The Evermore Dissociate(Creek)

0025

The curtains were closed despite it being early afternoon. Rays of light were blocked from entering the living room by a pair of blackout curtains. It was kind of like a metaphor, his mood like the inside of a dark room, the deafening volume of the television that fills the silence.

Craig barely even looked up from his phone when his dad came to sit on the other side of the couch with two tins of cider in his hands, one open, whilst the other was outstretched towards the son. "Ere, looks like you can do with one of these." Thomas ruffed, his voice slurred from his day of binge drinking. Craig exhaled deeply, despondent eyes turning to his father, then to the drink in his hairy hands.

"Whatever." He monotoned, reaching out to accept it.

Thomas slurped irritatingly on his drink, half focused on the television screen as he spoke. "So what's got you even more brooding than usual?"

"Nothing." Craig snapped. Thomas fixed him with a deadpanned expression, knowing full well he was being lied to. "Just some stupid argument." The noirette shook his head, his fingers pulling back the tab to open his drink.

"I see." Thomas nodded. "With a girlfriend?"

"What? No." Craig huffed. "With Tweek."

"That weird blonde kid?" Thomas asked. Craig furrowed his brows at his dad, but tightly nodded. "What happened? Anything interesting?"

Craig stared down at his drink, his fingers tightly holding onto the cold tin, feeling the liquid on the other side. He wasn't sure if this is the sort of thing people tell their dads, but to be fair, Craig never really tells Thomas anything, aside from calling him a drunken asshole. The thing was, though, he didn't really have anyone else to talk to about this. Besides, his dad doesn't have any friends he could pass it onto. "He said he liked me." Craig admitted, his throat tight.

Thomas awkwardly shuffled in place, his eyes not daring to wander over to his son. It wasn't news to anyone that he was a homophobe, but once he saw how torn his son was over the situation, all of the previous AA meetings suddenly came back to him. All the times he sat there, enduring every session with the mindset of getting better for his family.

Then there was Craig, sitting beside him, opening up for the first time since he was a child. He wanted to give some typical parentally advice but nothing was coming to him, and all he could focus on was his son sitting only a foot away, clearly troubled and seeking out his advice.  "And do you like him?" The words were harder to speak than he expected.

A shaky hand ran through Craig's hair as he sighed. "No, but he's my best friend."

Thomas breathed with relief. "Have you spoken to him since?"

"No, and I don't want to."

"Don't go pushing your friends away, boy. Maybe he's just a little confused is all. He's gonna need you there for him, even if you don't want to be." Thomas couldn't believe what he was saying, was he really encouraging this. "I'm not saying you should go give him a sympathy fiddle or anything, but he's still your friend."

Craig cringed at the last part, pulling himself up from the couch tiredly, whilst frowning at his dad. "Good talk." He drawled, heading over to the stairs, whilst Thomas watched him from the couch, wondering whether he had done a good job at this parenting thing.