HUDSON

Andrew and I were hiding behind a rock. My left hand covered his mouth and my right hand held the atom immobilizer—or what Andrew called a ‘Freeze Gun.’ I had to explain to him that the atom immobilizer doesn’t freeze an object and that movies weren’t real life. If my gun really could freeze as per Andrew’s words, every life I shot with it would die from being minus zero degrees.

The monster screeched, probably trying to echolocate us. Though I hoped the Earth’s atmosphere was too thin for it to work, I was wrong. The monster jumped from god knows where and landed in front of us. Its eyes glared at us. I immediately shot my atom immobilizer at the one-eyed creature. It ‘froze’ in space, like a hyper-realistic wax figure. Andrew was very astonished as he started poking it.

“It’s slimy,” he commented.

“Don’t worry, it’s skin is the same material as a slug.”

“Didn’t this thing wipe out two planets?” Andrew asked.

“I weakened it temporarily when I caught it,” I gave Andrew the atom immobilizer, “Could you hold it for a bit?”

I took out my phone, opened the TokBerribo app, and called for the spacecraft that should have survived that throw.

“What’s TokBerribo?” Andrew asked me.

“A taco place.”

“Really?” When his face lit up, I felt a little guilty.

“No, just an app I use to call my spaceship sometimes,” I explained.

“My bad for falling for that,” he shied away, embarrassed.

When the spaceship arrived, I placed the monster back in the metal box and took the atom immobilizer from him. We both sat inside and returned to the moon. When Huakian saw us, he was very relieved and happy. He came and tightly embraced both me and Andrew.

“Oh, thank goodness you got it before it became an adult!”

“That’s a child!?” Andrew exclaimed, his voice muffled from being hugged so tight.

“Does it become stronger as an adult?” I asked.

Huakian looked at me with disconcerting eyes, “It can traverse realities. No other people in all the universe can do that.”

“Like- it can hop from one dimension to the other?” Andrew question.

Huakian nodded his head. Ah yes, bending realities. Not even the smartest and the most developed civilization in this universe could crack it, or from what I saw, any other universe. If you’re a clever reader, you probably know I have a watch that can bend realities, or however Andrew described it. But keep shush, will you? If they find out I can traverse realities, then the entire multiverse would be in danger or uhh… I don’t know why evil people like to conquer stuff!

I awkwardly smile along, pretending that it would be catastrophic for a traverser to suddenly exist. Then I grab Andrew and drag us out back to the spaceship.

“Are we finally going back,” he sighed.

“I’m sorry, I thought it would be swift, but…”

“It’s ok. I had fun… being with you,” Andrew started to blush slightly and tried his best not to have a smile so widely.

“Glad to hear that,” I said. Good to know he won’t be suing me. “Well, do you maybe want to have some tacos?”

“Tacos?”

“Since you were so excited about Tacos earlier,” I chuckled.

His smile grew wider and he fumbled over his words, “T-together? Tes!—I mean yes...”

ANDREW

Ahhh! I couldn’t believe it! My fantasies were coming true! We were on a date—Not an actual one, but it was one in my hopelessly romantic brain. Sweet, sweet Hudson was in front of me. His black marble eyes were digging into the menu. He pushed up his glasses, then glanced at me, “Sorry, are you waiting for me?”

I shook my head, “I.. was–uh,” I need to make the move! “You’re really digging into the menu, it’s cute.” I hoped saying ‘cute’ wasn’t cringe…

“I’m just trying to calculate which taco would give me the best experience with the cheapest price,” he said.

“Get that one,” I pointed to an item on the menu.

“Are you sure this is the best option?”

“Yes, be rest assured. I come here every year on Mother’s Day,” I almost shuffled his fluffy blackberry-colored hair.

“Awe, it’s lovely how you and your mother have a tradition.”

We called over the waitress, who brought in our tacos. We were sitting beside the window, the evening sun filling his pale skin with vigor and beauty. If only I could just stare at him twenty-four-seven.

“I know you now know a lot of mindboggling things about me, but no need to feel tensed,” he told me as our eyes met.

“I’m not tensed. I find it super cool that you deal with sci-fi things.”

“Thanks. But this is a bit of a secret, so don’t tell anyone.”

Before I blushed as the special guy who knew the special secret about his special person, I just had to speculate, “Then why did you tell me?”

“I thought you were some idiot, but turned out you’re pretty normal.”

I shot him a look that screamed excuse me? Hudson began to laugh out loud.

“You called me ‘Harry’ and spoke like you knew nothing,” he said, “But I apologize, I should have taken my time to know you better before making any assumptions.”

“It’s ok, you making assumptions is what led me to get closer to you,” I attempted to lean a bit closer.

“Oh and, Ron knows about this as well, so you can discuss things with Ron if you’d like. But no one else.”

I nodded... WHO'S RON? “Just rely on me whenever you need me, since I know now too."

We had returned to his house. Andrea was quite surprised to see me.

“Omg, Andrew! Where were you? And Hudson, I couldn’t find you either! I was worried sick.”

“We went to eat tacos,” Hudson told her.

“For three hours?!”

“What can I say? I’m better at courting than you are,” he teased Andrea.

I said my farewells and left. Maybe we’re friends now? I have to play my cards right.