Coreopsis [Tweek x Craig]

nothing couldn't be fixed

That Monday, right after lunch, Craig found himself walking towards Clyde's house. It was still fairly cold even though Summer was getting closer, so he cursed under his breath for forgetting to bring a jacket. He put his hands in the pockets of his usual blue hoodie and kept walking until he arrived at the door.

As he entered, he was welcomed by Mr Donovan:

"Hi Craig! How are you?" he smiled.

"Good" he mumbled in response, hoping to end the conversation quickly. Clyde's dad was fairly nice in comparison to most of the other parents, but still, Craig wasn't a fan of small talk.

"Great. Clyde is in his room upstairs!".

Craig nodded and quickly walked away, checking his phone. He already told Tweek that he would be over at Clyde's to study so there wasn't any new message.

Right after he entered the room a small wave of unease hit him. Usually Clyde was enthusiastic and loud when he greeted someone, but this time he just looked at him and murmured "Hi dude".

Craig quickly glanced around the room, to notice if anything was weird, then cleared his throat.

"Hey. Should we get... started with the assignment?". Being comforting wasn't really his thing, so he just hoped that whatever was going on with his friend he would've told him himself. Maybe it was something he should've already known? Because of the whole disease thing, he had been too self absorbed to remember if anything was wrong the day before.

Damn, he really felt like an asshole.

Clyde nodded, distracting him from his thoughts. "Sure" he said, starting to get up, then suddenly he stopped.

"Wait, dude, can I ask you something?".

Craig just said "Yes", looking more confused and worried. He dropped his backpack on the floor and sat next to the other boy on his bed.

"I know it's not my business, but yesterday when you gave me your phone the notes were opened and I couldn't help but read them-".

Craig shivered. He could feel where this conversation was going and he didn't feel ready to face it.

"And you wrote something about a disease, and coughing blood, and... Flowers?" he sighed, "I thought that maybe you didn't tell us anything because you didn't want to talk about it but I couldn't help but worry".

Those words weighed on Craig's chest, too stunned to speak.

In his mind he started to get defensive: Clyde couldn't get mad at him for hiding his illness, right? He had the right to not tell anyone about it, and he couldn't make him feel like an asshole for doing so-

Before he could voice his thoughts, Clyde continued speaking.

"You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, but you're my best friend and I care about you too much to not ask you. Are you ok? Are you dying?".

His tone wasn't mad as Craig would've expected, but more like genuinely worried. Everything going on in his brain was replaced by a sort of twisted relief for being forced to tell him. He swore to keep it a secret, but since Clyde already knew there was no point in lying: he could tell him everything.

"I'm going to tell you everything but only if you promise to believe me- and most of all, don't tell anyone. And I mean ANYONE" he replied.