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Tweek closed his locker with a sigh. Craig was trapped in detention again, meaning they couldn't walk home together. He needed to have a talk with his boyfriend about how flipping off teachers for minor offenses wasn't really worth it. He adored the boy, but he could be so hot-headed at times.
Clyde was apparently going out on a date with Bebe, somehow and Tolkien wasn't at school today due to sickness, and also since he is not willing to tag along with Stan's gang since that means he would have to spend time with Cartman, he was likely spending the afternoon alone.
Lost in trying to chase away less than reasonable conclusions regarding all that, he suddenly bumped into someone, panicked, lost his balance and fell on his ass. "GAH!"
"Watch where you're go--" Wendy was about to snap, but her growl quickly morphed into something much more forgiving when she looked down at just who she had bumped with. "Oh. Hi, Tweek."
Tweek did not really understand it, but ever since he started dating Craig, many of the girls treat him slightly differently than the other boys. As in, they seemed less guarded with him, than for example Clyde or Stan. It really freaked him out at times, but at least in situations like this it was a win.
Wendy in particular, he could pretty confidently say, was on friendly terms with him. Maybe she even considered him one of her friends, who knows. Either way, he quickly stumbled back on his feet and replied "H-hi!"
She glanced around before asking "Where's Craig?"
"Ngh, detention," Tweek explained, an involuntary twitch getting out. Why was she asking about him?? There was an awkward pause, and then she seemed like she was about to leave. Yet, something about the girl's expression bugged Tweek, like something was wrong and she didn't want to say. "A-and where are your friends? Bebe, or N-Nichole or, nghh, Stan?"
She froze for a second. He must've struck a nerve with one of those names. Argh, stupid-!
"Bebe's on a date with Clyde, meanwhile Nichole has cheerleading practice," Wendy explained, her voice even more carefully neutral if that was possible. "Stan is probably crying his eyes out to, ugh, Broflovski," she spat out the name like it was a disease.
Tweek felt his heart hammer as he braved to ask "I-I don't know how it's like when there's a boy and a girl, but, nghh, shouldn't he be talking about his worries to you first?"
"He should," she stated coldly. "Too bad he didn't do that when he still had the chance."
Something was definitively off. No, scratch that, Tweek could with quite a bit of certainty say what it was - they probably broke up again. Wendy and Stan were an on-again/off-again type of deal, from what he understood. He didn't pay much attention to his classmates between having left Stan's gang and joining Craig's, but you'd have to actively shut everything out not to at least hear about their spats, if not witness one outright. He hadn't stumbled into the girl alone post-break-up before, so he wasn't sure what he was doing, but nonetheless he asked "Wanna m-maybe walk home together?"
She stared at him for a moment as if she was looking into his soul. Making the blonde twitch just a little. But then she nodded once and started walking away, looking at him expectanly, and so he quickly caught up and walked right beside her. For a fleeting moment he fret that people at school would take it as him trying to make a move on her when Stan's out of the picture for a while. However, noone gave them suspicious looks or anything, so it was probably cool.
They got out of the building and walked to Wendy'd house in silence for a good while. It was kinda awkward, but also he was clueless on what to say. Gah!, why did the girls assume he knew how to talk to them?? It's way too much pressure!
But before he could spiral too deep down, Wendy broke the silence, asking in an even tone that could rival Craig's "Aren't you angry with your boyfriend sometimes? I mean, he gets in trouble a lot, doesn't communicate his feelings well, all kinds of stuff that should piss you off."
That gave Tweek a pause, literally, as he instinctively stopped walking. He surprisingly didn't twitch, tremble or stutter as the two made silent eye-contact for a second. "Well, of course he annoys me sometimes," Tweek said, not really seeing what Wendy's getting at. "He can't read my mind, it's bound to happen sometimes. And I annoy him at times, too, I bet. Although we try to keep it to a minimum, after that whole Twitter fiasco," he explained. "Why are you asking?"
"Why are you two still together then?" she questioned, instead of anwsering. He almost thought it was meant to be a joke, but no, her expression indicated that she was genuinely confused. Huh.
"Wh-what do you mean why are we together? Gah!, we just like eachother, obviously," this interrogation of hers was strange, man. Were these trick questions or something??
"But you just said he upsets you!" Wendy exclaimed. Tweek let out a squeak and shrank away in reaction. The girl's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with one hand while half-heartedly reaching out towards the boy with the other "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, Tweek-"
"Gah!, i-it's okay," the blonde assured, hands put up in a placating gesture. "I'm used to it, don't worry, I just really don't like when people raise their voice like that. B-but I know you didn't mean it! Just, like t-try not to?"
The girl nodded silently and they resumed walking together, a now awkward silence present between the two.
However, in the privacy of his own head, Tweek kept thinking about the converstion cut short they were having just a moment ago. He was fairly positive he was understanding why Wendy said all those things, little by little. And he also believed he knew the solution to her problem, too! Just... damn, how should he say it? One wrong word could mess up ALL of it and Wendy would break up their maybe-friendship and never talk to him again and--
No, calm down, Tweek. You're capable of more than you think. You have experiance in talking with stubborn people. You can play this right.
He took a deep breath and blurted out "Just because he does stupid, annoying things sometimes doesn't mean I don't like him overall."
No response. Not even eye-contact. The silence of Wendy not acknowledging he said anything was so much pressure. And so he spat out another risky sentance "I-is this secretly about Stan?" He was pretty sure it was, although a confirmation would be nice. Or, more like the noirette being open that that's what this is.
She paused, as if shocked, stopping to walk. Then she groaned and admitted "Maybe." She sighed and finally met his eyes, continuing "I guess I'm just angry with him. We... had a fight today."
"That sucks, man," Tweek replied, relieved that they were at last talking straight to the point. That, he was quite sure he could handle. His friends often told him he was surprisingly good at this talking about feelings stuff. "What did you fight about?" he prompted, trying to kickstart her letting those feelings out.
"Well," she began as she resumed walking. "It's just that he's been lately spending a lot of time with Kyle. More so than with me." She paused, then asked "Look, you're gay, you know the signs best, so tell me, do you think Stan might be gay for Kyle?"
Tweek blinked, slowly. Not in a twitch kinda way, but in the deliberately showing confusion kinda way. He then stated "I think Stan likes girls. Gah!, he's one of the most definitively-into-girls guy in our class, right after Clyde."
Wendy crossed her arms and pouted, asking "Then why the hell does he spend more time with Kyle than me?"
"Well, it might be that he's st-stupid and doesn't realize he's doing it, o-or that it's hurting your feelings?" the blonde suggested, shrugging. "I mean, argh!, Kyle's his best friend, he's not gonna stop hanging out because he's gotten into a relationship. Like- I'm with Craig, but I'm still talking to you right now, yeah? A-and you did hang out with Bebe while being with Stan, yes? Doing the girly stuff you like, but know Stan doesn't, like nail painting or watching Highschool Musical or- Gah!, sorry, I'm rambling, a-aren't I-?"
"No, you... You're actually making alot of sense," Wendy said, much more softly than anything else today. She seemed to be processing.
They kept walking, eventually reaching Tweak Bros Coffee. They should, in theory, part ways here. But, well, Wendy seemed still troubled and Tweek had gotten invested and it's not like he had anything better to do anyway so- "Want something to drink? I can get it on the house."
Wendy met his eyes and, surprisingly, smiled for the first time that afternoon. "Damn, Tweek, I'd almost think you're trying something with me, if you weren't so obviously elbows deep in love with Craig."
"Gah! Oh God, n-no, I'm not--!" Tweek stammered out panickedly. "I-I mean, not that you're not nice or pretty or something, but I'm taken, you know? Not to mention Stan and Craig would team up to murder me. Like, he gets really upset whenever someone else -nngh- flirts with you and stuff!"
Wendy seemed stunned again at that last statement. Tweek twitched, too riled up to really be patient right now and asked again "So. Coffee?" The girl met his eyes again for a second, then nodded.
They walked into the store, completely bypassing his dad reflexively greeting them with a 'Welcome to Tweak Bros Coffee, what can I get you?', and walked up behind the counter to the coffee machine.
"Oh, hello son, didn't see you there!" the man actually took a look at them. "Are you getting yourself and your little friend here a drink?"
"Uhm, yeah, I-" he shook his head, trying not to devolve into a mess. Glancing over at Wendy, he asked "What would you like?"
She stared at the menu for a moment and said "Strawberry latte, please."
"Good choice, girl," the man commented and Tweek almost flinched hard enough to spill the milk.
"Uh, thanks, I think?" she replied, glancing at the blonde as if he was supposed to say something and, oh god, he was NOT in mood for dealing with his parents right now. So he quickly pushed the plastic cup with her beverage into her hands and grabbed himself the simplest black coffee, then proceeded to say "Nice to see you dad, but we're -nnghh- leaving n-now!" while already leading the noirette out the door.
They wordlessly took a few steps away from the shop before sitting down on a street-side bench and taking the first sips of their coffee. Or, in Tweek's case, he downed it all in one go, threw the cup against the ground and pulled at his hair to try and somehow take out the stress.
"Woah, relax, Tweek," Wendy said, putting her free hand on his shoulder. It did not have the same calming effect as Craig doing it would, but the effort was appreciated anyways.
"Thanks," the boy mumbled out.
The silence that followed was awkward and he wasn't sure if he prefered it over breaching the subject of Stan again. Wendy still seemed down, even if she was putting on a brave face. It was in her far-away gaze and slumped shoulders. And he sure would rather fix that than focus on his own anxieties. So...
"So, like, have you told -nnghh- Stan about all that stuff you told me?" he gathered the courage to ask.
"Well, duh, I broke up with him," Wendy said, now her being the confused one.
"Yeah, but like, did you just tell him he fucked up and it's over, or did you actually explain how he's making you feel?"
"Well," she idly played with the half-empty cup as she talked. "I told him that if he likes Kyle so much then maybe he should just just start dating him officially." She paused then added "Wow, it sounds way meaner now that I say it."
"Gah! Y-yeah, it maybe sorta kinda was," Tweek rubbed the back of his neck. "And missing the point. You didn't really tell him how you feel, leaving it up to him to figure it out and, well, some guys are really shit at that."
They licked gazes for a moment, tense, before Wendy groaned and put her fingers on the bridge of her nose. "Gosh, I should really talk to Stan, shouldn't I?"
"Well, depends, do you want to be back with him?" Tweek asked.
There was a moment of hesitance before she admitted "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do," she finished her coffee while quickly texting Stan and added "Thanks, Tweekers," before getting up, ready to meet her soon-to-be-again-boyfriend.
Tweek got up as well, offering a firm pat on the back and calling "Good luck, girl!"
---
"What does me being angry bother you?" Craig asked, deliberately not looking at his boyfriend nor hokding his hand.
"Nnghh- It's not your emotions that bother me, man!" Tweek replied, gesticulating wildly. "It's that you get in trouble for expressing them with rude gestures and bad words and- gah!- We just get to spend less time together because of you sitting in detention and that sucks, Craig!"
The noiret finally met his eyes, expression slightly shifted from the usual monotone, with eyes slightly widened, as if the revelation just struck him.
"Okay," he finally said. "I'll try to do it less." He then held out his hand, a confirmation of peace between them. Tweek happily grabbed it. He really liked the feel of his boyfriend's hand, it was warm, the skin was a little rough and the grip was firm - very familiar at this point.
They were about ready to get into math class, up until Stan appeared out of seemingly nowhere and blicked their path. Uh oh.
Craig was about to flip him off, but seemingly thought better of it, instead saying "Move, Marsh."
"Shut up, I'm here for Tweekers," the shorter noiret said. What would Stan want from someone like Tweek? Oh sweet Jesus, did Wendy tell him about their talk yesterday and he was jealous?? Shit, he does not want to get into another fight, thank you very much--
The boy put a hand on his shoulder - again, not quite the same as Craig doing it AND Tweek not being sure it's a friendly gesture - locked his brown eyes with Tweek's green ones and said "Thanks for getting Wendy to talk to me, you're a real bro."
"U-uhm! Thanks?" the blonde stuttered out, entirely too riled up by the situation to really feel proud of himself or anything like that. Craig squeezed his hand supportively, prompting him to take a deep breath. "Good to hear it worked out. B-but -nnghh- take what she said to heart!"
"It was a... little more complicated of a conversation than just that. I guess we should've talked long ago. But yeah, we'll both try to do better. Thanks, again," he added and then left hastily, probably embarassed.
Tweek and Craig stood there for a moment more before the latter asked "What did I miss?"
"You'd know if you weren't in detention," he playfully stuck him tongue out, which in turn made Craig half-jokingly flip him off. "Although to be fair, it probably wouldn't have happened if you were there. Either way, I can tell you after math class, okay?"
"Sure, honey," the other nodded and they went on with their day.