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*Enjoy*****
Chapter 12: Small Get Together?
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"Small get together?" Thomas mumbles to himself as Stan's 4runner rolls up in front of the Black family mansion, and they enter the property through an open security gate.
The guardhouse is empty tonight, since the security guard is down at Skeeter's place enjoying a nice bottle of Jack, compliments of Token for keeping his mouth shut about the things that go on in the mansion when Token's parents are out of town.
As Stan maneuvers his car through a very crowded driveway, narrowing avoiding side swiping a parked BMW, Thomas questions his decision to come along, but they're still in town, and only a quick walk from home if things with Kenny get too weird.
'Things are already too weird.' He realizes with a scowl.
Kenny isn't trying too hard to make conversation, but he keeps watching Thomas, and the constant staring is really starting to get on his nerves.
'Is it possible he knows who I am?'
Thomas' eyes widen as he considers this. He has been in South Park less than a week, but he hasn't exactly been in hiding. Kenny may have spotted him outside Damien's place, and Thomas has been driving all over town in Damien's Corvette with the top down. The car is brand new but still pretty conspicuous.
'He probably knows, and if that's the case, he's screwing with me on purpose. Fucking bastard!'
"Hey beautiful!" Kenny's voice snaps Thomas out of his thoughts, as they head up the walk towards the front porch, but he isn't talking to Thomas. A heavy set girl with long curly blonde hair stands on the front lawn with a plastic cup of beer in one hand, Kenny walks over to her and gives her a hug.
"Oh hey guys, I've been waiting for you to show up. Now that Stan's finally here, maybe we can get something decent to eat." The girl says as she walks over.
"So I take it I'm on barbeque duty again? I just did that yesterday. Can't we just order pizza or something, Bebe?" Stan complains.
"Wendy and I will help you cook, Stan, but you have to kick Clyde out of the kitchen first." She takes Stan by the arm and everyone starts up the stairs to the front door.
"You okay?" Thomas asks Kyle. He's realizing that Kyle is actually pretty easy to read, and right now he seems pissed off about that girl borrowing his date.
"I'm fine, dude." Kyle answers with a smile. Thomas has also figured out that what Kyle says and what he means are two different things.
The moment they're inside Kyle grabs Thomas by the hand, causing Stan to roll his eyes. Feeling a little bad for the dude who was nice enough to taxi him over here, Thomas shrugs as if to say he's innocent. Stan shakes his head disgustedly, and follows the blonde girl in a different direction.
'And that's what I get for trying to be nice.'
Thomas is led through a tastefully decorated living area, and back out a pair of glass doors to a moderately crowded backyard. Once outside, and away from Stan who is still inside, Kyle lets go of Thomas, and heads towards a handsome sharply dressed teen who is standing behind the pool bar with a drink shaker in one hand.
Thomas follows along, while peering around himself, admiring both the outstanding landscaping, as well as a beautiful dark haired boy with a face so delicate it reminds Thomas of the ball-jointed dolls that Pip likes to play with. Thomas unconsciously stares at the boy, until the dark haired Goth sitting across from him notices, and gives Thomas a dirty look. Realizing he's being impolite, Thomas tears his eyes away.
"About time you guys get here." The teen behind the bar greets them with a smile. "Where's Stan? I need him to take over at the Barbeque, Clyde keeps burning shit."
"Sorry, Token, we were waiting on Kenny." Kyle apologizes. "Stan's probably already in the kitchen with Bebe and Wendy
"You guys didn't need to wait, I could have road my board over." Kenny steps behind the bar, and starts lining up shot glasses.
"Token, this is my friend Thomas, he's just moved here from California..." Suddenly, Kyle's attention is drawn toward a tall dark haired kid over by the keg.
"Fucking Ike, you're too young to drink!" Kyle yells across the patio and heads toward the keg.
"So are you, bro, but it doesn't stop you!" The boy yells back. Ignoring Kyle he carries two plastic cups toward the picnic table where the pretty doll boy sits. Before Kyle can catch him, he takes a quick drink of one, then hands both cups to the Goth teen.
"That's Kyle's little brother," Token explains to Thomas, and sticks out his hand. "Token Black, welcome to my party, bro, we've got some Kamikaze shots over here, the beers over there, but we also have Tequila, if you'd prefer a margarita?" He starts pouring the concoction from his shaker into the shot glasses Kenny lined up. Kenny is already hard at work at the blender behind him.
"Ah..." Thomas is momentarily at a loss for words, because he remembers this guy.
They only met once, very briefly, when they were kids. Thomas' mom had just picked Craig up, and they stopped at the Kum & Go to buy ice cream bars. As they were leaving they ran into two boys, and Craig introduced them to Thomas. Thomas couldn't remember the second boy's name, or even what he looked like, but he remembered Token because the name was rather unique.
"Hi, I'm Thomas." Pulling himself together, Thomas pushes away the memory and grins across the bar. "I'll try a Kamikaze."
Smiling enthusiastically, Token sits down the empty shaker, pushes a shot across the bar to Thomas, picks up one for himself and holds it out for a toast. Thomas picks up his shot glass, clicks it against Token's, and the two teens down their shots.
"Thanks, man!" Thomas says, trying to control his hands which are shaking lightly. Thomas doesn't have TS anymore, and he no longer gets panic attacks. After meeting Damien all that stuff disappeared. However, just like anyone else, he is capable of feeling uneasy, and right now he's very uneasy.
Token pushes another shot across the bar. "Make yourself at home, Thomas, if you're hungry there are some burnt burgers, and as soon as I find Stan I'm going get him to cook up something less burnt."
Thomas' heart is pounding in his chest, as he watches Token head towards the house in search of Stan.
That guy is one of Craig's best friends, or at least he used to be? Thomas stares around the crowded backyard, but even if Craig was here, he isn't certain he would recognize him. It has been a really long time.
Thomas thinks about leaving, he's tempted to head back to Damien's and crawl into his arms where it's safe. Picking up the shot glass Thomas quickly downs it. Closing his eyes, he feels the alcohol as it flows down his throat, and he pushes those childish thoughts out of his head.
He isn't going anywhere! Thomas is no longer the weak little boy that has to rely on Damien to protect him. Fuck that!
It's a given that he will eventually run into Craig Tucker, this town is too small to avoid it forever, there is no reason to fear it, he put those feelings to rest years ago. The only thing he feels for Craig now is anger! Craig should be the one to fear him! Suddenly remembering his reason for being in South Park, Thomas reaches into his pocket and pulls out a silver business card holder. He flips it open and takes out a thick stack of business cards. He places two piles of cards on each side of the counter.
The cards are black with blood red font. The face of the cards read: The Playground - Surrender Your Soul & Come Play With Us
The music suddenly grows louder as someone cranks it up. The backyard is steadily getting more crowded. Thomas is pleased to see that Kenny has gotten captured by a group of girls, and is busy serving them drinks. Kyle is standing over by the kegs now, talking to a petite blond teen, so Thomas heads that way.
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The music is blaring loud enough that Tweek and Craig can hear it from a block away.
"Fucking Clyde." Craig chuckles, as he notices the large number of cars that litter Token's long drive way, as well as the street out front.
"You'd think Token would know better by now, never put Clyde in charge of the guest list." Craig tells Tweek with a smirk and squeezes the hand that he holds tightly clutched in his own. "Small get together, my ass!"
"Aggh- yeah, Clyde always does this." Tweek agrees, the fact that Craig is laughing puts Tweek in a much better mood and a natural grin spreads across his face. In the back of his mind, he knows that he needs to ask Craig about the lie, but things are so nice right now. Tweek loves it when they spend time together this way, just walking down the street hand in hand.
Looking over at Tweek, Craig notices Tweek's absent-minded grin, but instead of making him happy it causes Craig to feel a twinge of sadness.
"Come on, lets make a run for it." Craig decides after checking for traffic. The two boys dash across the street, hand in hand. When they reach the other side, Craig stops, but Tweek keeps walking only stopping once their hands separate and he realizes that he's left Craig behind.
"Craig?" Tweek walks backward three steps to bring him back to where Craig is still standing. He looks up at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"
Craig stares down at Tweek, and pushes a strand of long hair out of Tweek's eyes. He doesn't speak right away, he's not certain that he wants to speak at all. Unlike earlier, in his mom's car, right now the atmosphere between them feels comfortable. Tweek seems calmer. It's nice, and he doesn't want to ruin the mood, yet he can't seem to stop worrying.
"Tweek... Can I ask you something?" Craig says seriously.
"Of course, Craig, y- you can ask me anything!" Tweek mutters uneasily.
Craig looks down into Tweek's eyes, searching for the best words. How is he even supposed to ask such a question? Ah, shit! This shouldn't be so hard!
'Hey, Tweek, I'm totally gay, how about you?'
Craig is starting to feel frustrated and he's sure he's worrying Tweek too, because Tweek's smile has dropped from his face, replaced with uncertainly.
Craig takes a deep breath, he has so many things on his mind, but instead he chickens out and simply says, "Are you happy right now?"
Tweek peers up at him, and answers without hesitation, "Yes, of course I'm happy. I love spending time with you."
Craig smiles softly, "Me too, being with you makes me so happy! I'm glad you're my boyfriend Tweek. Come on, let's go have fun!"
Craig covers Tweek's hand in his own, and the boys walk toward Token's front gate. Craig doesn't notice, he's too busy chewing himself out for being a wuss, but Tweek has tears in his eyes. Without meaning to Craig has said the exact words that Tweek needed to hear.
'Me too, Craig, I'm so happy I'm your boyfriend!'
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Cupid Me floats in the air and stares intensely into one of his many surveillance cameras. His normally fluffy white wings are currently singed black, due to the temper tantrum that Damien threw after learning the secret that Cupid Me was foolish enough to divulge.
Being the former lover of one Eric T. Cartman has taught the little Cupid to roll with the punches, literally, so Cupid Me has already forgiven Damien for his outburst. It also helps that Cupid Me tends to be forgetful and easily distracted, long term depression coupled with bipolar disorder will do that to you.
Cupid Me was a broken Cupid, living out of a tiny shoebox in a back alley near the ruins of SoDoSoPa when Damien found him, and took him in.
These days Cupid Me satisfies his romance fix vicariously, while doing his job as Damien's head of security... okay fine, the truth is he's been reduced to perverted spy, but that doesn't mean he's given up on love.
Letting out a deep unsatisfied sigh, Cupid Me watches Tweek and Craig walking off hand in hand. For many years he considered Tweek and Craig to be his finest work, so when he learned that the two were actually having 'performance issues' it was a bit troubling.
Cupid Me floats over to his tiny keyboard, and hits a few keys to flip through different angles and positions on the surveillance screens until he finds the one he wants. He floats close to the screen, and watches as Tweek and Craig continue up the road. Still holding hands they head through the large gate of the Black family estate.
Unfortunately, the show ends at Token's gate, because Cupid Me's vast network of spy cameras are currently limited to the places where Damien has control.
The streets of South Park pretty much belong to Damien, courtesy of the hefty donations that he makes to the Mayor's political campaigns; additionally Damien has his fingers in many of the businesses throughout South Park, but most of the residences are off limits.
Cupid Me frowns unhappily. The only way for him to follow Tweek and Craig further would be to get off his ass. However, Cupid Me has become a bit of a shut-in over the past few years. Except for his nightly stalker visits to Eric's bedroom window the little guy rarely leaves the comfort of his office.
Feeling bored, and seeing nothing else on his monitors worth watching, Cupid Me decides to watch the footage he missed earlier when he was meeting with Damien. He hits a few keys on his keyboard to bring up the South Park Mall and starts rewinding. His favorite surveillance is the one in the South Park Mall, because he regularly finds nice lovey dovey couples in the midst of romantic shopping adventures. In fact, just yesterday Kyle Broflovski's little brother and that cute little Goth kid were out on the town together again, and...
Speaking of Kyle Broflovski...
"Isn't that Thomas?"
Cupid Me stops rewinding, and flies up to the screen.
Cupid Me watches carefully as Thomas interacts with Kyle Broflovski, at first the two appear to be flirting, but the clever cupid quickly recognizes that things are not what they seem.
It isn't like Thomas is doing anything particularly wrong, he's clearly chatting with Kyle to make Stan jealous. Damien hates those guys, but that in itself is nothing to be concerned with, Damien hates most of his classmates.
He breaths a momentary sigh of relief. Yup, not a problem... nobody's cheating on the boss... nothing to see here...
"Oh shit!" That's Kenny McCormick!
The bosses boyfriend and the bosses ex-boyfriend... That is absolutely cause for alarm!
Peering over his shoulder, to make certain that Damien hasn't returned, Cupid Me rewinds the mall footage and floats close to the screen to watch it again.
Thomas is hard to read, because he's fairly good at masking his emotions. It's Kenny that Cupid Me is concerned about. The look on Kenny's face is one Cupid Me is very familiar with, so he's certain. Kenny has fallen for Thomas!
How did this happen? Shit, when did it happen? Thomas hasn't even been in South Park a week... That boy sure moves fast!
Or perhaps, could this be... 'that'...?
But Cupid Me has always assumed 'that' didn't actually exist!
Everything he's ever heard about 'that' has lead him to believe it was something humans just made up, since he had never actually witnessed 'that' with his own eyes...
Rewinding the footage again, Cupid Me puts his face right up against the screen... the look on Kenny's face! It has to be true, it really exists!
"Love at First Sight!" Cupid Me whispers excitedly. "Teehee Teeheehee!"
Since having his heartbroken, Cupid Me has become bitter, but deep down he is still a Cupid, so he can't help himself; romance simply turns him on!
When Thomas and the guys get up and leave the mall, Cupid Me uses his cameras to follow them to the parking lot, and continues to follow them to their destination. The Black household! They are attending the same party as Tweek and Craig. Interesting!
Returning to his keyboard, Cupid Me presses some keys causing his screen to rewind again. He finally pauses the screen, holding off on hitting the last key, this is a dangerous move... best case Cupid Me will get fired, worst case he will get set on fire again, maybe killed this time...
"Love at First Sight!" Cupid me smiles blissfully. "Totally worth the risk!"
Cupid Me erases the footage of Thomas and Kenny, the less Damien knows is probably better. For the first time in years the little Cupid has something to live for!
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Tweek holds onto Craig's hand tightly, as they move through Token's crowded living room. Tweek enjoys parties as much as the next guy, but large crowds make him feel claustrophobic. He breaths slowly, nodding and smiling at various classmates as they squeeze past them, and he's relieved when Craig pulls him out through the glass doors and into the backyard.
"Are you okay?" Craig asks thoughtfully, and Tweek nods. The backyard is also fairly crowded, but being in the fresh air feels really good.
Craig pushes his way through the crowd standing around the bar, and calls out to Kenny.
"Hey man, do you have some water back there for Tweek?"
"Sure, dude." Kenny smiles, and reaches into the mini fridge to pull out a water, and a bottle of pale ale which he offers to Craig.
"Much better than the crap in the keg." Kenny tells him, and Craig nods.
"Thanks man." Craig hands Tweek the water, and waits while Kenny opens the beer and hands it to him.
"So where is everyone?" Craig asks.
"Token is helping Stan and the girls in the Kitchen, Clyde is burning stuff at the barbeque, and Kyle is over by the pool monopolizing my future boyfriend." Kenny tells him.
Tweek and Craig follow Kenny's stare to the pool where Kyle is sitting with his feet in the water, next to a stunningly attractive blond.
"No fucking way!" Craig whispers under his breath, and Tweek peers up at him in confusion.
"He's rather striking, isn't he." Kenny says with a chuckle.
Craig swallows hard, and continues to stare.
'It can't be the same guy'
Craig unconsciously lets go of Tweek's hand, and pushes through the crowd to get a better look.
'It sure looks like the same guy, but why would a guy like that be in South Park? It's too much of a coincidence.'
Tweek steps forward and gently tugs on Craig's hand to get his attention.
Tweek doesn't like this, the way that Craig is looking at Kenny's future boyfriend is making Tweek uncomfortable.
"Craig? Do you know him?" Tweek asks.
Craig pulls his eyes away nervously.
"Huh, I've-uh, never seen him before in my life." Craig tells Tweek. Tweek bites his lip, feeling suddenly weird, because right now Craig is acting exactly the same as he did when he lied about the fishing trip.
"Really?" Tweek nibbles harder on his lip while peering at Craig suspiciously.
Craig nods, and smiles, while squeezing Tweek's hand reassuringly, but it's a weird smile, one that Tweek has never seen on Craig's face before. It isn't often that Craig Tucker smiles, but when he does Tweek pays attention, and that thing on Craig's face right now is a lie.
"Yeah. I don't know him." Craig's face clears up, and he stares down at Tweek for a moment, than reaches down to rub his thumb across Tweek's bottom lip. "Your lip is bleeding."
Pulling his thumb away, he shows it to Tweek, then he bends down, pokes his tongue out, and runs it across Tweek's bottom lip. Tweek's eyes widen, as does Craig's when he realizes what he's done.
"Oh, sorry, Tweek, I didn't mean to do that." Craig apologizes causing Tweek to frown.
Letting go of Craig's hand, Tweek steps away. "I'm going to the bathroom to fix my lip."
"Fuck!" Craig mutters angrily, as he watches Tweek hurry away and back into the house. Craig is about to go after him, when someone grabs him from behind.
"Hey, Craig, I saw that!" Clyde grins at his friend and smiles at him knowingly.
"You didn't see anything!" Craig says in annoyance. Even though Clyde isn't the type to run around telling people Craig's business, occasionally his mouth gets the better of him. The last thing Craig needs is more rumors about his relationship with Tweek.
"Of course, I saw nothing." Clyde agrees, and motions towards the bar. "I was just thinking I need a shot of tequila, how about you?"
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Pete smirks as he walks past Craig, and hurries towards the house after Tweek.
Pete's day in hell got decidedly worse the moment he met up with Firkle, and took one look at the vomit inducing pastel green tank top and pair of matching swim trunks that Firkle is wearing. Pete tried to be open-minded, but after spending a couple hours watching that shitty little skate punk, Ike, fawning all over his formally hardcore Goth friend, Pete has had it, he's done.
He was heading for the door, intending to escape this den of conformist before their spores infected him too, but he was sidetracked when he spotted Tweek and Craig, and witnessed something particularly interesting. Cartman might be a douchebag, but he knows his shit! There is definitely trouble in paradise. This is a golden opportunity that Pete is not about to pass up.
**End of Chapter 12*******
Party continued in Chapter 13 . I created an update schedule on my profile page if you want to check the progress of my projects to get an idea what's coming out next.
Feedback is welcome, comments/reviews are encouraging and they keep me writing on the days when I'd rather be playing video games. Oh, and questions are fine too.
