Chapter Seven: The Demon's Motive
Craig's POV
The last month seemed to fly by since Damien went psycho on me, and I've been trying to avoid him ever since. Every time I catch him staring at me a burning sensation fills my head, and I know he's trying to see into me. I don't know what he wants to see, but he always looks pleased with himself when he's done. He told me I would thank him, but all I want to do is beat that smug ass face into the ground every time I saw it. He hasn't talked to me too much sense, but I could tell he had a plan that he was waiting to unfold. I didn't know what circle of hell this plan would bring me to, but I wasn't ready to find out.
Today during Chemistry was when I got the note. "Meet me out in back of the school during lunch. -D" I looked over again to see the smug smile formed above two ruby eyes, and I ripped up the paper as he watched. Giving him the same finger I've been giving him all week, I returned back to figuring out what a conjunctive acid was and what bases go to which acid. I was completely bombing AP Chemistry so far with a 57, and I needed to figure out how to get my grades up before my parents saw. It's hard to keep focused in the class when a demon is making you have erotic visions of a friend of yours once a week. I want him to stop teasing me about Tweek. I don't want to have a relationship with Tweek! At least, not because Damien says I should. The erotic visions aren't the only thing, there are romantic ones too. Like walking across a beach holding hands, or having a picnic together by Stark's Pond.
As I was working on my paper for Chemistry, my vision started to get cloudy. Shit, not again! Damien, please don't do this to me right now! I want it to stop! I stared at my paper, pretending to still be doing the work as the vision flowed through my head. This time was different though. I wasn't the main protagonist in this vision, I was watching from the sidelines as a scene played out. I was in the boy's bathroom and Tweek was there, smashing his fist against a mirror. The mirror shattered, and broken pieces fell to the floor. His hand was cut up badly, and I started to realize when this was. Last Tuesday, Tweek came back from the nurse with bandages wrapped around his hand. He didn't tell anyone what happened, only that it was a stupid idea.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another face I know too well walk into the scene. Damien came over to Tweek and placed a hand on his shoulder. Tweek threw it off with hostility.
"Will you GET OUT OF MY HEAD?!" Tweek yelled at the demon, whose face actually showed a different emotion other than smug. He seemed more compassionate towards the small blond. "I'm sick of you tormenting me! These illusions aren't going to make me act in any certain way! I'M NOT GOING TO ASK HIM OUT LIKE THIS!" Tweek's voice was filled with anger, and tears started to well up in his face. "You said you were going to help me, this isn't helping! All you're doing is making me want to be with him less."
I've never seen him so aggressive before, or so angry. He's normally a passive, shy person who I would expect people take advantage of. I didn't know Damien was getting inside Tweek's head too, and something about that made my hands clench into fists.
"Tweek, why is this bothering you? Aren't my visions everything you wanted in a relationship with Craig?" The Demon's voice saying my name sent a chill up my spine. Tweek….does want to date me?
"Yes, but every time you put one of those stupid visions in my head it makes me feel worse! It's like an unachievable goal screaming at me and making me feel inadequate! It's TOO perfect, Damien! I know if I ever even got Craig to date me it wouldn't be THAT picture perfect! All you're doing is taunting me, and I haven't even been able to look Craig in the eyes for the past week!"
I had noticed that Tweek hadn't been talking to me so much in the past week, and every time he did he wouldn't look me in the eyes. We have barely talked in two weeks, and it was Damien to blame. He was making us so uncomfortable with his pushing, that we've been driven further apart. Now, I was gritting my teeth.
"Tweek," Damien said, now trying to be convincing. "I'll cut back on these visions, I'm sorry they are affecting you like that. You have to trust me though, because I know this will work in the end."
"I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING!" Tweek screamed louder than I've ever heard him in his life. He left quickly, leaving Damien alone in the bathroom. I thought that was going to be where the daydream ended, but I was wrong. Once the small boy left, another one entered the bathroom. It was Clyde, my best friend in the whole world. He looked at Damien, then looked at the glass, then back at Damien.
"What the fuck did you do now?" Clyde asked as we walked over to the urinal.
"Realized a mistake I made," Damien confessed, leaning against the bathroom sink.
"Well, what are you going to do to fix it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Look, Damien, I know we don't know each other very well. But what I've learned from my father since I was a young kid is that if you don't fix your mistake as soon as possible, you might never get your chance to." I knew what Clyde had been talking about, but I know Damien couldn't possibly know. Clyde was talking about his parents, especially his mother. She had passed away when we were ten, and it was because he left the toilet seat up in his bathroom one day. For years, he blamed himself but how could he have known better? He never did get to fix that mistake.
"Clyde….you're right. I need to make this work." The scene blurred away as Damien left the bathroom, and I was back in the classroom. The teacher was talking about something that I honestly didn't care about, and the bell rang a second later. Why was that last part even in that flashback? If these visions are supposed to be about Tweek and I, then why have a scene with Damien and Clyde?
I bumped into Damien on the way out the door, and whispered "I'll meet you at the dumpsters." With that, I walked away. I didn't want people to think anything of that, let alone hear what I just said. I tried to break down the flashback, but all I could think of was how angry Tweek had gotten at Damien. I had never seen him like that, and I didn't know if that actually happened or not. Damien could have completely made that up and implanted it into my head. I pondered it until lunch time, where I snuck away from Clyde and Tweek to meet Damien behind the dumpster. I didn't want this to take long because fuck I was hungry.
Damien was leaning against a dumpster, parting his lips to let a cigarette enter and fill his lungs with tar and desperation. He exhaled, letting the smoke fill the air as he gazed up at the crystal blue sky. I walked over and leaned against the dumpster wall next to him, and he handed me his cigarette without ever looking back at me.
"I don't smoke."
"Really? I would have thought bad boy Tucker would have given it a try?"
"I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, and I don't really drink. I've only been drunk one time and it was…"
"Over the summer." The demon took another drag after finishing my sentence. "I know, your insecurity about that was what lead me to you in the first place. Even after months, you were still worried about it. Still thinking about it, whether or not you're gay." I let him continue on, curious as to where he was going with this. "Tweek has insecurities, but they don't have to do with questioning his sexuality. He already knows he's gay. What he's insecure about is his parents finding out. They aren't very nice to him, you know?" I did know that, but not to a far extent. Tweek always wanted to go to either his house or Token's house, I have never been inside the Tweak household.
"Yeah, I knew that." I slid down the dumpster until I was sitting on the ground. It wasn't too disgusting thankfully, but I didn't feel like standing for long. Damien slid down and sat next to me.
"That boy has some secrets that I don't feel I should share with you, but I feel like he deserves some happiness in his life. I know it's weird for you to hear that from a demon, but I'm just as much of a softy as my dad is."
"Why are you telling me all this, Damien?"
"Tweek needs a strong figure like you, someone who can give him the confidence to fight his demons. Not like me demon but like, demons in his head. Those demons are worse than real ones."
"I don't know, you're a pretty big dick." We both gave a chuckle. Damien inhaled on his cigarette once again. "Why have you been so strong to try to get Tweek and I together? What would benefit you out of this situation?" I'm not really one for trusting anyone, especially a demon who keeps trying to push his views onto other people. Everyone has a motive that involves themselves, and I couldn't believe this was out of the goodness of his own heart.
"You could say I'm vicariously living through you. In Hell, you don't really get to experience love. There's only hate, pain, and torture. Love is an emotion that has always interested me, and seeing you and Tweek share this secret love for each other and not express it? Are you scared of it?" It just hit me that Damien doesn't really understand human emotions as well as everyone else. He's spent most of his life in hell, he doesn't get to talk to people or share experiences. That would explain his actions, and how he doesn't understand why Tweek and I get angry when he implants visions into our heads.
"There's so much I need to teach you, Damien. I need to teach you that you can't just fuck with people and not expect them to get mad for starters. What you've been doing with Tweek and I isn't cool, you can't keep pushing us to be together. We need to want it on our own, the first thing about love is love can't be forced."
"I…..I shouldn't be doing that to you. I don't understand too much about love. I'd like to though." His eyes gazed towards the ground, focusing on the smoke of the cigarette exiting his lungs. He shut his legs together and placed one elbow on a knee with his hand, cupping his chin.
"Do you have a crush on someone here?"
"I don't know. There is one person I look at with pride and admiration. Someone who I wish I could be friends with, best friends with. They are just so interesting, and I wouldn't think of putting visions in their head. They seem to have a way they walk and talk that just makes them so confident even when the world is against them."
"Who is this, if you don't mind me asking." This conversation went in a different direction than I thought it would. I never thought I would be giving love advice to a demon, especially one who has been trying to push a relationship between me and my friend.
"You know him, and you would hate me even more. They are with someone else anyway." His head left his hand and pushed against the side of the dumpster, letting his hands fall by his side.
"Who?"
"Clyde Donovan."
"Wait, WHAT?" I jumped up like a rocket, landing on my feet. "Really? Like Really Really?"
"Don't be so fucking loud you idiot!"
"Oh whoops." I sat back down. "Sorry. I just never would have expected you to be gay."
"Demons don't see sex and gender the same way as you humans. Most of us don't care about genitalia since we can change our bodies in a heartbeat. If he wanted me to be a 'girl', I could easily become a female counterpart to him. Love isn't something that is common, my father just found it recently with a dumbass ex-dictator who I wish he would leave!" That last sentence was said with hostility. I didn't really understand it but apparently, demons can have problems at home as well.
"Why don't you start trying to talk to Clyde instead of pushing Tweek and me?"
"Because I thought if I got you and Tweek together, you would help me with Clyde."
"And there's the motive." I fucking knew he had a personal motive, they always do. "Look, I'll help you out anyways. Please stop torturing Tweek and I with visions of us fucking each other's brains out. Maybe someday we'll get together, but don't think you have to force something in order to get help."
"I didn't want to right away, Clyde is with Bebe correct?"
"Not really, no."
"No?"
"He and Bebe are on again off again. Bebe is really more just with him because he's a football quarterback and she's head cheerleader. It helps her reputation, and he's just a horny teenage boy who would be with anyone who looked at him. She also gets attention, which she likes because she's an attention seeking whore. Those two go together like peanut butter and tuna fish, and she only really goes after him when she wants attention. He only goes after her when he wants sex. There's no love in that relationship."
"What can I do to get Clyde to talk to me? I want to show him what love really is. "
"Okay slow down Cowboy Casanova, I just had to explain to you what love is. If you want him to talk to you, talk to him first. You don't have to do it out of the blue though, what classes do you have with him?"
"We're in English together, and in History together third period."
"Do you have to do any group projects where you pick out your partner?"
"Yeah, we're picking partners next week for a group project. We're supposed to be in groups of four, and he has Token and Jimmy as friends in that class as well."
"Here's what I can do. I can talk to Token and Jimmy about letting you be that fourth group member. This would give you an opportunity to at least talk to Clyde, and they normally meet for projects at Token's house. So you'll be able to see him outside of school too, he's different outside of school."
"Wow, thank you for all your help Craig. It's interesting to see this side of you, the caring side. Is this the side you show Tweek often?"
"Not as much as I should… Damien I'm going to ask him out today." I stood up and heard a bell ring. "Fuck, lunch is over! I didn't even get to eat!" I ran back inside, leaving Damien in the dust. When I ran back in I saw Clyde, Token, Jimmy, and Tweek walking down the hall towards their next classes. I ran to catch up with them, panting and walking next to Tweek. The small boy looked up at me with sapphire eyes.
"Dude!" Clyde yelled at me. "Where the fuck have you been?!"
"None of your business, asswipe." I flipped him off and directed my attention to the little blond. "Tweek, can I talk to you?" I whispered to him. I pulled him aside and started walking towards the back exit of the school. "I didn't get to eat, mind going to McDonald's with me in North Park? I'll drive and pay."
"Uh, but w-what about missing class?"
"One half-day won't matter, they've already taken our attendance. Unless you're really interested in what's going on in your classes, but I don't care personally about what's going on in mine."
"Well I have painting and drawing that I've been working really hard on, but the teacher is high half the time and probably won't notice I'm not there. T-then there's gym…"
"Fuck gym, I mean it's not that big a deal if we're not there. It's dancing day anyways, and I don't want to dance with any of the girls."
"Me neither."
"Then let's go to McDonald's. I'm starving, did you eat anything at lunch?"
"No, I brought my coffee today."
"Fuck that, you need to actually eat something." We left the school and headed towards my Ford Explorer. My car was already clean since I had been bringing Tweek to and from school since the first day back. Even when things have been awkward between us, we still drove every day.
"Is this just about l-lunch? Or did you want to talk to me about s-something else C-Craig?"
"There is, but let's wait until we get there."
"O-Okay." Today was the day I was going to do it. I'm going to tell Tweek how I feel about him. That I love him. If Damien is right, he would be happy about it. Let's just hope this actually works.
