South Park: Senior Year

10. "Mom"

Tolkien stands on the Marshs' front porch, staring at the door that was just slammed in his face. He waits there a moment longer. He wants to knock again and insist Stan lets him help out, but Stan's mom was home, and if Tolkien persisted it would only cause a fight that she would surely hear. He wanted Stan to get help, but that doesn't mean he wanted Mr. And Mrs. Marsh to find out about Stan's habits.
Tolkien sighs and turns around to head back to his own house, a farm directly across from the Marshs'. He went directly to his room, already knowing how much of his and Stan's project he'd have to do on his own.

Tolkien wakes up the next morning still at his desk. He had fallen asleep there doing his schoolwork the night before. His entire body was sore from the awkward position he'd been in all night. He turned off his blaring arm and then stretched, leaning over the back of his chair and cracking his back.
"Tolkien, breakfast!" His mother called from outside his door.
"Coming." He said through a yawn.
He stood and dressed himself before exiting his room. His nose was met with the delicious smell of French toast. His toast was already set at the table, topped with strawberries and syrup. He ate quickly since he needed to take the bus today. His mom did piano lessons on Fridays so she couldn't drive him like she normally would.
Tweek was already at the bus stop when Tolkien arrived, as he always was. Tweek got there at least thirty minutes early every morning, always worried that he'd be late. Tweek stood with his thermos in hand, trembling more than usual due to the cold.
When Tweek saw Tolkien, he waved. Tolkien waved back with a smile. He always made sure to add a smile because of Tweek's tendency to overthink.
"How are you doing?" Tolkien asked. He hadn't seen Tweek since his crazy anxiety attack the day before. He'd been worried about him. He texted Craig the afternoon after it happened to check in, but he never answered. It wasn't uncommon for Craig to ignore texts, but Tolkien had hoped in this specific case he'd be sure to answer.
     "I'm okay." Tweek responded. "Sorry about yesterday."
     Tolkien waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it."
     The bus arrived before Tweek could apologize again. He followed as Tolkien made his way to their seats. They sat in rows across from each other, both saving a seat for someone. Tweek for Craig, obviously, and Tolkien for his best friend, Clyde, both of which stop was last.
    "Tolkien. Guess what." Clyde said in a serious tone once he hopped on the bus.
     "What?" Tolkien scooted closer to the window to make room for his friend.
    "My dad bought me the new World of Warcraft game! We can finally play together!" Clyde said excitedly.
"Awesome!"
     Clyde had been wanting the game for months now since everyone else in their friend group had already gotten it.
Clyde continued to ramble on about various other things as their bus made its way to the school. Tolkien did his best to listen to his friend but was having trouble focusing. He couldn't stop worrying about Stan. It made him feel terrible to know that his friend was struggling so badly and he was doing fuck-all to help him. Tolkien then wondered if Stan even still considered him a friend. Tolkien still cared about Stan, though so whether they were truly friends or not didn't matter. Tolkien was determined to find a way to help him out.

Today was a b-day, like yesterday, so he and Tweek had marketing class again. Tolkien made sure to keep a closer eye on him this time to make sure he wouldn't have another attack.
Their class split into their assigned groups immediately. Tolkien was glad to be working with Kyle and Wendy. They were smart and hard-working so he wouldn't have to do all the work like usual. This would make the project easier for Tweek too. However, Cartman was on their team and he could very easily find a way to ruin it for all of them.
Kyle must've been thinking the same thing as Tolkien because he immediately laid into Cartman.
"Eric, you better do your part or I swear to god I'll kick your ass." He said, his brows furrowed.
"I haven't even said anything yet, Jesus." Cartman muttered.
"Let's keep it that way. We all know you won't be much help so just stay quiet and out of the way, okay?" Wendy added.
Cartman rolled his eyes. "What's our topic anyway?"
"S-stocks." Tweek responded.
Tweek hadn't taken his eyes off Cartman all of class. Tolkien wondered if he was what was making the twitching kid so anxious. Tolkien made a mental note to make sure Tweek and Cartman had completely different jobs for this project.
"I can set up the slides." Cartman said, opening up a Chromebook. It was the easiest job and almost impossible to mess up so no one argued.
"Great, me and Tolkien will work on researching the effects of the stock market on our economy." Wendy said.
"I can work on the poster board." Tweek said. He was one of three kids in their class who remembered to bring theirs.
"I can help." Kyle offered.
Tolkien nodded. Everything was off to a great start. He crossed his fingers that it'd stay that way.

When lunch finally rolled around, Tweek was looking much more lively. After such a successful morning, his anxious tapping had decreased to almost none. However, this didn't last long when Craig happened to be late for lunch.
"Maybe he just fell asleep during his last class?" Clyde offered, trying to assure their increasingly twitchy friend.
"He'll be here any second. Why don't you go get lunch, I'm sure he'll be here once you're back." Tolkien said, hoping that would distract him enough to calm him down a bit.
Tweek nodded and left, scratching his scab-covered hands.
Once he was gone, Tolkien glanced over at Clyde who had been staring at him, probably zoned out. Then he noticed Clyde didn't have any lunch with him.
"Did you forget your lunch again?" Tolkien asked.
Clyde looked at the empty space in front of him. "Yeah."
"Dude, that's like the third time this week." Tolkien chuckled.
Clyde shrugged. "Oh well. I wasn't hungry anyway."
This was incredibly odd because Clyde was always hungry. "Are you sure? I could buy you a lunch if you want."
"Nah. I'm good. Plus your parents wouldn't like you buying lunch when you brought one." Clyde replied, leaning over and pulling his laptop from his bag. "I have fuckin' Spanish homework to do anyway." He groaned.
"Where's Tweek?"
Tolkien looked up to see Craig. "He went to go get lunch."
Craig nodded and then sat across from him, pulling out his phone. Tolkien had suddenly picked up the smell of cigarettes. Craig reeked. The smell explained why he was late.
"Craig, were you just-"
"Honey, h-hi" Tweek interrupted Tolkien.
Craig smiled at his boyfriend as he took the seat beside him. Tweek set his tray down and then leaned forward to kiss Craig.
Tolkien's gaze dropped to his lunch as he took another bite of his Pasta.
"Craig, you smell awful." Tweek blurts out, causing the whole table to laugh.
Craig chuckles, "I'm sorry babe."
Tweek doesn't return the smile. He suddenly stands, taking Craig by the sleeve and dragging him out of the cafeteria. Tolkien watched as they left, praying for Craig, knowing how bad Tweek was going to rip into him.
"One black eye or two?" Clyde jokes.
Tolkien playfully shoves him. "Oh, shut up. Poor Craig."
Tweek would never hit Craig, but the words he's about to say will definitely hurt worse.
     Craig had started smoking last year and did his best to hide it from Tweek for as long as he could. Tweek was smart though, and caught on quickly. He'd managed to get Craig to quit for a few months but Craig had started behind his back again just recently.
Craig made Clyde, Jimmy, and Tolkien all swear not to tell. They didn't dare get in the middle of that, even though they were all strongly against it. Tolkien had tried to have a talk with him about it a week ago. It didn't end with either of them very happy so Tolkien dropped it. He didn't wanna lose his friend fighting about addiction. Tolkien didn't know what it was like to be addicted to anything so he knew better than to pretend like he did.
     It still sucked though. Both Stan and Craig struggled with something he could never truly help with. All Tolkien knew how to do was help others. So much so that his friend group had often called him a "mom friend" because of how much he cared for each of them.
      Jimmy's parents couldn't care less about him, so Tolkien helped with all of his homework and took him home the days his parents forgot. Clyde had a tendency to cry over everything but Tolkien didn't mind, he'd just sit with him and offer tissues. Tweek was a mess most of the time, but Tolkien would do anything he could to calm him down and be there when Craig couldn't. Craig hardly ever talked about his problems to anyone, even Tweek, but Tolkien had a way to make even him open up. Tolkien knew he could be overbearing at times, but he would never stop being there for the people he cared about.