Black Eyes and Broken Dreams

Fights

Craig woke with a start and sat up in his bed. He looked down at his mattress, confused on how he got there. He tried to remember what happened the night before but the room started to spin sickeningly around him.

He forced himself to get up and get dressed. Craig stumbled around his room looking for his clothes only to realize that he was already wearing them. Still no memory.

He managed to steady himself enough to go to the kitchen, only to realize that he had no appetite. He decided to just walk to school early so he had time to calm down. Craig slung his light backpack over his shoulder and left the warm interior of his house.

His breath froze in the air as fragments of memory pieced themselves back together in his mind.

First emotions. Sadness. Loneliness. Anger. And... Love?

Then images. Bottles. A fire escape. A green question mark. And a split lip.

Scenes played out in front of him. The memories hit him like a car. Everything flooded back to him, including the kiss. The kiss. His mind replayed the word over and over again like a broken record player. He felt like it would drive him insane.

Craig was saved by the high school front doors that towered over him, waiting to devour him. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his thoughts as he entered the building.

The noise from the students startled him at first as he made his way to his locker. He quickly adjusted but a small headache soon formed.

As he was getting books from his locker, Craig heard a small commotion over by Kenny's locker, which was only a few lockers down from his. He decided to eavesdrop on the conversation between him, Stan, and Kyle. Cartman was no where in sight.

"What happened to you, Kenny?" Stan asked, concern visible in his tone.

"Yeah, we're really starting to worry about you," Kyle chimed in.

"I got in a fight," Kenny said, clearly uncomfortable. Craig could see right through him.

"With who?" Stan pried. Craig had heard rumors about Kenny coming from an abusive family. He then remembered crashing into the McCormick mailbox and put two and two together.

"He got in a fight with me," Craig stepped in. He didn't know why. Maybe he felt bad and didn't want to Kenny to be caught in a lie. Either way, he already said it and there was no turning back.

Stan was skeptical at first but spotted the newly formed bruise on Craig's jaw and seemed to believe it. Kyle, on the other hand, wasn't satisfied with his answer. "Why?" He asked.

"I accidentally crashed my car into his mailbox," he didn't want to lie completely so he decided to tell some of the truth.

Kyle looked at Kenny for confirmation and he just nodded. Stan and Kyle gave up and walked to class together, leaving Craig and Kenny alone.

"So it was you?" Kenny inquired with a hint of anger.

"It was an accident. There was a deer and I wasn't paying attention. I'm really sorry."

"It's fine. You saved me back there. I have a lot of... Problems... Back at home. Im just worried about Karen. That's all."

"I could pay for it if you wan-"

"It's fine, really. I already fixed it." Kenny felt like he had to make it up to Craig. He responded horribly to the kiss, even if it was from Kenny and not Mysterion.

Craig nodded and started walking to class. He bumped into Tweek in the hallway and the blonde yelped.

"Tweek, look-" Tweek looked Craig in the eyes and darted away, not wanting to be seen with him in fear of being bullied.

"I fuck everything up," he whispered to himself and looked down at his feet.

After the bell rang to finally let school out, Craig's teacher said that they needed to talk. He swore under his breath and obliged.

"Craig, is everything okay?"

He hesitantly nodded.

"Your grades are dropping and you're failing almost all of your classes. You're an extremely bright student, Craig. I hate watching your brains go to waste."

He stayed silent.

"What are your plans for when high school is over? You have two years left and then you're out into the real world. What are you going to do if you flunk out?"

Craig shrugged.

The teacher started getting annoyed. "Did you just suddenly decide that school wasn't important to you? I don't know what's going on inside your head but you need to focus and make graduating your top priority."

This is not what Craig needed to hear. Too much was going on in his life.

"What the hell do you mean by graduating high school is my top priority?! Do you have any idea what has happened to me past couple of days? My life has gone to absolute hell in a matter of days! I've lost my best friend and now the only person who cared about me hates me! And then you come along and say that I should focus on crap that will never help me in the 'real world!' I doubt that knowing trigonometry will stop my best friend from drowning," Craig flipped off the teacher before promptly leaving the classroom to go home. He wiped the tears away from his eyes as he slammed the door.