The Way That Gravity Pulls (Creek FanFic)

Chapter 17: The Beginning Of The End

Clyde and I talked on the phone for about another two hours that night. He read me some more of his poems and we talked about our favorite stories of us and our friends from when we were kids.

Stories from back when life was just slip n slides and skinned knees, not anxiety and secrets that could rip friendships apart.

Clyde had no problem talking about his mom, for he must've really needed someone to listen to him for once. Me on the other hand, I barely even talked about my dad.

But I did tell him about my dad's letter and how I had found it that morning.

I didn't open it up and read it though.

It's not that I didn't want to, I just wasn't ready. And Clyde respected that.

"You can always come to me when you're finally comfortable enough to. You'll always have me in your corner to support you Tweek. You can tell me anything, even if it's not about your dad. I'll always listen, and I stand by that."

I wish Clyde could understand that as much as I wanted to tell him everything, I couldn't.

It just couldn't happen. And it was killing me.
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Craig picked me up at 6 in the afternoon the next day so we could go on our next "adventure."

Beforehand, he had texted me and asked if I would kindly pitch in as many water bottles as I could find, some fruit, some saltine crackers and make multiple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I asked him why he wanted me to do all of that, but he just gave me the same old response, "you'll see."

Maybe I should've stopped asking questions because I never got a solid answer anyways.

"You're lucky that my m-mom isn't home to ask me why I was basically packing up the entire fridge and a ton of shit from my pantry," I said as I loaded bags of food into the back of the car. I had noticed that Craig already had a couple of bags in there as well. "What's all of this for anyway?"

"A food drive for the needy," Craig said from up front in the driver's seat. "We're going to make a difference today."

"A food drive?" I asked as I finished squeezing in the last couple of bags. "There's a food drive going on?"

"Well...not exactly."

"Then what are we doing all of this for then?"

"It's for the greater good, trust me. Just hop up front and I'll explain."

Since when does he choose to be kind without being told to?

"Uh...okay then," I mumbled as I shut the trunk and opened up the passenger door. I got in and buckled my seatbelt, but then I saw that Craig had something on his lap. Or someone. Stripe was asleep, all bundled up in his blanket.

"Uh...why do you have Stripe with you? Wasn't the whole point of taking him over to your place was to hide him from people and keep him there?"

"Well yeah, but Stripe didn't seem too happy today, so I figured he could come with us. Hopefully it cheers him up. I haven't seen him look this sad since he was stuck at the pet store," Craig whispered as he pet Stripe on the head gently with his finger. "Maybe he missed you."

"Highly doubt it, he likes you more anyways and you know it."

"Yeah but, maybe he likes the idea of having both of us together."

Stripe wouldn't be the only one who likes the idea of that.

"Maybe he does," I giggled as Craig handed him over to me. I took him in my arms carefully so that I wouldn't wake him up. I could feel my heart soften as Stripe slowly breathed in and out. "Anyways, what uh...what did you mean by this whole "food drive" thing?"