Chapter Text
He's gotten used to the yelling at night. The sound of dishes being broken is a sound he's learned to fall asleep to. Most of the time, he doesn't even know what the fights are about.
It's been like this for two years. Sometimes, Tricia comes into his room. She doesn't like yelling, she never has. He'll sit there and hug his little sister until she falls asleep.
But when it hits morning, everything is fine. Laura and Thomas are being all lovey dovey, Tricia is smiling and making snarky comments at Craig. But he doesn't understand. Even being on the verge of turning 17, he doesn't get why they fake it.
Even if his little sister doesn't realize it, Craig knows. He knows they fake it. He's seen his father sleeping on the couch on the very few silent nights when he goes down in the dead of night for a drink of water. He can see the fake smile on his moms face in the morning while eating breakfast.
Craig Tucker hates mornings, for that one reason. Thats why he's currently waking up to the smell of bacon and his sister gone from his room, and not wanting to leave his room to face his family once again.
Craig knows people have it harder then him. For example, Kenny Mccormick, his parents are poor junkies who sell meth and got taken away for child endangerment and illegal drug use last year. Which led to the Mccormick siblings being in foster care.
Another example is Tweek Tweak. Craig tries to not think of Tweek Tweak. Even if the boy is the main focus of his dreams every. Single. Night.
"Craig, breakfast!"
Craig groans and rolls onto his back. He rubs his eyes with his plams and slowly sits up. Craig stumbles to his bedroom door and stomps down the stairs to the kitchen. Laura looks at him while taking bacon off a pan, "No good morning?"
Craig doesn't spare her a glance and fills his plate. He sees his mom shake her head and roll her eyes in his peripheral vision, but decides to ignore it and sit down.
"Don't ignore your mother, Craig," Thomas speaks. He looks over his reading glasses with half his face covered by the daily paper. Craig takes a bite of his bacon and groans.
"Morning," Laura sets one of the two plates she's holding in front of Thomas while smiling at her son. She walks behind Craig and kisses his hair before sitting down at the other end of the table and digs into her food. Silence overtakes the room. Craig wants to be engulfed in said silence and just sit there forever. But that silence doesn't last long when he hears his sister across the table.
He looks up at her and watches in disgust as she smacks her pancakes, revealing everything inside her mouth, “Y’know you’re fucking disgusting right?”
“Craig!” His mom say’s in offense of her youngest child.
“What? I don't want to see my sisters chewed up food that's living in her mouth,” Craig complains. Tricia looks at him with an unamused face as she put’s more food in her mouth.
“You chewed with your mouth open when you got your braces? What’s the difference?” She asks with a mouthful of syrupy pancakes.
The boy drops his fork against his plate and crosses his arms, “The difference was that I couldn't see it. I can see the food.”
Tricia furrows her eyebrows and points an accusing finger at him while she talks, “I could see it and it was also pretty fucking gross!” She shouts.
The siblings hear the ginger man at the end of the table sigh and they both look at him. He places his knife down on the edge of his plate and swallows his food.
“Can you guys not fight for once?” He asks in a surprisingly calm tone. How could he out of all people ask them not to fight? Did he forget that he and his wife make both Craig and Tricia hate night time because of him fighting?
Suddenly Craig can’t control his mouth or how fast his mind is running. He swears he didn't mean to say what came out of his mouth. It kind of just, you know, happened. He swears he didn't mean to break the unspoken rule of talking about what happens when it’s late at night.
There's no talking. Everyone just stares at Craig while he stares at his dad. Tricia starts biting her thumb nail with her other arm wrapped around her waist. Laura stares at her plate and glances up at her sons and husband's staring contest.
In the silence, it's very clear to hear Thomas’ chair scraping against the floor and the sound of glass shattering on the wall behind him. He stands there breathing aggressively with his shoulders going up and down rapidly. When Thomas leaves to his office, Craig opens his mouth.
“Um, i’m going to, uh,--Tolkien will be here soon so im go-gonna go get ready,” He stutters. Craig slowly stands up leaving his abandoned food on the table. He skips stairs to get to his room faster.
He stands there in his dimly lit room fighting back tears. He hates crying, it makes him feel useless. He’s pissed all the time and he can’t seem to find the reason. It makes him feel like complete and utter shit. Craig takes a deep breath and wipes his eye’s before the tears could slip.
He changes into his dark wash jeans and a white t-shirt. He throws on his big dark blue bomber jacket, a star necklace, and his signature blue chullo hat.
Craig finishes tying his converse that are basically falling apart every second when he hears his phone go off three times in a row.
—
Tolkien (7:20)- im here :-)
Tolkien (7:20)- and why is your sister trying to get in my car??
Tolkien (7:21)- hurry the fuck uppppp thisis clyde now btw
—
He smiles at the text and he waves by to stripe then grabs his bag while he’s walking out his bedroom door. He tries to not look at his miserable looking mom while she cleans up the shards of glass from the kitchen floor. Craig walks down the front steps and to his friends red sports car.
“Tricia!” Craig shouts. He grabs the back of her backpack and yanks her away from the car. He drags her back to the front of the house and puts her inside while she thrashes and kicks.
“But I need a ride to school!” She flails her arms in the air and almost hits Craig, he grabs her arm to make her stop and rolls his eyes.
“Then take the bus like a normal kid, or have mom drive you,” when Craig says that he sees his mom peek around the corner and furrow her eyebrows.
She shakes her head, “no, I have to work, i still need to get ready. I'm already going to be late,” Craigs rolls his eyes and walks out the door.”
“Craig!”
“Take the goddamn bus! You'll make it if you run!” He tells her. Tricia rolls her eyes and starts running down the sidewalk to the direction of the bus stop.
Craig swings the door to the backseat of the car open and throws his bag onto the floor between him and Jimmy. Tolkien starts to drive but slows down next to Tricia when he’s close to her and she stops running. He rolls down Clyde's window, “Get in, Tricia.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” Craig asks with his mouth agape. He sees Tricia smile at him through the window while she takes a couple of steps to the door and forcefully pushes him over. “Tolkein!”
“She would've missed the bus, do you want her walking around this town alone?” Tolkien says. Jimmy chuckles next to him.
“M-maybe she’ll ru-ru-run into stans gan-g and go to per-pe-peru,” Jimmy jokes. Craig hits his arm in a serious matter while Clyde looks behind him chuckling.
“Haha, nice one Jim Jim,” Clyde puts his hand up to fist bump his friend.
The rest of the ride to school consisted of Tricia pushing Craig while singing with Clyde and Jimmy, Tolkien trying to get them to stop, and Craig sitting there staring at his feet. When they get to school, Craig still doesn't talk. Tricia goes to Ike and Karen who are waiting for her and goes off with them. Craig walks behind the group as they all talk.
“Yo, dude, you good?” Clyde askes with a slight head tilt. Craig looks at Clyde and realizes that they’re at the lockers.
“Yeah, sorry. What are we talking about?” Craig asks as he twists the knob on his locker. He looks Back at Clyde as he talks.
“We were talking about if I should ask out Bebe again, I keep seeing her staring at me in class and at lunch. I think she might like me again!” Clyde exclaims. Craig feels confused. When did they break up again?
“I thought you guys were still together?” He asks his best friend. “Where did Jimmy go?”
“He had to go to Mr. Mackeys for something about the school paper,” Tolkien says. Clyde looks at Tolkien then back at Craig.
“Nah man, remember? She broke up with me like a week ago because she needed to, quote on quote, ‘have time for herself’? I don’t know, something bitchy like that,” Clyde explains. Craig nods and says ‘oh’. He gathers the rest of his school books and jams them into his bag. When he looks back over to Clyde he sees him whispering something to Tolkien before he nudges Craig.
“What?” He watches as Clyde points at something, or rather someone. Craig follows where he’s pointing and sees him.
Tweek Tweak standing at his locker putting a book in his bag. When he closes his locker and turns to walk down the hall, Craig can clearly see him playing with one of his snake bite piercings and earbuds in.
Clyde laughs, “How were we ever friends with him? And I like never see him in the morning, where the fuck is he half the time?” Craig looks at Clyde then at Tolkien who looks like he’s trying to hide his guilt.
Craig can’t disappoint Clyde by not saying something. He doesn't want to look like he doesn't hate Tweek now does he? “Probably getting stoned in one of the bathroom stalls,” Craigs says while slamming his locker closed. Clyde audibly laughs and looks at Craig.
“Or planning more ways on how to get attention,” The brunette giggles. Craig looks at Tolkien again and so does Clyde. Tolkien obviously looks very guilty, but Clyde unsurprisingly doesn't pick it up.
“What about you, Tolkien, what do you think?” The shorter boy asks. Tolkien looks up and does his best to get rid of the look in his eyes and smiles and laughs.
“Most likely what Craig said,” He agrees. Craig want’s this conversation to be over, or at least not be a part of it, so he grabs his airpods out of his jacket pocket and sticks them in. Clyde continues talking about him till they get to class, which by the way, the topic of the conversation is in their class and Clyde doesn't exactly know how to talk quietly.
The three boys sit in the back on the other end of the classroom from Tweek. The blonde boy looks over for a few seconds then back at the paper he’s writing on and visibly turns up his music. Craig feels bad, of course, but it's Tweeks fault they’re not friends anymore. Right?
Right?
~
The last bell of the day rings and the four boy’s are walking out to Tolkien’s car. Clyde and Jimmy race after both calling shotgun at the same time and Craig walks slower with Tolkien. Tolkien sends a text to his girlfriend, nichole, and puts his phone in his back pocket. “Are you okay?”
The question scares Craig. He can’t look weak in front of one of his best friends. But he's not okay, he hasn't been for years and it’s gone unnoticed for so long. “Mhm, just tired, didn't sleep well last night.”
That didn't seem to cut it with Tolkien but he didn't push, “alright, i'm here if you need to talk to me, remember that.”
Tolkien walks faster to get to the car and Craig keeps his pace. When he reaches the car, he swings the door open and sits down next to Clyde who was crying because he lost to Jimmy.
The car ride to Tolkien's house is the same as it is to school, just with no Tricia who was going to Karen's house. The group usually goes to Tolkien's house after because they have everything there, a nintendo switch, a Xbox, PS5, and a ton more other things. And it's probably the only non boring place in town. Other than starks, well stark's pond is boring, but Craig likes that. He likes the peace and quiet and the feeling of sitting there alone and blanking out his mind.
They watch a movie then play mario kart for a while until Clyde speaks up, “Guys, I want hot chocolate,” Clyde whines.
“We have some in the pantry," Tolkien says after picking his character. Clyde scrunches his nose and sticks his tongue out at him, Tolkien rolls his eyes, “You don't like that one do you?” Clyde shakes his head in response.
“Th-the only other pla-pla-place around here is tw-twe- is tweek bros,” Jimmy says. We all look at him and Jimmy shrugs.
“We’ll go there then, we’ll just-uh,” Clyde stands up and pats his pocket until he sees a notepad and a pen on the coffee table, “We can just write down what we want so we don't have to talk to him.”
Tolkien sighs and rubs his eyes, “Okay, fine, get in the car, I'll grab my wallet," Craig isn't ready for this.
Upon arriving at the coffee shop, Craig was nervous. He was playing with his hat and wiping his face constantly. He's never this nervous about anything. He wasn’t even this nervous when he got his braces.
"We really didn't need to come here," Craig sighs and looks at Clyde.
He shrugs as he looks at him, "I like the muffins here."
When they walk in, Craig gets even more nervous to the point he feels he’s going to puke. Jimmy puts a hand on his shoulder in a way of asking if he's okay. Craig nods and follows Clyde to the counter as Jimmy and Tolkien save a table. Clyde slides the paper toward where Tweek is sitting behind the counter drawing. He looks at the paper then up at the two boys and laughs.
“Seriously?” He says. Clyde ignores him and walks away, Craig has no choice but to follow him. He looks behind at his ex-best friend who looks absolutely pissed. Tweek laughs while looking back at him and shakes his head as he gets up to make the drinks.
Craig and Clyde sit down across from Tolkien and Jimmy. Craig feels like such a pussy for not talking to him.
And even being surrounded by his friends, talking, laughing, and joking about anything and everything.
Craig has never felt so alone.