Kenny woke up in his bed, alive. He looked at the time, it was midnight, he had completely missed his date with Tweek. At least it was only four hours and not a full day having passed by. He died in front of Tweek, but he knew no one would remember. He pulled up his messages to Tweek, no response yet. He started typing a text out to at least apologize even if he couldn't explain the situation. Right as he was ready to click the send button, a shotgun shell traveled through the window and into his skull, killing him instantly. Jimbo was outside the window muttering something about missing a bird.
Tweek woke up the next day, completely pissed at Kenny. He sent him way too many texts and got no reply. This crushed him. It was Saturday and Tweek had no school or work or anything. Just a full day to mope around that not even Kenny would like him. Maybe he should have taken the one night stand, but seeing how the past couple days have turned out, it felt like Kenny would have come up with some excuse to avoid him even if he did ask for it.
Tweek walked to the Village Inn, where he had his date with Kenny. They did have really good coffee here and maybe if he was lucky he'd run into Kenny who could explain himself. He ordered coffee and no food, at least for now. He was too unhappy to eat even though he probably should have.
Across the diner was a table full of goth kids, who weren't much of kids anymore. Michael, Henrietta, Pete, and Firkle were all also drinking coffee, eating nothing, and thinking about how shitty everything and everyone is. Tweek couldn't help but look over to their table and stare at them. Maybe that was the life that he was destined for. A life of depression, loneliness, and diner coffee.
Pete looked over at Tweek, who he saw staring at them. Tweek immediately threw his head down, moving his gaze to his coffee, shaking, trying to pretend he wasn't looking. He still could see them out of the corner of his eye and tried his hardest to pay attention to whatever they were doing without seeming like he was. He could tell they were talking about him. Pete got up and moved towards him. Tweek's head rushed with all the worst case scenarios of Pete interacting with him, wondering why he would ever.
The goth sat down directly in front of Tweek, who was still staring down at his coffee. Pete brought his coffee and took a sip. "Hey," he said calmly.
Tweek screamed, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
"Dude, chill out. It's not that serious, you just seemed upset, that's all." Pete flipped his hair nonchalantly.
"OF COURSE I'M UPSET, AGH! EVERYONE IS DATING EXCEPT ME! I'LL BE ALONE FOREVER! MY LAST DATE STOOD ME UP AND NOW HE ISN'T TEXTING ME AND AHHH," Tweek yelled, pulling his hair.
Pete reached his hand over onto Tweek's shoulder, "Dude, calm down. None of us are dating," he gestured to the other goths, "And we don't plan on it either. Conformists don't make life better, they make it worse, as you can clearly see by how they treated you. Maybe you should join up with us and find out who you really are. Find out that you don't need these people. That is, if you can calm down."
Tweek thought a lot about Pete's offer. They both kind of looked down in silence for an extended period of time, until Tweek perked his head up. "Yeah. I don't wanna be like this. I don't want to care about every little person or thing."
"That's cool I guess," Pete got up and walked back to the table of his friends with Tweek following closely behind, all twitchy and nervous.
"Who won?" Firkle asked, causing a puzzled look on Tweek's face.
"Michael," Pete answered, causing a loud groan from Henrietta.
"Fine, whatever," Henrietta grabbed a 20 dollar bill from her pocket and threw it over at Michael.
"Of course he wanted to be one of us, everyone else sucks," Michael said confidently, as if he knew he'd win the bet the whole time.
"YOU TWO MADE A BET ABOUT ME?! ACK!" Tweek screamed.
"Chill out dude, it is not that serious," Henrietta snipped.
"Yeah," Firkle cut in, "Chill the fuck out dude, you need to adopt our image to hang out with us and part of that is not acting like a total spaz."
Tweek accepted the fact that he had to update his wardrobe and attitude now. The goths helped him buy new clothes and even dye his hair black, he looked like a real goth so it was time for the hard part. Acting like a goth. He spent the whole day with the goths, hanging out at the cemetery and Henrietta's house, and it just felt so unnatural the whole time for him. He couldn't force himself to act like him, but he still really appreciated the company.
While they were at Henrietta's house, Pete got up to go get some food. Tweek followed and lied that it was because he was pretty hungry too. "Hey, Pete," he whispered, tapping him on the back.
"Dude, what?" Pete seemed annoyed, mostly because of Tweek going about talking to him in the weirdest way possible.
"I don't think I can do this anymore. I really like hanging you with you guys, but I can't get myself to pretend to be someone I'm not. Is there any way I could just be myself and we could still hang out?"
"Alright, look," Pete looked him directly in the eyes, "I'm gonna be totally honest with you here. The others won't go for it. It's been asked before with other people, it was always a hard no. We have a strict no conformists rule."
"So that's it," Tweek looked at the ground, feeling defeated, "I'm destined to be alone forever."
Pete sighed, "They wouldn't go for it, but I wouldn't mind. We can hang out, just not with them, alright?"
"Alright, that sounds fair enough."
"If you leave now, I'll tell them that this isn't you and you wanted out, and then I'll text you later and we can hang out whenever, alright?"
"Thanks Pete…"
Tweek went home. He changed back into his green button up that he was always comfortable in. Those other clothes looked nice on him, but they felt wrong. How was he supposed to explain the black hair to his parents? He kept thinking about how everything about today was a mistake, that is, until he saw a text on his phone.
PT: Hey.
TT: YOU DID IT YOU TEXTED ME YOU WERNT LYING
PT: Why would I be lying?
PT: Also chill out with the caps, I know you don't want to conform to us, but that doesn't mean you should be freaking out all the time. You're actually pretty cool when you're not.
TT: REALLY?
TT: sorry i mean really?
PT: Yeah.
TT: it feels weird typing like this it doesnt capture exactly how fucking stressed and full of anxiety i am right now
PT: Well maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it'll help you adopt that attitude and apply it to your life.
TT: really?
PT: I don't know, maybe. I'm not a psychologist.
TT: you know you dont actually have to talk to me if you dont want to i know youre way cooler than me and you probably have better things to do
PT: People usually think I'm a loser. Why the hell don't you?
TT: i dont know, you just have always seemed so cool to me, so like better than everyone else
PT: Well yeah it's not harder to be better than everyone else, they all suck.
TT: good point
TT: maybe im just smart enough to realize that
PT: Yeah that sounds right.
PT: You are pretty smart for a conformist.
TT: i dont feel like im conforming to anyone
TT: i feel like thats why i couldnt hang out with you guys
TT: thats why no one wants to date me
TT: i dont conform to anyone
TT: im just my stupid self
PT: That's actually kind of goth wow.
TT: really?
PT: Yeah other than the parts about being desperate for dick, that's goth as fuck.
TT: i cant help but be desperate it just feels so terrible to be cast aside by everyone i know
TT: to feel like they all see me as just some spaz
TT: like they think im just a fucking kid
PT: I don't see you like that.
PT: If I did I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
TT: how do i know this isn't just pity texts
TT: thats what happened with kenny
TT: he took me on a pity date then stood me up
PT: Kenny?
PT: Kenny's dead.
TT: WHATT?!
TT: sorry imeean what?
TT: you cant be serious
PT: Dude his family was crying at his gravestone over at the cemetery earlier today.
TT: youre sure?
PT: It said Kenny McCormick on it.
TT: what the fuck
TT: thats so fucked up
PT: Yeah.
PT: But that does mean that he never blew you off.
TT: dont try to turn my friend dying into a good thing asshole
PT: I'm not.
PT: I'm letting you know that people like you and showing you evidence of that.
PT: Get your head out of your ass, not everything is out to get you.
PT: Everything sucks, but not everything is out there to make things suck for you.
PT: That's just how things are already.
PT: For everyone.
PT: You there?"
TT: yeah sorry im jusst goign though a lot of emotiosn right now
PT: You're a cool guy Tweek.
PT: Any guy would be lucky to go out with you.
TT: thanks pete
TT: sory about hwow emotoinal i am rihtgt now
PT: Don't be.
PT: Take some time, calm down, think about things.
PT: Make sure you're okay.
PT: Talk to you later.
TT: thanks again
Tweek took a few days of isolation to calm down. He texted Pete some more, talked to his parents when he had to, but tried his best to stay alone and calm down. He couldn't believe Kenny was dead. He later found out that someone shot him, but no one found out who did it. He was glad that he wasn't blown off by Kenny, but his reaction to his death was so much stronger than any relief that he was feeling.
Pete showed up at Tweek's house when Tweek was ready. He collapsed in Pete's arms, crying about his dead friend. Pete flipped his hair, looked to the side, sighed, and put his arms around Tweek, hugging him. Making sure he was okay. Tweek looked up, Pete wiping his tears off. Tweek looked into the goth's eyes. He hated eye contact, tried to avoid it at all costs, but in that moment Pete's eyes were the most calming thing he'd ever seen.
"Tweek?" Pete asked, a quiver of sadness that he was trying to hide in his voice.
"Y-Yeah?" Tweek answered, voice full of sadness that he had no intention of ever hiding.
"You okay?"
Tweek's mouth formed a bit of a smile, the first since his date with Kenny, "Yeah, I think I am."
Pete leaned in to kiss him. Tweek kissed back. They pulled away and Pete smiled back. They went in for a second kiss. Tweek loved how good Pete was at calming him down and comforting him. Pete loved how Tweek actually made it seem like things could matter, like having emotion wasn't the worst thing that could happen. They felt like they completed each other.
The next day at school, Pete and Tweek decided they were okay with their friendship and relationship being public. Pete dealt with teasing from the goths, Tweek dealt with teasing from Craig and those guys, but neither of them cared too much. That was probably Pete's influence leading to Tweek not caring. He liked being able to ignore things sometimes. Kenny walked by the two kissing. They looked over and flipped him off together. That was Tweek's influence.