A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
—Edward de Bono
Tweek's point of view:
I woke up and we were spooning. Our bodies—they meshed. Craig was a godawfully good big spoon, damn it. Like, he was legitimate spoon material. My spoon material because he conformed so seamlessly to my little spoon body.
He'd been rustling around for a while in the midst of waking up I guessed. Because I slept light, his slight movements had brought me to consciousness, but it wasn't like I minded. I would've never known we'd spooned throughout the night had I been deep asleep.
Out of nowhere, his hand planted itself firmly against my hip. My body jolted, startled by the sudden pressure. His chest expanded rapidly with a rugged yawn, and as he exhaled, he stretched like a lion, fingers digging into my skin hard enough to bruise before letting go just as quickly. Behind me, he relaxed, sighing heavily so that my hair ruffled. An arm wrapped around my torso as well as a leg across my waist. Trying not to snicker wasn't easy.
At first, Craig only grumbled at me to shut up, but it was impossible with him being so cute. He must've woken up a bit more because the next thing he did was nuzzle his nose against the back of my head and made to roll on top of me some more. I tried to fight him off, scared that I'd suffocate beneath him, but it was literally useless on a waterbed. We did nothing more than slosh around. I felt like we were walruses fighting for dominance or something equally blubbery and humiliating.
Craig ultimately ended up hauling me around until he was on his back, me on my back on top of him. His legs were tied at the ankle across my stomach. Now I couldn't stop laughing. "You are so weird," I cried, clawing at his legs so that I may eventually scramble away. His fingers appeared at my sides where he started drumming them just beneath my ribcage. They were like little spider legs, completely terrifying because tickling wasn't funny. It could be used as a torture technique. The Chinese did it during the Han Dynasty. "Craig! No—stop!"
Except it sounded like I was enjoying it and he didn't, but I couldn't blame him. He let go and I rolled off of him, though his fingers never strayed. They returned, tickling me further until I was gasping and beating his chest, arching and begging for him to stop because this was what the Chinese did and he didn't understand. All he did was laugh sardonically, trap me against the bed, and tickle the fuck out of me. I couldn't do anything but belt out boisterous "HAHAHA"s.
And not once did I realize how close we were getting. I didn't catch the way Craig leaned over me; I never noticed how my hands weren't hitting him so much as they were clutching at him.The only thing I knew was that he was touching me and I liked that very much despite the tickling. At one point I was breathless, cheeks overused and cramping. That's when Craig's fingers stilled and his hand followed the curve of my back. My heartbeat pounded in my ears until it was the only thing that I knew. It was reflexive, automatic, when I arched away from his touch but toward him.
Our faces were nearly together and I loved seeing the icy flakes of blue in his eyes so clearly. His breath puffed against my mouth and I loved that too. I hadn't meant for it to happen, but my gaze lowered. The parted seam of his lips was enticing, their color pale almost like a dusty shade of rose. His cupid's bow was shapely, lower lip well defined. I'd kissed them before, and I wanted to again. He wouldn't do anything to stop me if I tried.
His mouth split into a grin. My eyes reverted to look up at him. We held silent eye contact before he finally said, "You're so easy." I was obviously confused by his observation. "Forget permission. I don't know why Kenny just hasn't taken you already, dude." Oh. He removed his arms from around me and sat up on his bed, shifting gently with the contained waves.
That's because I react differently when it's you, I wanted to say to him. When Kenny advanced on me, I resisted even after he was finished trying to make a move. Had Kenny been the one tickling me, it wouldn't have been half as intimate as I'd felt it become.
"Don't g-give him any ideas," I warned, balancing on my elbows. There was this teeny-tiny fold in Craig's stomach as he hunched over and I thought it was adorable, so I tried not to be too suspicious as I took a few discreet glances at it.
Craig held up his hands in mock surrender. His arms were lean with slightly protruding muscle. It was safe to say I liked those too. "I've got your back, man." He winked at the back part.
My cheeks lit up. "When do you leave for work?"
"Soon." His answer was accompanied by a careless shrug. "I'll get there eventually."
"You're an ideal employee," I snorted, wrinkling my nose when he smacked my leg, offended.
He cocked his head to the side. His eyes were curious. "Do that again."
"Do what again?"
"Wrinkle your nose."
I did so, scrunching my eyes as well. "I can wiggle it, t-too."
The smile that appeared on his face went straight to my heart, pumping it full of blood in a way that led me to believe it was the healthiest beat I've ever had. As I wiggled my nose, this odd mixture of adoration and awe consumed his expression. I felt proud for putting it there and grinned cheekily at my accomplishment. "That was cute." There was a strange, soft note to his voice. "Stripe would always do that." And that explained why. "Can you do it to my nose?"
"Of course," I giggled, sitting up and forward. We leaned into each other where, for the quickest second, I imagined we were going to kiss and touched nose tips. He closed his eyes as I twitched mine against his. When I made to pull away, he cupped either side of my face and requested for me to do it one more time. His hands stayed there while I did as he asked, fingers delicate as they held me. It wasn't me he was with, though. Not at this moment. He might've been away inside of a memory, or just remembering in general. Stripe and I had traded places.
This time he let me pull away, although I didn't stray far. I wanted to remain as close to him as I could. Craig blinked a few times and I was unabashedly shocked that there was liquid brimming in his eyes. They were glossy, their frozen color like ice just after water's been poured over the cubes. He was wearing a quirky little grin and didn't look at all like he was sad. It occurred to me that I'd just given him something. I'd given him a piece of Stripe and that was something that nobody else could do because I'd done it first. This unconquerable joy was deposited right inside my stomach and I wrapped my skinny arms around Craig's shoulders without even thinking about what it was I was doing.
With my forehead resting against his collarbone, I mumbled, "Stop being so goddamn cute." It wasn't likely I'd be able to bare it if he continued to come up with ways to show me how much of a sweetheart he could be. I already liked him so much and this certainly wasn't helping my case. I started laughing just to pity myself, because honestly, I was so fucking screwed.
"It sneaks up on me sometimes, dude." Craig laid his head against mine and huffed despondently. "Maybe I won't go to work today."
At the shake of my head, his did the same. "Go to work," I said, secretly enjoying the warmth of his skin.
"Why?" He grunted, displeased by the idea.
"Because you're a man." I pulled away to look at him. He'd blinked away what he could of his tears. The ones clumping his lashes together could stay for as long as they liked, though. "And you have things you need to look after. Like your apartment, and your car, and school, and you need to eat, the dogs need to eat—"
"Okay, okay." He bonked our foreheads together before backing away completely, all the way off the bed and over to his dresser. "I've got priorities, I get it."
As he began to pick through his clothes, I watched from my perch at the edge of his bed with interest. The first thing he did was pull out a new pair of boxer-briefs. After that, he began to sift through articles until he found a pair of black, straight-legged jeans and a white t-shirt. I looked away as he changed even if he didn't care because I've heard wonderful things about his penis and didn't want to dig myself in any deeper than I had to. When I did eventually return my attention to him, he was wearing what he'd picked out as well as a leather jacket and a pair of laced boots. His short shirt sleeves were rolled at the hems beneath the extra layer. It was a very sleek yet rugged look.
Not showering added to his appearance by giving his hair that little bit of grease that wasn't at all unattractive. It was a tidy grease, something that kept his locks tamed and his style kept. He asked me how he did, even gave me a twirl, to which I gave him a thumbs up. It was either that or a "You're so fucking sexy I could jump your bones right here right now. Let's do it." The latter definitely wasn't happening so my agreeable thumbs would just have to suffice for now. Not that I was going to call him sexy and jump him later or anything.
A knock on the door saved him from indulging in my positive response any longer. "Pretty Lady and I carpool," he explained, opening up the door to reveal exactly as he'd said. Clyde's girlfriend was there, peeking in at me with a smile comparable to Kenny's. I tried to ignore her so as not to allude to the fact that she was trying to silently congratulate me on another accomplished night of sleeping with Craig.
"Morning, Tweek," she cooed. To Craig she said, "We should leave. I need to stop and get gas."
He turned to speak with me before leaving. "So I guess go ahead and go back to bed or disinfect my room or whatever you feel like doing while I'm gone. We'll be back sometime around five, alright?"
I nodded my head. "Can you turn the light off?"
After flicking the switch, he shut the door. I fell back into his bed, grabbed his sheets, and rolled around until I was completely encompassed by them and his smell. The smile on my face was impossible to get rid of.
Later in the day I managed to make it out of Craig's room. I'd fallen asleep surprisingly—I usually don't get that far once I'm already awake—and found Token watching TV on the couch. He was feeding the dogs from a can, eyes focused on the screen, specifically the home improvement channel. My dad loved the home improvement channel. Julibee and Julibob were so into their treat that they didn't even welcome me into the living room. Token smiled at my arrival and encouraged me to grab a drink and something the eat.
Julibob was hospitable enough to lick the back of my hand once I'd settled on a glass of milk and took a seat beside Token. "How long have you been up?"
"I'm up when everyone leaves." Before I could say I was sorry, he said, "I'm used to hanging out with the dogs by myself on Tuesdays. Don't worry about it."
Idly, I checked the time on my phone. It was noon. How the hell had I slept for so long? There was a text message from Thomas asking if I'd lost my virginity yet. I quickly got rid of it just in case someone decided to look through my phone or peer over my shoulder or just in case I accidentally forwarded it—for all probable reasons, I deleted the damn thing. "Where's Kenny?"
"Probably on a date. Maybe he hired an escort." That last one hadn't been a joke.
Token got up from the couch, apologizing to the beagles who weren't ready for the can to be empty, and threw it away along with the plastic spoon he'd used to feed them with.
"He ran out of Lakewooders already?" I snickered.
"That's a Guinness World Record right there," Token agreed. He stopped at the mouth of the hallway. "Hey, do you want to play a board game or something? Craig and Clyde like to cheat so I don't play many very often."
That sounded like a relatively accurate accusation. "Sure. What do you have?"
"Monopoly. That's it."
There wasn't much I could say besides "Okay."
"Awesome. You don't cheat, do you?" Token asked, opening a closet in the hallway. As I reassured him that I didn't, he pulled out a rectangular box and brought it over to the couch. "You know how to play, right?" I nodded my head, helping him sort out the multi-colored money including the houses, cards, and player pieces.
This game definitely wasn't my forte, but I did have the patience for it although I've never won. The thimble was always my player, I usually ended up in jail for most of the game, I've never gotten the jackpot of money in the middle, I only ever landed on bought land, the bank usually hated me, buying houses made me anxious, and I had a thing for the railroads. I'd say Token was about to play the game of a lifetime.
Things always started out simply. That was my favorite part of Monopoly: the very beginning. It usually got complicated after that with all of the decision making and rent payments. And after that, the game was just hectic. Monopoly was the reason why the real world—jobs, buying houses, paying bills, banks in general—scared the shit out of me. For the longest time growing up, I'd honestly thought that life was a game of Monopoly. Even though I knew it wasn't true, I still compared it to the real thing and found many disturbing similarities.
That's when I found myself in jail. "Damn it," I swore, interrupting the comfortable silence Token and I had built up around us. I'd warned him about my thimble's attraction to jail and now he was smiling.
"Must be all of that soap business that goes on in there." My jaw dropped. That had been the dirtiest gay joke I have ever received to date. Not just sexual dirty—but raunchy dirty. "I'm so sorry, dude. That literally came out of nowhere."
"I don't know what to say," I admitted, laughing into my palm. "That was a good one, though."
"Thanks." He covered his face with a hand and shook his head, lapsing us into another silence. By the time he spoke up again, I figured he'd been thinking about it for a while and that was why he'd been so quiet. "So you and Craig, huh?"
My hand jerked and the dice went rolling, my thimble escaped prison, my money tried to get away from me, Token leaned away from the explosion, and all I could ask was: "What?"
He started picking up a fraction of the small mess that had reached his side while I diligently organized mine. "It's obvious you've liked him since you hit puberty, dude."
"Really?" I squeaked, unaware that I'd been so noticeable. How many other people have known this entire time? Because I was under the impression that it was just my close friends. "D-Does Craig know?"
Token shook his head. "No." I closed my eyes and breathed easy. "He may be a huge ogre like his dad, he'll figure it out eventually, though."
Shit.