HUDSON

It’s known that first love never works out… I still remember mine, it was Biology. I loved how the systems would work together, the little white blood cells having a war with the deadly pathogens. Eight-year-old me would say “I’ll cure cancer” or whatever. But one day my grandma passed away. You’d think that would motivate me further, right? Wrong. That’s when I found out our bodies were stupid. Life was just the work of idiotic atoms still trying to figure out whether they were a situationship or an official couple. So I found my true love: Making weird stuff with theories of Physics and Chemistry, people called it “engineering,” but I bet the world that no engineer has a spacecraft that can travel across the universe in one hour or a watch that can bend realities.

Either way, my love never caused trouble for my parents or my sister (except one time when some aliens invaded the house.) But the same can never be said for my sister. Her first love was a piece of rock when she was five. Our parents would constantly keep a check on her so she didn’t kiss the rock and digest germs. Her next love, an actual real one this time, was a boy who was just a year older than her. His name? Andrew. My sister’s name? Andrea. She just had to marry a guy with almost the same name as her.

Andrew had been popular since day one. She got no chance when every other girl was her competitor. So I’ll admit to my surprise and my mistake when I thought she had an actual chance after the principal asked her to tutor Andrew.

“So, do I look great?” Andrea twirled around at a distance as I lay on the couch.

“You’re going to tutor him, not kiss him,” I complained, “Can I go back now—”

“No… So, too glamorous? Wait. Here.” She scurried back to her bedroom and shut it close. A minute later she returned, this time I questioned her comfort. But before I could make my concern audible, the doorbell rang, making her all giddy and run to the door. Then the man himself appeared in front of me.

“Oh–hey. Didn’t see you there,” Andrew said as he spotted me. My mind immediately thought, of course, you didn’t, you just came in!

“How are you, uh, Harry?” He said.

Don’t worry, I’m not Harry Potter, but at least he got the first letter right. I gently shook my head, making my disappointment loud and clear.

“So~~, Andrew! This is my brother,” Andrea came in, “He’s in the same year as you.”

Andrew responded, “That’s cool.”

Andrea started practically dragging Andrew upstairs, “We should go ahead and do some maths!” Her tone was a try-hard at excitement.

ANDREW

That was my chance, one of my only chances, and you blew it! You know he’s Hudson; you know who he is, and you just had to say “Harry” because your tongue now makes its own decisions, apparently. Come on, Andrew! Make yourself better!

“drew… Andrew?”

I jumped up, “Oh- uh, sorry. What were we doing again?”

Andrea sighed. “What’s the quadratic formula?”

I sat there for a few solid minutes, completely stunned. I glanced at the notebook, it was algebra, and her hands covered the part under the subtitle ‘The Quadratic Formula.’ I stared at her, afraid of her possible anger. I carefully opened my mouth.

“May… I go to th-the washroom?” I said.

“Yes, you may,” her eyes darted everywhere, why was she nervous?

I stood up and hurried outside. What now?

I tried to find the bathroom, but my stupid brain had sadly forgotten to ask the whereabouts of it. Thus, my palm was on the doorknob of the door most probably the bathroom, and I swung the door open, only slightly. Then when the floor wasn’t tiled with tiles, I immediately slammed the door close. Next, I was again at another door. Take two. Then the door opened, not by me, but by Hudson. He was right in front of me, all short and cute and cuddly. Only if I could hug him tight. Even the way he pushed his round glasses up was adorable.

“Do you need anything?” He asked.

“I thought this was the–Never mind. Hi, Hudson,” I tried my absolute best to stop my grin, but it got there anyway. “Is this your room?” I glanced behind him, a room with gadgets and scrap metals strewn all over. Wait, I think there was also a car in there? “Oh, it’s a garage.” On the second floor?

“No, it’s my room. Where’s An?”

“In her room.”

“Only ten minutes passed, so why are you here?”

Panicked and distressed at the situation, I quickly said, “I don’t know what the quadratic formula is and I don’t want to disappoint her with this situation any further.”

“You’re trying to skip?” Hudson said nonchalantly.

“No, I mean… maybe?”

“I’ll help you skip, but you have to help me,” he said with a little lovely smile.

Yes, yes, yes! My chance is here!

“I’m a bad helper, not exactly the brightest either,” my mouth slipped.

No, no, no! Forget it…

“That’s fine, I just need someone strong to carry a few things,” Hudson said, rejuvenating my will to live.

I was sitting on the weird car thing in his room. In my arms was a metallic box he specifically ordered to not open under any circumstances. That would’ve been an easy protocol if the box wasn’t so gosh darn heavy, which was definitely inflating my curiosity. He got in the driver’s seat and started the car. “Is your seatbelt on?” He asked.

“Seatbelt?” I glanced around, but there was none in sight.

“Oh wait,” he pressed a few buttons, and then two things popped out, which were for the seatbelt. As soon as I put my seatbelt on, the car started to slightly vibrate.

“By the way, you don’t have space sickness or anything, right?” He asked me.

“What—”