Hiraeth Of The Heart (Tweek X Craig)

Chapter 13, Making Friends

"Aye, Tweek!"  I turned my sight of view to a lunch table directly next to me, as I had just walked into the cafeteria with Craig.  It was cram packed.  Not only that, but I was already being waved over to a table of people who I was convinced hated me. 

My head wrapped around the sharp thoughts as I tried to convince myself that there was a negative explanation to their invite.  I shook lightly, sighing while I'm at it. 

As I walked over to the brunette who gestured me over, Craig still followed close behind.  The brown headed boy was sitting at the table wrapped in a blanket that I'm guessing he brought from home.  He wore a red hoodie with some kind of brand logo on the front. He was not as slim as the other guys at his table, but he wasn't necessarily chubby. One of the others I recognized right away.  Token, the one who I'm almost positive wanted me dead the other night. My thought got drowned out by the brunette's voice.

"Remember me?"
He questioned with a raise of his brow excitedly. No, I don't remember.
"Yeah.. you're-"
I paused. What did the other kid call him before? What was his name? Oh Christ.

"Clyde." I felt a deep, saturated voice whisper into my ear that sent shiver down my spine, and of course causing an "eep!" Noise to escape my cracked lips.  I glanced in the corner of my eye to see Craig suspiciously close to my neck.  I took note that I should keep up my guard. Turning my attention back after a few seconds, I took into notice the entire table's confused glances.  I probably looked insane.  Stupid Craig.

"Gah! It's Clyde!" I exhaled.

Clyde smiled whole heartedly, but quickly seemed to catch onto his facial slip up, and replace his goofy look with a more laid back smirk. He wrapped one arm around Token, who was in a deep purple hoodie, and another arm across the shoulder of a boy our age who wore a semi-bright yellow shirt -crutches laying on the right side of him.

"See? I told you guys. Of course he'd remember the guy who saved him from this big fluffy monster over here."

He patted his hand forcefully to Token's chest, earning a glare from him and politely having his hand removed from his chest. The one in the yellow shirt attempted to stutter out a sentence.

"C-C-Clyde, one of these d-days Token is g-gonna smack the s-s-shit out of you."

"Unfortunately, Jimmy, my parents tell me to not pick on the less-fortunate." Token smirked trying not to laugh while taking a stab at the salad on his school lunch tray.

Clyde rolled his eyes and gestured for me to sit - which I did.
I finally got comfortable a few seconds later, making sure to put my bag next to me; hoping it would keep Craig at a safe distance. I didn't look back at Craig who was still behind me standing, but I felt his eyes burn the back of my neck with their glare. Sure enough, he walked into a brief line of site in the corner of my eye. I watched as he flung my bag into the floor.

"WHA-" I covered my mouth and looked at the rest of the table. Craig smirked contently and took a seat right next to me, making sure his knee was rubbing against my own. Clyde, with a mouth full of mashed potatoes and a fork in his hand, stared at the bag, that had just flung two feet off of the bench. Everyone else stared in shock as well, but Clyde was the only one to address it. He slowly closed his mouth and raised his fork up with a bent wrist, pointing in the direction of my bag.
"Did no one else see that bag fucking fly two feet?"

Everyone stayed quiet, but Token shook his head and chuckled to himself. It was almost a goofy atmosphere, one you'd feel if you were surrounded by a group of friends. Though I wasn't dumb, I knew not to get my hopes up, since this was probably only a reaction of their pity. Token sat down his fork,

"Tweek, man, I'm really sorry about the other night." He bit his lip as if concealing something that hid behind it, maybe a statement? He continued.
"Craig was our best friend. I was just. . Under a lot of stress."

"No."
I looked over to Craig, who was staring at his friends. His eyes drowning with something that seemed to glaze over as sorrow as he rested his chin on the palm of his hand. That look on his face made me want to cry. This guy had such great friends, and he couldn't even talk to them.

"I get it." I spoke swiftly. "Ah- Well, I don't get the best friend part. I've never had one."

Craig looked over to me. He put his arms behind him in the seat and laid back on them for support. I looked down as I felt his finger brush against mine. I moved my hand closer, hoping he'd do it again on accident. For support, of course. Though I don't know if I needed his support, or if I wanted to give him my own. . I looked up at his face. He had been looking down in the same direction as me. That's embarrassing - he probably saw me move my hand closer to his. At least his sad eyes had been replaced with brighter ones. I watched them move up to drown me in his gaze, but he didn't drown me, I averted my face away from him before he could.

"I do know it's gotta be hard to lose someone you care about; to have a stranger walk in and fuck up the celebration you had in their honor-"

I said the last part quietly, hoping no one would hear me cuss. I really didn't use words like that often. I had unconsciously began looking at my lap, as if it was an interesting sight.

"Tweek, shut up." Clyde said in an annoyed tone.

"GAH-"
I yanked my head up quickly to look at him in a confused way.

"You didn't fuck anything up, got it? Stop bashing yourself like that."
Clyde said sternly through bites. Shaking his finger at me like a fed up mom. Craig was smiling. Everyone was.

Token laughed, "don't mind Clyde. He's protective over friends."

"Who?" I asked, confused as to who he was referring to, still eyeing Clyde who was still shaking his finger.

The three of them looked at each other, Clyde had paused his finger shaking lecture to join on the mind reading conversation. The one named Jimmy spoke up while looking back over to me.
"Y-you're our f-friend, dude."

"Really?" I said, trying to not let the overwhelming heaps of happiness slip through the cracks in my mask of a contained expression.

"Of Course, dude!!" Clyde said after pulling the fork out of his mouth. His stern protective-mom like face quickly turned pale.

"Also, Tweek-"

A creepy grin slipped from one of his cheeks to the other. He removed his blanket from his shoulders and stood up, feet still inside the table opening. He leaned over the table and towards me, he brought his finger up to my neck. Poke.

His grin faded into a fake surprised one. His lips made an "o" shape as he covered it with his hand in a sarcastic manner.

"Is that a HICKEY!?!?"
He yelled out in artificial surprise. The entire lunchroom went dead silent. All heads turned to my wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

I slapped my hand over the violated spot on my neck forcefully.

"GAH- N-NO WAY!!"

I twisted my neck around to face Craig. He was staring at me with soft eyes and a content smile.

He really didn't care at all about what he had just got me into, did he?