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   The lights flickered and our excitement turned to fear and worry.
  My brother watched as my grip on the old game controller loosened. The television that sat in front of us showed nothing but a dark, empty screen. Just moments ago, it was full of life, flashing a multitude of colors as our character jumped his way to the final boss. Sadly, as he had just realized, the energy needed to run both the television and the console was too great for our home’s setup.
  Something behind the television began to smoke.
  “Shit, open the window!” I yelled to my brother, who quickly hopped out of the seat behind me as I got off of the floor. He fiddled with the strange pull tabs that the window had, which made him take a few moments to open it.
  I, on the other hand, quickly turned off the system. Killing off the small, red, flashing light on the front of it as I pulled back our entertainment center. Yeah the cords were old, but we didn’t think they’d start sparking and smoking.
  On closer inspection, it wasn’t smoking bad. It had only been a few puffs as the socket shorted out. I pulled out the plug of both the television and the console. Around the sockets was some sort of black substance, probably due to them shorting out or something.
  We didn’t think something like this would happen. Our dad was out, and we MIGHT have been snooping around his closet when we found this game system. It looked cool, and we really didn’t want to head outside.
  “Calvin, put the game up!” I yell at him, and he quickly grabs it, running off to our dad’s bedroom. As he does so, I hop up, running over to the kitchen, grabbing a rag to erase any evidence that we messed up the plugs.
  Two quick honks from outside. The sound of a car door locking.
  Dad was home.
  I quickly run back to the television, cleaning the socket, plugging it back in, and pushing the entertainment center back.
  As I run to me and my brother’s shared room, I hear the door unlocking. He could’ve only seen a glimpse of me as I ran by. Hopefully he didn’t think it was suspicious that I was running in the house.
  Once in the room, I jump face first onto my bed, it creaking terribly.
  “Did he see anything?” Calvin says, looking at me from across the room.
  “Probably not, maybe me running but that’s it.”
  Calvin lets out a sigh of relief, slumping against the wall, the poster behind him crinkling a bit.
  “Dammit!” He yells out, quickly moving off the wall to make sure his poster was okay. “Neptune! Neptune speak to me!” He fake cries and caresses one of the corners, it had ripped from him laying on it.
  “Dude, you ripped a whole ass planet in half!” I chuckled as I watched him panic about the poster. Calvin cared a bit TOO much about them.
  “This is serious Kris! Oh heck where’s the tape…” He gets off the bed, going over to my dresser and looking through the top drawers.
  “Hey!” I turn over, sitting on my knees and moving over to him, “Why are you looking through my stuff!”
  “Because I know you have tape!” He begins to look through the drawer, taking stuff out and putting it on top of the dresser.
  “Hey! Stop it!” I try to push him away, and in a quick moment of impulsive decisions, I close the drawer.
  On his hand.
  Oh no.
  “Ow shit!” Calvin yelps out.
  “Boys!” Our father yells from the other room. Both of us go completely quiet.
  Footsteps. Getting closer and closer.
  “We’re not fighting!” I say after a moment.
  The door opens, and our dad walks in.
  “Why is the TV not working.” He says, looking pissed. He knew something was up.
  “What do you mean?” I respond, trying to play dumb.
  “The TV stand isn’t against the wall. What did you do.” He wasn’t going to take any of my bullshitting today and both me and Calvin knew it.
  “W-we wanted to watch some tv! A-and it just suddenly didn’t work!” Calvin nervously says. Dammit, don’t try to cover for me. “Kris tried to fix it! B-but it didn’t work” He looks down, taking his hand out of the drawer. “We’re sorry.”
  A moment goes by.
  Our dad sighs.
  “Go clean up, I brought dinner.”
  He leaves, not closing the door fully.
  I knew that he didn’t buy that, and I would be hearing something about it later when Calvin goes to sleep.

Pop Pop Pop.

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