Work Text:
What could he possibly be listening to?
That thought followed Kyle all day as he stared at Craig Tucker. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much but seriously---who goes through a whole school day with both headphones in?
It irked him watching Craig lean back lazily at his desk, feet propped up on the little tray in the bottom of the chair in front of him. His fingers on top of his desk, fingers drumming to the beat of whatever he was listening to on top of his untouched work. No teacher noticed Craig wasn’t paying attention, the sneaky bastard had his mp3 player stuffed in his pants pocket with the headphone wire fed through his shirt sleeve. It was distracting. Kyle couldn’t focus, the only thing grabbing his attention was the back of Craig’s head, subtly nodding to the beat of his music.
From exactly 9:17 when Craig got out of his car in the parking lot—Craig was smart enough to not have a first period, to now, third period American Government. Kyle only shared a few classes with him, second period AP Stats included. They sat beside each other in that class, and Kyle watched, as their teacher droned on about hypothesis testing, Craig just lean back in his seat and stare at the board. Now, they were doing some kind of research paper about how bills are passed, but Kyle still couldn’t focus on that. He bit the inside of his cheek as he stared daggers into the back of Craig’s head.
His desk was kicked, it jolted him out of his thought process as he turned to glare at the assailant.
“Dude, what’s your damage?” Stan asked, leaning over the arm of the chair. They had those stupid desks-chair connected combos for tables which it made it difficult to whisper in class. Kyle looked down at his untouched paper and back at Stan.
“No damage,” He muttered, picking his pencil up to doodle at the corner of his page, making it look like he did some work at least.
“Uhh, okay. So why are you staring at the back of Tucker’s head?” Stan pressed, gesturing his head towards the unaware boy sitting a few desks up from him.
Kyle didn’t answer: what was his damage? Craig’s music-listening habits were none of his concern, they weren’t even friends for christ’s sake.
“He’s been listening to music this entire day so far. It’s pissing me off.” Kyle finally admitted, it made him feel a little ridiculous. How could something so unserious bother him to the point of no return. Kyle was known for his short temper but even this seems a little overzealous by his standards.
“Oh…dude, really?”
“Yes, what’s the point of going to school if you’re not going to do anything? People are here to learn, not be lazy and listen to some ridiculous, gay music,” Kyle whispered-ranted.
“You know he’s, like, legally required to be here, right? We all are. Hell, I’d kill to listen to music right now. He’s got the right idea,” Stan laughed at Kyle.
Kyle glared at Stan and turned away from him. He felt like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum; arms crossed and a pout on his lips as he slumped in his desk. He looked back at Craig, his position had changed: hand rested on his chin, arm supported by the annoying metal bar connecting his desk and chair. His feet were still propped up by the metal tray.
Kyle grumbled to himself, willing his eyes to look down at his paper. Craig ended up staying like that the rest of the period, Kyle assumes he fell asleep.
Right after the bell rings to end third period, it’s first lunch, which Kyle is so lucky to have with Craig fucking Tucker. Kyle’s walking out of the lunchline when he notices Craig isn’t there. Good, maybe he’ll be able to actually eat instead of being annoyed by his indifference. He sits down at his usual table, picking at his food. It’s disgusting. He sighs and wills himself to stand up. He’s going to go to the vending machine.
He’s grabbing his snack out of the machine when he hears footsteps, he looks behind him and sees Craig walking by. Hands in his pocket as he idly stolls by, headphones still in his fucking ears. Kyle narrows his eyes as Craig walks past him not even acknowledging his presence. That fucking rude bitch. Kyle stares after him for a minute before resigning himself to follow behind Craig.
They end up outside in the back parking lot. Kyle watches Craig sit down on the pavement, back against the brick wall of one of the school’s buildings. He pulls out a book. Kyle stares. He’s fucking reading? Really? After not paying attention all day, he’s skipping lunch to do something as lame as reading? He watches as Craig digs into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette pack. Ugh, gross. Kyle starts to turn around to go back to lunch when Craig says something.
“You gonna keep staring at me all day or say something?”
Kyle freezes–fuck. Craig knew Kyle’s been staring at him all day.
Craig hasn’t looked up from his book at all, he just gestures towards the spot next to him, inviting Kyle to join him. Kyle does. He sits next to Craig, awkwardly crossing his arms over his knees. He fiddles with his shoelaces as he and Craig sit in silence.
Eventually, Kyle asks the question that’s been plaguing him all day: “What are you listening to?”
Craig shrugs, takes out one head phone and offers it up to Kyle. It’s a silent gesture, but it still makes Kyle blush as he takes it in his hand. He scoots closer to Craig, their shoulders touching as he puts it in his ear.
He gets his question answered as—is that fucking Oasis? Oasis, Craig’s been listening to fucking Oasis all day? Kyle laughs at this fact.
“Dude, you like Oasis?” Kyle giggles as he says. Craig nods slowly but doesn’t offer anymore than that. He’s moved on from his book, doodling on the cuffs of his jeans now. Where he procured the pen from, Kyle has no idea.
“I’ve been watching you all day. It’s been killing me not knowing what could’ve been so interesting to you that you literally didn’t do any work all day and it’s fucking Oasis.” Kyle’s head leans back to hit the wall, staring up at the sky.
Craig lets out a small laugh at that, “Oasis rocks, Broflovski, you don’t gotta listen”.
Kyle ponders for a moment, Oasis was kinda lame—basic maybe. He considers handing the headphone back but he realizes he doesn’t wanna move away from Craig. He likes the closeness, even if he has to breathe in the smoke from Craig’s cigarette. He watches from the corner of his eyes as Craig leans up and lets the smoke fall from his mouth. Even if Kyle thinks smoking is horrendous, the way Craig’s doing has a sort of appeal. Kyle blushes at the thought.
“No, I can tolerate it”.
They stay like that for a long while, small chit chat in between. They hear the lunch bell ring, but they stay stationary, neither boy wanting to move away from the other's company.
Kyle starts noticing details about Craig: his eyebrow piercing, the drawings on his jeans and shoes, the patches in his jacket that looked sewed on, the smell of cigarettes and some kind of sweet cologne. He’s never noticed before but there’s also an earring in Craig’s ear.
“When did you get that?” Kyle mutters as he points to the stud in Craig’s ear.
Craig offers a shrug, “I don’t know 10th grade? Some upperclassmen did it at a party”.
Kyle laughs at the idea: Craig at a party. “Are you going to get anymore?”
“Uhh, yeah, I wanna get spider bites,” Craig points to his bottom lip, Kyle assumes that's where the piercing goes.
“When do you think you’ll do it?”
“I was actually planning on doing it today. That’s why I was skipping lunch”.
Kyle lets out a silent oh, he felt bad.
“Don’t feel bad, you didn’t keep me from it. I can still do it today”.
Kyle nodded.
“Come with me. I mean, like, we can go right now. We’re already playing hooky” Craig’s not looking at him, but he sees a slight blush on his cheeks.
Kyle thinks for a minute, he’s never really skipped like this before, but he does like the idea of spending more time with Craig.
“Okay let’s go,” Kyle hands the headphone back to Craig. Craig smiles lightly at him, standing up and offering Kyle a hand. Kyle smiles in return, taking his hand and standing up.
They’re almost to Craig’s car when Kyle notices their hands are still interlocked. Craig hadn’t let go. He feels heat flow to his face as he stares at their interlaced fingers, but he doesn’t let go. He doesn’t want to.