Chapter Text
Craig doesn’t do emotions.
Not to be all emo or anything, but he’s never really seen the point. The more you care for someone, the more chance you have of getting your heart broken. So he shoves his emotions deep down instead.
Perhaps he’d keep them trapped down there until he exploded.
“Never have I ever… kissed a guy,” Clyde leans across the table, smiling as he raises his eyebrows pointedly at Craig. Craig rolls his eyes and picks up his glass, taking a quick swig of his beer. Kyle, Kenny, and Stan follow suit and Kenny even takes a second sip, just to be dramatic about the fact that he’s had more partners than anyone else here.
“Aw Tweekers, you haven’t kissed a guy? Want me to be your first?” Kenny bats his eyes, portraying the perfect picture of innocence, something that he was far from and anyone who knew him knew it.
“Jesus, no!” Tweek nearly spills his drink, just barely managing to catch it as the can tumbles over the edge of the table.
“Man, that hurts, could’ve let me down a little easier,” Kenny fakes a dramatic sigh, lifting his beer to his lips and tilting his head back, “now I must drink my sorrows away.”
“Okay, moving on!” Token points at Kyle who’s on Clyde’s left to move onto the next part of the game. Craig silently thanks Token and there’s something about Token’s gaze that makes Craig think that Token knows.
Token is perceptive beyond his years and annoying in the way where he could tell exactly what you were thinking by just looking at you. Craig could never read Token, but at some point, he’d decided that he didn’t want to.
Considering just how perceptive Token is, there’s no way he hasn’t noticed Craig’s fat crush on Tweek.
Look, Craig had talked about it earlier. He doesn’t do emotions. They’re simply not his thing. He doesn’t want to sound like the stereotypical bad boy in every teen romance movie ever, but emotions just seem like more trouble than they’re worth.
So he’d rather shove his feelings deep inside his stomach and deal with the pain in his heart every time that Kenny flirts with Tweek.
“Never have I ever cheated on a test,” Kyle crosses his arms as if he’s come up with the question that’s going to stump everyone. Kyle’s eyes widen when he watches everyone carefully take a drink, save for Token, Tweek, and himself.
“Try harder next time, Jew,” Cartman sneers, sticking out his tongue at Kyle. Kyle’s temper had gotten incredibly short in the past year and Stan has to place a hand on Kyle’s shoulder just to stop the fiery redhead from jumping at Cartman.
“Watch, I’ll show you how it’s done,” Kenny slides in between Stan and Kyle, effectively taking the next turn from Stan, “never have I ever had a crush on someone in this room.”
Craig’s hand tightens around his drink, knuckles turning white as he half expects the can to rip in half right there. Kenny’s looking at Craig, head tilted to the side and eyebrows raised in a way that only proves he knows exactly what Craig’s thinking right now.
Stan and Kyle don’t hesitate in taking sips from their drinks, them being the only ones in the group who are actually in a stable relationship at the moment (and with each other, no less).
“What can I say? I’m a panicked bisexual and you guys are all cute,” Clyde shrugs, tilting his beer until the last drop falls into his mouth. He digs for another one in the fridge and tosses one to Kenny who’s currently draining the last drops out of his.
Craig watches Tweek ever so slowly raises the can to his lips, hands shaking as he barely manages to take a sip.
’Figures’, Craig thinks as he watches Kenny slink around behind Tweek and throw an arm around his shoulders.
Craig doesn’t bother taking a sip of his own drink.
“You guys are all homos,” Cartman spins his drink in his hands, not daring to take a sip until they’ve moved onto the next question.
“You act like you didn’t wanna bone Kyle for all of junior year,” Stan laughs to which he receives death glares from both his boyfriend and Cartman. Cartman starts yelling something about him never liking a ‘dirty jew’ and Craig tunes him out like he usually did. He’d learned a long time ago that listening to Cartman was usually about as useful as high school math.
“I’m bored now,” Kenny yawns, turning away from the group and flopping onto the couch. This whole room had been repurposed as a sort of ‘game room’ for the guys to hang out and Craig thinks that this single room might be bigger than his whole house. Token was embarrassingly rich, but at least he wasn’t a dick about it.
“You guys wanna watch a movie?” Kyle asks, taking a seat next to Kenny.
“Not a horror movie,” Tweek squeaks as he sits down. Craig moves in to sit next to Tweek, only to have the spot ripped from him by Kenny who shoots the boy a smile that makes him look like he’d gotten away with murder.
“Put on Star Wars!” Clyde nods as he tries to rip the remote from Token’s hands. Token holds the remote up in the air, just barely keeping it away from Clyde.
“No one wants to watch Star Wars,” Token begins to flip through channels and Clyde gives up on trying to grab the remote from him.
“You guys are so picky,” Stan grumbles as Kyle rests his head on Stan’s shoulder. Craig takes a seat on one of the armchairs, spreading himself over it so no one (cough Clyde cough) thinks to try and squeeze in next to him.
(That is, if Tweek wanted to sit next to Craig, Craig doesn’t think that he’d say no.)
Craig tunes out his friends as they argue over what movie they want to watch. He can hear Token whisper something about ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and some kind of slur come out of Cartman’s mouth after that.
Craig doesn’t really care.
It doesn’t matter anyway. Craig will just fall asleep before the movie ends and Kenny will wrap an arm around Tweek and squeeze him like he’s the last thing left on earth and it’ll be the same as it was every time before.
Nothing ever changes in this fucking town.
Craig only knows that it’s past 5 am because the ridiculously long Lord Of The Rings is finally at the credits, white letters scrolling past on a black screen.
He rubs at his eyes, trying to adjust them to the darkness after just waking up. When his eyes finally adjust, he can see that everyone besides him is asleep.
Kyle and Stan are draped across each other in an embarrassingly lovesick position and Cartman is strewn on the floor with a slice of pizza quite literally on top of his stomach. Clyde has his hand inside of a glass of beer and the empty bottle is nestled in between his legs with the rest of his limbs stretched out as far as he can reach on the couch. Token is next to Clyde, curled up in a ball likely to try and not disturb anyone.
Kenny has an arm around Tweek, holding the blond boy close to his chest. Tweek looks practically gorgeous (maybe Craig is just gay as fuck) with blond locks falling down his face and hands carefully tucked under his face.
What Craig wouldn’t give to be in Kenny’s position right now.
Craig carefully stands up from his seat, tiptoeing around the mess of empty bottles and leftover food as he tries to make his way to the bathroom. Shutting the door behind him, he leans over the toilet and throws up.
He probably should’ve learnt not to drink that much alcohol in one night.
When he’s finally got it out of his system, he washes his face and turns to leave, only to find Kenny standing at the door with his arms crossed at his chest.
“You should learn how to walk quieter,” Kenny leans against the doorframe, running a hand through his hair. Craig wipes water off of his face as he looks at Kenny, pushing his wet hair out of his face.
“I thought everyone was asleep,” Craig grumbles, walking to the doorframe. He tries to squeeze past Kenny who moves to block Craig’s exit every time he tries to move past.
Kenny’s an asshole.
“Well, I was, but your stomping woke me up,” Kenny smiles and Craig feels the indescribable urge to punch Kenny in the face. It’s something he feels often when looking at Kenny and most people would probably feel the same.
“So are we gonna stay in this bathroom all night or are you gonna let me out?” Craig asks, running a hand through his dark hair. He feels almost naked without his usual blue chullo, but he’d left the hat somewhere on the floor of the living room.
“Considering you claim that you don’t care about anything, you cared enough to cheat in never have I ever,” Kenny tilts his head to the side, looking at Craig with blue eyes that were so wise beyond their years. Kenny knew more than most kids their age and he did a good job at hiding it too.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Craig crosses his arms. It’s true, he had cheated during never have I ever, but what did it really matter? He likes Tweek and Tweek probably likes Kenny.
Emotions are lame.
“Jeez, Craigothy, I know you’re all dark and emo, but you can at least admit to me of all people that you like Tweek,” Kenny wraps an arm around Craig’s shoulders, coining the nickname he’d given to Craig the first day that the two had met. Craig hated it and Kenny knew, which was exactly why he continued to use it.
“So what if I like Tweek? It doesn’t matter,” Craig throws Kenny’s arm off of him to which the blond boy pouts at him. Kenny reaches a hand up to pat Craig’s head, almost as if one would a dog.
“Doesn’t matter why? Because you don’t have a chance with Tweek? Because Tweek is perfect and you’re nothing but a fucked up dick? Because Tweek would never choose you over me?” Kenny’s usual smile is gone, replaced by something that looks almost bored. If Craig didn’t know Kenny, he’d say that it was out of malice, that Kenny didn’t care about him or his feelings. Unfortunately, Craig does know Kenny, “you’re so predictable.”
Kenny had hit the nail head on.
Tweek was everything. He was bright and cute and he could cheer up anyone by just walking to a room with them. Craig had watched as people lit up when Tweek joined them and he had also watched those same people’s faces fall when they realized that Craig was with him.
Tweek was everything that Craig was not.
What could Craig possibly give to Tweek that Kenny couldn’t?
“You’re an idiot, Craig. Look, we’re friends and I care about you and normally I’d do whatever I could to help you out, but this time?” Kenny trails off for a second, grabbing the collar of Craig’s shirt and pulling him in close, “Maybe I’m selfish, but maybe I should be allowed to be selfish for once. I’m not giving up on Tweek.”
Kenny practically skips out of the bathroom, returning to the living room and taking his previous seat next to Tweek. Craig watches as Tweek subconsciously snuggles in closer to Kenny and Kenny begins stroking his hair. Craig picks up his things and moves to the door, slowly opening it so he can leave.
“May the best man win,” Kenny whispers and the sound is barely audible, yet each word rings out in Craig’s ears. It’s a challenge. A challenge that Craig doesn’t plan on winning.
7.6 billion hearts in the world and he had to fall in love with the one that does not beat for him.