After years of being at each others' throats, Kyle and Cartman somehow achieved a fairly consistent level of kindness towards one another in 6th grade. Though they still bickered, and occasionally screamed and argued, they never came to blows, and could spend hours together without trading insults. Stan, Kenny, and Butters barely noticed the change. Kyle and Cartman's tenuous friendship had been building up slowly for years, starting with a slight increase in their tolerance of each other and ending with Kyle actually cracking a smile at the majority of Cartman's jokes. Cartman, for his part, was scaling back his brutal comments, likely realizing that off-color, racist humor was getting him less and less laughs the older he got and the more progressive society became.
Kyle took notice of this, and he genuinely enjoyed their new friendship, even if he still had serious doubts about Cartman's morals. They were both unquestionably intelligent. Kyle dealt well with technology, and in 7th grade, he and Butters began messing around with computer code, though Kyle could barely tolerate the guy otherwise. Cartman kept an eye on news and politics (as well as People Magazine and female pop stars) and though he and Kyle disagreed on most economic policies or the results of the latest election, they could deeply discuss the topics with each other in a way they couldn't with anyone else. They both loved to think, to speculate, and to do; the few times they had collaborated they had been near unstoppable.
Kyle's grades slipped slightly as he and Cartman grew closer, because it was more fun to whisper to each other in the back of the classroom than pay attention to material that Kyle was beginning to agree was useless and boring. He and Cartman started spending time alone, at each others' houses, without telling the other boys. They wouldn't do anything in particular, though Cartman did attempt to coerce Kyle into some kind of scheme on most days. Kyle refused out of moral principal, but would have been lying if he said that, deep down, being Cartman's go-to business partner didn't make him strangely happy. One afternoon, Cartman even drafted up fake business cards, one for each of them. He made them on index cards with colored pencils; the writing was barely legible. Kyle said he hated them, and still refused Cartman's offers of employment, but pocketed his to keep on his desk.
Stan was often dealing with his family problems, his parents fighting as much as usual. Shelly, in high school now and with her braces finally removed, had taken on a surprisingly mature role in the household. She acted as a source of support for Stan while she worked 30 hours a week at a nearby grocery store. It was her goal to make enough money to attend Denver Community College in the near future.
It was hard for Kyle to talk to Stan sometimes; talking to him required a level of emotional exertion that Kyle just couldn't offer every day. The bottom line was Kyle didn't understand what Stan was going through. Their families didn't have the same problems, and it was hard to talk to Stan about his. Stan would get so angry that most of the time, a productive discussion just wasn't an option. It was nobody's fault, just a matter of circumstance. Nonetheless, it created distance between them that Kyle, though he was eager to close the gap, found difficult to bridge. It was shocking, almost stupid, for Kyle to admit that Cartman was easier to talk to at times. Though it was clear Cartman had his own bevy of family and personal problems, unlike Stan, Cartman was eager to keep them secret and not let them affect the way others saw him, for better or worse.
(Sometimes Kyle wanted to know Cartman's problems, the things he didn't brag about or scream about, the things he really didn't want anyone to know. Cartman was such a performer, Kyle wondered what he did, what he was like, when no one was watching.)
Kenny was absent from their group now more than ever. Though it was obviously illegal, he'd started working at South Park Auto at age 12 thanks to his older brother's connections, and he would show up to Cartman's house with oil on his nose when he did come by. He mostly did odd jobs around the shop, running errands that no one wanted or had the time to do, and he was paid under the table at half minimum wage. Kenny's mother and father had finally split, though because of their poverty, that meant that the only real change was his dad slept in the basement and instead of yelling at each other the two ignored each others' existence entirely. It sounded awfully depressing to Kyle, but Kenny assured him it was an improvement.
What's more, through their dysfunctional families Kenny and Stan had finally found some common ground, which was a relief for Kyle. The two grew closer, much like Kyle and Cartman, to the point where they were truly good friends. A stark contrast to their prior relationship, in which they rarely talked one-on-one. Kenny admitted to Kyle that he realized he was spending too much time at the Marsh house when he started to hear wedding bells every time Shelly walked through the living room. Without the braces, he insisted, and with her new high school body, she was a serious babe. Kyle didn't see it, but he took Kenny's word for it.
Butters maintained his boyish smile and demeanor, though he lost much of his naivete and gained a darker sense of humor. He and Kenny had raunchy gossip sessions about the hottest girls in class that were so dirty Kyle could barely stand to listen. Cartman sometimes gave his two-cents, which usually ended up being a criticism of the girls' clothes or hairstyle rather than their tits or ass. The biggest change in Butters was his attitude towards his parents. He began being rather open about the fact that he absolutely despised his father, and would more often than not sneak out of the house while grounded if asked to. Kyle suspected this was due to Kenny's support, the two developing another growing friendship that was probably much healthier for Butters than his previous with Cartman. Cartman pursuing fewer and fewer asinine schemes meant he had less and less use for Butters, and their closeness diminished. Kyle was sure this was better for both of them.
Suffice it to say, they were all growing up, their dynamics shifting and flowing as they struggled to find their footing and fit into their new big-kid shoes. And Kyle wondered how long everything would stay the same.
The answer was, not very.
In the spring of 8th grade, something happened, something Kyle couldn't and didn't want to name. He wasn't sure exactly what started it, but it was clear it had started and it was clear it was happening. Suddenly, his friendship with Cartman dissolved, disappearing like it'd never been there at all. He couldn't say who had started it, but the insults and arguments once again reared their ugly heads, one after another, heated back-and-forth exchanges where the both of them would get so mad, faces inches apart, glaring at each other, an intensity between them. They stopped spending time alone together, stopped discussing politics. He hated Cartman all over again. He hated Cartman's face, Cartman's laugh, Cartman's jokes, Cartman's plots. There wasn't a thing about Cartman he didn't hate. And Cartman hated him back. He would blast Kyle's mom and Jewish heritage with scathing provocations until Kyle couldn't hold back. Cartman seemed ten times as mean and evil as when they were in elementary school; but only towards Kyle. It got to the point where even seeing Cartman's smile would light a fire in the pit of Kyle's stomach, a hot anger Kyle couldn't quell.
Their arguments turned physical. It was a cause for celebration these days if they didn't beat the shit out of each other. Kyle was almost always the victor. He gained a reputation for being someone who took no shit, and most of the other 8th graders were afraid of him. Craig challenged him to a fight for some asinine reason or another, probably hoping to secure his place as biggest badass before the start of high school. Kyle showed him who was boss. They were both suspended for a week, and Kyle's mother cried when she received the phone call from the principal, telling Kyle when he came home that "this just isn't like you", breaking into choked sobs when she saw his black eye.
Kyle and Cartman were careful not to fight at school or in view of adults. They fought too often not to get into serious trouble if they were caught every time. If they had stopped to think about it, they might have found it strange that they cooperated so well when it came to planning the time and place of their fights.
In the spring of 8th grade, Kyle finally snapped. There was just something he couldn't hold back anymore, a fury whenever he saw Cartman that he felt too often to always control. All it took was a spitball to the back of the neck in English class.
Kyle was on his feet in half a second, eyes blazing, jaw clenched. He turned, fixed gazes with Cartman. And Kyle launched himself at him. The class was stunned. Kyle flipped Cartman's desk, pinned him to the ground, and punched him in the face unhesitatingly, over and over, even though Cartman begged him to stop, until several students pulled Kyle off and restrained him.
Cartman spent a week in the hospital and had to get an obscene amount of stitches. He lost three of his adult teeth, and got a veneer to cover the damage done to another. A split in his bottom lip became a permanent scar. Surprisingly, when asked if he wanted to know Kyle's punishment, he said he did not, and refused to listen to the information.
Kyle was suspended from school for a full month. His mother successfully petitioned for Kyle not to be expelled, a feat possible only thanks to Cartman's well-known history of bad behavior and the fact that she got on her knees and flat-out begged the principal for forgiveness on Kyle's behalf. The school referred Mrs. Broflovski to a local therapist and stated that Kyle would only be allowed to return once he had begun consistently seeing a doctor for what was clearly, from their perspective at least, an anger management problem. Additionally, Kyle was forbidden from sharing a classroom with Cartman for the rest of their academic career together, something of a school-enforced restraining order.
Kyle was confused, and angry. At 14, he was angry at everything. Cartman, the school, his mother, and himself. South Park. The whole world. Why did he do it? How could he have done it? It was awful to think he could have done something so destructive. He voiced these thoughts in therapy. Sometimes it helped.
When he cleared out his room that summer on a hot July day, he went to wipe the sweat from his brow and slipped, knocking over an old pile of books next to his desk. He leaned over to pick them up and as he did, he noticed a bent index card lying among them.
Emblazoned on the unlined side of it was "Cartman & Broflovski: The Best in Freelance Businessmen".
It would be three years before Kyle and Cartman spoke again.