Never Leave You Alone
Chapter 1:
"Tweek? Tweek darling, you should get ready for school now."
Tweek's mother had begun knocking on his door at exactly six-fifteen in the morning every week day since Tweek began high school four months ago. She didn't seem to realize or acknowledge that the boy was always awake when she walked up the stairs; never having gone to sleep in the first place.
"R-r-right! I'm awake! C-can you make me some coffee?" The mug he'd kept by his bed to keep him awake was empty.
Tweek shifted, wincing into a cringing twitch as his legs were cramped and stiff from being curled up all night long, and moving them sent sharp knives of pain through his joints.
"Of course, dear, we already have a pot set. Hurry now, you don't want to be late again." He could hear her patient smile behind the closed door, and her footsteps as she left. Tweek shrieked and rapped his knuckles sharply against the wall five times to help get himself under control. It didn't really work.
"I-I'm never l-late... you g-guys just keep me here lis-listening to your stories..." Tweek pulled on dark brown jeans over his white boxers (a pair he kept hidden between his mattress when not wearing them—those damn gnomes hadn't found them—yet), and twitched his way into a gray button up shirt. Of course, his long fingers jittered too much for him to have any of the buttons on right; but Tweek's neck muscles contracted harshly on one side and he deemed it a lost cause.
Bolting from the room, Tweek tried to make it through the kitchen and out of the house before his parents could stop him, but, as always it was a useless endeavor.
"Come here, son." Tweek groaned at his fathers mellow voice. He shook his way over to the kitchen, sure to watch the morning shadows for the lingering demons surely angry for not catching him in the night.
Nothing grabbed him, and so Tweek made it into the kitchen. His mother was dressed as she usually did in a long dress, her hair done stylishly but not in a terribly modern way. Richard Tweak folded the newspaper he'd been holding, a frown on his face.
"W-what is it? I'm going to be l-late! Again!"
"Relax, son. Sit down and have a cup of coffee while your mother fills your thermos." Tweek twitched and grumbled but sat like he was told. A cup of steaming coffee was pushed in front of him and Tweek picked it up and took a long drink of it. Bitter, hot, and filling every extremity with warmth, Tweek's bundled nerves jolted with anticipated caffeine.
"So—so what did you w-want?" Hazel eyes flitted from Richards calm expression to the kitchen clock as it ticked closer and closer to seven-thirty, when the bus would arrive at a stop down the street.
Richard was quiet for a moment, and Tweek's mother sighed softly and sat down beside him. The two of them sipped coffee and said nothing and the clock ticked and ticked and Tweek's heartbeat throbbed rapidly in his chest, beating his ribs with anticipatory stress.
"Oh G-God! Something's wrong isn't it? Y-you have cancer? The g-government is coming t-to take us all away? Oh, sweet Jesus, they're g-going to cut our brains out, aren't they? Wagh!" Tweek grabbed his coffee cup and drained it in several thick gulps. "What are we going to do?" His voice broke shrilly.
"No, son, it's nothing like that. Though we may have people coming by eventually." Richard ignored his sons outburst, still calm as always.
Tweek looked between his parents hopelessly, but neither seemed ready to elaborate on their own.
"W-well? Nng-Why?"
Richard and Tina both looked up at Tweek, having gotten distracted by nothing, as usual, as if Tweek hadn't been sitting there waiting on them.
"You'll be late for the bus if you don't hurry, sweetie." Tina stood again and picked up Tweek's thermos from the counter and placed it in front of Tweek along with a smores granola bar pulled from the pantry. Her son was shaking and spasming in anxiety.
"What?" He yelped. "You're the ones who—b-but! What's going on?" Tweek demanded, feeling ready to cry and hating it. Both his parents left the room, as if they couldn't hear him at all.
"Augh! You two are horrible! Oh—Jesus-I'm going to miss the bus!"
Tweek bolted from the table and out the front door, screeched just outside on the steps, ran back inside and grabbed his backpack and thermos and scrambled out of the room again.
Thankfully the bus driver decided to arrive fifteen minutes late that day. A very cold and wet-socked Tweek was able to get onto the bus behind a few other students.
People he didn't know, friends he never made and didn't want.
He scooted past one full seat after another till he was near the back; and took a window seat for himself. The glass was so cold, but his thermis was still warm and it felt good in his hands.
Three stops down the road and the thermos was a third empty. Tweek's mind was racing with the vague not-coversation his parents had with him that morning. The voices of other students turned into noisy static in the background. Once in a while Tweek would be knocked out of his thoughts when a muscle contraction caused his temple to hit the cold window.
At the next stop they would pick up Token, Clyde and Craig. Tweek could never figure out why he was suddenly on a different bus route then they were—South Park wasn't that big and they all lived pretty close together.
Tweeks mind was still racing over empty asphalt tracks when the three boys moved down the aisle towards him. Clyde and Token were laughing over something or other, and Craig, blue hat pulled low, followed quietly behind them. He pushed Clyde and Token one seat past Tweek's own and sat down beside the blond. Clyde rolled his eyes.
"H-hello Cra—ig." Craig flipped Tweek off, grunting a nasally 'Hello'.
"Hey, would you switch with us?" Tweek blinked and looked over around Craig. Clyde was talking to two girls who had the seat across from Tweek's. The brunette was giving them his version of a winning smile (a little slanted on one side, a little quirky, but brilliant). One of the girls rolled her eyes and swished her own brown hair over one shoulder; but she and her friend stood up and Clyde and Token shuffled into their seats. Immediately Clyde leaned back so he rested against Token.
"So, what's up Tweek?"
"Nng—ah! What's up? Oh God! My p-parents, man, they're driving me crazy!" He fumbled his thermos, thankfully it had nowhere to go really, and took a shaky sip. "They keep saying things! And—stuff! I have no idea what they're t-talking about anymore!" Tweek thumped his head against the seat and tried a calming breath that didn't help at all. The thermos between his knees Tweek's thin hands found his hair and gripped tightly.
"Uh... what?" Clyde blinked at him. Token glanced over but he was distracted by his iPhone alerting him to a text message. Craig's expression became a little bit—more. Nothing particular, just a little annoyed, just a little more blank.
"I dunno, man, s-something's going on. It could be—wagh!-the end of the world!"
Craig's fist landed lightly on top of Tweek's head, bopping him not painfully but firmly. Tweek shrieked—to the startlement of a several students who quickly got over it—and quavered under Craig's fist, tugging his hair harshly.
"Oh God! Everyone's out to get me!" Tweek wailed, balled fists at his temple and eyes tightly shut. Craig sighed, took his fist away, and remained mostly silent the rest of the ride to school. Clyde and Token attempted to coax both the noirette and the blond into conversations, but Craig wasn't interested so early in the morning and Tweek couldn't focus at all on the words, so intent as he was on the niggling feeling that something was surely quite wrong.