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"I didn't think it would be this cold, Craig." Tweek said as he climbed up the piping to the roof of his boyfriend, Craig Tucker's house.
"It's South Park, dude. What did you expect? Plus, we've lived here our whole lives. I'd expect you to know the weather by now."
"Ha, very funny. I just forget how despite the heat of the day, it always manages to be fucking freezing at night."
Craig pulled Tweek up to the roof, an easy task, considering Tweek barely reached five four and survived on a diet of coffee and the occasional carrot. Exaggeration aside, he wasn't the best eater. Or sleeper. Or not being a paranoid freak-er.
"Again, you've lived here forever. Plus we always come up here. Maybe if you wore more than a shirt you wouldn't be too cold." Craig's monotonous voice seemed to blend and fit to the silence of the night, as opposed to Tweek's high energy bursts of phrases, often interrupted by stutters or sips from an ever-present coffee cup.
"Thanks for your care. You know how I hate restricting clothes, like what if I need to run away or fight for my life? What if the weather changes suddenly thanks to global warming and I overheat and die, Craig? What if the animal that was killed for the fur in the coat comes to haunt me for revenge?"
Craig put his hand on Tweek's thigh, a silent message meaning that Tweek was rambling again. He tended to do that, ramble off topic at a pace so fast no one could keep up, half the conversation happening in his head, so it seemed he was jumping around randomly. He found it helped to think about what he was going to say in full beforehand, which Craig was exceptional at doing. He never said anything unless he was 100% certain that was what he wanted to say, something Tweek envied. They sat down on the roof, Tweek leaning into Craig.
"Something I'll miss about leaving South Park," Craig said, looking up at the sky, "is how clear the stars are. You can see pretty much everything, on a good night."
"You're going to leave South Park?"
A topic that had never been breached between them, colleges being something never really discussed as both of them never had exceptional grades and no athletic talents that served as gateways to further education.
Craig only shrugged in response, looking at Tweek.
"I guess, if not now somewhere in the future. I don't wanna stay here forever."
"Well, neither, but everything is here!"
"Not really. I'm assuming you'd come with me, so I don't really need much else."
Tweek opted to holding Craig's hand rather than responding, which they both took as a confirmation that Tweek would indeed join Craig.
That's the thing about Craig, he never had grand declarations of anything, just quiet admittances which one could easily let slide if they weren't careful enough to catch it. Despite the constant noise in Tweek's head, he never missed one.
"I don't think I'd manage somewhere warm."
Craig nodded in agreement, "Token and Clyde are going to California. They like the idea more than anything, especially when a heatwave strikes and they're stuck in traffic for all of it."
"Stan and Kyle are going to Denver."
"Makes sense. Them going together, that is." Craig pulled out a cigarette packet, and after offering one to Tweek, lit one.
"No shit. They're codependent." Tweek's chattering teeth near broke the filter, but he still took a long drag on the thing, exhaling shakily.
"Do you know where Kenny's going? If he's going to college, that is."
"No idea. He said something about trekking across America, but he was high when he said that."
"Fucking McCormick." Craig said with a smile, having become friends with Kenny after they shared a three hour detention together.
"I think I'm gonna be left behind." Tweek said, looking down to the roof.
Craig lifted an eyebrow, and silently asked Tweek to elaborate.
"Well, everyone's going to college and shit. I never even applied to college, and stuff like cars. I don't even have learners or anything, but everyone's zooming around and I was looking at my phone the other day and I thought 'Oh shit, I'm gonna have to pay for this soon.' Like I had just assumed that I'd be under my parent's wing forever, but leaving school and becoming an adult practically have shoved me into this world I never wanted to be a part of. I never knew what I wanted in life, I've just been drifting following other people's orders, but now it's like, you have do things for yourself and take charge. But if I don't I'm looked at like a failure or something."
Craig contemplated this for a few seconds, finishing his cigarette.
"Shit isn't a race. You'll learn to drive, maybe you won't. You'll go to college, maybe you won't. No one really knows what they want to do. Even Wendy is just faking it, even though she's had her whole life planned out since she understood what a neurosurgeon was and decided she was going to be one. No one has their shit figured out period, let alone at eighteen. Chill."
"Forgive me for not believing you."
"Tweek, I don't believe me. I'm scared, man. I keep telling myself I can still go to college but it's scary because I don't know if I want to even go. I assume I'm moving out of here but with what money? Where to?"
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Act like everything's okay. Look at me, I'm constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown, but if everyone is apparently feeling this then how do they keep from going insane?"
"The stars. They don't care if I don't go to school. They don't care if you don't learn how to drive or if I murder suicide you or we skip graduation and go on a month long bender. That's how I do it, anyway."
"Maybe I should join the circus."
"If they'd let your clumsy ass in. Do they still keep lions and elephants there?"
"I don't know, man. I don't even think circuses are still a thing."