The Bet

Day 14, Part 3

The rest of Craig's shift at Tweak Bros. Coffee finished without difficulty, and soon enough Tweek was walking him home. The uncomfortable silence had finally ended, and they were engaged in mindless chit-chat, just enjoying each other's presence.

Eventually, they arrived at Craig's house. They stood outside for a moment, both of them expecting something to happen, but not knowing exactly what. Tweek awkwardly stepped forward, then wrapped his arms around Craig in a hug. Before Craig could even reciprocate, Tweek ran off.

Craig could feel butterflies arise in his stomach and he had to do everything he could to squish them down. Now is not the time to be thinking like that, and then Craig opened the door to his house.

Whatever fragment of happiness he held with him suddenly died and rotted. His mom was sobbing on the couch while his dad was nowhere to be found. Craig immediately ran to her trying to comfort her. Craig didn't know what happened, but he was mad that he was having fun while his mom was in pain.

He started to rub her back gently while she tried to call down. After a more than reasonable time, her sobbing finally became sniffles. "I don't know what he's going to do."

Craig stared at her waiting for elaboration, when she didn't he decided to coerce her, "what do you mean."

"I told him I was going to leave him, but this time he was sober. He left after smacking me and grabbing a bat."

Craig breathes to try and calm himself, "it's going to be okay, lock the doors, don't let him in."

His mom took one final breath before nodding and doing precisely that. To stop the two of them breaking down, they kept doing simple tasks to prevent him getting in.

When they finished doing their simple tasks, they both sat back down on the couch. "You must hate me."

Craig stared at his mom in shock, "what makes you say that."

She placed her hand on Craigs2 cheek and smiled. "You're too young to be worrying about adult things. You should be hanging out with your friends or going on dates like other kids your age."

Craig didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. He could never hate his mom, but Craig always had a hard time putting his feelings into words, so he didn't try.

They were both still wide awake that night when Craig's dad came back. Thankfully, he was too drunk to figure out how to get inside with all the doors and windows locked. He didn't have his bat anymore, and Craig didn't want to know what he did with it.

After a couple of hours of his dad harassing them and trying to get in he eventually stopped. Making both him and his mom let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding.

Craig looked at his mom, "let's go to sleep."

Her eyes widened in fear, "I can't, he could come back."

"We can't let him get to us, that's exactly what he wants."

She looked down in thought before looking at Craig again, "you're right, we'll show him we're just fine without him. With that they both headed towards their beds, both scared, but both feeling better than they've felt in a long time.