Bebe

Men, never answering their stupid phones.

Huffing, Bebe tossed her hair over her shoulder and went back to pacing, not irritated per say, but definitely not overjoyed about the current happenings. She'd been like this for the past ten minutes at least but probably more.

"Y'know, you can sit down if you want…?" Scott Malkinson ventured from where he was sweeping the drawbridge of the 'castle'. Spinning to face him, Bebe was about to snap before she remembered that just because her nerves were frazzled didn't mean she had to take it out on someone else. Besides, when she stared at the rosy cheeked boy, she felt a stab of sympathy run through her. Of course they'd leave him behind, that was absolutely typical of Cartman…

Managing a composed smile, Bebe softly laughed and said, "Thank you, but I'll be alright." Neurotically perhaps, Bebe checked her phone screen again, sighed, and shook her head. "It won't be long, I'm sure."

Tentatively, Scott said, "Um… They went out to get the Stick back, you know that, right?" When Bebe huffed, he quickly took a step back, "I mean, of course you do!" Once again feeling guilty, Bebe forced herself to stop pacing so she could give Scott Malkinson her full attention.

Who went with them? Bebe wanted to ask, but that was obsessive, so she simply forced herself to put her phone away and take a deep breath. "Actually, I didn't know they'd gone out to retrieve the Stick I just knew they were fighting," she informed the boy, trying to carry herself with the 'dignity and grace' that Wendy was always harping on about. "Thank you for telling me, I guess it makes sense that they'd be gone this long then."

The only reason she was here was because no one had been answering her texts. It seemed like such a stupid thing, Bebe knew that. She knew it, and yet it still irritated her. Well, she kept saying irritated but really she meant worried. Okay, and a little annoyance, but mostly concern. Over the past hour, she'd texted Clyde no less than four times and she'd texted Craig twice and neither of them had answered. Now, it made sense that they were keeping silent if they were off fighting, but it still irked her.

Clyde always answered, she'd actually gotten pretty used to being able to text him and get an answer within a few minutes at most. Craig was more likely to wait for thirty or fourty minutes before answering, but that was Craig, and she didn't blame him. Even she got a little lackadaisical about answering his texts, and she was usually very good with social things.

Aloud, she added, "I'm sorry, I'm being impatient, I'll sit down." Attempting to put some purpose into her movements, Bebe swept over to the weapons table that Clyde usually manned and hopped up onto one of the emptier side tables. Looking over the wares, Bebe recognized the happy brunet's patterns of organization and smiled despite herself. Clearing her throat, suddenly feeling very self-conscious, Bebe asked, "Ah, do you know where they went?"

Looking relieved, Scott returned to sweeping, almost like he needed to do something with his hands. "They went off to the Giggling Donkey," he said, his lanky brown hair falling into his face a bit as he bent over his work. "I mean, that's what they said they were doing. It's all a mess after we lost the stick earlier today."

"What happened?" Bebe queried, genuinely curious. Though the game felt a little drawn out at this point, she still found herself awed by how elaborate a simple game of pretend had turned out to be. Big enough that it drew the girls in. Big enough we had a wedding because of it. At the thought, she rubbed her ring finger absently.

"Clyde!" Scott Malkinson exclaimed, unexpectedly. "He lost the Stick to the Elves today!"

Feeling the blood start to drain from her face because there was no way this story was going to end well, Bebe demanded, "And?"

"Well," the boy said, turning his round face up to look at her. "The Grand Wizard went and kicked him out. Banished him from the game, I think."

Oh no… And Bebe's mind might've gone down that path, but at that moment, there was a loud cheer and the gate of Cartman's yard burst open, admitting the jubilant boys that tumbled through it. She could tell they'd won, just based on the aura hanging around them. It was one of victory, and of happiness. Looking among them, Bebe quickly picked Craig out from the crowd.

The Noirette's head was held high and though Bebe might have been imagining it, she thought she caught the memory of a smile playing around his eyes. So something good's happened. There wasn't much that made Craig smile. After dating the boy for a month, Bebe had learned each individual thing that made Craig truly happy, and right about now, there was only one explanation for that kind of reaction from the boy. Eyes shifting, Bebe instantly found the reason.

Tweek's whole face was glowing. His vibrant green eyes were full to bursting with excitement and hope, an emotion Bebe hadn't seen on the boy's face for a long time. Over the past month, she'd had reason to get to know Tweek, and she'd been forced to watch the decline of his condition, as she tended to call it. The slow slip back into neurosis that he'd been experiencing, or perhaps, suffering from. Right now though, he looked positively delighted.

And this is where plans change.

Originally, she'd planned on snatching Craig away, mostly because she'd finally summoned the courage to do so, but at that moment, what she really wanted to do was grab Tweek and not only find out why he was happy, but also keep Craig from ruining it. She probably should have trusted the boy more, but she honestly didn't, not when it came to delicate emotional issues anyway. And this, though neither of them would probably be willing to admit it, definitely constituted as an emotional situation.

Which is why she slipped of the table and waltzed over to them, carrying herself with all the grace that she'd learned over her nine years of life, and didn't react when the other boys parted for her, immediately recognizing her as something to respect. Well, they aren't exactly wrong… Allowing a glittering smile to cross her face when she looked at Craig, pushing all the things she really wanted to discuss with him to the back of her head, Bebe said, "Hello Craig~" Then she took another two steps forward and looped her arm through Tweek's, pulling him out of the other boys.

"B-Bebe!" Tweek squeaked in surprised, twitching violently and looking up at her with eyes that were just a little too telling. Oh Tweek, if you knew how easy it was to read you, you'd never leave the house again. But she didn't say that, instead she just giggled and batted her eyelashes at Craig's raised eyebrow.

"Hey everyone, I'm just here to steal Tweek away!" she sang, her voice a breath of warm air. "I hope that's alright with you guys. I mean, I know you've just had a battle, but you got the Stick back, so I doubt you'll need him for anything pressing, right?" Okay, she'd sort of inferred about half of that, but really, would the boys be able to tell one way or another?

True to form, Craig's eyes took on a puzzled look and he flatly asked, "Sure?" as if he wasn't entirely certain it was okay or not.

"Of course you can, Bebe~" Kenny tittered from where he was linked arm and arm with Butters. Those two are so obvious. I swear, this town is full of idiots. "After all, who better to entrust our wonderful Tweekers with than your esteemed presence?" Giggling, as she was almost required to do given the circumstances, Bebe waved her hand at Kenny, as if batting away his compliments.

"Oh Lady McCormick, you're too kind," she insisted.

"Wait, where am I g-going?!" Tweek asked, his head whipping back and forth from Kenny to Craig to Bebe. "Ngh- w-what's going on?"

"Just to my house, Tweek," Bebe insisted, all but dragging the shivering blond along with her, giving him no choice but to follow. Though he was a boy, Bebe was taller than him and bigger in general, so it was no feat to move him. It helped that he wasn't exactly trying to stop her. Navigating her way out of the yard, Bebe didn't let go of the blond until they were safely out of what she liked to call 'Craig range'. She was of course referring to the distance at which Tweek would decide that running back to the Noirette was easier than dealing with any given new situation. Just as she'd suspected he would, Tweek cast a worried look over his shoulder at the closing gate, but he still followed Bebe as she purposefully walked down Cartman's walkway.

"Why am I going t-to your house?" Tweek questioned nervously, hurrying to keep up with her. He didn't have his usual fur pelt around his shoulders, and it made Bebe could just looking at him. "Why do you -ghn- wanna talk to me?"

Because I'm avoiding talking to Craig, Bebe thought privately. "Because I thought it would be fun to hang out with you!" she burbled instead, her tone bright and peppy. "Come on Tweek, it's been a week since I've gotten to see you! How've you been? What's going on?"

She already knew the answer to at least the second question, but she asked it anyway, because she'd learned that one of the best ways to gather information was just talking to people. Laugh all you wanted, but Bebe prided herself in never shying away from a conversation with someone else, and it was for this reason that she knew almost everyone in the town. Besides, her questions always seemed to make people settle down, especially boys. It was almost like the expected girls to ask a lot of silly questions, and they relaxed when they did just that.

Tweek relaxed slightly, though he was still wound tighter than a screw. When is he not, honestly… "Oh Jesus! I- I dunnohowIvebeen…" the boy pushed out, suddenly finding his hands really interesting. "I mean t-today was pretty fun! And -rrr- I got to talk to C-Craig! And s-stuff…" Well, considering you haven't said a word to him these past few days, I'm sure that's a great relief to both of you.

But instead of saying that, Bebe simply said, "Oh that's wonderful! So, tell me about the battle…-"

As Tweek talked, Bebe let part of her mind drift while the rest of it kept track of what the blond was saying. There was a lot rolling around up there after all. The first thing that came up was Clyde. Kicked out did Scott say. At the thought, her stomach rolled a little bit.

She must have pulled a face because Tweek quickly yelped. "OH GOD DON'T WORRY THEY -GRRR- DIDN'T ACTUALLY RAPE HIM!" Okay… "B-but they almost did! And if it weren't for Butters and Craig -ngh- they would have! JESUS MAN, I LOOKED UP RAPE ONCE AND IT'S HORRIBLE!"

"It is," Bebe agreed, somewhat absently. While Tweek returned to recounting the events that had transpired at the Giggling Donkey, her thoughts returned to Clyde. Though everyone else had been tiring of the game, the brunet had been loving it. To get kicked out of it… Well, Bebe hoped he was okay. I should go visit him tomorrow and make sure everything is alright.

Because Clyde loved the game, and he would definitely be upset over the whole thing. Mostly. You know he was getting tired of your marriage to Craig. Oh god, that was a whole can of worms that Bebe had been avoiding opening for far too long. Until today that is, except she'd still avoided the matter so she was still edging around it. Bother… This isn't how I pictured my evening going…

"And th-then Craig unlocked the door and let us all in! B-but Cartman wanted us to fight Jimmy and JESUS I DIDN'T WANT TO! B-but it was okay, I guess because -rrr- Kenny did instead!" Tweek's face turned bright red at that, which is what drew Bebe's attention back to what he was saying. Raising her eyebrows, only able to imagine what the sandy blond boy had done to provoke that sort of reaction from Tweek, Bebe quickly filed the story away in her head for later before changing the subject.

"So you and Craig finally talked!" Tweek let out a strangled screech, and Bebe watched as his face paled as if only just realizing that, yes, they had talked.

"OH GOD WE DID!" Tweek yelled, yanking on his hair and twitching violently. "WHYDIDIDOTHAT!?" Waiting for the boy to calm down, Bebe gently nudged him up her drive, which they'd already reached. "Oh Jesus," the boy moaned, his eyes rolling. "I acted so s-stupid, didn't I? He p-probably thinks I'm so stupid now…"

Sighing, Bebe said, "Okay, why would you say that?" Letting Tweek in through the front door, Bebe hurried over to the coat closet and grabbed one of the sweatshirts Clyde had lent her a couple weeks ago that her mom had forced her to hang up, and walked over to the blond with it. "I bet you didn't say anything stupid."

"Ngh- how can you know that?" Tweek asked, taking the sweatshirt from her and staring at it in utter confusion. "Y-you don't get it! He said a whole bunch of stuff at the end and AUGH I SHOULD HAVE S-SAID SOMETHING BACK!"

Taking the sweatshirt back, Bebe carefully helped Tweek into it, guiding the boy's arms through the sleeves and helping him navigate the hood and headhole. "Well, what did he say?" Bebe asked calmly, finding listening to Tweek talk about Craig made her feel a little better too. There was something about the twitchy blond that naturally made her happy. Maybe it was mean, but he made her feel put together, even when she most definitely wasn't. And okay yes that was wrong, but she liked other things about Tweek, so she felt like she could have this one weird thing without feeling guilty about it.

"He s-said…" Suddenly falling silent, Tweek fiddled with the overlarge sleeves before mumbling, "Jesus, th-this is Clyde's, isn't it?" When Bebe gave him a surprised look, Tweek awkwardly explained, "Ngh- I can smell his house on it! And it's scratchy. All his c-clothing is scratchy." Deciding to let it go, Bebe laughed musically and pulled Tweek towards her staircase.

"You're right, it's Clyde's!" the girl said brightly, hurrying up towards her room. "He lent it to me and I guess I never gave it back." She knew full well that Tweek had changed the subject, but she hardly blamed the boy. There was a lot going on, and from what the boy had told her about the battle, Tweek and Craig had come to an understanding.What they understood was a mystery, but Bebe felt like she could put most of the pieces in without too much trouble.

They were both unbelievably easy to read, after all.

"Ngh-" Glancing behind her, Bebe looked at Tweek, who was staring at the hand that she had clasped in her own. Catching her eye, he let out a soft screech before reaching for his hair, which he yanked hard. "JESUS WHY AREN'T YOU DATING CLYDE!?"

The moment the words had left his mouth, Tweek slapped a hand over it and gave her a panicked look, like he wanted to run away. Unwilling to let him get away so easily, Bebe half pushed, half pulled the boy into her room and quickly shut the door behind her so he couldn't escape. Amazing how he picks up on things when most of his mind seems hellbent on confusing him. Well, he'd hit the proverbial nail on the head, hadn't he? That was exactly the question Bebe had been asking herself, and honestly, she was tired of it.

Which is why, after making sure that Tweek wasn't going to attempt to run away, Bebe pulled the blond over to her white and pink flowery tuffet and sat him down on it before he could stop her. Busying herself with disengaging the boy from his many weapons, the girl carefully asked, "Why would you say that? I'm dating Craig, aren't I?" A dangerous beginning, she knew, but Tweek was surprisingly good at rebounding from starts such as this.

Crossing his legs before uncrossing them, a little nervously, Tweek mumbled, "N-nevermind, I didn't -rrr- mean to say that at all. I didn't m-meant that!" He sounded a little desperate to make her believe it, but it was obvious that there was too much behind the words for him to truly make his attempt believable.

"Yes you did," Bebe told him calmly. It was weird, somehow, letting the boy bring up the conversation topic made it easier for Bebe to handle. She'd been struggling, after all, with the same problem for a while. Why was she dating Craig? It was a stupid game, the girls had almost entirely disengaged from it at this point. There wasn't any fun in it, now that they'd gotten what they wanted. She didn't like Craig, at least not romantically, and Bebe knew that Craig would only ever have eyes for Tweek, so why was she bothering at all?

Tweek, in his twitchy way, seemed determined to make this very point. Clearly terrified, but pushing through it, Tweek pulled at his hair and said, very fast, "Okay I did mean it butonlybecause you and C-Craig act like you d-don't wanttobetogether and Jesus! I don't want to m-make you think I don't support you or anything, but I reallydon'tlikethat you two are upset all the time and why would you even be with him when you clearly like Clyde oh god!"

Needing to calm the boy down before he hit her lamp and knocked it over, Bebe went for the first thing she could think of, Tweek's hair. It helped Craig calm him down, so she was sure it would work here. No, she knew it would. Grabbing for her hairbrush, which she'd left on the windowsill that morning, Bebe quickly started dragging it through Tweek's wild hair. The action had the dual purpose of making Tweek let go of his hair and calming him down. Two good things in Bebe's opinion.

"You're right, I do like Clyde," Bebe said, enunciating each word carefully. Saying them was a relief. She hadn't been able to tell anyone about it, not even Wendy and she told the girl practically everything. No, she'd been forced to keep a lid on it, seeing as she already had a boyfriend and it would have been unseemly to talk about another boy under those circumstances. But this was Tweek, and Tweek probably understood.

He likes Craig, after all, even though Craig's dating me.

Taking another deep breath, Bebe continued attempting to get through Tweek's perpetual bed head as she kept talking, letting the words just trip naturally off of her tongue. "I don't, actually, want to be dating Craig. I haven't wanted to date him for the past month, but I suppose things were rather complicated, weren't they?"

"I KNEW IT!" Tweek yelped, before slapping his hands over his mouth. Looking up at her, the boy mumbled through his fingers, "I m-mean, I haven't believed it -rrr- b-but I knew it was true I think!" Curious choice of words… It was amazing how open Tweek could be. Maybe it was the fact that she had her fingers in his hair and he was sitting in her room, but Tweek seemed to be more willing than usual to talk.

Letting his hands fall away from his face, Tweek rocked slightly and muttered, "Ghn- I'm so bad about th-that, believing things. It's just… ACK CRAIG'S SO CONFUSING!" Hah, well, that was all a matter of perspective, but Bebe didn't interrupt, she just let Tweek ramble on. "He l-looked so happy when he was fighting with you, and- Oh God, it made me so upset."

"He thought I was you." Bebe wasn't sure why she was letting out something that was purely supposition on her end, but she felt like she needed to tell Tweek. "I could see it in his eyes, he was horrified when he realized it was me."

"Oh…" Tweek said, in a very small voice. Pulling his legs up to his chest, the boy pushed out, "Jesus, I th-think I really screwed things up…"

"We all do it sometimes," Bebe told the boy, finding the longest pieces of his hair and carefully pulling them back, beginning a tight french braid at the crown of his head. "I screwed up, letting Wendy and the other girls push me into dating Craig. I should have asked to go with Clyde instead. I think a lot of this could have been avoided if I spoke up."

"Ngh- I wish I'd spoken up," Tweek admitted, fidgeting as Bebe gathered his wispy blond hair into something resembling a neat hairdo. It was surprisingly pleasant, braiding his hair. Like running her hands through cotton, almost. "I sh-should have said something to Craig, instead of l-letting him believe I was okay with it."

"Maybe," Bebe agreed, finishing the braid and affixing it with a little rubber band that she pulled off of her thumb. Starting a second braid, this one smaller, Bebe told Tweek, "I think that Craig has trouble actually saying things, sometimes. I think you're better at it than him." When Tweek jerked his head around in an attempt to look at her that was stopped by her braiding his hair, Bebe said, "You need to remember that. It's really hard to speak up sometimes, but often times it's better to speak than stay silent."

"He told me he's going to m-make things better," Tweek said softly, his eyes so full of hope that it almost broke Bebe's heart. "Grrr- I really want to believe him."

"Then do," Bebe told him softly, tugging on the half-finished braid she still held. "It's okay, you'll get to see him tomorrow." When Tweek's eyes widened, Bebe giggled and said, "My parents are out today, so you're going to stay over. It's okay, I have a pullout bed. You need to get away."

Tweek didn't answer, and Bebe was glad, because honestly, the longer she could put off the inevitable, the better. Ah, I'm really not going to like breaking up with Craig… But, it was one of those things.

Almost predictably, Bebe's phone buzzed.

Ugh, men...