Work Text:
SLAM.
“Son of a bitch! I’m actually gonna piss myself!!” Clyde yelped, gripping at his crotch dramatically as he heard laughter from the other side of his 4th grade classroom door.
He rolled his eyes and started booking it, ignoring the ginger hall monitor yelling at him to stop running. This kid had to pee and he wasn’t gonna let the fact Craig hadn’t come back with the bathroom pass stop him from going!
Mr. Garrison always nagged about waiting for the person with the pass before going, but Craig Tucker had been the last one to take it and hadn’t been back in the past 20 minutes. Garrison can suck it and write Clyde up, when a man’s gotta go, he’s gotta go!!
Clyde slammed his body against the boy’s bathroom door and run over to a urial, letting out a sigh of relief as he finally didn’t feel like he was in for the worst day of his life.
After he finished up and flushed, he quickly pulled his pants up and groaned trying to put his belt back on. His dad usually did it for him, and he usually doesn’t have to use the bathroom during school hours.
“Yeah yeah mom I know, I should know how to put a belt on by now! I’m a growing boy! Blah blah blah!” Mocked Clyde, although his mother was long gone, her nagging still haunts him everywhere he goes. It’s freaky.
During the fight of his belt and his sausage fingers, he stopped for a moment to try and pick up something that he didn’t quite register before.
Was someone..
Crying?
He let go of his belt, figuring he’ll fix it later considering his pants were tight anyways, and walked slowly to the stall he heard the faint sobs from.
Usually he was the one doing the crying out of the boys in his school, so overall it’s really unusual for another dude to be crying, especially in the bathroom stalls.
Curiosity got the best of him as he stood infront of the stall that was lazily closed and the source of the sobs, showing that whoever was in here had obviously been in so much distress that he just forgot to close the door properly. Jesus. Must be some kindergarten or something.
Still tho, he wanted to actually see who was in there! Maybe he could rip on them since everyone usually rips on him, that’d be awesome.
Clyde slowly kneeled down and looked under the stall door, searching for the boy inside. Didn’t take long considering he was in the larger one for the handicapped, but the sight of who it was shocked him.
He immediately got up without thinking and slammed the door open, staring down at the boy inside who was curled up on the floor, holding his legs with his arms and face huddled in the middle of it all.
“Who the fuc—?! Clyde!? What the fuck are you doing in here??!” Craig exclaimed, his head shooting up to stare the brunette right in the eyes.
Clyde was actually lost for words upon seeing Craig, his hat was off, on the floor near the door, as if he had taken it off and thrown it across the stall. His hair was a mess and his eyes looked even worse, red and sore, cheeks stained with past floods of tears.
Craig never cried.
Never.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
“What happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you??” Clyde yelled, immediately going up to Craig and sitting on the floor with him, pushing his legs out of the way so he can hug Craig tightly.
Craig still fuming, tried pushing his friend away, but Clyde was very heavy compared to him and seemed like he was almost going limp trying to hug Craig. More tears only threatened to fall once again, and to not hurt his pride more than it’s already been hurt he buried his face in Clyde’s shoulder, hesitating at first before wrapping his arms back around Clyde.
He hated feeling vulnerable, that’s why he wanted to be alone.
But,
Clyde’s bear hugs do help, alot.
His grip around Clyde only tightened as he felt Clyde rubbing soft circles on his back, trying to be nurturing towards his friend in his time of “need”. He felt his head once feeling like it was pounding, trying to burst at any moment, slowly calm and swoon in a soft motion.
Craig took a deep breath before softly pushing Clyde away, in which Clyde let him, knowing it was just Craig’s way of wanting to talk instead of hugging for the time being.
“You alright?” Clyde asked once again, his voice softer and in a concerned tone.
“Y..Yeah. I’m fine. Just got a bit, you know.” Craig shrugged it off, letting out a pathetic chuckle in a way of trying to change the topic.
It proved to not work in the slightest, his frown reforming as he stared at Clyde’s glossy, worried and sorrowful eyes. Eyes that told him that it was okay to open up, that he could say anything and it’d be okay. He looked away, staring back at the floor with a small huff.
“You can talk to me you know, what’s going on?” Clyde asked, scooting himself to sit right next to Craig against the wall and nudged him a bit.
Craig glanced over at him, to which Clyde smiled sweetly at him in response. He sighed, looking at the toilet promptly telling the two of them that this was the worst place to talk about their feelings.
Whatever. The toilet can suck it.
“I don’t really, know? Specifically I mean. I feel like it’s a number of things.” He muttered, staring back at the floor as he traced shapes and things into the floor as he spoke, the feeling of Clyde’s eyes staring at his invisible artwork made him feel weirdly happy.
“I’ve just been feeling so gross lately, which I know sounds weird but, ever since this dating thing with Tweek I’ve just. Felt gross.
Staring and gazing upon walls and walls every day with the supposed love of your live holding your hand, also staring and gazing at these walls of artwork of us doing these.. Gross things. It makes me feel, sad. I hate staring at it.
It makes me want to just cover my eyes everywhere I go, makes me want to just let go of this love that I have so I can cover my eyes further, cover and cover even if It’s still there. It’s invisible if I can’t see it right?
I hate that everyday I come to school with the same feeling, and going home is no different. I hate going home. It doesn’t ever feel like home. Just another place where I have to cover my face and hide away, like I’m doing now.”
Craig blinked, rubbing his face and stared at his hand to realize he was once again crying. He hated these tears. They did nothing but bother him and show the world he’s scared.
Staring back over at Clyde only made the tears flood, as he saw his best friend not only looking heartbroken, but in tears as well.
“I’m so sorry Craig. I think I understand but, still. I’m so sorry.” He managed to mutter through the tears, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.
“It’s whatever. Just sometimes I wish I could hide forever. Hide in places like this stall forever, empty walls surrounding me. I like it when the walls are empty, don’t you?”
“Yeah.. I do too.”
They both stared at each other for a moment before looking away, a comfortable silence overtaking their meek conversation. Clyde jumped slightly, looking at his shoulder to see Craig leaning against him and closing his eyes.
“If I ever went away to hide, could you hide with me? You’d lighten up the empty walls a bit.” Craig muttered through his voice, now soft and low.
Clyde smiled, letting out a small giggle as he wiped his tears away and gently wiped Craig’s tear stained cheeks too, not noticing the dark reddish tint suddenly appearing on Craig’s face.
“Of course! I’m your best bud forever man!”
“Pshehe, Thanks Clyde. I really appreciate this.” He only leaned more into Clyde, feeling a sense of security like he hadn’t before. It was really nice, letting out these feelings and emotions without feeling judged.
“You know Craig.. My dad is like, hardly ever home. If you’re ever feeling down about going home, just head to my place! You live like, right next to me, so your parents don’t even have to worry!” Clyde said excitedly, perking up and stared at Craig on his shoulder with beaming eyes and a huge smile.
Craig opened his eyes and looked up at Clyde, feeling a sense of relief and joy as he smiled slightly up at Clyde.
“Really? You mean it?” Craig asked.
“Mhm!! You can help me make food and we can have sleepovers and everything! It’ll be great! I mean, unless you don’t want to then that’s alrigh-“
“No! I want to! That’d be awesome! Can we do that today, please? My parents won’t even care!” Craig said in an excited tone, ironically coming off as sarcastic due to his voice, but Clyde got the memo.
“Awesome! We’ll go after school then yeah? First let’s get off the floor and back to class.. We both probably got detention for staying here for so long.” Clyde groaned in annoyance, hearing his mother’s nagging once again.
“Right, sorry. Thanks again Clyde.”
Craig slowly got up and wiped his face again, helping Clyde up off the floor. As Clyde got up, dusting his pants, he yelped as he felt Craig lunge forward and hug him tightly, Clyde smiling and hugging Craig back.
This was the first time Craig had ever initiated a hug, it was a foreign share of affection but, oh so welcoming.
Clyde wished he’d hug like this all the time.
Flop.
They both blinked and looked down, seeing Clyde’s belt and pants fall to the floor.
“Did you just comfort me, and the entire time you didn’t even have your pants on correctly!?” Craig yelled, immediately looking away out of embarrassment.
“Hey! I was having a hard time putting on my belt and just gave up to see who was crying!” Clyde huffed, pulling his pants back up and began to fiddle with the belt again.
“Gross dude!”