A/N: so hey. this is my first time submitting a story in a really long while, so i guess i'm just getting back into it again. this story will probably be more of a drabble than anything. idk how far i'm gonna go with the plot, but if people like it then i guess i'll upload more chapters. i actually just didn't want this to be creek so i made the narrator clyde. i don't think i've ever even read a fanfic with tweek and clyde but i'm just gonna roll with it. anyway, enjoy.
I watch as he jiggles his legs and twitches his eye and puts all of his concentration into his shaky writing. He furrows his brows and glances all around him. His eyebrows catch my focus. They're oddly dark compared to the hair on his head. It bothers me, how his hair is platinum and his eyebrows are this dirty blond. Shouldn't they match? Maybe I've just never payed much attention to eyebrows before. Maybe they're all different.
I'm still just kind of scrutinizing Tweek's face when this guy nudges me with his elbow. I look up at Craig, towering over me and my desk, and notice his eyebrows too. Seeing his eyebrows don't solve my dilemma, though, because his hair is black and his brows are black, not to mention they're kind of bushy and weird. Like caterpillars. Ugh.
"...you coming?" I zone back in and realize I've just been sort of staring at Craig with my mouth hanging open a bit and this stoned look on my face. I suck back in some drool and say, "What?" because I absolutely didn't hear a word he said. He sighs all deeply and looks annoyed.
"I said, Token's parents just fixed this chemical problem in their indoor pool, so we were gonna go swim after school. I asked if you were coming."
I say, "Sure," after blinking a couple times. He walks away and rolls his eyes, and I know he thinks I'm a dumbass or something. And maybe that's true, yeah, but mostly I'm just a really focused guy when I wanna be. Focused on eyebrows. Y'know, they're actually sort of a strawberry-blond if you really look at them.
It's so cold out; doesn't he ever wear a coat? I don't think I've ever seen him wear a coat before. Maybe he just forgets every day. Maybe he's from like Alaska or something and South Park is like fucking Malibu for him. I look around really quick to make sure Craig or someone isn't approaching, then I walk over to his shaking self, all alone on the sidewalk outside school, so I can find out.
Okay, you gotta be clever about this, Donovan, you gotta be smooth. You know how Tweek is. Can't go sneakin' up on him, or you'll make a scene. Or he will, anyway. Go in real slow, and make sure he sees you coming. Just sort of, yeah, sidle up next to him. Don't look directly at him; that'll freak him out. Don't tap the glass.
"Nn-gah! What are you doing?" he asks, sort of cowering away from me, clutching his thermos. I try to look like I don't know what he's talking about.
"Mind if I stand here?" He looks at me kind of weird, but at least he's not wigging out any more than usual. He twitches all over for a second.
"Uh, no? Why? Should I mind? Oh Christ, are you a spy? Are you gonna do all sorts of tests on me while I'm sleeping?! Oh god, man, I dunno if I can deal with that much p-"
I leave my body a little when he starts talking about tests and shit. I'm back to watching his eyebrows. They do a funny little dance while he talks. You can really see every movement of his facial muscles, since his eyebrows are so thin and groomed looking. They are kind of stark in contrast to his eyes, which are, well, Tweek's eyes. I move past his eyes to his mouth, which is talking really fast about the government and what-have-you. His teeth are straight, and kind of stained from all that coffee, but still pretty white. I look at his hands, and how they're shaking, and how he's shaking, shaking like a leaf in the wind, and wow, the wind is pretty cold today, so why doesn't he have a coat?
"Where's your coat?" I interrupt. He's caught off guard when I say that, and is kind of quiet for a second. Then he looks down at himself, shirt buttoned all wrong and thin as paper, and goes, "I dunno." He sounds so sincere, like he's just not sure about anything, so I just "Hm," and stand there, letting silence reign over the conversation.
I start to think that maybe I should offer him my coat, since I am wearing a sweater beneath it, and that seems like it would be a nice thing to do, when Craig is like, "Hey, Clyde," and I jump a little and run to meet him. Before we leave, though, I glance over my shoulder at Tweek, and he's standing there and looking after me, and he looks confused and paranoid like he always does. Even from there, I can make out his sandy eyebrows against his porcelain skin.
"What were you doing next to Tweek?" Token asks me from inside his donut floaty. I sit perched atop a blow-up pool chair with my hand in a bag of Cheesy Poofs, like I'm a fucking king or something. Except kings probably don't have flabby bellies and swim trunks that are a little too tight, like they probably all have six packs or something. I shrug.
"Oh, y'know, just saying hi. He was kinda awkward." As I speak, I take a look at Token's eyebrows too. They're not as bushy as Craig's, but not as neat as Tweek's. They're this kind of blurry in-between that makes me a little uncomfortable. I look away.
I thought we were done with him when we ditched him back in elementary school," Craig says. His tone of voice irritates me. "Freakin' spazz."
"He was nice," I argue. "He was okay." Craig and Token both give me this look like 'whatever' and we drop the subject. I crumple up the empty Cheesy Poofs bag and throw it away from the water, and I lean back in my floaty chair and close my eyes and try to think of something relaxing, or whatever.
Instead I see these pastel pink-looking eyebrows and this dandelion hair and my heart does this weird thing and I start to think that maybe I shouldn't have eaten that whole bag by myself because maybe I'm having heart palpitations or something, and maybe I could get Craig to drive me to the hospital just in case. I start to choke on my own saliva just thinking about it, so I sit up and start coughing, and Craig goes, "Jeez, no wonder you were hanging around Tweek. You're a spazz too."
I poke at my stomach as I look at myself critically in my bedroom mirror. I guess I've never really liked the way I looked. I've always been kind of pudgy, my eyes are a little too far apart, but my hair is okay, I guess. It's fluffy and a really nice shade of brown. My hair matches my eyebrows pretty well, I think. I wonder what the deal is with that.
I hear the doorbell ring and my dad thump across the living room to get it. He shuts the door again a minute later and I think that maybe he ordered pizza. I think about maybe going downstairs to get some, but another glance at the mirror tells me not to unless my dad calls me.
You know he won't, I think to myself, curling up on my bed. Since mom died, dad and I have had sort of a strained relationship. I mean, I know he loves me. I love him too. It's just, mom was sort of the glue holding our family together. Dad has never been so good at feelings, so we have a hard time talking to each other. Sometimes, I go entire weeks without ever saying a word to my father. He has this thing where he has to be some really macho tough guy, like since his wife died he has to be emotionally distant enough for two parents. Or maybe he's just trying to prove to his macho redneck friends that he's not a weakling. I'm not really sure, but at this point I'm starting to drift off so easily my thoughts are starting to become blurry. I let out a sigh and slip out of consciousness.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
Walking along the sidewalk on my way to school, I start to feel kind of lonely. Lonely mostly because I don't have a car and none of my friends want to pick me up, like such jackasses. So I'm walking, and I'm looking up at all the houses I pass by, noting which ones I like and which ones I don't, picking out the houses of my friends, blah blah, and I pass by Tweek's house. I haven't been inside Tweek's house for years, since we were friends way back, but the outside looks exactly the same. I'm just standing there, looking at it, and suddenly I hear voices and the door starts to open, so I start walking and pretend like I was just passing by, like I'm totally not just staring at someone's house, wondering what's going on inside.
I see Tweek leave his house in my peripheral, screaming and twitching all the way. I dunno if he notices me, but he starts walking behind me, on his way to school. I stay nonchalant, but twist my head around a little and pretend I just noticed him.
"Oh, hey, Tweek!" I say. He's all "Augh!" and flinches. I slow down and kind of backtrack a little so I'm walking next to him. "Want to walk to school together?" He doesn't screech at me this time, but looks sideways at me like he's suspicious.
"Um, okay?" he says, as if he's asking a question. I nod and we walk in silence for a while. I look over at him a couple time and see him do the same to me. I decide the situation is just a bit awkward, so I decide to break the ice.
"Sooo...How's it goin'?" He turns his head to look at me this time, and I just smile. He looks all around him and fidgets with this thermos a little, like he's thinking about running or something. Finally, he faces me again and opens his mouth to answer.
"Uh, fine, I-I guess." I go, "Hm," and don't press him. I'm just happy he's not all freaking out or whatever. He surprises me when he speaks again. "H-how's it going w-with you?" I look at him again and smile some more. His eyebrows are together like he's worried, and I marvel at how articulate they are.
"Well, I'm pretty great, thanks for asking," I say as friendly as I can, trying to encourage the conversation. He makes some sort of guttural noise and his neck twitches. Glancing back at him a couple more times, I decide I should maybe say something else. After some hesitation, I go, "we haven't talked in a while." He jerks his head sideways, and I can't tell if it's a tic or if he's trying to look at me.
"We-we just did!"
"No, I mean, it's been a while since we last had, like, a conversation."
"Oh, w-well, yeah, I guess." He stays kinda quiet after that, but he looks like he's thinking. I can see the school approaching fast on the horizon and I know we'll have to part ways soon.
"Do you want to hang out more?"
"Ah! Do you want t-to hang out w-with me?!" He looks at me like I'm crazy or something. For a second, I feel kind of guilty, since I know that Craig and Token and I were the ones who shut Tweek out in the first place. Maybe he'll forgive me.
I'm like, "well, yeah," and he twitches. "Okay," he goes, pretty softly, like he doesn't want me to hear. We step into the front doors at school right as the warning bell rings. Tweek jumps and screams loudly, and a bunch of people look at us. "I'll meet you after school, okay?" He does another scream in reply, and I turn away from his fluffy sunshine hair and mismatched eyebrows to go to class, and I can feel his eyes burning through the back of my head, and I'm super excited because you know what? I think I might have a date.