The Way That Gravity Pulls (Creek FanFic)

Chapter 10: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

My mom made me come into the store later that night after school to help her again. It was only Tuesday. I hadn't even off for two whole days. The store was extremely busy. I frantically ran around like a headless chicken while my mom barked orders at me.

"Take orders! Make coffee! Ring up a total! Then go clean the tables and sweep the floor. After that, go and wipe down the windows. Oh! But remember to wash your hands again before touching the coffee!"

It was nothing short of a fucking nightmare. Every muscle in my body was beyond sore and tired. My shoulders felt heavy and my head felt as if someone had been pounding on my skull. I was nearly dread with fatigue. But I couldn't let my mom know that I was exhausted, so I stuck it out. I had to lie to her. I couldn't let her know that I was on the verge of falling apart.

When I finally got home later that night, I went straight upstairs to go see Stripe as my legs wobbled and my knees buckled. I closed my door and locked it. I didn't want my mom to come in only to find a whole ass guinea pig. I opened up Stripe's cage and tried to take him out to hold him, but he refused. He wouldn't even come near me.

He was probably thinking, Fuck you Tweek. You left me all alone up here. Piss on you.

I wished my mom hadn't of called me into work so I could've stayed with Stripe to give him all of the attention he lacked. I felt horrible over it. But, it did make me feel a tiny bit better when I had noticed that he had eaten some of his food and drank some of his water. Craig had pointed out the day before that the pet store must not have been feeding him very well. You could see Stripe's rib cage along with the top of his spine. His little legs were scrawny and a lot smaller than they were supposed to be. Patches of hair were even missing from his back and stomach.

Stripe nestled down into Craig's space blanket that he had left for him. He picked it up with his mouth and attempted covering himself with it all while trying to curl up into a ball. He must've really loved that thing. It had been obvious that Craig was his favorite dad. Luckily, Stripe wasn't going to be staying with me much longer though because Craig had said that he had found a place to keep him hidden. I prayed that he picked out a good spot, because Laura and Thomas would've been pissed if they had found out that we had Stripe. They'd be twice as pissed if they had found out that we had stolen him.

Stripe slowly dozed off as he cuddled the black, starry blanket. He squeaked softly as his chest inflated up and down in a repeated cycle.

I sat down in my swivel chair at my desk and watched Stripe sleep. Focusing on something other than my frustrating and stressful life felt good. Before I knew it, I could no longer hold my eyes open anymore, and my room began to fade to black.
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It took a lot of convincing to talk my mom out of not making me work another night shift. I had to make her believe that I had plans.

Well, I did have plans, but with Craig and Cartman.

My mom had never had a problem with Craig until my dad did. And Cartman? That's one person she really didn't like because of all of the terrible things he had done in the past. He dumped my coffee on my head once back in 7th grade, and ever since then, my mom had despised the kid. She flipped out on the principal for not taking "disciplinary action" over Cartman's behavior and didn't stop until she got him suspended. So in conclusion, my mom never would've let me go over to Cartman's house. And then adding Craig on top of that? Yeah, there was no way in hell.

But you know who she did like?

Tolkien.

My mom had always thought very highly of Tolkien. She always said that he was a "good influence" on me, and honestly I had to agree. He was kind, he actually had some common sense, and he was extremely humble. So naturally, he became the next person who's name would be sucked into my lies.