Buried (a Creek fic)

8. Protect

The day seemed to drone on longer and slower than usual, but that was probably due to the present anticipation that was swelling bigger and bigger inside of Craig with each passing minute. It also became apparent to him that other people were noticing how anxious he was for the school day to be over.

“Dude, are you okay?” Clyde asked through a mouth-full of food. He was sitting in front of Craig in his usual spot at their lunch table, currently devouring a hamburger.

“Yeah, you keep checking the clock like every five seconds,” Token pointed out, with the same amount of skepticism as Clyde had in his voice.

“I’m fine. I just want this day to be over,” Craig replied, trying to fight the urge to look back up at the clock that hung near the entrance of the cafeteria.

“Don’t we all,” mumbled Token.

Craig slid his lunch tray out in front of him, not wanting to eat. He propped up his elbow on the table and rested his head against it, eyes wandering around the cafeteria at everyone else to get his mind off of the time.

He watched as a couple of vaguely familiar-looking girls strutted past their table, stopping suddenly with their eyes fixed on Clyde. One whispered to the other, who smiled and flirtatiously waved at him. Clyde, oblivious to the flirting, smiled widely and in doing so, caused hamburger to fall out of his mouth and onto the tray below him.

Craig and Token burst out laughing, watching as the girls quickly avoided eye contact with them and hurriedly walked back to their table.

“Smooth,” Token cooed, shaking his head in amusement.

“Shut up,” muttered Clyde, wiping his blushing face off with a napkin.

“God, what do the girls at this school see in you?” Craig wondered aloud with eyebrows raised, clearly entertained. Then his eyes suddenly fell on Token, who was still chuckling lightly.

Well, I guess it’s not just the girls… he thought in remembrance.

“I don’t care if they’re into me or not,” Clyde answered. “They don’t matter to me. The only girl that does is - “

“Ugh, please don’t say her name,” Token groaned exasperatedly. “I was hoping we could go one lunch period without talking about her.”

As the two started bickering over Clyde’s obsessive infatuation towards Bebe, Craig drifted further and further away from listening. His gaze wandered off and settled on the various cliques at the different tables beyond theirs. He saw the girls’ table, where the two flirty girls had run off to after Clyde made a fool out of himself in front of them. They were accompanied by the other popular girls like Red and Heidi, but most notably,  Wendy and Bebe. Craig noticed that Wendy was keeping a subtle eye on Bebe as she was talking to the other girls. Looks like Clyde wasn’t the only one in love with Bebe.

After losing interest in the girls, Craig’s attention trailed off to the next table, where Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman were occupying. It looked like Cartman and Kyle were in another heated argument (nothing unusual there) and Stan was clearly irritated by that. Kenny, on the other hand, wasn’t paying attention to them. Instead, he was staring blankly down at the lunch tray in front of him. Craig, being his usual observant self, could tell that he was bothered by something. Probably by what happened between them a couple weeks ago, the same incident that he had been begging to talk to Craig about last night.

“Craig, you agree with me, right?” Token’s sudden question snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, what?” Craig asked stupidly.