The Empty (A Creek Story)

Chapter 2:

(art by Mimomia)

We arrived at the movie theater, and while I was expecting to be annoyed, I was surprisingly  nervous. Anxiety is a very unusual feeling for me, and I was not comfortable with it. I became annoyed suddenly. Why should I be nervous? It's just a dumb movie. Clyde and Token were arguing about something arbitrary as I was getting out of the car. Token's dad promised to pick us up in two hours, and we all set off for the entrance to wait for Tweek. Ugh, I can't believe this is happening, I thought to myself. Hopefully the movie will be good at least.

Tweek finally showed, his usually neglected hair actually somewhat tamed. He was twitching and pulling on it though, subsequently messing it up. I crossed my arms in annoyance, he was going to make us late.

"HNGH sorry, my mom was taking forever! I didn't mean to keep you AH! waiting." He blinked rapidly then peered down towards our feet.

Clyde just chuckled and said, "It's all good man. Come on, let's go get seats before someone starts getting bitchy." He gestured at me when he said this, and I flipped him off in retaliation. We all headed into the theater, Tweek looking around nervously while me and the other boys marched to the ticket stand promptly.

Clyde, Token, and I handed our tickets to the lady at the booth."That'll be in Theater 9, enjoy your movie." We started to walk in, but then turned to look at Tweek, who had failed to produce a ticket. He was panicking and yelping, searching his pockets and jacket. I was starting to get pretty fed up the more panicked he got. Then, he finally found it, stuffed down in his shoe (why the fuck would anyone put something in their shoe?) and looking sheepish, handed it into the ticket booth.

We were finally ready to watch the movie, and we settled into our seats just as the last couple previews were showing. Tweek seemed fairly comfortable around Clyde, who had talked to him the most so far. Clyde whispered something in his ear, and he let out a slight giggle. I turned away, embarrassed to be watching them. I shouldn't give a fuck what the two little lovebirds are up to. Let's just watch this movie.

Surprisingly enough, Tweek was pretty quiet throughout the movie. I glanced over to check on him a couple times, and while his hands were moving and he still emanated that same anxious energy, his tics and chirps were mostly non-existent. If he's not making noise to distract me, why do I keep looking at him?

I know why. It's because he doesn't belong in our group. He sticks out like a sore thumb, that's why I keep noticing him.

The nervousness was still prevalent, but the longer it continued the more it got mixed with exasperation. I had grown tired of it already. Relax, forget Twitch. You're just watching a movie with your buddies. I mostly talked myself out of it and tried to focus on the movie.

--

"What did you guys think?" Clyde asked, mouth full of Token's leftover popcorn he swiped.

"Meh, I thought it played on familiar nostalgia without really going anywhere with the plot." commented Token.

"I agree." I added.

"Tweek, what did you think?" Clyde turned towards him as we walked out of the theater.

Tweek had been surprisingly quiet after the movie as well, and I had almost forgotten he was there. Almost.

"OH, um, yeah, I thought it was alright. Definitely not as good as the originals though, NGH!"

"I think so too."

I noticed Tweek was walking beside me, and I tried to speed up a little. However, the ball of nervous energy continued barreling forward. I normally walked ahead of everyone, having really long legs, but this kid could definitely keep up. Clyde took a few comically big strides to catch up to us, and then threw his arms around both our shoulders. I gave him a sideways glare, which he either didn't see or ignored.