Ooh, there will be a little shock to this chapter, but nothing too bad. Just giving y'all a heads-up!
Kenny sat alone in Home Economics that afternoon. He was still thinking about how beat-up Parker looked, and he felt bad that he couldn't have been there to help. 'That bitch will pay,' he thought. When the teacher noticed the brunette's absence, she questioned Kenny, who in turn told her about the incident that took place earlier. She nodded and ended up pairing him with some super-feminist. He wrinkled his nose and practically cheered when the bell rang to go to next class. He trekked back down to the nurse's office to find Parker coming out, an ice pack held against his swollen cheek and quite a few bandages covering the scratches around his eyes. The blonde felt his heart drop when he noticed how wobbly his friend was on his feet, and quickly rushed over to help support him.
"Thanks, Kenny," Parker said, smiling as much as he could manage without wincing. "The nurse said all this should be gone within a week at the most. I guess they're taking care of Bebe pretty good about what she did."
"Yeah?" Kenny and Parker arrived at the beat-up teen's locker, where he fished out the bag with his gym clothes and Kenny's borrowed clothes. They then hurried off to gym class to avoid being late. Of course, Kenny really could care less about lateness; he just wanted to make sure his friend wasn't hurt trying to hurry, especially since he could stumble and trip and, with Kenny's luck, get squashed under the blonde's weight. Thankfully they reached their destination just as the bell was ringing, and spotted the teacher.
"Almost missed the bell, boys," he warned. When he noticed the brunette's condition, he asked, "What happened?"
"Bebe," Kenny replied simply.
"Yeah," Parker confirmed, "she won't be in today. Girl can hit though, that's for sure."
The gym teacher asked the brunette if he wanted to sit class out that day, and Parker took a moment before he answered yes. He quickly trotted into the locker room to put his things in Kenny's gym locker, and told the blonde not to worry and have fun for the both of them. When Kenny was dressed in the proper clothes, he escorted his hurt friend back out into the gym and sat him down on the bleachers before running off to join the rest of the class.
'I hope he gets better soon,' the blonde thought, glancing back at Parker.
Parker watched with a little smile as the kids in class did their routine warm-ups, a few of them occasionally asking about what had happened and why he was sitting out. He looked over everyone before something clicked in his brain: what happened to Craig? And Tweek, for that matter? Token and Clyde and everyone else (minus Bebe) was there, but the duo were nowhere to be found. Shrugging it off, he carefully made his way back toward the locker room to pee. Upon entering, he heard voices arguing: must have been the missing boys. He peered around a corner of lockers to find them disagreeing about something; it looked pretty serious, for Tweek was sitting on the bench in front of the other teen, looking timid, while Craig was standing with his arms crossed and a particularly mean scowl plastered on his face.
"You can't be serious, Tweek. The kid's a punk! I think it's about time he learned where his place is around here…"
"B-But Craig! He's not - nngh! - t-that bad, honest! He seems k-kinda nice when you g-get to - gah! - know him b-better!"
Craig made a face and punched the lockers above the cowering blonde's head. "I don't care! He's a dick, and he needs to be taught a lesson!"
Parker paled and ducked away from the scene in front of him. 'Wow, he's pissed,' he thought. 'I better take a leak and get the hell out of here…' He quietly took a step forward and, not paying attention, smacked into another row of lockers. A loud cuss escaped his lips before he realized his mistake, and made a mad dash back to the locker room door. That's when he felt someone jump on him and wrestle him to the ground, sending his glasses flying again. 'SHIT!'
"Tweek, lock the door! Don't just stand there, hurry up!"
'Well that answers one question,' Parker thought bitterly, watching the jittery blonde reluctantly shut and lock the heavy door. He felt Craig readjust on his back, and felt his hand tangle itself in his hair with his nails digging painfully into the area where he had his head bashed in earlier. He screamed as loud as he could from pain and fear until a hat was crammed to the back of his throat. 'Damn gag reflex!' he screamed inside his head, heaving at the unwelcome object.
Craig glared and flipped off the back of the brunette's head. "Listen here, you little shit: you're gonna learn to be more respectful toward us. Got it?" He yanked Parker's head up by his hair, an almost murderous glow shining behind his eyes. "GOT IT!"
The brunette managed to cough hard enough to dislodge the hat from his throat. "Get fucked, Craig!" he yelled maliciously.
"What was that?" Craig whispered, leaning down to the brunette's ear with narrowed eyes.
Parker glanced sideways at him and grinned, the corner of his mouth bleeding again. "Get. Fucked."
The black-haired teen chuckled before getting off the other boy and pulling them both to their feet. When he was up, Craig slammed Parker's face into the closest lockers as hard as he could, his low chuckle growing into a maniacal laugh. "Are you serious!" he screamed, pulling the brunette's head back before crashing it against the cheap metal again. "NOBODY TELLS CRAIG TUCKER TO GET FUCKED AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" He threw the bleeding boy to the floor and brought his foot down hard into his stomach, digging in his heel and twisting for good measure. "I'M GONNA TEACH YOU TO WATCH YOUR WHORE TONGUE, OR ELSE!"
"OR ELSE WHAT?" Parker screamed back, flashing Craig the finger himself and glowering from the cold tiled floor.
The raven-haired boy suddenly smirked evilly and reached into his jeans pocket. Parker's eyes widened when he pulled out a pocketknife and flipped open the blade, and licked its edge. Blood formed where the knife touched. The brunette wanted to scream and run away, but he refused to give the livid teen the pleasure of exposing his fear; instead he put on another scowl and stayed silent.
"Or else," Craig spoke up dangerously softly, leaning down closer to Parker's face, "I'll cut that whore tongue right out from your whore mouth." His smirk grew wider when the bleeding teen's jaw lock, and he whispered, "Do I make myself clear?"
Parker looked over at Tweek: he was pressed tightly against the door, hands on the lock and tears streaming from his eyes. He was too terrified to move. Frowning, Parker reluctantly looked back up at Craig. He could hear Tweek slowly undo the lock, and saw from his peripheral vision that he was slipping out into the gym; probably to get help. "Yes sir," he spat sarcastically, narrowing his eyes.
That did it; Craig snapped. He dropped to his knees in a flash and was fighting to get a hold of Parker's arms. The brunette was freaking out, trying not to scream and still trying to look tough, and somewhere between seeing flashing lights dance behind his eyes and screaming expletives at the knife-wielding boy, he'd managed to punch Craig good and hard right in the nose. He jerked back to protect the rest of his face and with a manic scream, brought the knife down towards Parker's face. The brunette just barely managed to move his head out of the way in time before getting a knife between the eyes.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE!" the teacher screamed upon entering the locker room. He was followed by the entire class, all staring wide-eyed and scared beyond belief. He saw the scene before him and instantly turned red like a fire truck; you could even almost see the smoke coming out of his ears, if you looked hard enough. In one swift motion, he was at Craig's side and threw him off of Parker, lifted the (further) injured boy to his feet, and grabbed the knife out of Craig's hand before dragging him out by the shirt, screaming about how he would be lucky if he weren't expelled for this. Parker noticed his glasses lying by the door, and asked Butters to get them for him, which he did. Everyone rushed to see if the brunette was alright, all shouting and asking questions and looking him over. None were more terrified and worried than Kenny, however; he could be seen (and heard) shoving kids out of the way to be at the head of the pack and make it to Parker's side. He saw his friend's conditions and honestly didn't know whether to cry, punch him, or laugh out of relief that he wasn't dead.
"That's it," he said, frowning. He opened his locker, retrieved its contents, and slammed it shut with a force. Then he looked down and demanded, "Let's go, Parker. We're going home early."
The brunette was more than a little unsettled when Kenny gave him a scary look. "You'll get in trou - "
"I don't care." Without a word of warning, he bent down and scooped the damaged teen up and carried him piggy-back style through the locker room door and down the hall. He didn't stop when the teacher called out to him, he didn't stop when the principal warned him of the detention he'd get, and he sure didn't stop when Parker protested and told him to go back. He scowled at him and continued forward, not stopping until finally they were coming up to the brunette's house. He ordered Parker to get out his house key, opened the door, shut it once they were inside, and carried him up to the bathroom. Kenny then set him down on the toilet and went to work retrieving the first aid items.
"Um, Kenny?"
"What?"
Parker cringed at his friend's tone. "Thanks for bringing me home, but shouldn't we still - "
"No," the blonde cut in, looking up at the boy on the toilet. "You're even worse off now than when Bebe got you. Then again," he said thoughtfully, "Craig can be one mean kid…" He pulled out the peroxide and cotton balls, and sighed when he found no bandages. "You guys don't keep Band-Aids around here?"
Parker shook his head. "We used them all up before the move."
Kenny hummed. "I guess this'll have to do, then." He set the bag of cotton balls on the floor beside him and took one out, and drenched it in the peroxide before turning back to look at the beat-up brunette and saying, "Okay, this is gonna hurt like hell, but try to sit still. Okay?"
The brunette nodded and watched Kenny get to work. He wiped the cotton ball over the bleeding corner of his mouth and his cheek, just in case. He carefully removed his glasses and put them on for himself, and groaned. "Dude, you're blind as shit," he said, grinning. He gently wiped the peroxide over the injured boy's scratches around his eyes, feeling his stomach knot up when Parker hissed slightly and whimpered that it burned. He finished up and tossed the cotton ball in the trash bin next to the toilet, and smiled at his friend.
"Okay, you're all done," he said.
"Not quite…" Parker whimpered. He gingerly touched his hand to the back of his head and pulled it back when he felt something warm and wet. His head was bleeding; probably from when Craig dug his nails into his scalp to grab his hair. Fucking Craig. "He scratched my head-hurt from earlier," he said, staring down at his bloody fingers.
Kenny couldn't help but smile a little. "I never heard anyone call it that before," he chuckled. "But anyways, come here and let me check." He pushed the brunette's hair out of the way and saw that there was indeed quite the scratch there. He told Parker to hold his hair out of the way, and poured more peroxide onto a cotton ball and rubbed it thoroughly against the injury. He winced when he heard the boy shout in pain, but he couldn't stop now; it would only hurt worse later, after all. "Okay…there! It's all cleaned up." He smiled and patted his friend's shoulder. "Just be mindful and try not to scratch it, and it should be fine."
"O-Okay." Parker lifted his head up again and smiled at Kenny. "You know, with you taking care of me when I'm hurt like this…well, it's kinda like you're my nurse."
The blonde laughed. "Looks like it, yeah," he said, grinning goofily. "Just don't expect me to wear the little dress and the hat."
"Damn," Parker joked, snapping his fingers in fake disappointment.
Kenny rolled his eyes and laughed. "And I'm supposed to be the pervert?" he laughed. He stood up and held out a hand to help the brunette rise to his feet as well. The two put the supplies away and decided to go downstairs into the kitchen. Once they were there, Parker told Kenny to relax at the table while he got them both something to drink. The brunette reached into the cupboard and got down two glasses, and rummaged through the fridge.
"You drink Coke?" he asked, poking his head up over the door.
"Yeah, love the stuff!"
Parker grinned and pulled out the soda, poured it into the glasses, and put it back in the fridge before strolling back over to the table and handing the blonde a glass. "Here you go," he said. He took a seat next to his friend and sipped contentedly at the bubbling drink, smiling when the bubbles tickled his nose.
"So, can I ask you something?" Kenny asked suddenly.
"Shoot," Parker replied, setting his glass down with eyebrows raised.
The blonde took a long gulp of his Coke, hiccupping after he swallowed. He set his glass down as well and looked the brunette in the eyes. "Why did Craig beat the hell out of you today, anyway? I mean, I don't remember you doing or saying anything that would cause him to flip like that." He pushed his bangs out of his eyes and closed his eyes, thinking. "At least Bebe had a reason; it wasn't a very good one, but still…"
"Yeah…" The injured teen thought back on everything he'd done to the raven-haired boy, and came up empty. He remembered glaring and flipping him off from across the cafeteria, but that was really about it. Maybe it had something to do with Tweek? Even then, though, they only talked and seemed to be getting along. Maybe…
"Do you think it was because of Dodgeball?"
Kenny shrugged. "Could be, actually. But that'd be a dumb reason to nearly kill someone," he said. Another sip of his soda, minus the hiccups. "Maybe he's just going through a hard time with something and he feels angrier because of it."
"No, it's definitely got something to do with me. I heard him talking to Tweek about it."
"What'd he say?" the blonde asked worriedly.
"I need to be taught a lesson and learn where my place is and stuff…"
Kenny frowned. "Well if he has such a problem with you, he can take it up with me first."
"Are you sure?"
"Mhm," Kenny hummed, nodding. "I'll make sure he doesn't lay a finger on you again. Don't worry Parker, I promise I'll keep you safe." He smiled and reached over to wrap his arm around the other boy's shoulders.
The brunette's cheeks grew warmer as he smiled back at his friend. He leaned into the one-armed hug and said softly, "Thanks for being such a great friend, Kenny."
A knock at the door made them both look up in surprise. Exchanging a confused look, the two hurried to the front door. Parker looked through the peephole in the door and saw a scared Tweek shaking on the other side. The brunette quickly opened the door and realized just how terrible the nervous boy looked.
"Tweek, what's wrong?"
"It's Craig! He won't a-answer his - ergh! - c-cell phone, and I c-can't find him - gah! - a-anywhere!"
Uh-oh, where did Craig go? And on a side-note, whoo! No time breaks this chapter! Stick around for more, next!
