Lifeline (Tweek & Craig)

Chapter Three

Tweek

Tweek was startled when he felt someone touch him. He doesn't know when he fell asleep but he did, he laid with his head on his backpack. He strained his eyes as he tired to see through the darkness of his sweater that he draped over himself.
            His first thought was, today is the day I'll die. It was a scenario that played out in his head since he has been living on the streets. Someone was going to rob him, find out he has no money and then kill him. When the person shock him, Tweek tried to fight the person off but stopped when he heard his name being called.
        "Tweek, it's Craig calm down,"
          Craig, he thought freezing. His heart racing as he fought to gain control of his body that was cold, frightened and confused. He turned over, pull down his hoodie to peek up at the frosted, blue eyed guy with jet black hair, who as a boy he used to consider a friend.
            Craig crouch down in front of him, watching him, when he tried to touch Tweek again, Tweek flinched.
             "Dude,  it's cool relax," Craig said standing. "Come."
              Tweek watched him oddly, strangely he was afraid of him. He was unable to forget the way Craig had treated him in the past.
           "Look, it's going to snow. If you stay out here you could die from Hypothermia. I have an extra room.  Come."
           Tweek looked around, he didn't trust him. He was afraid that the others would pop out of nowhere and taunt him. Or worse steal his sweater. Tweek held his sweater as he sat up and shook his head.
            "No," Tweek whispered.
             Craig sighed and sat next to him, Tweek watched him from the corner of his eyes. Craig leaned against the brick wall and turned to look at Tweek.
            "I'm sorry about your parents," Craig began.
             Tweek turned to Craig, his eyes filled with hot tears. When Craig saw Tweek's eye, his own eyes became glossy and he looked away. Tweek couldn't understand why he was apologizing, or even talking to him. However, his heart swelled at the remembrance of his parents. For along time, Tweek wondered if they were also invisible to the world like he was. After all, it was just Tweek at their funeral. No one else.
            "Look I know that you are confused and unsure about what's going on right now. Probably think I'm playing a joke. I'm not, if you stay out here you'll die. Do you want to die?"
           Tweek wiped his eyes, it was a question he battled with internally. There were days he wanted to and other days he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
           "Come," Craig said standing, helping Tweek, who was hesitant, up. Tweek watched as Craig grabbed his things off the ground walked to his car and throwing them into the back seat.
            "Please don't make me dragged you, it's really fucking cold out here," Craig warned, as he held opened the passenger side door for Tweek.
            Tweek walked to the car and Craig continued to hold open the door till he got in. When Tweek got in, Craig closed the door and went over to the driver's side. Tweek was shivering uncontrollably, Craig looked at him and then turned the heat on.
             "Hungry?" He asked.
             When Tweek didn't reply Craig drove 'till he found a McDonalds and order a meal for Tweek. When Craig handed him the bag of warm food, Tweek hesitated, but took it.  Tweek felt like he was dreaming, everything that was happening was surreal.
             Tweek stomach started to flip when he smelt the scent of the fries.
              "I normally have a rule, people can't eat in my car, but tonight's an exception," Craig said to Tweek.
             Tweek hasn't had McDonald since before his parents passing. The French fries were gone before they reached The Towers. Tweek remembered walking to these towers during the summer to kill time. Never imagine that Craig lived in any of the building although he wasn't surprised.
             He remembered the rumors of Craig's inheritance and remember when Craig moves out of his parents home after high school. Tweek was happy to not have to deal with the verbal abuse from his gang, but was sad that he could longer admire Craig from his bedroom window when Craig and the guys would hang out in his backyard.
            There were 15 luxury buildings in the Tower community, 40-50 stories high of pure glass. Tweek thought they looked like icicles from a distance. The Towers, the name the area was called, had its own supermarkets, coffee shops, shopping area, school and parks, so the residents never had to leave for anything.
              Tweek wore his sweater as the walked through the lobby of tower 8, the tallest of the buildings, to the doorman. Everything was bright, earth tone material on the wall that carried on to the fancy furniture. It looked something out of Restoration Hardware catalog. Separating the room from the elevators was a large Aquarium.
              "Tweek, this is Logan. Logan—Tweek." Craig said. Tweek shyly looked at the young man in a black suit, with black gloves. All he could think about was why is he wearing gloves in such a hot space.
               "Hello Mr. Tweak," Logan replied. Tweek nodded.
               "Tweek is going to be staying with me for awhile, so I will need a spare key,"
              "Ok. I'll add his information in to the system, can I have your last name?" He asked Tweek.
               Tweek was still shocked that to get the words out was difficult.
             "Tweek Tweak," Craig said, looking at Tweek. Tweek hugged himself, with his head hanging low.
             "Ok Tweek if you don't mind looking up, as we take a photo of you."
               Tweek looked up, but turned to Craig when he felt Craig pull down his hood to reveal his face. Craig ushered Tweek to face the doorman and after he took the photo, he handed Tweek the key. 
               "Please don't lose that, it going to cost 10 bucks to replace," Craig said walking towards the elevator. When they got to the 49 floor, there was only two apartment on the level. Craig opened the door for Tweek. He yawned as he closed the door behind them.
             Tweek was blown away by the space, it was huge, and blue. The size made sense to why there was only two apartments on the floor. Tweek noticed there was so much blue and hints of yellow, even the wooden floor was stained a midnight blue. Everything organized in an OCD kind of way.
              "Shoes off here," Craig said pointing to the closet the size of an office.
              Tweek took off his beat down sneakers and neatly put them in the bin in the closet. When Tweek closed the door behind him, Craig continued to walk through the space and Tweek followed. After a short hall it opened into a living space, the huge flat screen tv was on but it was paused on a scene. On a acrylic coffee table, Tweek saw popcorn in a bowl and two cups. He quickly glanced around but didn't see another person.
             Craig walked passed the room towards the open kitchen. Tweek followed but unable to take his eyes off the black piano flushed against the wall. He remember the day he had to leave his keyboard behind. He couldn't carry it and was sure he would be robbed anyway, so he had to leave it on the street with the rest of his belongs that was too big to fit in his backpack.
           "I think I remembered that you drink coffee, as you can see, coffee maker and next to it espresso machine. Help yourself, but clean up after yourself,"  Craig said before walking off he pointed to a door.  "This is a half bathroom with a washer and dryer."
            Tweek look down at his clothes, they were long overdue for a wash.
            "Now this is the room you can stay in," Craig said, after entering.  
            The blue continued into the bedroom. From the carpet to the bedding to the dresser on the side.
            Tweek felt emotional as he looked at the untouched, full size bed. It looked warm and soft—very soft.
           "This door leads to your bathroom. These glass doors are self explanatory, you have a terrace. I hope you are not afraid of heights,"  Craig quickly walking out of the room and reentered after a few minutes with fresh clothes, sock, boxers, a towel and other hygiene needs.
            "Can I show you something," Craig asked. Tweek nodded. Craig walked him further into the apartment. Passing a room identical to the one Tweek was staying in. There was a door at the end of a hall and Craig pointed to it. "This is my bedroom. Don't ever go in there."
            Tweek nodded.
             "Help yourself to whatever, please clean up after yourself. Housekeeper comes every Thursday. Please wash up, wash your clothes, or throw them away before you get in the bed," Craig said going through his list of demands with his fingers.  "The less I see or hear you the better, don't fucking bother me. Once you settle in please look for a job to help with the utility bills. Place is paid for. I can't stress this enough, the less I see of you the better. Goodnight."
             "Thank you, Craig," said Tweek, hugging himself.
              Craig stopped, looked back at Tweek, sighed slightly irritated, before walking into his room.
             Tweek felt extremely emotional as he entered the room, closing the door gently behind him. He walked to the window to peek outside and realized he didn't like the height so he closed the blinds. He went into the bathroom, and was shocked that the tiled floor was warm as if it was heated underneath. As he approached large mirror and double sinks, Tweek took a long looked at himself. His skin red from his time in the cold, his hair needing a good wash.
             Tweek turned to the shower, that was separate from the deep bathtub on the side. The shower was huge, a walk in, it was all stoned and doorless, with a huge shower head and several small ones that pointed to the center.
             There were so many handles that Tweek wasn't sure how to turn it on at first but figured it out after a few minutes. Tweek spend almost 45 minutes in the shower, between the uncontrollable sobbing and the joy to have warm water, it was difficult to get out but he did. He put on the underwear, socks, tee shirt and the sweatpants Craig had given him. Tweek couldn't stop rubbing it the fabric. Everything was so soft and it smelt so good, like peppermint.
         After combing his hair Tweek made sure he didn't leave a mess before turned off the bathroom lights. Tweek turned the bedroom light off and crawled into bed. His whole self trembling as he covered himself with covers for the first time in many months.

Craig

It took Craig a while to feel tired enough to fall asleep, for the first time in a long time he felt like he did something good for once. Not that he thought he was a bad person, it just something nice when he could have simply looked away. He couldn't imagine what life, over the last couple have months, have been like for Tweek.
           Craig had his differences with his dad, but he couldn't imagine losing him. In fact, there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't communicate with his parents or his sister. What Craig couldn't understand and what kept him in deep thoughts was where were Tweek's relatives? Why was it that Tweek was alone and living on the street?
           Craig couldn't erased the look of fear that he saw in Tweek's bright green eyes before Tweek realized it was him and not a stranger. All most as though he thought he was going to die. Craig also could get over how cold it was outside. He couldn't understand how anyone could fall asleep in that temperature, it was so cold. Unless they were dying? Must be a scary feeling to be alone and invisible.
            Craig rolled from his back to his side, when the reality set in that he had a roommate. Something he said he would never get.
          And for a long time, Craig couldn't imagining living with someone else, to the point where he wondered if he'd ever get married and have children. Now, he had a unconventional roommate and he wasn't bothered by it—so much.