Picture this, I'm this random Korean guy standing in the middle of the bandage aisle in Eckerds in 1994 looking at bandages. They have all their cheap Halloween shit up for next month, bats and plastic Frankensteins, and I swear to God there's a Cookies N' Cream chocolate bar ad pasted up on almost every aisle.

I start grabbing bandages and gauze to wrap the hole in my hand where the knife had almost gone through and throw everything into my basket. It wasn't that bad, but it was bleeding pretty good, and the front of my shirt was all stained red. 

Then Janet Jameson shows up.

I'm not even kidding.

"Kevin? What the hell? Is that you?" I hear her high-pitched voice and I see her out of the corner of my eye as I'm sliding a bottle of rubbing alcohol into the blue basket hanging from my arm. 

Oh, crap.

I turn around and she's standing there in an apron and a blue Eckerds uniform. Her hair is pulled back into these twisty braid things and she's got this suspicious look on her face. Shit. I hadn't even guessed that she'd be working here, I'd been so caught up in the whole Blueberry from space thing.

"What happened to you?" She demands, and then she comes up to me, arms crossed. "My dad told me that they found your brother's car laying in the middle of the road this morning. Everyone thought you burned up and died. God, Nancy Jeanine was already planning on hosting a candlelight vigil in front of Jack in The Box."

"Really?" I hold my chin thoughtfully and then I smirk, "People were that worried about me?"

Janet rolls her eyes and then she catches sight of my blood-drenched hand. "Oh my God!" She reaches out and she snags me by the wrist. "Did you hurt your hand in the crash?"

I glance towards the doors because I knew Adam and Baby were waiting for me, and there was always the chance that the FBI would roll up and cart them off to Area 51 for testing or something. So I pull my hand back as soon as Janet grabs me. 

"Yeah, I landed on a piece of glass. Went right through my fucking hand, but I didn't scream or anything," I lie to her, and then I shrug a little like it's no big deal. "I just stopped by to grab some bandages and stuff." I move to walk past her, but then she grabs me again. 

"Wait a minute," she tells me, "Let me wrap your hand in the bathroom and you can tell me what happened to you last night." 

It was a dream come true, you know? I had been waiting for this moment for months. Janet was gorgeous and smart, and everything that a guy could want in a girl. We could go places after high school. We could have that high school sweetheart romance going on, where we bought a house and had three kids that all looked like me. 

And all I had to do was go with her and forget Captain Kirk and Spock sitting outside.

Just totally ignore the fact that when I looked into Baby's black opal eyes, I saw the universe.

"Hey, do you have any Baby Bottle Pops?" I ask Janet instead, "And maybe some books on taking care of weird little blue extraterrestrials from space?"

Janet crosses her arms. She doesn't look happy, but she doesn't argue either. 

I leave the store a few minutes after that with a bag full of candy and a bunch of conspiracy theory books. I knew I needed to read up on what type of alien Baby might be, and if it was possible to get him back home where he belonged. 

He couldn't stay here on Earth forever.

When I get back to the car, I expect Adam to be in the front seat reading some nerdy space shit or twiddling his thumbs. Instead, he's sitting in the back holding Baby, who's sleeping against his chest with my jacket around his shoulders. 

"Hey, Kavinsky," I say, trying not to feel too bothered or anything. "I bought Baby some Baby Bottle Pops. Get it? Because we named him--"

"Shh!" Adam hushes me, pressing a finger to his lips. "Baby just fell asleep. He's exhausted."

So much for trying to be nice.

I roll my eyes and I step back when Adam gently maneuvers Baby so that he's laying down, and then gets out of the car so that we're standing super close to one another. "Can we talk?" He asks me, and his voice is quiet. The wind sweeps up his chocolate curls, and I can smell his cinnamon shampoo. 

"Talk about what?" I ask him, scoffing a little, "You bailing on us, nerd boy?" 

"In your dreams!" Adam crosses his arms, "Baby told me some stuff while you were getting your ass handed to you. And I have some things that I haven't told you either, so...I just figured you might want to hear it so that we can actually make a fully functioning plan before we run off into the sunset together."

I open my bag of candy and magazines and I take out two Baby Bottle Pops, handing one to Adam. Bright pink for him and bright blue for me because I wasn't a bitch. "Alright, hit me with the details," I say, and then I toast candies with him before we go to sit down in the car together.