The Evermore Dissociate(Creek) - Chapter 25: Chapter 25

The curtains were closed despite it being early afternoon. Rays of light were blocked from entering the living room by a pair of blackout curtains. It was kind of like a metaphor, his mood like the inside of a dark room, the deafening volume of the television that fills the silence.
Craig barely even looked up from his phone when his dad came to sit on the other side of the couch with two tins of cider in his hands, one open, whilst the other was outstretched towards the son. "Ere, looks like you can do with one of these." Thomas ruffed, his voice slurred from his day of binge drinking. Craig exhaled deeply, despondent eyes turning to his father, then to the drink in his hairy hands.
"Whatever." He monotoned, reaching out to accept it.
Thomas slurped irritatingly on his drink, half focused on the television screen as he spoke. "So what's got you even more brooding than usual?"
"Nothing." Craig snapped. Thomas fixed him with a deadpanned expression, knowing full well he was being lied to. "Just some stupid argument." The noirette shook his head, his fingers pulling back the tab to open his drink.
"I see." Thomas nodded. "With a girlfriend?"
"What? No." Craig huffed. "With Tweek."
"That weird blonde kid?" Thomas asked. Craig furrowed his brows at his dad, but tightly nodded. "What happened? Anything interesting?"
Craig stared down at his drink, his fingers tightly holding onto the cold tin, feeling the liquid on the other side. He wasn't sure if this is the sort of thing people tell their dads, but to be fair, Craig never really tells Thomas anything, aside from calling him a drunken asshole. The thing was, though, he didn't really have anyone else to talk to about this. Besides, his dad doesn't have any friends he could pass it onto. "He said he liked me." Craig admitted, his throat tight.
Thomas awkwardly shuffled in place, his eyes not daring to wander over to his son. It wasn't news to anyone that he was a homophobe, but once he saw how torn his son was over the situation, all of the previous AA meetings suddenly came back to him. All the times he sat there, enduring every session with the mindset of getting better for his family.
Then there was Craig, sitting beside him, opening up for the first time since he was a child. He wanted to give some typical parentally advice but nothing was coming to him, and all he could focus on was his son sitting only a foot away, clearly troubled and seeking out his advice.  "And do you like him?" The words were harder to speak than he expected.
A shaky hand ran through Craig's hair as he sighed. "No, but he's my best friend."
Thomas breathed with relief. "Have you spoken to him since?"
"No, and I don't want to."
"Don't go pushing your friends away, boy. Maybe he's just a little confused is all. He's gonna need you there for him, even if you don't want to be." Thomas couldn't believe what he was saying, was he really encouraging this. "I'm not saying you should go give him a sympathy fiddle or anything, but he's still your friend."
Craig cringed at the last part, pulling himself up from the couch tiredly, whilst frowning at his dad. "Good talk." He drawled, heading over to the stairs, whilst Thomas watched him from the couch, wondering whether he had done a good job at this parenting thing.
-
"You're cheating again!"
"There's no way for me to even cheat." Token scoffed, his eyes set on the television, controller in hand. "You just suck at this game."
"I unlocked all the achievements way before you." Clyde retorted.
Craig sat beside them, vacant to the conversation, expressionless as he watched the screen. Clyde had invited the group over to his house to play video games, seeing as though Kyle cancelled their plans to work on the assignment, and even though Craig wasn't in the mood, he decided to come, not even considering the possibility of Tweek being there. Thankfully he wasn't.
"That's only because you have no life." Token continued.
"Not all of us are rich enough to have one."
"That's one the dumbest things you've ever said."
"Gee' thanks." Clyde sarcastically spoke. Really, he thought most of the other stuff he said on a daily basis would've topped that. "I swear, if I ever have to work with Kyle on another assignment again, I'm gonna shoot myself. He's basically the male version of Wendy Testaburger."
"At least you know you'll get a good grade."
"I'm not sure it's worth it, though."
Craig's phone vibrated in his pocket and at the cautious thought of it being Tweek, he shuffled further away from Clyde, knowing the brunette had a tendency to sneakily read other people's messages. When he pulled his phone out from his pocket, he wasn't expecting it to be Lola. If he was completely honest, he'd forgotten all about her, until now.
Hey Craig, it's Lola, haven't heard
from you since the party so I was
just making sure you had my
number xo
His eyes wandered over the text as he thought about how to reply. Messaging really wasn't his thing, neither was face to face communications, but still, he was never one to keep a conversation going.
'Hey'
Had his simple reply. He knew for a fact, that if Token knew Craig was texting a girl, he'd be telling him exactly what to say. Lola's response came faster than expected, making Craig feel awkward for being a slow replier.
'I was wondering if you wanted to see
a movie sometime?'
Did he want to see a movie? No, but he vaguely remembered the girl being nice. "Where's Tweek at? I still haven't heard from him." Both boys turned to face Craig who wasn't even paying attention to them, too busy thinking about his next reply, that was until Clyde threw a pillow at him.
"What?" Craig drawled, locking his phone and putting it away.
"Where's Tweek, you said you was going to talk to him."
Craig swallowed, looking away from his friends and returning to stare at the television unblinkingly.  "He said he's sick."
Token hummed, resetting the game since they'd both died from being distracted. "Did he say what's up?"
"No." Craig stated blankly. "Just that he's sick."
"Maybe we should go see him? I feel like he's dodging us on purpose." Clyde added
"Why though? What did we do?"
"I don't know, we were all out of it at the party, maybe we annoyed him, or something?"
Craig shifted uncomfortably. He'd only came here to get his mind off Tweek, but it seemed that wasn't going to be the case. It was fairly dark outside now, the room being illuminated by the changing tones on the television, flicking from scene to scene. Craig's eyes were heavy, and all he wanted to do was sleep, but he couldn't, because every time he was left by himself, Tweek's confession replayed in his mind, over and over again, until his head hurt.
"Nah, we weren't that bad. We'll see him at lunch anyway." Token insisted, falling further into the sofa as his player sneaked behind Clyde's in the game to knife him. Clyde hissed as though it had affected him in real life as he glared at Token.
"We're on the same team, you ass."
Token only shrugged, pausing the game and tossing the remote over to Craig, hitting him on the elbow.  "Your go." Craig scowled down at it, not wanting to show how much pain he was in from the sudden contact, and subtly rubbed his elbow, taking ahold of the remote. His players animation clumsily moved through the game, he couldn't keep his attention on it though. All he could think about, was his fathers words from earlier, and in some sense, he understood where he was coming from. Tweek was still his friend.
But as he died in game and Clyde slyly laughed from his side of the sofa, Craig slowly blinked with the sudden realisation he'd have to speak to Tweek at some point, and as his fingers nervously shook, tightening around the blue controller, he decided that day wasn't going to be tomorrow, and if that meant changing his normal routines, then so be it.