Chapter Three

Reasons to Smile


The guilt I'd been feeling last night dissolved when I got a text from Wendy who told me how happy Tweek was when he called her that night. After seeing that, I actually cracked a smile to myself, at least I was causing some good out of this fake dating. That also reminded me that I needed to get Tweek's number, it would make meeting up with him more often a lot easier. When I'd gotten a new phone at fifteen, he never made his way into my new contacts.

My thoughts drifted along possible other ways to kill time during the week, I mean if just going to the movie made Tweek ecstatic then imagine what other things we could- wait, why did I care if he was happy? I just had to take him on a few lame dates then I'd get my money, that was all.

That brought me to my next issue. I couldn't fathom why but for some reason I'd been so, well, just not myself. Ever since I took Tweek back home I just couldn't stop thinking about him. Not in any particular context but I kept finding myself remembering how much fun we had as kids and how much elated I felt last night just going to a silly movie with him. But also guilty. It reminded me of the kind of unconditional happiness you feel when you're a careless child without responsibility, like me and Tweek as kids. Careless children.

When I awoke I had a quick shower and snatched a piece of toast on my way out to school as I decided to walk this morning. Clyde caught up with me at some point during my stroll; he was panting and his breath rolled out as cold mist in the winter air.

"Craig, dude." I crunched into a piece of my toast and flipped him off, he laughed and then continued to speak.

"Bebe is having a party in three weeks for after the winter dance, it's going to be a crazy house party, no parents, loads of alcohol, and, um, alcohol!" he clapped his hands in excitement.

"Cool" I deadpanned.

"You're not excited? It's nearly December, it's gonna be like ending the year with a bang."

"No way to end another shitty year like cheap alcohol and sweaty teenagers rubbing against each other."

"Ah come on, lighten up. Bebe is gonna be there you know..."

"Well it is her party."

"You're great at picking up girls Craig I need you there as my wingman, ugh, Bebe is so hot and funny and-"

"No, dude stop. I've already heard about this party from Kyle and you know how Bebe is, especially under the influence of alcohol. You'd have to have shoes flying out of your ass to ever score with her."

"That's not funny" I then laughed "seriously Craig, she's not a whore and she doesn't want my shoes anymore."

"If you say so" I brushed the bread crumbs off my palms and slipped my hands into my pockets. The morning was beautiful and peaceful besides Clyde's bumbling.

"I hope you come along though" Clyde told me. I didn't really see the point in going to another one of Bebe's house parties. True, everyone enjoyed them but I'd been to enough house parties to become bored of them now. What a waste of time and energy just for a terrible splitting headache in the morning.

"Maybe Red will be there" he nudged me with a grin "or Heidi, Leslie, Esther, hm?" I gripped the bridge of my nose and sighed exasperatedly.

"I get it, there's girls there. But you know I'm only interested in Bebe." I smirked back.

"Yes I- WHAT! Son of a bitch that's not fair!" He whacked my arm and I chuckled quietly.

"I'm only joking, I'm not feeling the whole hookups and dating thing at the moment, you get me? Especially Bebe" I explained as Clyde calmed down and nod in protective agreement.

"I understand."

We continued our leisurely walk to school. The white virgin sky spilled light all over the glimmering roads and houses, birds chirped in the distance while we talked about school and games, gossip and soccer. In the back of my mind I contemplated whether Tweek goes to house parties like that. After all, he seemed to be friends with Bebe but social situations- especially loud intense parties were never his scene. He could have changed though. I recalled his sass in the cafeteria the other day and remembered thinking that maybe he'd grown some bigger balls.

Clyde and I had our first class together in English so we continued chatting until Kenny invited himself into the conversation, he wrapped his arm around Clyde and babbled on about Bebe and her party with him. At least someone was interested about the party so Clyde could discuss it with them rather than me. My friends were such idiots when it came to chicks; the amount of times Clyde had been tricked and manipulated for new shoes was ridiculous. But South Park would forever stay the same so I just let them get on with it.

Our first break came round painfully slow but I managed to pack my textbooks and stationery and skillfully slither out of the room into the crowd to avoid Clyde and Kenny leeching off me with their gossip and Kenny's sordid lectures. Although, I didn't know what else I'd do instead. Maybe out the back for a quick smoke? Go find Token? Ah, who was I kidding, there was only one thing I wanted to do today, the reason I bothered to come into school rather than bunk another day in bed.

At the foot of the hallway I spied a pink beret and briskly made my way towards who could only be Wendy Testaburger. She greeted me with a smile again, though a little fonder than before and I noticed Stan was leaning against the lockers beside her, he smiled at me too and we shared a discreet hand gesture of sorts before Wendy finally started the conversation.

"Hey Craig, everything okay?" She chirped.

"Wait, you're not gonna ask me where my girlfriends are?" I feigned shock and she laughed.

"Nope, not anymore." What was that supposed to mean? I scratched the back of my neck and flickered my eyes over the people passing by around us.

"You wouldn't know where Tweek is would you?" I queried and her smile widened a little more.

"I think he's in the library freaking out over homework" Stan answered for her as he ghosted his arm around her waist and she elbowed him. They were such an item. I nod to both of them in appreciation and left towards the library. I had about half an hour till my next lesson which was woodwork, plenty of time to just… Well I wasn't too sure what I was going to Tweek yet, but it was enough time to get his number at least.

The school library was a pretty spacious and proud room with many sections for all genres and information. I enjoyed reading in my spare time, mostly old novels that still possess that dark and musty paper smell when you turn the pages but now and then I was guilty of scraping through my huge stacks of old Terrance and Phillip comics and magazines that I'd collect religiously and read with my friends years ago. That and my beloved space atlas.

I breezed through the large pillars of books and came to a halt when I caught a glimpse of tousled flaxen hair on the opposite aisle of books. Tweek was clearly searching for something particular. I watched the back of his head and wondered how long it would be until he felt me glaring at him through the gaps of the books. When Tweek was deciding on certain things or sifting through these books in this case, he tended to make little noises of aggravation in the back of his throat. I also recognised him humming the Led Zeppelin song we were listening to last night on the way home. I ran my fingers along the bookcase as I watched him. I was supposed to be thinking of something to say to him but everything had evacuated my head; all I could see in my mind was a warm sienna tone that glazed over my eyes. Tweek.

Expectantly, Tweek gradually began twitching his head to the side, his fingers bounced rapidly off the spines of the books he was browsing through. He pivoted round on his heels and squinted through the row of parchment until his tired eyes settled on me and I flashed him a modest smile.

"You know I can kind of sense when you're around it's like you have a GAH! Voodoo doll of me or something" Tweek began.

"Hey, no voodoo here, calm down" I held up my empty hands and he softened a little. "What do you have next?" I asked; I was trying to keep my cool.

"Um well, I have art next. Our class had a two week assignment to write three pages on art history about royal portraits, I-I don't know, oil painting or something. Man I hate these assignments they're just so GAH! Unnecessary, I need my coffee" he gestured to the table where his assignment and coffee stood. I picked up one of the books he'd dropped and followed him to the table before taking a seat opposite him. He set down his books and his fingers drummed hysterically over his flask of coffee. I had the urge to place my hands over his when they started trembling like that, the way I used to when he got nervous all those years ago but I held back against that instinct, it would probably be taken out of context.

"Tweek, if art is your next lesson why are you doing the homework now? I thought you had two weeks" I leaned my cheek against my palm and gazed at him knowingly. He groaned and bashed his forehead against the paper, a little harder than I anticipated.

"Oh God" he mumbled and then sat back up. "I'm so bad at doing homework. I can't sleep so you'd think I have loads of time to complete this shit but I just c-can't focus on anything you know? Everything's so goddamn difficult for me to understand. I suck at homework, Wendy usually has to help me." I supposed I was on the 'help Tweek with homework' duty now. But how could I not? I'd been observing the books Tweek had with him and what he'd already written and it was too easy to see him not finish it and get detention instead.

"Look" I started as I pulled out his assignment and pointed to the rows of what he'd already written. "You've done most of it already, your points are fine just maybe write in a straight line and stuff. It looks like you were drunk when you wrote this." Despite my bluntness, I was sure Tweek could agree that the scratchy waves of scribbles could be improved. Even if what he wrote was utter crap, I knew from experience that tidy writing was always favoured by teachers.

"AGH, I can't keep still when I write though, my hands just- vibrate" he squeaked. He had a point. I flipped to a list of facts page in one of his books and dragged my finger down the page before reaching for another pen.

"Look, we'll do this together, if anyone asks why there's two different styles just say you're practising new handwriting." I heard him mutter about 'pressure' again.

"O-okay but do you want to know what to write about?" he asked me.

"Nah, this is a pretty easy topic. I know what I'm gonna write for you."

"GAH! Easy for you to say! I guess you're still secretly that nerdy grade A student underneath your troublemaker act, huh?"

"Haha, and you're still the idiot who never does his homework."

"Dick."

"No seriously, I'm not dumb, I know you can get out of any late homework by twitching."

"I know you're not dumb Craig, you're incredibly anal."

"Anal?" I echoed. Tweek then blushed and narrowed his eyes at me.

With my help we managed to finish his homework in fifteen minutes whilst talking about random school and tv-related shenanigans. I brought up the fact he hangs out with girls a lot and how I didn't know he was such a ladies' man which he laughed nervously at me about and brushed the topic off, so I didn't bring it up again, but I also found out that Tweek wasn't so keen on Bebe's party either despite they were close. I was expecting that answer anyway.

Tweek packed his things away and flinched a little when he saw the large clock on the wall reading ten minutes till our next lesson. "Don't worry, we have plenty of time and you're all done" I assured him. All jokes earlier aside, I'd always felt bad for him that he was so stressed all the either made me want to squeeze the anxiety clean out of him or sit him down and light the poor bastard a cigarette; the second usually worked for me. He returned and nudged me out of my thoughts again. He stared into his flask with solemn and empty eyes.

"You want to go get more?" I offered. He nod his head timidly and we began to walk over to library's cafe where he bought another coffee. Black, of course.

Once he had his coffee I decided I'd walk him to his class, the art department wasn't too far. I'd be late to woodwork but I didn't really care, the class was pretty mundane anyway. He gazed patiently into the rich brown of his cup and inhaled the aroma, occasionally he stole a glance up at me with large green and blue eyes. Tweek had very subtle heterochromia; it was really stunning.

However, with the way he kept glancing up at me, I could guess he was waiting for me to start a conversation or ask him a question, uncomfortable with the silence.

"Hey Tweek, can I grab your number?" I asked as I scooped out my phone. He complied as if I'd never ask and quickly called out his number to me though sheepishly glancing around him so no one was listening. I thanked him once he finished taking mine and took a step closer to him. I felt his quickening breath fan over my neck and ever so gently brushed my fingertips against his, of course accidentally. His hands were extremely cold again.

"I'll um…" Crap, I was losing my focus "I'll call you later, maybe you have more homework you want to work on?"

"Yeah… I might do." He'd stopped twitching. Like in the movie theatre when he rested on my shoulder, I realised he was a lot more comfortable when people were closer to him. Or maybe just me? I didn't know, I didn't need to know.

It was only day two and the atmosphere was... far too strange.


A/N: Thank you for the follows and favourites, it means a lot to me! I hope you're all enjoying your new year.