The morning sun peering through half-opened blinds stung at the blonde's closed eyes. Shuffling to an upright position with a groan Tweek rubbed his tired eyes, a yawn following along. Once he opened his eyes it took him a moment to process that he wasn't at home, and he definitely wasn't alone.
Balled fists rubbed at his eyes again unsure if what he was seeing was real. His heart stopped when it realized it was. Craig Tucker was sleeping just a few inches away from where Tweek was now sitting.
He was angelic, to say the least. Long thick lashes sitting on the tips of checks, his hair scattered around his head free from a hat that must have fallen off at point in his rest, lips lightly spread apart to let out soft snores escape onto the fur of his pet the nuzzled under his chin. Biting his lip Tweek moved his hand to shake him awake, pausing before his hand reached his shoulder. How could he disturb how peaceful Craig looked? Would he be upset that Tweek woke him up? Would he be mad that he was even there?
Before gaining the courage to place his hand on the sleeping shoulder there was a shifting from the other boy. Pulling his hand away Tweek watched Craig running his hand through his hair moving his head to face his guest, still laying down. His half-lidded blue eyes lit up once he saw Tweek was already awake. "Good morning." Craig said, a soft smile on his face.
Giving him an awkward smile in return Tweek lifted his hand. "Mo-morning."
"You fell asleep last night." Craig told him, his voice still sleepy. "I thought you weren't sleepy."
His hands reached up to grip at his hair, but, like always Craig stopped him. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."
Craig let his hands sit on Tweeks for a moment before moving them to sit up, careful not wake Stripe. "Don't worry about it. We just have to wait until the house is empty, then I'll take you home so you can get ready for school."
Nodding Tweek looked around the room. He felt so guilty, he was supposed to go home last night, but instead, he fell asleep and was troubling his friend. The bed was just so soft, and he just felt so at ease. There was something about Craig that brought Tweek some sense of calm that normally was out of his reach.
Movement from the other side of the bed pulled Tweek from his mind, causing him to watch Craig stand from the bed and stretch. "I hate mornings." He yawned.
Scooting towards the end of the bed Tweek let his legs hang off. "Yeah. Me-me too." His eyes focused on the grey sleeves that hung over the tips of his fingers.
"Is something wrong?" Craig asked, going to pick up Stripe to put him back in his cage.
Green eyes looked towards the star covered ceiling. Was there something wrong? Shouldn't people feel happy that they got fall asleep with their crushes? Isn't that a normal thing for to feel? He didn't feel happy though. No, if anything, he felt sadness. Tweek was smart enough to know that Craig would never have the same feelings, and no matter how much he tried to tell himself that he was okay with that, it still hurt.
"I'm fine." Tweek told him his attention going back to his sleeves, pulling at the little balls of fluff that formed over time. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the tall teen moving from his dresser back towards where Tweek was sitting.
There was no hiding the pink that found its way to his Tweeks as hands found a steady place on each of his shoulders. It took everything for the smaller boy not to look up and be face to face with the other. But when he didn't look a hand left his shoulder and lifted Tweeks chin so the two's eyes could meet. "You know you could tell me if something was wrong." The blue of Craigs eyes stared into the green of Tweek's. "I told you. I'm your friend and I just want to-"
His words were cut short as his door to his room swung open. "Craig dad said that you… Holy shit." A young teenaged girl, who looked about 15 stood in the doorway. Her mouth hung open at the sight of her brother with his hand holding another boy's chin.
Craig quickly pulled himself away from Tweek and put his hands out flat towards his sister. "Please don't tell dad." He pleaded, stepping closer towards her. Tweek bit down on his lip, hard enough to make it bleed, leaning his upper body down on his legs, his arms over his head as if he was trying to hide.
Giving Craig the middle his sister shook her head. "Fuck you. You told on me last week for having my boyfriend over."
Craig stepped closer towards her, his hands still in the air. "First off, I'm sorry, it's just you're my sister and I was worried for you. Second, you let him play with Stripe. You know I don't like people playing with him. He's old. Come on Tricia." He pleaded, pulling his hands together and locking them. "You know how dad feels about this."
Craig's statement caused Tweek to peek out of his self made shell, still not exposing himself, he lifted his head just enough to watch the black haired boys back. What did mean by that? By having someone sleep over? Tweek knew that they didn't ask, but why would Craig have worded it that way if that was all it was? He could feel the pit in gut growing as his body started to shiver. This wasn't what he wanted. He wasn't even supposed to be here. 'Stupid! Stupid!' Tweek thought to himself fighting off the urge to hit himself in the head.
Red hair twirled around her as Tricia turned away from her brothers room. "I'm telling."
Running his fingers through his hair Craig put them out again, trying to convince her. Not that she could see him anyway. "Please." His voice was quiet, almost as if he begging her. "Please."
Another middle finger, this time it was shot up in the air. "DAD!" She yelled before disappearing down the hall.
Craig was next to his door in an instant, his head out of the room. "Ruby Tricia Tucker! Get back here!" He called in one last attempt, but it was no use. His dad was already making his way to the room.
When Craig turned around Tweek could see the panic that was plastered on Craig's face. The odd expression was enough to make him feel queasy. He could hear Craig muttering profanities to himself as he started to pace back and forth in his room. Fingers pressed against his temples as he started to rub them. "Calm down Craig." He said to himself, taking a deep breath. "You are over reacting. It will be okay." Shaking himself off Craig straighten out, his expression back to it's normal nothingness as he stood in the middle of his room waiting for his father to come in.
A tsunami of guilt washed over Tweek as he remained curled in on himself. How could he call himself Craig's friend and do nothing to help sooth his emotions? Granted, he was able to do it himself unlike the blonde, but still. Friends were supposed to help each other, and once again Tweek failed him. Turning his head back towards lap the warmth of his breath danced in it's small surrounding. Small squeaks of panic came from the blonde, but this time, Craig didn't move to comfort him, and Tweek didn't blame him.
"Craig?" A hearty voice came from the hall. "Your sister tells me that you have a visitor." The voice grew louder as his father entered the room. Even if he couldn't see it, Tweek could feel the angry expression once Craig's dad saw what Tricia said was true. "Explain." Unlike Craig, Mr. Tuckers voice held emotion. Anger.
"It's not what it looks like." Craig said, clearly trying not let his monotone speech weaver. "That's Tweek. I go to school with him and he needed help studying. He works late and I figured I could help him when he got off."
The sound of footsteps moving closer to him, caused the small boy to squeeze himself closer together, as if the smaller he made himself would make him disappear. His body went from a shiver to a full on shaking fit. This was too much for him, he just wanted to go home and pretend that none of this ever happened. "Is that true?" He heard Mr. Tucker from above him. "Because if you ask me, you look pretty damn guilty." Tweek bit down harder on his bleeding lip, the blood starting to pool in his mouth. The iron taste in his mouth only made him even more nauseous, but he was too scared to swallow.
"Leave him alone dad. I promise that's all it was. He is only acting like cause he has really bad anxiety. Just can we talk about this later? After he is gone?"
"No. He stayed in my house. He should have the respect to look me in the eyes and tell me that nothing happened." Tweek still didn't move. He couldn't. Not at least until Mr. Tuckers foot slammed on the bedroom floor, starting him upright.
"Argh!" Yelped the boy, the blood from his lip now slowly making it's way down his chin. The man in front of him was big. He looked like bear about to eat Tweek for dinner. Just by looking at him Tweek could tell he had just a few inches over his son. Yet, that was the similarity between the two. Red hair wrapped around his head, the top thinning out so there was only a small patch of hair sitting in the front. His hefty body seemed even more puffed out with his infuriated aura.
His arms crossed as Tweek looked up at him with fearful eyes. "Is what Craig said true?" Tweek was only able to give a slight nod. His mind felt like it was overheating and he didn't have a way to cool it off.
Craig's face let his uncaring composure fade as Tweek looked at his father. Moving over towards them in just three long stepped he sat next to Tweek. "Dad, leave him alone. Please?" There was no contact between the two, but Tweek figured that Craig thought just being near him might calm his panic.
It didn't.
The older man just nodded as if he already made up his mind as to what had happened the night before. "What's your name?" He demanded.
Lowering his head Tweek rubbed the blood off of his chin with the sleeve of his sweater, marking the grey with a streak of red. "Tw-Tweek Tweak." He answered lowering his hands to his lap, nails digging into his palms.
"Tweek what?"
Craig took it upon himself to answer. "His name is Tweek Tweak. First name Tweek. Last name Tweak." He answered, attitude on his tongue.
His father turned around to exit the room. "I'll be calling your parents. Craig take him school, then come straight home. Do you understand?"
Craig nodded. "Yes sir."
The ride to school was uncomfortably silent. Every couple of minutes Craig would try to start to conversation about what happened, or try to apologize, but Tweek's reserved demeanor was all Craig could get in return. The intensity of the morning, along with Tweek's lack of coffee, made for a very distressed boy. 'Your parents are going to get rid of you.' He told himself, biting into his now swollen lip. 'You should have just killed yourself off already. If you would have done that instead of being a fucking coward no one would be in this mess. Craig would still in school. He wouldn't in trouble with his dad. Your parents wouldn't have to put up with you and your crazy shit.' Tweek's hands dug into the hem of his sweatshirt, running his fingers across the fabric causing it to fray. He could hear Craig trying to sooth him, but he didn't listen. He didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve anything. Thoughts of self-hatred fell into his mind like raindrops, bringing a twitch upon him with each drop. He couldn't control it, and he wasn't even sure if he cared or not.
Time moved in a haze for the small boy, how long it took them to get to the school was lost on him, but the second Craig put his truck in park, Tweek was out the door. He paid no attention to Craig as he called out to him, he only made his way towards the inside of the building.
Not far into the building he heard the voice of Eric Cartman calling out to him. How that fat piece of shit wasn't suspended was lost on him, but he kept walking, choosing to dismiss him too.
"What are you mad that your boyfriend isn't here to protect you?" That caught his attention, spinning on the heels of his feet to face the fat teen Tweeks face noticably twitched. "Geez, you look like someone ate a crack baby and shit you out." Cartman said, a satisfied smirk on his bruised face.
"Shut the hell fatass!" Tweek screeched loud enough to stop bustling in the halls.
Cartman moved closer towards Tweek, he put his outwards. "Or what? You're too much of a pussy to do anything. That was clear from yesterday. Your boyfriend isn't here to protect you, so what can you do?"
Tweek's eye twitched again as Cartman stopped, just a foot away. The halls now hushed, their focus on the two boys whose altercation from the day before had already spread across the school. "Forget your meds again you twitchy little freak?"
Balling his fist Tweek stepped closer towards Cartman, his heavily bagged eyes watching the boy. "Craig isn't my boyfriend."
Leaning down to get better eye contact Cartman's cruel smile grew larger. "Sure does seem like it."
"Well-well he isn't." Tweek said another twitch hitting his body. "And I don't need him to protect me!" Without thinking Tweek slammed his fist into the plushy flesh of his bully. "When I tell you to shut up just fucking do it."
Cartman huddled over holding onto his stomach, a loud howl came from his lips.
"Tweek! Eric! My office! Now!" Shit, the principal. Tweek bit back into his sore lip, opening it again as he walked towards the office, his fist sore from his punch.
The boys sat side by side across from their principal, Mrs. Bost. "Two days in a row you two have been causing trouble. What is going on?" She asked, pushing the "I am an understanding adult" act a little too far.
Tweek didn't say anything, he instead took favor in ripping at the loose fabric of his hem.
Cartman, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to go along with the act. "I-I only wanted to say sorry for yesterday. I was only trying to be a friend to him and everyone took it the wrong way." His alligator tears and cracking voice would have made Tweek laugh if he cared enough to do so. It was odd for him. Not to care, but he the only thing he could feel right now was a frustration that pulsed through his veins. "Then- then today I was trying to talk to Tweek and tell him that I was sorry that our misunderstanding got Craig kicked out of school and he called me fat." A sniffle. "Then I tried to ask him why he would call me that and he just hit me." His loud blubbering was enough to make Tweek sneer at him.
"Is this true?" She asked placing her laced hands on the desk, her eyes drilling into the blonde after the look he gave Cartman.
"Yeah, sure." Tweek said his fingers pulling on the string from his shirt.
A heavy sigh left the woman as she shook her head. "Eric, do you think you can go to class?"
Sniffling back his fake tears Cartman nodded. "Yes Mrs. Bost, I think I'll be okay."
Waving her hand towards the door she dismissed the heavier boy, leaving her alone with an underweight one. "You do know we're going to have your parents."
Closing his eyes Tweek let out a breath from his nose. Of course she was going to have to call them. That seemed to be the reoccurring theme of the day. Still, he didn't answer her, just let his head hang in front of him.
"And I am going to have to suspend you. Your record has been clean until now, so I'll tell you what. I'll only make it a week. Then you can come back, and hopefully everything will go back to normal by then." Mrs. Bost told him, hoping for some kind of response.
Tweek nodded, his eyes still closed. "Yeah… normal." He said, knowing that normal has never existed in his universe.
The small boy braced himself when he saw that it was father driving up to the school. It was times like these that he wished his mother was the one to open the coffee shop. His dad wasn't a mean man, but he wasn't the most loving either. He made it seem like his coffee shop was all that mattered and he was not happy when his son interfered with his business.
When his dad pulled up to the front of the school, Tweek could see the disappointment on his dad's face. Swallowing the lump that grew in his throat he circled around the car to get into the passenger side. "S-sorry dad." Tweek said lowering his head.
"Son, life is like a field of flowers, you have to water, and care for your flowers in order for you to grow." His dad said as he turned out of the parking lot of the school. "Why are you refusing to let your flowers grow?"
He didn't answer. He never did when his dad started his stupid simile speeches. They didn't help, and they sure as hell never made much sense. There was only so much a person can compare life too until they become redundant.
His father cleared his throat. "Two phone calls Tweek." He was trying not to sound upset, but his son knew he was mad. "Two phone calls in one day. Do you have any idea how that makes us look? We have a reputation to uphold. If you go around getting into trouble people will stop coming into the shop. Is that what you want?" He was answered with a shaking head, but nothing more. "I'm taking you home to shower and clean up. You'll need to hurry because you are going to help your mother and I at the shop today, and I'm setting up an appointment with your doctor tomorrow. These pills you are taking are clearly not doing their job any more."
The thought to tell his dad the truth, that he hadn't been taking his pills and what they did to him when he did, crossed his mind, but he dismissed it. Tweek knew his father would still take him to the doctor. He wanted free-labor more than he wanted a son. That's how it's always been. "You know I don't care about your sexuality son, but in this town it isn't something that you can go around and letting people know about. We live near some very close minded people. I heard about your little slumber party last night. You can't do things like that."
"It wasn't…" Tweek paused looked over at his father. "It wasn't like that. He was just helping me is all." It wasn't like he was lying, but he wasn't being completely honest either. It may not have meant anything to Craig, but it did to Tweek. Unfortunately, like his father said, he couldn't do things like that, and that included the thoughts that came with it.
"That didn't seem to be what Thomas Tucker thought." His father said, his dull brown eyes on the road.
Tweek just sighed, turning his head away from his dad to look out the window. This wasn't how he wanted today to go, or any day for that matter. The gay talk, as his dad called it was never a fun subject and the constant suggestion to hide behind a curtain only made it worse. "Mrs. Bost also mentioned that this Craig boy beat up some Eric kid for you. Is that true?"
Rolling his eyes Tweek opted out of chewing on his lower lip and going for his upper one instead. "Yes, but it he was just sticking up for me. I'm sure he doesn't even like me like that dad."
It took a moment before his dad spoke again. Like he was searching for his words, or maybe he just didn't know what to say. Tweek enjoyed the brief silence, praying that it would last until the two got home, but of course, it didn't. "I don't want you hanging around that boy." His dad said turning to their street leaving Tweek thankful that his dreaded car drive was almost over. "He's nothing but trouble. You are a good boy son, I want you to stay that way."
"Okay dad." He knew his dad was wrong. Tweek wasn't a good boy. He was a broken boy. A lost, paranoid, scared boy who couldn't even bother talking to his friend. He said he wouldn't talk to Craig again, but it wasn't because Craig was a bad influence. It was because Tweek didn't deserve too.
Once the car stopped Tweeks dad looked over at son. "15 minutes okay? I'm going to make you something to eat before we go, so be down in the kitchen in 15."
Nodding Tweek got out of the car and headed into the house. Running up the steps he went into the bathroom and swung open the medicine cabinet. He could take them all and end off this. End his father's shame, end the weird hold he had on Craig. He could end all of his misery, pain, fear, and worries that have built up over the years, but he just closed the mirror to stare back at the broken boy in front of him. Tears started to fall from his face as he just looked at his tired, sad eyes.
He didn't deserve death either.