Chapter 6; The Weekend

A Home for Scales

Written By : SecretSerpent22

Warning: some content may be disturbing or upsetting to some viewers, discretion of/for the viewer is advised. Ok here we go!

Chapter 6; The Weekend

POV change; Hudson

After the sub contest we were basically done with everything for the rest of that evening. Nikalandra really pulled through that last minute. I was worried he had gotten frightened by the crowd. For someone who looks as strong and scary as him, he seemed very unsociable. Almost scared to be around others? I would've expected him to know more people, or at least try and talk with others more. I remember having doubts that first night; they appeared to be a strong and mean guy who got into fights often. But I began to see he really was just quiet. Always sitting at his desk writing in notebooks and being deep in thought. Watching him at the contest rip apart that sub, I could feel he was uncomfortable, but he did well. The way he could manipulate his jaws over that sub and barely have to chew anything.... that was scary. Like a real crocodile he gorged that sub whole! But at the end he was all smiles. He said something about others looking at him, maybe he just caught a lot of attention and didn't like it? Anyways we now were able to get free food whenever we wanted for four days so we'll have to put that to use.

Saturday I was the last to wake up. Jagal and Raymond were out and Nikalandra was just sitting at his desk, writing something. He seemed very concentrated on it. This guy isn't scary, he's just....shy. Like how I was. I noticed he picked something up out of his desk drawer and stared at it for a while. I got up and got myself together. When I looked over at him shutting the bathroom door, I saw he was still staring at whatever he was holding. It was a picture frame? He never had anything on his desk other than a lamp, small fan, and pencil holder. I decided to walk over to him.

Approaching, my mind began to beg me to stop. What if he doesn't want you seeing that? What if he gets mad? A million thoughts rushed through my head arguing if this was a good idea getting in his personal space. Yet I got closer and closer, he wasn't paying attention. Or rather he was lost in thought, or memory. I stopped a fair way behind him. Plip.... Something hit the frame's glass. The sunlight beaming through the window caused a glare on it so I couldn't see the photo. It was water?

Looking up at him I noticed his hair hung down over his eyes, yet he had some gloomy expression. He was upset? Should I say something? Should I do something? I gulped nervously. "Y-you okay?" I asked shakily. He jumped at my voice, startled. He must've forgotten I was still in the room.

"Hu-Hudson?!" he said, thrusting the picture back in the drawer and slamming it shut. "I, sorry, forgot you were here?" He stared at me, he was trying to hide the fact that he was teary eyed just a second ago.

"Oh no, that's my bad." I said flinching back. For some reason I thought he was about to lash out at me. "I thought you were upset. You good... my big nosed friend?" I tried to make a funny comment like Jagal, but it ended up sounding like a crude comment instead.

"Uh, yeah. I'm alright." he looked away, still upset. "You didn't see it did you?" he asked quietly, and almost ashamed?

"See what, the picture?" I asked. He flinched when he knew I said it was a photo. "Oh, no I didn't see it, just the frame. Sorry, do you want to, umm talk about it?"

It took him a while to respond. "No, I think it's better if you don't go snooping or talking to anyone about this alright? I-I don't think it's time to talk about it." He still sounded bad, like he did want to talk but didn't?

"Oh yeah sure. Did you want to go out and get free food?" I smiled towards him, his eyes drew back to mine. He nodded. For some reason, with him being sad I was able to look at them for a while longer. Maybe I'm getting better at this, or maybe I just felt bad because he was upset.

Breakfast was good. He was nervous about being out so I brought him to that diner place Jagal and Ray brought me to that first day. He was quiet, sipping on water. I was quiet too, I didn't know what to say to him. "So you really know how to eat quickly huh?" I said, relating back to the sub contest from yesterday. Was that alright to say? He stayed quiet.

"Heh, I guess so." he said, followed by more silence. His voice got quiet, "I didn't scare you did I?" I was confused.

"Scare me, what no you were fine? Sure it wasn't what I was expecting but if that's how..." I started trying to explain too much again. "No, is what I'm trying to say. If anything it was something I got to see that's different. You don't get to see someone eat 5 feet of sub in half a minute." I tried giving him a reassuring smile, but it's still a weird feeling looking into his eyes. They always seem so dark all the time, the brown irises so dark they're almost black.

"Good, that's the other main reason I didn't want to partake." He was nervous for me?

"You really didn't want to then?"

"For a number of reasons." He scratched the side of his neck, flinching for a second as he did. "All the attention... scaring you, yeah. I don't have much of a social life. I'm lucky I was even given one." That part took me a second to process. Lucky he was even given one?

"Lucky you were even given one?" I repeated. I grew nervous, did something happen in his past?

"Shit, don't worry about it." He grew more worried now.

"If you need to talk then we're here-" he stopped me.

"No.... I'm good." There was silence after that. "I don't mean to snap, sorry again. I just..." his breathing got uneasy.

"Are you okay?" I asked worriedly. He started looking even more nervous, sweating and stumbling on his words.

"Give me a sec will ya." he walked off to the bathroom in the back. Something's not right, the picture frame, that sentence. Somethings up... When he returned a few minutes later he seemed more relaxed.

"Did you want to talk... I'll listen, you know." I said reassuringly.

He sighed. "I don't need you worrying for me, I just need to...take a chill pill." he winked.

"Sure?" What's that supposed to mean? Was he getting stressed? ... Oh of course he was. "Would you feel more comfortable talking to Ray or Jagal then?"

"No," he said blandly. "I get the feeling 'Ray' doesn't like me too much."

"Woah what? Why not?" I was stunned to hear this.

"Heh, doesn't matter, I'm lucky to have people like you and Jagal who don't care about my appearance." He stood up smiling. "Don't tell Ray this. He wouldn't like me talking behind his back."

"But why wouldn't he like you? I mean he might've mentioned some stuff-" I stopped. We looked at each other.

"Saying stuff, pshh I knew that." he looked away. "How about we just go back, forget what happened?" he spoke. I nodded unsurely. Something doesn't feel right...

The rest of the day was uneventful really, Raymond, Jagal and I played some games, Nikalandra continued writing. I didn't tell them the talks we had. I didn't want to upset any of them.

Sunday flew too, we all went out to eat this time getting our free meals and having conversation. I wanted to bring up what we were talking about but I wasn't sure. I could definitely tell there was tension between Ray and him, after it being mentioned it was more obvious. Maybe I should have spoken when I had the chance to....

I hope you enjoyed this part to A Home for Scales. I hope you are having a good day/night and will be joining us for the next part too! More to this story has already been posted on Wattpad and I'm just moving things over here so if you want to see more, I recommend checking it out over there.

-SecretSerpent22