! COLLATERAL DAMAGE ! | percent AU | creek/crenny/more stuff???

Chapter Two - smoke break

"Thanks for coming--"

"You better start explaining yourself." He shuffled over to Kenny's bed, his hands deep in his pockets and his eyes narrow. He turned his head to the open window without a screen. He was lucky, too. If there was a screen he probably couldn't have climbed in. "What's this about? Why aren't you in school--"

"Calm down, Craig." He tugged on one of the chullo hat's tails, but Craig yanked it away. "Jesus."

"You live like a pig." He kicked an empty Funyuns bag out of his way and sat down on the twin sized mattress. Underneath the mattress' folds were porno mags. If he wanted to hide them so bad then why was the job so messy? Surely if anyone came in they would notice them. Maybe that was his intention.

"Make fun of everything else in my life, why don't you? This is my humble abode."

"I don't know what I expected. Kenny's missing for four weeks and surely his room would be spotless." He stressed his consonants on "spotless", mimicking a snake.

"Haha."

He picked up his legs off the floor and wrapped his arms around his knees. Kenny remained in his spot, in the corner where his bed met the wall. His legs were spread completely and he looked like utter crap, with his hair unkempt and the smell of sweat. After a short silence, Craig could hear Kenny rustle around in his backpack.

"You wanna smoke?"

"Can we please be serious? What's going on?" Craig let his legs go, watching Kenny pull out a Marlboro cigarette and flick it to life with an orange lighter. Kenny stared at him through the corner of his eye. "You haven't been at school. Don't fuck with me."

He smiled. "I'm not fucking with you, unless you wanted me to." He laughed a high-pitched donkey laugh. "Nah, I'm fucking with you."

"I know you're not sick. I'm almost positive."

"And you'd be right. Ding ding ding--"

Craig chucked his hat at Kenny, snarling, "Can you just answer my question?"

Kenny blew out a puff of dirty smoke and tapped the end of the cigarette. "Which one?" He cracked another grin, the space between his front teeth apparent. "You've asked, like, six questions."

"Why aren't you at school?" He repeated.

He contemplated, his cigarette hanging relaxed between his fingers. "My family's on lockdown. We're not allowed to leave. We get constant checkups from these old people." He glanced down at the orange end of his cigarette, smiled, and took another hit.

"Why?"

"We're a 'high risk family'. They nipped us in the ass when Karen started high school, and when Kevin--" Kenny rolled his eyes at Craig, who was now in a more comfortable position at the end of the bed. "Any more questions?"

He was quiet. "'And when Kevin'?"

Kenny burst out, fuming suddenly, "And when Kevin went to fucking prison. It was like a huge circlejerk for the police force. 'Haha, we got another high percent off the streets. We should've done that years ago.' Fucking frauds. They're all corrupt," he rambled on, staring angrily at his cigarette. "So they looked at us. They looked at my mom right in the eye and said, 'Your son is gonna end up just like your first,' and they fucking act like they know everyone. They don't. They don't know me, and they don't know you, and--"

"Kenny, calm down." Craig's eyes were wide and his mouth hung agape.

"And Kevin's percent was less than mine. I'm fucked. I'm screwed. I'm gonna end up in prison with prison dick up my prison pocket, and everyone knows it but me." He took another puff of his cigarette and blew two streams of smoke out his nostrils. "Goddamn, I'm sorry."