chapter picture belongs to: http://almarus.tumblr.com/post/166548194658/well-you-can-go-back-and-tell-him-he-can-have-his
It was another cold day in South Park. The winds were picking up and soon enough some hard snowfall will come. Yet, I still sat outside in the front of the school waiting for him.
I stared back through the gates of the high school as I see the blond boy run out towards my direction. "F-fuck dude, It's freezing out here. I told you could come in with me!"
I shake my head and stand up straight as I was leaning against the frigid metal gates.
"It's fine, I fucking hate the lit/comp teacher here."
"That's fair." He kept silent as he followed beside me on our way out of campus. Although, I'd admit that he was hugging his arms and inching closer to me. I paid no attention to it until something caught me off guard.
"Dude, why aren't you wearing a jacket?" I piped up looking at his pale arms filled with goosebumps. "I don't know?! It didn't feel too cold this morning!" I scoffed and shook my head, "Don't you read the weather before you leave?"
"What, no?? Anyway, who the hell reads the forecast, especially when you're in high school!"
"Touché, Tweek. Touché." I sniffle a bit before taking off my jacket and shaking it off from my hands. "Here." After a long pause and him not taking it, I bring back to my side and look at him.
He was looking down at the ground. "I don't need it." He mumbled. "Jesus, don't get all fucking protective for no reason. I'm offering you my jacket, not a punch in the stomach."
He didn't reply or anything and looked offended for some reason just because of a simple kind gesture. "Fine. Freeze your ass, I don't fucking care." I tie my jacket around my waist and continue to walk in front of him.
Not one sound came from the both of us, you could say it was so quiet that you could hear the specks of snow fall onto the ground. I occasionally looked back to see if he would still be following me and to my surprise he was.
His movement was very frantic and his mouth moved with no sound, almost as if he was trying to talk something out. I dismissed it and began to slow my pace to see if he'd catch up but to my dismay, he mocked my move and went slower as well.
At this point, he was making me pissed off and I stopped right in my tracks. "Why are you mad at me? What did I do?" He stared back at me with hands cupped up to his face.
"Nothing!" He said it through a voice crack.
I bit my lip and furrowed my brows. "Really, because it doesn't really feel like it's nothing, Tweek." He twisted around and growled in frustration.
The snow was starting to fall faster like my anger.
"Look, I'm trying to help but I can't help when you. can't. tell. me. why. you're so upset?"
"Craig the snow is falling faster..."
I gave a confused and rather angered look towards his way. He stared back at me with about the same mix of confusion, anger, and sadness. Or rather was it fear?
Shaking my head, I palm my face with my right hand and walk towards his direction. He flinched as a grabbed his wrist and nudge him in my way. "There's a pet shop close by. We can hang out there until the storm blows by."
---
Opening up the doors to the shop, the chimes ring and a high-pitched voice welcomes us in.
"It's me, Red," I yell back and merely seconds later she comes out from the back, taking off gloves. "Oh shit, hey Craig. What's going on?"
I see Tweek wander off obviously because feeling a bit out of place in the conversation so I make my way to Red and continuing the small talk. "It's okay. There's a storm outside so waiting for it to past by."
She stares out the windows behind me and nods in agreement. "DIdn't even know it was going to snow hard today."
"Does no one seriously check the fucking weather?" I say with confusion which I get a laugh back from Red.
"No dude, we're teenagers. I don't get time to check shitty news and, oowh weatherrrr." She pushes me in a teasing way and walks into the back again, probably to continue doing work.
"So, how's your dad?"
"Pft, how's your dad?" I say walking around with hands shoved into pockets and looking at all the rather boring animals.
"Working at the bar, like usual."
"Then, that's probably where my dad is," I reply back in a jokingly way.
I gazed at the ferrets from above with a straight face. These things were too hyperactive and always smelling like shit. Not to mention they're always biting and crawling into dangerous places. I bore into the cage and with a shift of my glance, I saw the reflection of my accompanied blond.
I hold down a smile as I admire his serenity but astonished stance as he looked at the cage of white rabbits. "Hey, Craig. Get over here and lend a hand." I sighed and stroll over to the other side of the store where Red stood hands crossed with a cup of nibble food. "This lil' shit won't eat his food and he's already bit me two times today." I look at her strangely and at what seems to be the empty tank. "Okay, and why should I care?"
She rolls her eyes and shoves the cup into my hands. "Just feed him, you know these animals more than I do. He's underneath the log."
I glare into her eyes once more with confusion before taking the situation into my own hands. I lift the log up slow and quick movement of a guinea pig shifts around the tank. "Hey, hey slow down!" I reach in and try and grab the fucker and succeed but only to drop it back when it bites the intersection of my thumb and pointer finger.
I curse under my breath as the startled moment ends up making me drop the cup of food.
I could see Red stifling her laughter and I glare back at her in response. Grumbling, I pick up a handful of the food and try again.
This time a got a bit less forceful, holding the food in my palm and placing flat on the ground of the tank. I paid all my attention to the guinea pig in the corner and when I did glance over to my side I could see Red looking into the other direction talking to who I presume was Tweek.
"So, you're Tweek, huh?"
"Y-yeah."
"You've befriended quite the douche."
I snort and slash back, "I heard that."
Laughing she says, "Good, I wasn't sure if I was loud enough." Tweek nervously laughs at the banter, "He not that bad, I guess."
"He really isn't, he probably the first most patient boy I've met here in South Park."
"R-really?"
"Really. Like I said, he's an asswipe sometimes, but he actually listens to you. You get many boys like that here in South Park."
"Should I leave?" I say as a joke.
"See? He really listens, and no you're obviously too interested in befriending the stupid rat."
I blink a couple times before actually paying attention to the cage where, to my disbelief, the guinea pig was already chowing down the food in my hand. I hear the small 'wow' from the boy behind me and my face falters to a smile at my accomplishment.
Placing my other hand slowly into the cage, I cup the small rodent in my hand and only feeling safe with it when it's leaning onto my shirt.
"Sweet."
"Oh shit. Craig you hand!" I look over to the now worried Tweek and then raising my hand that had blood already trickling down from the place it was bitten.
"Ooh shit, he did a number on you, brotha. Hold on, I've got an aid kit in the back," and Red fled once again into the back leaving me with a sort of bloodied hand, a bastard guinea pig, and a panicking kid.
"Does it sting??"
"Kinda."
"Man, how are you calm? You've got red juice all over your hand!"
I scrunch up my face, "Okay first, red juice? Second, it's not that bad, Tweek"
Out of words to say, Tweek just nervously sputter grunts and growls trying to avoid eye contact. I didn't care much of it and continued to look down at the guinea pig and scratching its head.
In many ways, it reminded me of him. At first uncomfortable in the forced situation and unwilling to talk about things at that time but you give him time and you acknowledgment he slowly falls into your arms. He begins to trust you, but one slip up and he back to that frantic state.
Maybe, I need to just talk with him.
"Tweek," He turns his gaze my way and I acknowledge him in return. "You wanna talk?" He at first looks confused but being a bit of a different state of mind he nods in reply. "Okay," I sit down on the ground and scoot the food from the cup away and pat in front of me. "sit right here."
He willingly does and I almost feel dominant but then remember this isn't about being the powerful one in the group, this was something different when he was here.
I noticed him still tugging at his sleeves which, in some cases, means he had something to say but didn't want to say anything. I followed his gaze which was, undoubtfully, on my still bleeding hand.
I shuffle where I sit and cover my hand with my jacket so I can cleanly cup the rodent in my hand. "Do you want to hold him?"
"Errr... I don't really like h-holding animals.."
"Just for a bit, so I can clear up the blood."
I keep the guinea pig in the middle of the two of us waiting for him to grab it. With a bit of concern on his face, he lifts his arms weakly and holds his hands out. I lightly plop the animal into his arm and then guide Tweek's arm to his chest. "Hold him like that." He shook his head violently not daring to keep his eyes off it.
I took this time to look around for anything to clean my hand before resorting using my jacket.
"Hey, Red! What's the holdup?" I started out into the store. There was no reply until she comes storming in with her phone pressed against her shoulder and ear. She plops the case with the red cross onto my lap and presses her finger to her lips.
'It's my boss.' I saw her lips speak. I rolled my eyes and she replied with a 'kind' gesture of her hand before walking back.
Looking back to who I was more interested in, there was not much change. He was still staring intensely at the pet and was shaking a little too which freaked the pet a bit too as I could see.
"You can pet him y'know." I said as I took some disinfect wipes out from the white box.
"Huh?"
"He likes small scratches on the head. Like," I lean over and showed a representation of what I meant as he observed. "Like that." He gave a warm smile and followed what I did. I grinned under my nose and continued to clean up the bite.
In the corner of my eyes, I could see him look back up at me. "Do y-you want to name him?"
Raising my eyebrows I look back up at him. "I'm not good with names." I earned a chuckle and he shook his head, "Well, what would you l-like to name him?"
"Knowing me, probably..."
"Stripe number four."
"I think it's a good name." He said with that warm smile. In reply, "I'd like to think so."
"W-well it is! It has a meaning; a backstory to it."
After placing a band-aid on the bite and closing up the box I look back up at him once more, this time with a small smile. "Thanks."
I push the box aside and drag myself closer to the blond. "Do you want Stripe?" He considered but I denied shaking my hand. "He looks comfortable with you." He grins with his eyebrows raised, "Really?"
"Really."
He chuckles and looks back down and strokes through Stripe's fur slowly.
"Do you.. want to talk about what happened, when we were walking here?" I felt a bit compelled to bring up the topic but I wanted to know what was exactly wrong or it'll hold like a grudge.
Either way, he wasn't giving up and fell silent as he kept his full focus on Stripe instead of the question at hand. I sigh knowing my defeat and lean backward.
I felt a bit demoralized that perhaps he wasn't talking because he was still upset about something. That I hurt him somehow.
"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."