way to deactivate it," I said, biting my nails again.

Schwoz brought one of his hands to his chin. "I think there is."

The three of us turned to look worried, I hope this isn't a disaster.

(...)

"Hand me the scissors," Schwoz ordered.

"Scissors".

Schwoz had managed to open the bomb a little bit more than last time, he had managed to get some bright yellow things out of it, and I think from the look he had, he had managed to figure out how to defuse this thing off, at least that was what my mind told me: not to panic.

"Okay," Jasper appeared behind Schwoz, "What do we do now?"

"Are you sure you can defuse this thing without blowing us up?" Charlotte asked.

"Um... Yes! I see now! There is a way!".

I let out a sigh of relief "Oh, thank you, thank you".

"Okay, Jasper cut the orange wire...".

Schwoz bent down to grab something from the toolbox, while my friend immediately did as Schwoz ordered.

"... not right after Kai cuts the white wire and Charlotte the yellow wire" Schwoz continued.

I opened my mouth surprised and worried at the same time.

"WHAT?!" the three of us shouted.

Schwoz returned to his original position "Right after Kai cuts the white wire, Charlotte cuts the yellow wire and you the...".

"I ALREADY CUT THE ORANGE WIRE!" Jasper interrupted.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Schwoz asked desperately.

"BECAUSE YOU TOLD HIM TO!" I shouted.

Between screams and complaints, suddenly the sound of someone coming down the tubes interrupted our little discussion. It was Ray and Henry.

"WHERE HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN, HUH!?" Jasper asked desperately.

"You forgot to take Whistlin' Susie with you!" I shouted.

Ray walked to the bomb "We know!".

"Uh... What's going on with her?" Henry swallowed.

"You see those yellow things poolsating?" this time Charlotte asked.

Ray laughed "That's not how you say that".

"Yeah, what about that?".

"That's the core of the bomb!" Schwoz continued ", and they're about to go 'Boom'!".

As expected, the two boys moved away from the bomb, staying a considerable distance away from it, like everyone else. I was about to die, we were about to die, now, this was it, it was the end, well at least I kissed Henry... again! ... NO, STOP IT, KAI!

"So you're saying those three yellow balls are the only part of the bomb that actually explode?" Henry asked.

"Yes" Schwoz answered ". I see it as if they were three Swedish meatballs that glow and are a mass destruction".

We stayed silent with the sound of Susie at full blast. No one knew what to do, and she was about to explode, just by seeing our faces we could tell that seriously, seriously, we were scared. Like so scared.

Henry gasped as he tapped Ray "Dude, you gotta eat 'em".

"What?" Ray asked, confused.

"Yeah you gotta eat 'em, those three shiny yellow meatballs".

"No, I'm not going to eat that, that's disgusting".

As if he hadn't taken a bite of that disgusting thing he ate days ago.

"No, he's right!" Charlotte spoke, "You're indestructible."

"YES, YES, YES, YES!" I pointed to Ray's stomach "; if you eat them they will explode in your indestructible tummy".

Schwoz began punching Ray's stomach.

"Stay away from my tummy, Schwoz!" he reprimanded "I'm not going to eat a bomb, okay? Forget it".

Mention a perfect plan that wouldn't kill us all, there isn't one, it doesn't exist, but Ray was like a capricious princess who didn't want to save us all, plus we had no other alternative, it was that or die. He's indestructible, nothing will happen to him, nothing.

"Eat, the, bomb!" Jasper said in the form of a chant "Eat, the, bomb!".

"Don't do that".

"Eat, the, bomb!" I followed along with him.

"Stop!".

Everyone had joined us "Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb!".

"Hey no, you know I can't resist a chant like that," Ray said, "it's going to hurt so much when it explodes in my tummy."

"Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb!"

"No!" We kept singing "No, no... okay" he smiled maliciously "Do you want to see how I eat this bomb? Because I'm eating it, I'm eating this bomb right now".

"Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb! Eat, the, bomb!"

Ray had removed the shiny things from the cylinder they were in "I'll do it, only if you chant a little bit louder".

"Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb!"

Henry turned to look at me and without stopping singing, he smiled at me. I returned the gesture, it was honestly funny.

"This bomb? You want me to eat this bomb? Here we go" Ray took off the first shiny meatball and put it in his mouth.

"YES!".

"Come on!".

"WOOOO!".

We all celebrated "Second round".

"Two more! Two more!".

"Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb!"

"Here comes the second one" he removed the other meatball "Numero dos!" and he ate it.

"Good!".

"Wooo!".

"One more! One more!".

"Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb! Eat the bomb!"

"Last one! There it goes!"

And without further ado, Ray had eaten the three shiny meatballs that were the core of the bomb, making us stop singing, and be able to enjoy our lives, literally, we weren't going to die.

We all started celebrating, and I couldn't help but hug Henry, we were alive, alive.

But from one moment to another, a whistle began to be heard that silenced the celebrations in the Man Cave... Of course! Whistlin' Susie.

"Now I understand" Ray spoke he had just burped "Whistlin' Susie, she whistles when she's about to explode...".

BOOM!

"Ahh!"

Whistlin' Susie had exploded, causing Ray to shift from side to side and his tummy to have a peculiar kind of glow, but it lasted for only a few seconds, although it seemed to hurt.

He burped again and took his normal posture "I'm oooooo-kay!"

"YEAH!" we all scream.

"You did it!" Henry said smiling.

"You saved us all!" I continued.

"Group hug!"

"Ehhhhhh!" Schwoz stood in front of us, preventing us from hugging each other. "Huging could be a bad idea right now."

Ray frowned, "Why?"

And out of nowhere, Ray's tummy started turning bright green, radiation, that was it, too obvious, but yeah, bad idea to hug.

Anyway, finally, after all that drama and atomic bombs, we could finish the coyote movie, everything was back to how it was a few nights ago... except for the part that we were all sitting on the couch, but far away from Ray's tummy, which he burped again causing some kind of green smoke to come out of his mouth.

Without thinking about it, we got closer together to stay as far away from him as possible.

"Cowards."

(...)

The movie had already finished and it was around 8:30 PM, it was time to return to our homes, but above all, it was time for Ray to pay us.

I made $5 an hour, which I thought was pretty good, multiplying that by the hours I was here, then plus overtime, I had enough to buy a new phone at least every two months, of course if I didn't spend the money. .

"I don't understand, why do you want 1 dollar more than last time Jasper?"

Jasper looked at him with an unfriendly face "Because every time you take a dollar away from what it really is."

"Yeah, that's true" Ray started to laugh "Who's missing out on getting paid?"

"I'm missing" I spoke moving Jasper from the way.

"Okay, Kai, I'll give you this month and a half and..." he looked around, "I'll give you two more dollars for being Henry's girlfriend."

"Oh my God," I put my fingers on the bridge of my nose. "How many times do I have to tell you? We're not dating, N-O, NO!"

Ray frowned without smiling "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, now get out of here."

I went to get my backpack that was behind the secret door and when I crossed it, I found Henry, who was also collecting his stuff.

Same place where we kissed, how ironic. It's better that I don't think about that anymore.

"Hey" I said smiling.

He turned to look at me, confused, "Hey" but in the end he smiled, "How did it go?"

"You mean payment?" he nodded "great, you?"

"Same," a not at all uncomfortable silence formed, after a long time, "do you want to go to my house before going to yours?"

"Umm, I'm going to dinner with my family, it's my grandpa's birthday, but you can come if you want."

Henry looked at me surprised "Are you sure? It's dinner with your family and I don't want to..."

"It's no problem, trust me," I spoke, interrupting him, "only if you want to, of course."

Again, total silence, but not uncomfortable, it is worth mentioning, it was just a silence waiting for an answer, and for some reason something too deep inside me was screaming for him to say yes. Why? I don't know, I just liked when Henry and I were with our families, whether it was one or the other, we got along very well.

"Okay," Henry accepted, smiling, "let's go."

I returned the gesture, "Cool."

We looked at each other for a few seconds, we both knew that we were in that place where the kiss had happened, and there was an impressive tension that made me want to kiss him again. And I could tell that he also wanted to, because even though we were a considerable distance away, he didn't take his eyes off my lips.

"Kai."

I swallowed nervously.

"Henry".