Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the South Park world, which is trademarked by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. All the characters are created and owned by them, and I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of South Park. The story I tell here is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of the story canon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line.
Just like every other morning, Kyle woke up to the sound of the espresso machine working.
That old piece of electrical appliance never failed to bring him out of his sweet slumber, as the noise it produced was too loud to be unnoticed.
It didn't even bother him anymore, moreover it was a gentle wake up call.
Still dazed by sleep, he sat on the edge of the bed and reached for his green slippers with his feet.
He wasn't going to have breakfast with his family, unlike usual. He was going to his favorite Cafè to revise for his impending test, that would have taken place at 10 AM that morning. He had a free period because his teacher was ill.
Studying at home would have been quite hard, as breakfast was usually loud and messy, mostly because of his baby brother, Ike.
Not many minutes later, he was already downstairs, all dressed and with his backpack on one shoulder. He kissed his parents and brother goodbye and left the house.
Once outside he jumped on his bike, put on his earphones and started riding.
The wind messed up his red, curly hair to a degree, despite it being protected by his green ushanka.
He liked the feeling of the cool air hitting his face, it was a way to wake him up, if anything.
Riding his bike was always a pleasure and made him zoom out of the world for those good few minutes.
When arrived at Cafè Nuance, everyone greeted him. He knew each and every regular costumer, as he was one himself.
He said his to everyone back, smiling and feeling positive. That was his favorite place in all of the town, hands down. Everyone was just so friendly and polite and he loved it.
He sat at the counter and was approached by the bartender, a nice lady in her forties called Patty. She kind of reminded him of his mother, given her chubby appearance.
"Hey Kyle!" she said, looking happy to see him. "How are you today?"
"Feeling great actually!" Kyle replied, while taking out a small notebook from his backpack and placing it on the counter. "I woke up with a smile because something tells me that today will be a great day. I have a history test, but I'm not nervous at all."
"That's awesome! I'm sure you will ace it!" Patty said encouragingly. "Need the usual to focus on your revising better?"
The redhead boy simply nodded, already immersed in his own notes.
Cafè Nuance was known for being calm and quiet, especially in the morning, but that day something was noticeably different.
A guy entered the Cafè and went to sit next to Kyle, all while talking on the phone, speaking louder than a usual frequenter would have.
"Yeah, I tell you, I was extremely annoyed by all those mexicans sitting next to me! I swear, their smell was unbearable!" the guy spoke, huffing a little. "Alright, speak again soon, bye dude!"
'Wow, what a racist douchebag!' Kyle thought to himself.
Feeling curious about that already annoying new entry, he glanced up at him.
He was a very big guy, to say the least. He must have been about double the size that Kyle was, to put it into words.
He was sweating, probably due to him being overweight.
Something about him really caught Kyle's eye, though.
Maybe it was his hair, a shiny, chestnut color, and it was styled in a way that screamed "spoiled!", or his deep brown eyes.
When his coffee was ready, Kyle didn't even turn around to look at it, for he was too distracted by that obnoxious person.
He was fat, but he was definitely attractive, although he hated his persona already.
Mixed feelings was the right term to describe what was going through the redhead's mind.
He watched, almost in awe, as the other boy drank his mocaccino quite vigorously.
The guy was beginning to feel watched, so he turned around to look at who was sitting next to him.
Kyle felt his face flare up with embarrassment upon being caught, so he quickly turned his head around and took a sip of his coffee.
"Hey, do you want an autograph or something?" The new person said. "I'm talking to you, redhead!"
He tapped Kyle's shoulder to get his attention. Wow, that guy was incredibly forward with strangers, it seemed.
"Uh? No, I wasn't even looking at you." Kyle lied, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Dude, it was obvious you were staring at me! You think I'm fat, don't you? Well let me tell you, I'm not fat, I'm simply big boned!" the guy growled, getting in the other boy's space now. He definitely had a short temper.
"Look, I don't want no trouble, I was simply staring out of the window and you just happened to be in the way." Kyle said, defending himself. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable given the closeness of that crazy stranger.
"Hey, Eric, leave Kyle alone!" Patty exclaimed, walking closer to the duo with her finger pointed at the chubby guy. "He's done nothing to you, mind your own business! Or I will have to kick you out."
Eric rolled his eyes and backed away from the other boy. "Sorry Patty!" He mumbled.
There it was, the thing that would spoil Kyle's awfully good mood of the day.
Some random jerk getting mad at him for simply looking at him.
It wasn't just the confrontation that had bothered him, it was also his inability to keep his mouth shut about mexicans and such. And he was pretty loud about it, mind you.
He couldn't believe that he had found him somewhat interesting.
It had just been a matter of minutes, but that encounter just couldn't find its way out of his mind, not even during the History test, once in school.
Just how could someone so intriguing be that insufferable?
It was 2019 and people were still racist, it was outraging.
He was sure of who that Eric guy sided with in terms of politics.
At lunch time he finally talked about it with his best friend of ten years, Stan.
"Can you believe it? He used racial slurs against mexicans for, like, half an hour. And he snapped at me because I looked at him for two mere seconds!" he said in an irritated tone while sliding his lunch tray on the table.
"Ah, just let it go, man! Unfortunately, some people are like that, it's just the way it is. Who cares if some guy got in your face for two minutes? I doubt you will ever see him again." Stan replied, shaking his black, 2010 Justin Bieber hair.
He was right, he shouldn't have cared about a stranger he had barely interacted with, but he just couldn't stop thinking about him.
"I hope so, apparently Patty knows him."
"You get too fixated on things, my man. You're seventeen, there are way more important things to put your mind into. Like, I don't know, Bebe." Stan pointed out, his eyes going in the direction of a blonde, curly haired girl sitting three tables away from them.
Stan had tried to get Kyle to hook up with Bebe multiple times throughout the years they had been in high school, but his best friend just wouldn't have it.
Stan thought that it was because he was shy with the opposite sex, but the truth was that he just didn't like the opposite sex.
Kyle was gay and in the closet, too afraid to let the world know about his true nature.
His best friend had always been quite tolerant of gay people, but, still, he didn't really feel like coming out to him just yet.
He had sent him some hints, though, but he just couldn't seem to get them.
"Yeah, no, Bebe is not really my type." Kyle stated.
"Oh, why not? She's smart and funny, Wendy is always talking about just how great she is."
Wendy was Stan's long time girlfriend, whom Kyle had always found rather irritating.
He didn't dislike her, but sometimes she was just too much. Plus, his friend had blown him off countless times to be with her.
She'd usually eat lunch with her girlfriends, at least.
"Come on, agree to go on a double date with me and Wendy on Friday!" Stan pleaded. "She's begging me to fix you up with Bebe, cause boy does she have a crush on you."
So many Friday nights Kyle had spent at home, playing video games with his back up friend, Kenny, who was a boy one year his junior, and went to another school.
So, at least, the double date would have been an excuse to hang out with Stan.
He wouldn't have payed attention to the blondie, though.
That night, in bed, Kyle thought of how much he wanted to tell Stan that, through it all, he had found the racist guy very attractive. He really had a thing for chubby guys.
It was frustrating how he had no one to talk to about it, not even his best friend.
He wasn't really good at dealing with mixed feelings, as he was never one to make up his mind that easily.
On one hand, he was hoping he would never see that guy again, on the other hand he had the desire to meet him once again and study him more in detail.
So, throughout the next mornings, he skipped breakfast with his family to go to Cafè Nuance.
He never found Eric, though.
On Friday morning, the fourth day in a row of his Cafè Nuance breakfasts, he decided he would give up.
Probably, that Eric guy didn't go to the bar that often - maybe he just went there when Kyle didn't, that would've explained him knowing Patty and why he had never seen him before.
'It's probably better,' Kyle said to himself while on his bike on the way to school, "he was a dick, anyway."
But, try as he might, he was still a bit disappointed.
When he arrived at school and parked his bike, he noticed that Stan and Wendy were making out by their bikes.
Stan just wasn't aware of the turmoils that were going through his best friend's mind, he was there, riding to school alongside his girlfriend, smooching her in public... he was careless.
He walked past the two without them even noticing, he just made his way to classroom, his earphones still on.
It was obvious that Wendy had become Stan's priority. In that moment, he wished he had someone to put before Stan, so that it wouldn't bother him so much.
He then reminded himself of the double "date" of that night, so he reassured himself that, at least, he was going to have dinner with his friend - it didn't matter that Wendy would have been there, Bebe's presence would have taken her mind off Stan momentarily .
Kyle sat at his usual spot in the classroom. It was a desk in the second row, it was in between Stan and an empty spot, which had previously belonged to a girl who had failed the year before.
Stan arrived a good five minutes later, smiling happily with his hand in Wendy's.
"Oh hey, dude!" he said, while sitting next to Kyle, after breaking contact with his girlfriend.
"Hey." Kyle replied with half a smile.
"So it's all set, tonight, 7 pm at Sizzler." Stan stated, still grinning.
Kyle opened his mouth to respond but he was cut short by the teacher's entrance.
"Good Morning, students." said Mr Garrison, the calculus teacher.
Kyle had always found him quite creepy. He was a man in his fifties, but it was obvious that he had a thing for youngsters, as he usually acted like one.
"Now, we have a new student joining us today," the man continued while adjusting his hideous squared glasses. "He should be here any minute."
Oh, a new class mate, that could have been fun.
Also, Kyle's neighboring seat would have finally been taken.
The whole class chatted in excitement, each of them curious to see the new addition to their circle.
The guys all hoped that it would be a hot girl.
"I call dibs on her if she has big boobs!" a student in the third row, Clyde Donovan, joked to his friend quietly.
Kyle rolled his eyes at that. He didn't have any hopes regarding the new kid, except for them to be nice and friendly.
Not much later, the new student rushed into the room.
It was a boy, much to Clyde and company's disappointment.
He was noticeably overweight.
He was panting and sweating, which was probably due to him running.
His scarf and hat hid his face slightly, but Kyle recognized him instantly.
It was Eric. All those mornings, basically "hunting" for him at the bar, could have been avoided if he had known that he had to wait a little bit longer.
"That's him dude, the obnoxious guy I told you about." Kyle whispered to his best friend.
"Oh, really? That's unlucky, dude!"the black haired boy exclaimed in an undertone.
"Sorry, I'm late..." The chubby boy huffed.
"It's Ok, just don't get used to it." said Mr Garrison, "Tell us a bit about yourself."
Eric nodded, then he looked at the people in front of him. He didn't look thrilled about his first day in a new school, nor was he nervous. He was simply bored.
"Well, my name is Eric Cartman and I'm eighteen. Why I'm older than you is not your business so stay out of it." He said, all in one breath.
"Thanks, Eric, you can take a seat now." the teacher said, stretching his arm to point at the desks.
The now oldest guy in the class scanned the room with his eyes, trying to locate an empty seat.
Kyle knew exactly where Eric would have sat, given that the only available spot in the room was the desk next to his.
He felt slightly nervous. He was glad, but at the same time he knew he wouldn't have been an easy deskmate, given the nature of their first encounter.
Eric sat exactly where Kyle had predicted, obviously.
When he heard the nearby chair creaking from the weight placed upon it, the redhead turned his head in Stan's direction.
"What a hard chair!" Eric whined, shifting in his seat, trying to find a comfortable position. "These are totally manufactured by the Chinese. That would explain it."
Kyle and Stan exchanged a look, the latter finally understanding why his friend had been so fixated on that guy's irritating personality.
"Hey!" Eric suddenly almost shouted, making Kyle shudder. "You're the staring guy!" he said accusingly, pointing his finger at his deskmate.
Kyle began to blush furiously, as everyone turned their heads to look at him.
He wasn't much of a fan of being at the center of attention.
He felt like he had done back at Cafè Nuance, but this time he wasn't able to say anything.
"I knew it was you, with your stupid hair! I bet you like looking at me, uh? You think of me when nobody's around? I bet you're a little homo."
Kyle couldn't bring himself to do anything other than staring blankly at what was in front of him, hoping that, somehow, the attention would shift to something else.
He wasn't good at dealing with bullies, his whole life he had always tried to avoid any interaction with them, so he didn't know how to react.
He thought of stating once again that, no, he had not been staring at him four days prior, but he chose to ignore him.
He mentally slapped himself for finding Eric attractive in the first place.
He was nothing but a bully and he sure was a lot.