Michael woke up at 4 PM. He was gonna need to get his sleep schedule back on track after today.
Out in the living room Shelly was sitting on the couch watching TV. He decided to sit down with her.
"Hey Shelly."
"Hi."
"What're you watching?"
"Some kind of cartoon. I'm not really paying attention to it."
"Oh."
A silence hung in the air.
"Something's bothering you."
Michael was caught off guard. "Huh? Me? No, not really."
Shelly muted the TV and looked straight at Michael.
"Michael, look. I'm good at recognizing when somebody is being bothered by something. I can tell that you're worrying about something and want someone to talk to you about it."
Michael was at a bit of a loss for words. "I… yeah, you're right. Something's really bothering me."
"You can tell me, if you want."
"Yeah, but… I don't know if I feel comfortable with it."
"That's alright. But I know from experience that telling someone about your problems is better than hiding them."
Michael sat as Shelly turned her attention back to… whatever she was focusing on before. He sat and thought. He came to a conclusion, already breaking his promise to himself.
"Something… happened last night." Shelly almost immediately muted the TV again, she didn't turn her head to him but Michael could tell she was listening.
"I went out in the middle of the night to get some fresh air. I was about to go back inside when I heard something. I went to go check it out and I found someone digging through our trash."
"Sounds like something Randy would do on a dare."
"N-No, it wasn't him. They were looking for food. I got their attention and they ran off after that."
"Is that what's bothering you?"
"No, that's not all of it. The thing is…" Michael paused, contemplating on if he should finish.
"The thing is that when they ran, I saw what they looked like. They weren't just a regular homeless person or anything. They were an Octarian."
Michael glanced over to Shelly, he saw that she had turned her head towards him, her eyes widened.
"Another thing is that, they weren't just a regular Octarian. She was an Octoling. One of the ones that look like us."
"An Octarian? In Inkopolis? How did she get in?" Shelly sounded just as concerned as him.
"I don't know. That's what's bothering me."
"I can see why you stayed up all night. I knew something was wrong but not like this." Shelly sounded genuinely concerned for him. It made Michael smile a bit. It made him happy to know someone was looking out for him.
Michael resumed the conversation. "Do you think I should tell that old Captain Cuttlefish guy about it?"
"Probably. It could help him." Shelly's voice had returned to its usual quiet tone.
"I'll tell him when I get the chance."
"Good." Shelly turned her head back to the TV.
"Um, thank you… for listening."
"You're welcome."
"Uh, one question though. How could you tell something was bothering me?"
"Just a wild guess."
Michael was somehow surprised yet not surprised at all.
Honestly I'm surprised that I was able to finish this today. Then again, the chapters are pretty short most of the time, aren't they?