When the next day arrives, Kenny's words echo heavily in Craig's mind. He was here for a reason? What was it? And what was this personal business he needed to take care of? And what did he mean something bad could happen to him? More questions kept popping up, each time he got any shred of new information about Kenny.
He lets out a sigh and lies his head down on his desk, facing it towards Kenny's vacant one. He wonders faintly where Kenny is right now, and what he's doing, before turning it away.
The morning passes by and lunch arrives. Normally Craig would go and seek out Kenny during it, but he didn't seem to be here today. He thinks of joining his friends for it, but when he spots Clyde, he changes his mind and goes off on his own, deciding not to, or wanting to, get into another possible fight with him again. So he ends up spending lunch instead, outside sitting next to the school, and facing out towards the forest that was near it, while listening to music off his phone.
Some movement in the bushes catches his eye. And for a moment he lifts up his head more, but when he sees it's just a squirrel, he lowers it back down again. He knew he wouldn't find what he was searching for that day in them. A light drizzle starts, but he doesn't leave for a few minutes, until he starts to feel the light raindrops soak through his clothes.
When his second shared afternoon class comes and he glances around, Kenny is still a no show. As his scan of the room continues, he spots Clyde looking at him, still seeming to be pretty pissed at him, before he turns his head away. Needless to say, that when gym class comes along, the two avoid each other. And when the school day ends, he heads off home right away, so as to avoid his other friends asking them all to hangout. He didn't want there to be any awkward air around everyone.
When Saturday comes, he spends it mostly at home, said for when his father asks him to pick something up from the corner store. Which he reluctantly agrees to and heads out wearing a hoodie and sweats, with his hat hiding his messy hair. As he walks to the store and picks up the item his father asked of him, which was a loaf of bread, he exits and heads on his way home.
While walking back, a thought crosses his mind and he decides to take a detour before heading home, since he was outside anyways. His feet guide him to Stark's Pond, where he takes a seat on a bench overlooking it. Staring out over it, he recalls a couple nights ago when he met Kenny here and learned those things about him. It was still a lot for him to process, and he wasn't sure where to start with it, he knew though, that whatever it was, it was serious and probably way too over his head. Still though, despite the potential danger, it didn't stop him from wanting to learn more about Kenny. Nor did him discovering that he wasn't exactly human either. Although that didn't really surprise him much, as he already figured it was something along those lines anyways.
His eyes scan the area, lost in thought. Part of him wondered if he might spot him somewhere, but he knew that was unlikely. He figured he wouldn't see him again till Monday at least, which made him somewhat impatient about it, but it couldn't be helped.
The dreary weather from the day before had carried over to today's as it started to rain. It's light at first and Craig doesn't mind it all that much. Then in the next couple of minutes, it starts to pour. But he doesn't move, unlike the last time, and just lets the rain soak him. He closes his eyes and listens to it as it hits everything around him, the grass, the pavement, the bench, just listening to it all, as his mind is lost in thought. When he tilts his head towards the sky, he opens his eyes. He stares blankly at the sky for a while, before the sound of something in the distance pulls him back. He tries to find where it came from, but has no luck. After a few more minutes, he finally decides to head home.
When he makes it back, he's soaking wet and his father scolds him a bit for not coming home right away, and getting everything wet, including the bread, before he tells him to go wash off so he won't get sick or something. He does and afterwards goes to lie down on his bed after wrapping about three layers of blankets around himself. Where he spends the rest of his day, pretty much in bed watching videos on his phone.
When he comes to the next day, it's to a dry throat and clogged up nose. Part of him thinks he should be surprised by this, but he's not, he knew this would have most likely been the outcome from yesterday. He sits up with a cough and heads to the washroom for some cough syrup, before heading downstairs to eat.
The morning passes by per usual for him, aside from his father giving him an 'I told you so', for the previous day. After some more time passes, Craig decides to head out with his phone, to listen to some music. He knew it was probably stupid to go out while sick and not rest, but he felt drawn to go back to the place he was at yesterday, besides, he could always rest there.
In his sick delusional state of mind, this made perfect sense to him.
When he arrives at Stark's Pond, he sits on the bench again and listens to a playlist, telling himself that he'll only be here for a little while. That little while however, turns into a long while, as he lies down at some point and passes out on it.
The next time he comes to, it's dark, and he feels his arm is swinging back and forth in the air. He spots his legs in front of him then, and something orange underneath them. When he glances up, he sees a familiar hood with two glowing orbs in its darkness.
"Kenny...?" Craig mumbles, still a bit out of it.
"You're sick," Kenny replies, "why would you be here in such a state?"
"I was waiting for you," Craig says, as he continues to look at those striking eyes. There was just something about them.
"Why?"
Craig leans his head against Kenny's chest more, and he raises up his hanging arm and wraps it around his neck, connecting it with his other hand.
"Because I wanted to see you..." Craig replies.
He thinks that Kenny stops walking for a moment, but isn't quite sure as tiredness takes him over once more and he falls asleep again.
When he awakes again, it's to him lying next to the garage beside his house. For a moment he's not sure how he got there till he thinks back to an image of Kenny carrying him. But he's not sure if it's real or not, because of how lightheaded and out of it he felt. In the end, he convinces himself that it must've been a dream and that he must've walked back on his own without realizing it and taken a nap next to the house. This is what he tells himself, as he enters his house and goes to bed.
...
When Monday comes, Craig is pleasantly surprised to see Kenny sitting at his desk and not it being vacant again, as he heads over to his own. As the morning classes pass and lunch comes, he sets out in search of Kenny, still avoiding his friend group. He expects it to be another long search like usual for him, but instead finds him pretty easily this time, as he spots him on the far side of the school's field. He sees him enter the nearby forest as he gets closer to him and follows him into it. He manages to keep track of him until he comes to an eventual stop. When he catches up to him, he comes to a small stream running through the woods.
"I didn't know that there was a stream here," Craig says, looking along it from one end to another.
"I come here sometimes when I want to be alone to think," Kenny tells him, "I like to be away from all the sounds at the school."
When Craig hears that, he starts to feel like maybe he shouldn't have followed him after all.
"Oh, well if this is your alone space, then I guess I should—"
"You can stay," Kenny interrupts, "I don't mind if you come here."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Kenny replies and takes a seat on a large flat surfaced rock.
Craig smiles a bit to himself. Part of him feeling happy even, that Kenny would share this secret spot with him. As he goes to speak he begins to cough, his cold acting up again.
"Here," Kenny says and slides over on the rock, "have a seat."
Craig stares at the spot next to him for a few moments before he walks over and takes a seat. There's just enough space on the rock to fit them both on its surface. But his leg and shoulder though, end up being pressed against Kenny's in order for them to fit. And he can't help but look at their now touching thighs. His eyes travel along the thin pressed line of their pant legs, and he's so preoccupied by it, that he almost doesn't notice how cold Kenny's leg actually felt next to his. He knew it was cold out, sure, but was it so cold that Kenny's leg should feel this way? It was almost like ice.
Kenny must sense his growing suspicion of it, because he moves his leg away so that it no longer touches his.
"You know if you're sick, you should stay home," Kenny says, drawing Craig's attention away, "or do you always like to go out when you're not feeling well?"
"Huh?" Craig replies confused.
"You know, the next time you want to see me, don't wait out in the pouring rain. Just go home and tell me the day before if you want to see me or not. Otherwise I won't know what you want."
Craig stares at him blankly for a few seconds, his mind still processing what he said as it was slow on cough syrup and lightheadedness.
"You're lucky it didn't rain yesterday, otherwise you'd probably be in a much worse condition than you are now," Kenny says.
As soon as Craig hears that, the slow creeping realization that what he saw and said yesterday to Kenny was real, and not just a dream. His face starts to burn and even more so when he realizes that Kenny had carried him all the way back home, bridal style.
"Th-that—I didn't mean it! Just forget it! I was high on cough syrup and sick alright?! I didn't know what I was saying and was really out of it okay?!" Craig quickly says, "I thought it was just a dream..." he adds mumbling.
"A dream, huh?" Kenny repeats and leans in closer to him, "So are you saying you dream about me then?"
"What—no—of course not! That's not it at all!" Craig quickly retorts. When he sees how much closer Kenny is to him now though, he looks away, trying to ignore the proximity between them. "Look, just forget about it okay?" he mutters.
"That may be hard to do..." Kenny says, causing Craig to glance back at him.
"Why's that?"
"Because, I don't think, that I've ever seen something so cute and innocent before as I have that."
"I-I'm not—cute!" Craig sputters.
"Sure you are," Kenny says, his eyes forming into those smile lines again. "The way you wrapped your arms around me and leaned in so close, was so cute Craig."
"Shut up! I'm not cute! So drop it alright?!" Craig tells him, not liking how he was being made fun of.
But despite his best efforts to sound more threatening and serious, his tone was unfortunately a couple octaves to high, like the heat in his face. Kenny laughs a bit.
"From now on if you want to see me, just let me know beforehand okay?" Kenny tells him.
"And what if you aren't there?" Craig asks.
"As long as you let me know ahead of time, I'll be there." Kenny replies.
Craig pauses for a bit, before he speaks next.
"Then tomorrow," he says, "I want to see you tomorrow. And if you can't make it during the school day, than after school. Because I still want to hangout with you then."
"Okay," Kenny nods, "if I'm not in class or at school during the weekday, come to this spot."
Craig gives a small nod back.
"Today as well. I want to see you after school today, so we can hangout," he tells Kenny.
"I guess you really missed me while I was gone," Kenny chuckles. Craig tries to ignore the strange sensation that danced somewhere inside of him at it, and Kenny lifts a hand up then and lightly tucks a wild strand of Craig's hair away under his hat, the action causing surprise for him. "Sure." Kenny agrees.
The rest of the day passes and the two hangout for a little while after school, before Kenny takes his leave.
When the following day comes, it's pretty similar to the previous day, the only real difference being that Craig's hangout spot with Kenny now seemed to be a set destination, instead of a random one.
When Wednesday arrives and Craig gets ready to leave his locker at lunch, Token approaches him.
"Hey, uh Craig?"
"Yeah?" he replies closing his locker.
"Are you able to come over to my place after school? I uh, need to talk to you about something."
"Uh, sure, I guess so," Craig says and gives a curious look.
"Thanks," Token says before heading off.
Craig isn't quite sure what it's about, although he had a lingering suspicion on what it could be, but part of him still didn't want to think about it. And he pushes the thought away as he heads off to meet up with Kenny.
The end of the day comes, and Craig heads over to Token's after telling Kenny they can't hangout that day, which he seems to understand, saying he too had something that he needed to take care of. Craig of course, didn't ask him what it was, even if the question burned on the edge of his tongue, he knew there were still certain things that Kenny wasn't ready to share yet.
As Craig reaches Token's house he lets out a sigh, the lingering feeling from before starting to make its way up the back of his mind. As he reaches the door, before he can even knock on it, it opens and he's greeted by Token himself.
"Hey Craig, come in." he says and steps to the side to allow him in. "Follow me." he adds, after closing the door.
Craig follows him to his bedroom, and just as they round the corner to it he asks.
"Alright, so what is it you wanted me to—" he's cut off as soon as his eyes land on Clyde and he stops in place. "Oh." Clyde frowns when his eyes meet Craig's, before he looks away. "I should—" he starts, as he turns to walk away.
"Wait Craig!" Token says stopping him, "We don't really know what happened between you two, but..."
"We m-miss hanging out with both of you gu-guys."
Craig looks to where Jimmy is seated beside Tweek on the bed.
"Yeah!" Tweek agrees.
"Guys," Craig sighs.
"There's nothing to talk about," Clyde mutters and crosses his arms.
"Well obviously there is something, because it doesn't take a genius to sense the tense air in here," Token tells them. "Now look, we may not know what happened between you guys, but whatever it is, you guys need to work it out. You two have been friends practically your whole lives, and I'd hate to see you guys stop being friends over whatever is going on."
"Yeah," Tweek and Jimmy say in unison.
"So neither of you are going to leave here until you talk things out," Token informs, before he heads out of the room with Tweek and Jimmy. "And don't try to leave either, cause we'll be waiting out here until you two make up!" he adds before shutting the door.
Once the door is shut, an awkward air rises in the room. Craig looks to Clyde, who is still avoiding his eyes.
"They're so dumb," Clyde says and takes a seat in Token's computer chair.
"Yeah," Craig agrees as he takes a seat on the end of Token's bed.
He knew that his friends were only trying to be helpful, but he wasn't exactly sure if this should count as the proper way to do it. And after a few more seconds, Craig lets out a slow breath.
"Token's probably right you know," Craig says, "about us arguing over something, even though we've been friends for so long." he pauses, "I don't want us to stop being friends because of some petty thing."
There's another pause before Clyde let's out a sigh of his own.
"Yeah, I don't want that either," he looks at Craig, "but I'm still a bit peeved at you for just blatantly ignoring and avoiding me man."
"Yeah, I will admit that I was being a bit childish before, sorry."
"So was I dude," Clyde says and unfolds his arms. "I may not know what's going on with you and Kenny but, I just really didn't like how you went out of your way to avoid me each time you saw me. After all the years we've been friends too."
"I'm sorry," Craig apologizes again.
He meant it, he knew that he was the one who was in the wrong when everything went down. That he was the one who started this whole dumb petty argument between them.
"I'm sorry too," Clyde says, "I just wish I knew what was going on is all."
"I know, but it's hard to explain right now..." Craig tells him, "all you need to know, or that I can say is, I'm okay and you and the others don't have anything to worry about."
"Okay," Clyde nods with a small smile.
"We good?" Craig asks.
"Yeah, we cool," Clyde replies. "Just promise me you won't start to ignore me and the guys again."
"I promise," Craig says, with a small smile of his own.
"Alright guys, we made up, are we allowed to leave now?" Clyde calls out and the door to the room opens a couple seconds later.
"Is-is there still two of them?" Tweek asks nervously.
"Looks like it," Jimmy says.
"Oh har har, you guys are hilarious. What did you think? We were gonna kill each other or something?" Clyde asks.
"Well you n-never know," Tweek mumbles and Clyde rolls his eyes.
"So everything good?" Token asks.
Craig and Clyde look at one another for a moment, before back to the others.
"Yeah, everything's good now," Craig says and Clyde nods.
"Glad to hear it," Token smiles. "If you guys are hungry, there's some food downstairs." he offers as he heads back into the hall.
"Oh man yes!" Clyde says, following out after him. "Do you have those candies that explode in your mouth when you bite into them?!" his voice echoes as he goes down the hall.
Craig smiles to himself once more, before he leaves the room and follows his friends down the hall as well.