Valentines Day: the day of love, mush, and maybe even some tears. The day that makes people wonder what happened to the other 364 days in the year. Normally, someone who might hate this day, would say something along the lines about it being overrated and over commercialized and rant on about how you should express your love every day out of the year, not waste it all on just one.
That person would just so happen to be Kyle Broflovski.
Every year on this day, he puffs out his cheeks, crosses his arms, and sits back and acts moody the entire day. Nobody ever really wants to interact with him when he's in this mood, so hardly anybody ever does. If anyone tries speaking to him, he'll just spew on about puking rainbows and all that other type of stuff.
The true reason behind this? It's because Kyle has never actually had a Valentine that was someone other than his own mother. Nobody ever got him a balloon, or a box of chocolates (not that he could eat them), or a rose. He never had the courage to bother buying that sort of stuff for anybody else, either. So he just sat back and sulked while glaring at all the happy, gushy faces around him. While, meanwhile, his heart cracked more and more on the inside until he finally got home and cried himself to sleep.
This was why he hated Valentines Day. It was the bane of his existence. But, to digress, we should probably move on with the rest of the story.
Kyle was sitting alone at the lunch table, head propped up by a hand as he stared at all his friends trading gifts and holding hands. He frowned, sighing to himself, about ready to get up and go to the library to sulk in some peace and quiet. That is, until Kenny sat down next to him, dropping down a pile of teddy bears, heart lollipops, a whole bunch of roses, and a few boxes of chocolates. He beamed over at Kyle, sucking on a pink lollipop.
"Dude, I scored big time this year!" he exclaimed, a big goofy grin on his face. In case it wasn't obvious, in contrast to Kyle hating the day, Kenny absolutely loved it. He got so many gifts from adoring girls—cute ones, too—that it was almost ridiculous.
Kyle had to stop himself from scoffing. "So, who's your Valentine this year?" he asked monotonously. He really didn't want to hear it. Out of everybody in the school that Kyle would choose to actually be his Valentine, it would be this particular blond right here. But he knew that that was just dumb thinking, considering Kenny could get any girl (or guy) he wanted. And why would he want Kyle?
Kenny blinked at him from across his pile of goodies as if the Jew had asked the stupidest question in the world. "What? I don't have one."
Kyle cocked his head, straightening up some in curiosity. "What do you mean you don't have one? Where'd you get all those gifts from?"
Kenny shrugged. "A few girls gave this stuff to me. I tried to deny it, but they gave it to me anyway." He winked at him. "Besides, I only want one certain person to be my Valentine this year."
The redhead's curious look dropped back to a hidden scowl. He rolled his eyes and tried his 'hardest' to look as interested as ever in this conversation. "And who would that be?" he asked with mock-interest.
Kenny enthusiasm suddenly died down, a blush creeping across his face. He pushed some of the stuff on the table into his backpack to procrastinate from answering. Kyle seemed to not notice. "Well, you see, it's…well, it's sort of—"
"Kenny! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" The obnoxiously high-pitched voice of Bebe Stephens piped up from behind the two boys, cutting Kenny off from saying whatever he was going to say.
Kenny smiled his award-winning smile, warm enough to melt the heart of any human of any gender. His powers of charming were almost god-like. Yes, he was just that good. "Oh, hey Bebe. What do you need?" he asked.
Bebe giggled, a blush creeping across her face. She grabbed his arm and yanked him up excitedly. "C'mon, I want to show you something!"
"Huh, but, wha—" Kenny's protests were defenseless against her urgency. He looked back as if to give Kyle a look of apology, but the redhead just waved him off. He sighed to himself, going back to the same mind-set as he was in before the blond had shown up. If anything, he was in an even worse mood. Everyone knew Bebe was one of the hottest girls in school and with Kenny being one of the hottest guys, they would be the perfect couple. There were people even rooting for them getting together.
It was only a matter of time before Kenny would come back to the table with a great big lipstick stain on his cheek and a huge grin on his face, holding the hand of the big-breasted eccentric teenager. He would probably say something along the lines of, 'Hey, Kyle, guess what? Bebe and I are going out now, so I'm going to spend the rest of my life ignoring you because now I'm having the perfect Valentines day.' Hey, it was exaggeration—it's exactly what happened when Stan and Wendy finally got back together almost a year ago.
"Hey, Kyle, guess what?" Here it came. Kyle winced as the voice of Kenny rang in his ears. He refused to allow himself to look up and see the new couples' sickeningly happy faces. He was shocked when Kenny sat down next to him just like before, no lipstick stain, no Bebe, but still with a large grin.
"What?" Kyle dared himself to ask, too surprised to stop himself. She was probably just off telling all her girlfriends about her new totally hot boyfriend.
"Bebe asked me out, dude! Isn't that awesome?" Kenny enthused. Kyle felt his heart sink to the bottom of his gut like a rock.
"Yeah. Awesome." He hardly even tried to make himself sound interested anymore. He felt like the blond might as well of punched him in the gut. In fact, he probably would have preferred it—it might have felt better and at least that pain would go away after a few minutes.
Kenny sat back, pulling out a piece of heart-shaped caramel chocolate from his backpack and munching on it, talking with his mouth full. "Yeah, but I turned her down."
"What!" Kyle looked up at him so fast he thought he got whip-lash. What did he just say? He had to of been hearing things. Yeah, that was it—it was just so desperate for Kenny to stay single that he was starting to hallucinate.
Kenny swallowed the chocolate and smiled over at the redhead. "You heard me. She didn't take it too well, but, I dunno, I just don't think she's the one for me, y'know?" He paused for a moment, as if to think something over, before looking back at Kyle. "Hey, speaking of, there's something I've been trying to tell—"
"Hey, Kyle!" Kyle looked away from the mesmerizing crystal blue eyes to turn his attention to a certain brunette. Rebecca stood over them, curly hair coming down in masses, hands twisting together in nervousness. She was still the whore of the school, but Kyle still associated with her every so often, though he was completely over that crush he'd had at her so long ago. She was nowhere near his type anymore, she'd changed so much.
"Hey, Rebecca. What's up?" he asked, getting a little agitated that his time with Kenny was being interrupted yet again.
Rebecca bit her bottom lip and looked between Kenny and Kyle awkwardly. "You know, I'd feel better telling you would come with me. Just for a second. Please?" She smiled sweetly and Kyle couldn't just say no, so he nodded to Kenny (who gave him a half-hearted thumbs-up) and followed after her.
Kenny waited at the table by himself, tapping nonchalantly on the plastic of the dirtied lunch table. He glanced around, noticing Stan and Wendy holding hands as they showed each other and their gifts off to the entire school as they walked around. Stan had gotten Wendy a balloon and a large teddy bear with what looked like a pretty expensive locket around its neck. Stan was holding a box of chocolates, sucking on a lollipop with a love-sick grin on his face.
Nobody would ever guess how jealous of them Kenny was. Stan got the girl of his dream and Wendy got the guy she had always wanted to be with. There were tons of girls for Kenny to choose from, but none were ever the right one. There was only one person in the entire school he thrived to have and today was his goal to get him.
Wherever he may be.
Kenny checked his watch. Kyle had been gone for an awfully long time. He frowned, beginning to get worried. What if he actually accepted Rebecca? After waiting another five minutes, he felt he couldn't stand it anymore—Kyle probably wasn't coming back anyway—so he stood and grabbed his bag to start wandering around school grounds until the bell rang.
That is, until Kyle appeared, head down, eyes cast to the side. Kenny dropped his bag and was instantly at the redhead's side. "Kyle? What's wrong? What happened?" he asked, worry taking over his tone of voice.
Kyle sniffled, but he wasn't crying. He shook his head. "I-I don't want to talk about it. I'm sick of this fucking day already." He lowered his voice. "I just want to go home and forget about it."
Kenny couldn't help but pull him into a hug. He couldn't stand seeing Kyle so down in the dumps. Kyle, at first a little surprised, buried his head into Kenny's comfortable shoulder. "I love you," Kenny whispered.
Kyle's eyes widened and he pulled away a little to get a good look at the blond boy's perfect face. "What?" he asked, absolutely shocked beyond comprehension. Okay, so now he was definitely hallucinating.
Kenny smiled widely and took a risk he would never think about taking any other 364 days of the year. He leaned in and captured Kyle in a warm, heart-felt kiss, pulling away only moments later—too soon for the both of them. "Kyle, will you be my Valentine?"
Kyle just gawked at him. Kenny shifted awkwardly from foot to foot before backing away and reaching for his bag, head down in embarrassment. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
"Kenny—wait," Kyle called, grabbing Kenny arm and pulling him back around to face him. His frown was replaced with a bright smile, something that made the charmer feel charmed. He wrapped his arms around Kenny's neck and kissed his cheek. "Yeah! I'll definitely be your Valentine!" Kenny laughed out loud, hugging him back tightly.
They walked away, goofy grins on their faces and hands entwined together. Both of them had finally learned the true meaning of Valentines Day and the reason why everyone loved this day so much out of all the others. Because, well, now they were just like the rest of them—happy as can be.