"I can't talk to you right now," says Craig. "My husband and I have dinner with my parents." There is no mistaking the guys heartbreaking. I know that look, I had seen it on Craig when he found out Matthew cheated on him. He takes a while to recollect himself.
"Well then….." he says lowly shoving his hands in his pockets before looking at Craig as he grabs my hand. "Is this why you blocked me on Facebook?" I'm trying to figure out if I should say anything.
"What's your name?" I ask him pulling away from Craig's hand walking over to him. He looks surprised that I spoke to him.
"I like to be called Ren," he explains.
"Okay Ren," I reply. "I'm Tweek, it's nice to officially meet you." I shake his hand. "I'm sure my husband didn't block you. I will make sure you have access to his Facebook."
"Oh you don't have to do that…" he blushes. "Um I-I'm going to get going. Senior year, lots of bullshit to work on."
"I get it," I reply not hating the kid. Ren seems respectful if anything else. He quickly gets into the car without another word taking off down the street. I turn to look at Craig.
"Why did you…." I hold up my hand cutting him off.
"Who the fuck is Ren?" I asked trying my best to keep my emotions under control. "You never once mentioned him to me!"
"I did…" says Craig. "I just didn't use his name."
"Um okay?" I question. "I need you to explain this to me because at the moment it seeming like you cheated on me. I know you didn't though." Craig releases a deep breath like he is glad to know I don't think he cheated.
"He was the guy I hooked up with that one time….." says Craig. "You remember me saying I wasn't satisfied and it wasn't worth it. We were walking on the beach…that night…" I think for a minute.
"Oh!" I exclaim remembering. "That was a while ago, like wha…"
"Ren had to go to dentition center for 2 years," explains Craig. "He was caught stealing and it wasn't his first time. I was communicating with him but I stopped when I realized my feelings for you. I didn't want to deal with his shit so I blocked him on Facebook." I fold my arms.
"You could have written him at least and tell him you were dating me at least," I reply. "That kid fucking loved you…." Craig face drops in surprise.
"What…," says Craig walking over to me.
"Don't…."I say moving around him so he can't touch me. His dad pulls into the driveway but I walk away needing to recover. I knock on the door while Mr. Tucker calls out to Craig wanting to speak with him. Tricia opened the door.
"That was a quick drive," she notes. She notices the look on my face. "Oh shit, what happened?"
"Ren," I state walking into the house.
"You didn't know about Ren?" asked Tricia. "He was Craig's best friend until you came into the picture." I don't know why but this rubs me the wrong way. "Oh, you really didn't know…" Craig and Mr. Tucker walk into the house. I look up at him because he is not only tall but taller than his wife.
"Hello there," he states looking down at me. I'm shocked to see he has bright red hair, like brighter than Kyle Broflovski back home. He wears it well on his muscular frame, Jesus was a wrestler in his past life?
"Hi…, "I reply becoming shy.
"Come on over here boy," says his dad pulling me in for a bear hug shocking me. "He is a shaky little thing….."
"Dad," says Craig.
"I'm just saying," says his dad looking at me. "See you got a blondie like me." He nudges Craig causing Tricia to giggle. "So glad you two are in town. You should visit more often."
"Will you actually be here?" asked Craig as we walk back towards the family room.
"I will," he replies. "I get more money and work fewer hours, a beautiful thing I thought I would never see." Mrs. Tucker comes out of the family room wrapping her arms around her husband's neck kissing him deeply. My parents never kissed like that in front me like oh my god….. he pulls away. "So let me go change my clothes and we can go eat."
"I think I will change too," says Mrs. Tucker. "We will head out once we come back down." We watch them walk down the hall before hearing the stairs creak as they had up.
"They are so going to fuck," says Tricia walking into the family sitting down crossing her legs. Craig rolls his eyes at her comment before focusing on me.
"Tweek, can I talk to you?" he asks.
"There is nothing to talk about," I reply sitting down looking away from him. The tension between is thick. I can also tell my husband feels really bad for not telling me about Ren. I mean apparently, this guy meant a lot to him at some point. I….I don't know….. The Tuckers come back down 20 minutes later. We all pile into the huge SUV his dad drives. My god, I can only imagine what he spends on gas.
We arrived at the restaurant in 20 minutes. Finding parking was so hard since the SUV is so big, I think it is a Chevy Suburban, I don't know but it's huge. Mr. Tucker finally finds a spot all the way in the back. We pile out of the SUV. Mrs. Tucker grabs her husband hand turning around looking at Craig and me.
"You two can hold hands," she smiles. "We don't mind."
"We're good," I reply. "Thank you." Craig looks hurt but this wasn't personal. In this case, it's just fucking weird. I keep thinking about Ren. I always wondered how come Craig never spoke often about his friends. I didn't think anything of it because I didn't really talk about Token and Clyde like that. I frowned trying to figure it out as we enter the restaurant. It's super cold in there causing me to shiver. Craig places a jacket over my shoulders causing me to look at him. "Thanks….." Mr. Tucker made reservations and I'm glad as this restaurant seems to be really busy. We are seated at a round making me things feel super fancy. I have only seen round tables in fancy restaurants. We get seated at the table with his parents grinning. This is not the reaction I was expecting, they seem super happy that Craig and I are married. I sigh wishing my parents were this damn happy. Well, mom is cool but dad is still coming around.
"How is college?" asked Mr. Tucker opening the menu.
"It's whatever," says Craig. "I actually really hate it. I mean all they want you to do is write papers."
"Papers?" says Tricia. "You mean like essay's?"
"Except worst," replied Craig. "They want a certain style and you have to provide references from actual textbooks and not Wikipedia."
"Oh god….." says Tricia looking mortified making me giggle. I pick up a menu not really in the mood to eat. With that thought in my mind, I want to go for something that will be good if I reheat it tomorrow. The menu has so many options. Mr. Tucker is saying what he wants as Trish begins to look over the menu.
"Do you know what you want?" Craig asks me.
"I don't know….."I reply. "This menu is huge."
"I usually narrow it down to what I'm in the mood for," explains Craig. "Like I know I want pasta so I will be ordering from the Italian part of the menu." Actually, that sounds pretty good. I turn there looking over the section. They offer so much including pasta combos I never heard of.
"Wow….." I say looking at the menu. "So what are you getting?"
"I'm getting the spicy cajun chicken pasta," replies Craig. I decide to go for traditional meatballs with my pasta. Can't go wrong with that. The server shows up with all of us placing our orders. Mrs. Tucker smiles at me as the server leaves with our orders.
"Are you two planning to adopt?" she asks.
"We aren't thinking about that right now!" exclaims Craig. His mother frowns.
"Well you got married and you're only 18 years old," she replies. "For all, I know you could be trying to have kids next year."
"No surrogate?" asked Mr. Tucker. "I know they can be costly but I know I would want my child to have some of my DNA."
"Tell me about it," replies Mrs. Tucker. "I still wouldn't have a problem with them adopting."
"It doesn't matter…" replies Craig. "That is not something we will be doing anytime soon." That does not stop his parents from talking about it. I'm trying so hard not to freak out but their frankness to everything is overwhelming me. I'm glad when Tricia manages to change the subject successfully. The rest of the dinner is nice. Mrs. Tucker manages to get in an embarrassing story or two about Craig. By the time we make it back to the hotel, I am more than ready to go to bed but Craig has other plans. "Are you still not going to speak to me over Ren?" I sigh not sure how to word how I feel right now.