Chapter Text
The harsh slam of the locker was drowned out by the loudness of the locker room. Craig had only been on the team for a week, but he was pretty used to how loud and rowdy it got in the room. He had already gotten used to and accepted the fact that he couldn’t hear his own thoughts, or hear what the person next to him was saying, when inside. It was the South Park High School’s boy locker room after all, you can’t put a bunch of teenage boys in a small room together and not expect chaos.
The room, like always, was filled with the entire basketball team, some boys minding their business on their phones, some throwing random shit around to each other and catching it, some loudly speaking to each other half-nude, a couple running around with their dicks swinging out and slapping each other on the asses with towels, which, surely only happened in movies, right?
Craig sighed, sitting down on one of the many benches across from one of the many rows of lockers, and fishing his cell phone out from his gym bag next to him. It absolutely blew his mind how anyone could have this much energy 1, period, and 2, after getting dicked-down at a game. Like..they got their asses pounded. Not literally, obviously, but they lost miserably . Who knew those North Park bastards were actually good at anything? They completely sucked at everything else, so you could imagine Craig’s surprise when they actually started scoring more points than his own team.
His head pounded. Nobody ever knew when to quit, or shut the fuck up. It was ungodly how much energy they still had even after getting slammed and publicly humiliated, and none of them even seemed pissed off or affected by the loss at all.
Craig tapped his screen, watching it light up and display the recent picture of his blonde-headed boyfriend pressing a kiss to his cheek at the festival they went to the week before. Craig absentmindedly-smiled at the view, and slid his screen upwards to unlock it. He tapped on his message app, and clicked on the pinned contact, the boy in question. He shot Tweek a text.
‘Ready.’ he sent, and his message was immediately read without a response. Craig tried not to think about it too much, what would Tweek even reply with? There was no reason to overthink anything.
Sure their relationship had been a little rocky lately, and sure Craig has been walking on eggshells around the boy for the past few days, but every relationship has its ups and downs, there was nothing to be worried about. Maybe it was just the stress going on with Tweek Bros that had his boyfriend so uptight and angry all the time, maybe it was just the stress of having his family’s business making frontpages and headlines each week that had Tweek so anxious.
Still, he hasn’t figured out what his parents are doing or what’s going on, he would’ve told Craig if he did, he would’ve.
“Craig! You heading out so soon?” Craig’s best friend, Clyde, asked, sitting on the left side of him, close to Craig on the bench, causing him to shift away in discomfort and annoyance, and moving his bag onto his lap.
“Yeah.”
“Why?” Tolkien asked, sitting down on the right side of him, putting some distance between the two of them, which Craig really appreciated.
“Tweek’s waiting for me.” Craig replied, I hope. “He said he was going to pick me up tonight after the game.”
Craig noticed a furrow in Tolkien’s eyebrows, “Are you sure? I don’t think he was at the game.”
“Yeah, and the boys are planning on going to Raisins! Like right now.” Clyde smirked.
“Who exactly are ‘the boys?’” Craig said, who would want to go anywhere with Clyde?
“You know! Me, Tolkien, Kyle, and Jimmy! He’s waiting somewhere around the school, he might be in the parking lot outside.”
“Wow, sounds like a lot of fun.” Craig deadpanned, and Tolkien chuckled.
“So? What about it? You need to relax sometime dude, you’re always so high-strung, just come chill with us for a while.”
Craig pondered it for a moment. Clyde was a douche, sure, but he was also Craig’s best friend, as much as he hated to admit it. And he didn’t have that title for no reason, he’s been there for Craig during difficult times in his life and his relationship with Tweek, which happens to have been his only relationship by far, he was cool to hang out with too, it’s not like Craig was against going out with them, Tolkien, Clyde, and Jimmy were all close friends, and Kyle was like…the most stable out of his close friends.
Had Tweek really not shown up to the game? It was their second game of the season, sure it wasn’t as important as the first or the last one, but it was still pretty important, Craig was too busy playing to look for him in the crowd, so he wouldn’t know. It sucks if he didn’t show.
But he was still going to pick him up, Craig would feel too bad to make him go all the way back home alone if he was already outside, and he wanted to talk to his boyfriend.
“So? Dude?”
“Sorry, I can’t. Tweek’s waiting for me.”
Clyde gave a look to Tolkien, who in response returned the look.
“Alright, man. If you change your mind, we probably won’t be leaving for another ten minutes.” Tolkien said, and the two slid off of the bench, mixing with the others.
Craig sighed and looked back down to his messages, still no reply. He clicked the call button at the top of the screen and pressed his phone to his ear.
“............”
“H-Hey! It’s Tweek, sorry I missed your call, call me back later.” The phone went straight to voicemail.
Frustrated, Craig let the phone fall back into his lap, and shot his boyfriend another message.
‘Are you still coming to get me?’ he sent, and immediately, a small message under his, saying ‘read’ appeared, but not an actual message back from Tweek.
Craig turned off his phone and shoved it into his pocket. The boy slid off of the bench and zipped up his gym bag before pulling the straps over one of his shoulders.
He glanced around the hot locker room, still filled to the brim with sweaty, loud teenage boys, before spotting one of the three he was looking for. He pushed through the sea of boys, some ignoring him and talking to each other, some pissed off presumably from their asses just getting served , and some trying to talk to him, but they went ignored.
“Hey.” Craig said, speaking only a little louder than a whisper as he stepped closely to the red-head.
“Hey, dude.” Kyle chuckled, finding it a bit weird how close Craig was standing and how quiet he was speaking, but he didn’t think about it as he slid his shirt over his head and pulled it down over his waist.
“You’re going to Raisins, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Cool. Tell them to wait for me, okay?”
The only confirmation he received was a nod, and he turned to exit the locker room.
The cool air hit his skin as he pushed through the double-doors into the dark night, and Craig could not have been more relieved.
Finally, I can fucking breathe
, he sighed. He glanced around the busy parking lot, finding way more kids than he’d thought, standing on the sidewalk, and a small line of cars passing through picking them up, and some cars around the parking lot. It shocked him because it had to have been like…twenty minutes after the game, why were there still so many un-picked up kids around? It was still pretty loud and lively outside, just like the locker rooms with all the other students walking around and talking, and the sounds of the loud running cars and the bright headlights of each.
Whatever, it didn’t really matter to him. All that mattered to Craig as of that moment was spotting the familiar red sedan his boyfriend drove. Tweek was happy for weeks after getting that car for his seventeenth, it was a gift from parents for his birthday, it was really the only thing they ever gave him like..ever.
God, he was adorable. He was so excited to pick me up everyday, we finally could stop riding that shitty bus.
It was a bit dark, too dark for Craig to be able to tell which car was which. Each car looked black, obviously except the white ones, you couldn’t miss those even in pitch darkness.
Craig didn’t want to doubt his boyfriend, he didn’t want to admit to himself that he probably wasn’t outside, but he didn’t want to lie to himself. There wasn’t any reason that Tweek would just be reading his messages and not replying if he wasn’t busy, and was waiting for him.
Still, he waited outside, searching for the same red sedan he had seen and been in many times, but he knew he was on a bit of a timer with the boys waiting for him.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and unlocked it to text his boyfriend.
‘I’m outside, Tweek. Where are you?’
He squinted at the brightness of the screen in contrast to the darkness around him. He had a twinge of hope as his message was read. Craig’s eyes didn’t leave the screen as the typing dots appeared on his screen. Score!
‘Sorry, overslept.’ Tweek responded, and Craig frowned. What a load of bullshit! He was awake ten minutes ago when he was reading all of the messages Craig was sending about being ready to go, and he was awake an hour ago when he kissed Craig goodbye before he left his house to get ready for his game, what happened?
‘How am I going to get home? I already told my parents you were going to pick me up. My mom went to work, and my dad’s probably sleeping.’
‘Call him.’
‘He sleeps like the dead, dude you know this.’
‘I’m sorry, Craig. I can’t get you tonight, just ask Clyde to drop you off or something.’
Craig fidgeted with his fingers, chewing on his bottom lip anxiously before asking,
‘Are you okay?’
For a moment, Tweek didn’t respond, hesitance , Craig thought.
‘Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘You’d tell me if something was going on wouldn’t you?’
‘Of course, Craig. Where is this coming from?’
‘Idk..You just seem like you’re having a hard time..like something’s happening. I just want you to know I’m always here if you need to talk. Even if it’s over text.’
‘Thanks, but I’m fine.’
‘Are you sure?’
“Craig! Dude.”
Craig glanced away from his phone as the four approached him. He huffed in slight irritation, as the one who ALWAYS interrupted him whenever he was doing something important, interrupted him while he was doing something important.
“Hey, Clyde.” Craig replied with a flat tone, turning his phone off and shoving it back into his pocket.
“Y-You’re c-c-coming with u-us?” Jimmy smiled, and Craig nodded.
Clyde threw his arm over his best friend’s shoulders, and yanked him closer to him as the four stood next to Craig on the edge of the school sidewalk. Jimmy stood on Craig’s left, Clyde close to him on his right, Tolkien on Clyde’s right, and Kyle on Tolkien’s.
“Tweek didn’t pick you up, huh?” Clyde smirked, groaning in pain when he was harshly elbowed in the stomach by Craig.
“D-Don’t feel too b-b-bad man. I-I don’t have any–any–anyone to p-pick me up, either.” Jimmy smiled at him.
“Forget him! Let’s get wasted tonight!”
“Whoa, what the hell are you talking about?” Tolkien asked, staring at Clyde. “Nobody’s getting wasted.”
“Uh, yeah the hell we are? Why the hell else would we go to Raisins ? Lexus let’s me snort coke off her ass on the tables.” Clyde smirked.
“ Cocaine ?” Kyle questioned.
“Okay, she just rolls up a blunt for me in one of the back rooms, but that’s basically the same thing.”
“Not the same thing at all.” Craig said.
“Yeah it is. It basically is.”
“No…Coke is way worse than regular mary-jane. If it’s white, stay out of sight.” Tolkien said. “Seriously.”
“Except Ec-Ecsta–Ecstasy, it’s am-amazing.” Jimmy said.
“Jimmy knows what I’m talkin’ about.” Clyde smiled.
“Are we just going to keep standing here or are we going to go to Raisins?” Craig asked. “Us standing here with your arm around me is seriously starting to get gay.”
“I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page. Nobody’s doing cocaine, or ecstasy, right? Like…there’s no drugs involved, right?” Kyle asked with narrowed eyes, looking at each of them, mainly Jimmy and Clyde.
“Lexus is my dealer, so I don’t have anything on me right now .” Clyde shrugged.
“N-no promises.” Jimmy smiled.
“Jimmy, I’m not fucking playing with you, give me what you have.” Kyle nagged, reaching over Tolkien, Clyde, and Craig to grab at Jimmy’s pockets.
“S-so y-y-you can thr-thr-throw them a-away?! Fuck you!” Jimmy said, raising one of his crutches off of the ground and leaning on the other to poke over at Kyle’s feet.
“Guys..Guys stop. Guys please, it’s not this serious.” Tolkien said, making absolutely no attempt at separating the two.
Clyde just laughed at the three boys’ antics, arm still around Craig. Craig stayed silent as he thought about his boyfriend. Something was definitely wrong, and it was only his job to figure out what. He hated seeing his boyfriend upset or stressed by anything , and it wouldn’t be very good-boyfriend of him to sit by and let everything happen.
But now, he guesses they’re going to go to Raisins and snort coke off of some waitress’s ass or something, whatever the hell they were talking about. As if they didn’t have a care in the world.