Arabella's POV

"Hey? Hey, Bella, Char." Henry walks out of the storage room and we glance at him. Charlotte was typing on her computer and I was watching tv. She was trying to figure out information on a motorcycle thief.

"Yeah, what's up?" We both simultaneously ask.

"Have you, uh, have you been noticing anything like, weird about Ray?" Henry questions and I giggle.

"Since the day I met him." I joke and Henry rolls his eyes.

"Everyday, all the time." Charlotte remarks. "Why?"

"No, I mean he's been talking like when nobody else is around." Henry explains and we both turn to him.

"You mean talking to himself?" I asked.

"Yeah." Henry nodded. "Like full on conversations with people who aren't even there."

"Well, my uncle Roscoe talks to his food before he eats it." Charlotte mentions.

"What's he say?" Henry asks.

"Stuff like- Well, hello hamburger you're about to take a trip down to belly town!" Charlotte replies in a deep voice, rubbing her belly.

The sprocket opens and my dad walks out, talking to someone or something that wasn't even there. Henry gestures to this and we all slowly walk closer, listening to the conversation.

My dad sees us. "Hey, guys. You find any more info on that motorcycle thief?" He slaps the air behind him. "Will you not stand so close to me?"

Henry, Charlotte, and I share a puzzled expression.

"I can feel you breathing on my neck!" My dad complains and sighs. "Thank you."

My dad looks at us and sees our confused faces.

"Why are you guys staring at me?" My dad wonders.

"Uh..." Charlotte and I trail off.

"Because you're talking to nobody!"

Charlotte and I shush Henry and he shushes us.

"It's got to be said!"

"Right, I haven't introduced you to Brad." My dad chuckles and I smile.

"Oh." I laugh. "I know Brad."

"You do?" Charlotte and Henry ask me and I nod.

"Sort of." I grin.

"Brad, this is Henry and Charlotte." My dad introduces. "Guys, this is invisible Brad. Brad, you remember my daughter, Arabella."

Charlotte and Henry were still confused but went along with it.

Charlotte waved awkwardly. "Hi, Brad."

"Looking good, Brad!" Henry smiles awkwardly.

"Brad, say hi." My dad nods toward us but he didn't respond. "Brad? Come on, Brad!"

My dad felt around and groans. "Hate it when he does this. Brad! Brad! Where are you? Come on, this isn't funny anymore, man! Brad!"

I know who Brad is, but watching my dad chase around an invisible person is funny to watch.

"This is so sad." Charlotte whispers to us.

"He's not okay." Henry adds and I chuckle.

"Shush, he's not crazy." I assure them and they look at me weirdly. "He's not crazy about this."

Eventually my dad caught Brad. "Ah! Gotcha!" He grunts and throws him to the side, causing the cart to topple over and this shocks Henry and Charlotte. My dad picks up Brad. "Come here! Now, say hello to those kids!"

"Hey, guys. I'm Brad." Brad introduces and this shocks Charlotte and Henry. "Arabella, it's nice to see you again! Been a while."

"Sure has." I grin.

"There's no such thing as an invisible person!" Charlotte exclaims.

"Okay, what would make you believe Brad's real?" My dad questions.

"Let's see him slap Henry." I suggested with a smirk and Henry chuckles.

It's rude, but it's also hilarious.

"Yeah. Come on, slap me, Brad." Henry taunts and puts his cheek out. "Right here on my-Ah!"

Brad slaps Henry and he falls to the floor. Henry stands up out of shock and he and Charlotte were almost speechless.

"Hey, Brad." They both greeted with uneasiness.

——

"Hey, pass the ketchup?" Henry asked Brad.

"Sure. Here you go." Brad passes the ketchup to Henry. I've know Brad for five years and it still creeps me out to see floating objects in the air.

We were eating lunch with Brad at the moment.

"So, Brad, I have a question. Did something make you become invisible or were you just born this way." Charlotte asked Brad.

Oh no, this is gonna strike up some memories that Brad doesn't like.

"Nah, nobody's born invisible." Brad denies but he wasn't in his seat because his voice came from behind us.

"Wait, I thought you were sitting right there." Charlotte points.

"I was, but... my leg was cramping up so I'm walking around." Brad explains and we hear footsteps walk by us.

"How do we talk to a guy we can't see?" Henry asked my dad.

"Here, Brad." My dad pulls out sunglasses. "Put these on and sit down."

"Yeah, okay." Brad agreed and he took the glasses before sitting down.

"So, you turned invisible like when?" Henry asked.

"Five years ago." Brad explains. "It was all Captain Man's fault!"

I roll my eyes at him. "Oh boy..."

"Here we go again." My dad sighs.

"Well, what happened?" Charlotte wonders.

"Okay, see, I was being chased by this insane criminal who wanted to turn me invisible." My dad begins.

"Why?" Henry asked.

"I don't know." My dad shrugs. "Because he hated me and I guess he knew how much I enjoy being visible."

"Yeah, like I used to be!" Brad says, bitterly.

"It wasn't his fault." I protest.

"Yes it was!" Brad quickly replies.

"Just tell us want happened." Henry eagerly says.

"Okay, so this evil dude was firing at me with his invisiblaster, right?" My dad begins.

"I was just riding my bike, minding my own business." Brad cuts in with bitterness.

"When I doge out of the way, the Invisiblaster's beam miss me and-"

"Hit me!" Brad exclaims. "And that's how Captain Man ruined my life!"

"How was I supposed to know you were riding your bike right behind me?" My dad reasons with Brad.

"You owe me!"

My dad throws down his chicken leg. "Look, didn't I lend you 4,000 bucks so you could buy that hot tub? Didn't I let you stay here in the Man Cave for two months after your girlfriend dumped you? And who paid for that nose job, huh? This guy."

"Great. Now I have a beautiful nose that no one will ever see!" Brad grits through his teeth or whatever he has.

How did he get a nose job if he's invisible?

"Their relationship is really complicated." Charlotte mentions to Henry and I.

"What do you want from me, Brad?" My dad asked.

Brad tosses off the sunglasses.

"I wanna be your sidekick!"

This shocks Henry.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, hey!" Henry cuts in, defensively. "Ray's already got a sidekick. Me."

"You're just a kid. Who's visible." Brad says.

"Oh, so you're better than me just because I'm visible and you're not?" Henry questions.

"All right, guys, come on." Charlotte interferes. "Let's not play the visibility card."

"Brad, I think it's time for you to go." My dad concludes and pushes Brad out of his seat on the couch.

"Wait." Brad stops him and they stand up. "Think about what a great sidekick I'd be. I could sneak up on on bad guys, and then-"

"Ahhh!" My dad yells as Brad punches him in the face. "Ow!" He looks at us for a moment. "I'm okay."

"See? You never saw that punch coming." Brad remarks.

"Look, I already have an excellent sidekick and that's Henry." My dad clarifies.

"Thank you!" Henry says.

"Alright, what if he quits?" Brad asked.

"I'm never going to quit." Henry scoffs.

(Foreshadowing much, Henry?)

"He's not quitting." My dad repeats.

"But what if he does?" Brad reasoned. "Then what?"

"All right, Brad." My dad sighs. "If Henry ever quits, you can be my sidekick, okay? Anything else?"

"Yeah. I want your shirt." Brad says.

"You can't have my shirt." My dad denies but his shirt was ripped off leaving him shirtless. "Hey!"

Brad was holding his shirt and my dad tried to snatch it back. "Brad! Give me my shirt back! Brad! Kids, don't look at this!"

Charlotte, Henry, and I avert our eyes from my dad and I clear my throat.

My dad approaches Brad. "Seriously, though, it's not funny anymore, so-" Brad moves away as my dad reaches for his shirt. "Okay!" My dad got a hold of the shirt and they both tugged on it. "Ah! I'm not playing with you, man! Brad! Brad!"

Brad got the shirt back and ran off with my dad chasing him.

"You don't wear clothes, anyway!" My dad calls and Charlotte, Henry, and I awkwardly sat there.

——

"So, I'm sound asleep in my bed and Brad sneaks in to my house and flips my bed over!" Henry rambles as he explains what Brad did to him earlier today and last night. My dad wasn't listening completely because he as playing a game that involved ants and trousers.

"This games impossible!" My dad groans. "I can't get all these ants in this little pair of pants."

"Here." I offer and my dad let's me have a go. I take an ant and successfully fling it into the pants. "See? Easy."

My dad frowns at me. "Show off."

"I feel like you're two aren't listening to me." Henry mentions and we turn to him.

"Look, I know Brad's kind of obnoxious." My dad starts.

"Kind of?" Henry scoffs. "He snuck into my school, put a bucket on my teacher's head, splashed water on my area! And then he spanked my teacher with a mop!"

I chuckle. "That's Brad."

"Yeah, that's Brad." My dad agrees and misses the pants again.

"And every time, before he runs away, he goes-" Henry leans in close to us. "Quit your job!"

"Hey!" My dad chuckles as he successfully flings an ant into the pants. "Another ant in the pants!"

"I made the first ant." I mention.

"Well, I made the second one so shush." My dad remarks, putting a finger to my lips and I remove his hand.

"Hey, what is that?" Henry asked us as we see a floating steel pipe.

"I don't know." My dad says.

"Looks like a steel pipe." I tell them. "But what would it-"

"Brad!" Henry gasps

"What are you-"

Before we could react, Brad came over and smacked Henry in the leg with the pipe and he falls over, yelling in pain.

"Henry!" I gasp and leap over to the catch to see him.

"Brad!" My dad glares and we both grab Henry as he holds his leg.

"Quit your job!" Brad snarls.

"This has to stop, Brad!" I yell in anger and turn to Henry, who was yelling out in agony.

"Oh, why, why, why!"

This is absurd. This has to stop.

——

For one of the first times in a long time, I got to leave the Man Cave. My dad and I were going over to Henry's house to see what happened and how we can stop Brad from pestering Henry. I'm worried about Henry, but I'm happy that my dad isn't making me stay in the Man Cave.

We get to Henry's house and ring the doorbell. The door opens and we see Henry limping and holding a chicken leg to his eye.

"Are your parents here?" Ray asked as we walked in and I quickly scanned the house.

It was a lovely house.

"No, just come in." Henry groans as he shuts the door.

"Are you okay?" I asked Henry with concern and he shows me his black eye. My eyes grow and I slowly cover it up again. "Never mind. Dumb question."

"So, what happened now?" My dad asked as Charlotte came over.

"This!" Henry shows my dad his black eye and he yells. I sit down next to Charlotte.

"Ah! Who gave you the black eye?" My dad asked.

"Invisible Brad." Henry snaps.

"He punched you!" My dad exclaims.

"Worse! I was in gym class today, and I was standing behind Mitch Bilsky."

"Bully?" I ask Charlotte who nods.

"So, what'd Invisible Brad do?" My dad asked.

"He pinches Mitch Bilsky on the butt!" Henry yells in anger. "To make Mitch think I did it."

"Ooh, yeah, guys don't like that." My dad mentions.

"No they don't!" Henry snaps.

"Girls don't like that either." I chime in and Charlotte heavily nods. "Just so you know."

Henry sighs. "We got to do something about Brad."

"Don't worry. We're going to get him." My dad assures Henry as they sit down.

"I doubt it!"

We all shoot up, yelling in fear.

"Quit your job!"

Suddenly, Henry is thrown into the purple chair and he falls to the floor; The door opens.

"You have a beautiful home!"

Henry stands up and runs to the door, slamming his hands on it in anger. He turns to us with anger and irritation.

"How can we beat a guy we can't see?" Henry sighs and I walk up to him.

"We fix it so we can see him." Charlotte mentions.

"How?" My dad asked

"Yeah, how?" Henry repeats.

I gasp when I caught on. "Paint!" Charlotte smirks at me when I say that.

"Oh, come on, how is paint..."

"I don't think that paint is the answer that we're-"

Henry and my dad both widened their eyes and gasp in realization. "Paint!"

——

"Okay, is the trip wire set?" Henry asked Charlotte and I as we were setting up the booby trap for Brad to fall into too.

As soon as Brad and my dad walk through this elevator, Brad will get covered in paint and we can catch him.

"Just about." I tell Henry as I stand up and let Charlotte finish the last part.

Henry chuckles as he pours the red paint in the bucket above the elevator doors.

"Oh, this is going to be so great. Invisible Brad's going to get covered with red paint, so we'll be able to see him, and then we're going to kick him about 50 times right in his invisible—"

"Okay!" I exclaim, making Henry pause and I laugh.

"We get it." Charlotte grins softly and the alarm blares meaning someone is coming down from the tube.

What?

Henry descends from the ladder as we see my father get shot down the tube.

This isn't good.

"Dad?/Ray?" Henry and I both gasp.

"Why did you come down the tube?" Charlotte asked in surprise.

"You were supposed to walk out of the elevator with Brad." I inform him and I noticed my dad's dazed and horrified expression.

"I...I need to sit down." He says and sits on the couch.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" I ask and grab his shoulders.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Charlotte asked.

"What's wrong?" Henry asked. "Is Brad in here with us now?

The three of us look around cautiously and alarmed.

"I wish he was..." My dad replies with sorrow.

"Well, what happened?" Charlotte asked.

"Everything was going according to plan." My dad begins. "I told Invisible Brad that Henry quit and that he could be my new sidekick."

"And did he buy it?" I asked.

"Oh, he bought it." My dad nods with uncertainty.

"What does that mean?" Charlotte asked.

"Well...we were finishing our root beers, we took a selfie, I paid the check and then we were walking across the street together on our way here." My dad explains.

"And?" Henry continues.

"Brad got hit by a bus."

All three of us gawked at that.

"I guess the driver just didn't see him." My dad adds on.

I put my hand on my dad's shoulder and sighed.

This sucks. I really wanted to catch that jerk.

——

Are you guys enjoying this story even though there isn't any Henry and Bella fluff? Because that is the reason I wrote this story and why you guys are reading it. Henbella will happen, but not now.

I'm halfway through season one. Elevator Kiss won't happen in this season, but in season 2 it will.

I have ideas🥰