Accepting ✔️

Chapter Nineteen: It's Beautiful

Word Count: 1322
Trigger Warning: mention of a fatal car accident, mention of abuse, mention of suicide, mention of self-harm

Tweek's POV
And so, there we were, in Pete's car, outside of Token's house. After a long silence of me fidgeting with my hands in my lap, I felt Pete shift next to me, and I looked up to face him. He had mixed emotions, almost like awe and confusion; His eyes asked what happened.

I took a long breath and sighed. "Let's not talk about it, yet. Can we just... go back to your place?" I mumbled. As much as I love my parents, I'd rather not have to deal with them just yet. It's not like they cared much anyways. I looked down at my phone as Pete started the car:

16:12 (4:12pm)
Missed call from 'Craig the Dad'
12 unread text messages from 'Craig the Dad'
No older notifications

I sighed but ignored Craig's constant texts. I had no reason to answer his texts or calls. He needs to understand that I'm not his fucking property. We're not anywhere close to dating, and he is being overprotective. Imagine if we were dating.

Yeah, 'I don't trust him,' I call bullshit. He has no right to tell me who I should be friends with. All Tuckers bring problems.

Once we got back to Pete's, I told him the issue.

He hummed, taking in the problem in his head. "I understand how you feel, and I would love to add onto your argument of how that is complete and utter bull, but I'd rather not interfere and try to influence a hatred for someone who seems so important to you. Especially when the argument is about me. In my opinion, I get why you're frustrated, but it wouldn't be fair to either of you to lose each other over something so trivial, and don't get me wrong, I understand, I just think that when this blows over you'll laugh about something like this," Pete explained.

"I understand. Thank you for listening at least." I chuckled to lighten up the mood.

After this day, I had learned a plethora of facts about Pete. If you really looked at him, you could still see the 'non-conformist' goth side of him that he had described from older years. Pete explained that he had taken himself out of the toxic environment that was 'the Goth Kids' when he started sophomore year. In reality, he was the only goth kid that had a reason to be the way they were.

Michael, the leader, had an older brother to take care of him along with his loving mother and father. Henrietta wasn't much different with a little brother, Bradley, and her mother and father, who just wanted her to be 'normal.' Firkle reasoned that he was a social outcast. He had a passion for animals, more specifically insects. He had also left the group when he reached 3rd grade. He became friends with Ike, Karen, and Ruby, the popular gay kids at school. Though I didn't know them, I was happy to hear that the generation following was so accepting.

That brings us to Pete. Pete had a sister who had died in a car crash two weeks after getting her driver's license. After that day, his parents didn't act the same. His father had placed the blame on everyone but her and took it especially hard on Pete. He had abused him and kicked him out of the house. About a week after Pete left, he got the news that his mother had committed suicide. So you could say that not even Satan could help him.

Michael took Pete under his wing and kept him safe for so many years, but he was taught bad habits that did everything but help him. Pete wanted to live a good life. He was already skipping his classes, so he got a full-time job as an office assistant for a fantastic boss. With that money, he bought himself an apartment in Denver to start his life over, including slowly getting rid of his addictions. Now, he is a junior at our high school and still works for the same boss, part-time. If that isn't inspiration, I don't know what is.