I've had a lot of time to think about this one, so here's hoping it will be better than all the others I've written.
It is said that opposites attract. While this is true for magnets, some say that it also applies to love. Kyle and Kenny soon proved this to be correct. They were opposites in every conceivable way - Kyle was short, slim, careful, introvert and very studious. Kenny was tall, athletic, reckless, outgoing and intellectually lazy. Neither one of them had ever dreamed such a romance would be possible.
Like most romances, this one started with a kiss, although it wasn't entirely deliberate. Stan had invited his friends for a sleepover (with some alcohol thrown into the mix, so his friends wouldn't think his idea was childish), which Kyle reluctantly agreed to, thanks to his mother's "advice". Now, the only thing on his mind was that he should've stayed home.
"Dude, I'm not doing it!"
"C'mon, Kyle! It's just a kiss."
"Stan, that's a stupid dare and you know it! Just pick something else."
"Yeah, dude. Why did you have to involve me, anyway? Why not Cartman?"
"Hey! I'm not some fag like you three!"
"Shut up, fatty, or I'll do it myself!"
"Bring it on, blondie!"
"Guys, just shut up! Seriously, you're giving me a headache, and you're gonna wake up my parents... So, Kyle, are you gonna do it or not?"
"Note to self – stay home next time."
"...Fine. Whatever."
Kyle stared at the ground for a while before finally grabbing Kenny's head and giving him a big kiss. Stan and Cartman stared at each other in amazement, but their eyes soon found another target – Kenny. He just stood there with a puzzled look on his face, not even noticing Stan and Cartman as he watched Kyle slip into his sleeping bag. One minute he was yelling at Cartman, and the next Kyle was putting his tongue in his mouth. It had all happened so quickly that he didn't even have time to process it.
"I must be more drunk than I thought."
Once it became obvious that Kyle wasn't going to talk to them anymore, the other boys followed his example and fell asleep shortly afterward. Kyle, however, couldn't sleep. He kept trying to figure out why had done what he did and, most importantly, how to get Kenny's taste out of his mouth. Unfortunately, he couldn't do either.
"I hope it's gone in the morning... This sucks. I hate sleepovers. I don't even know what Stan was thinking. Fucking idiot... And what's with that dare? 'Oh, I want you to french kiss Kenny.' We're not little kids anymore!"
Kyle tried to distract himself by focusing on something else. He noticed that the room was fairly warm, even though it was getting late.
"Must be Cartman's fat ass heating the place up."
His distraction soon proved useless as Cartman started snoring. The sound dug deep into his ears; it felt like his brain was about to split in two. Kyle moved around in his sleeping bag, trying to block out the irritating noise to no avail. Thankfully, a familiar voice spoke out.
"Kyle?"
"Great. I woke him up. As if it wasn't bad enough that I kissed him."
"...Yeah, Kenny?"
"Sorry, did I wake you?"
"No... I can't sleep because of... Cartman's snoring."
"Just try to imagine music. That always helps me fall asleep when my parents are fighting."
"You just talk about that like it was the most normal thing in the world... I envy your fortitude, Kenny."
"...Thanks for the tip... And I'm sorry about-"
"It's OK. Stan just had one too many beers, if you ask me."
"Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"I-I guess..."
"...Well, I'm going back to sleep."
"Good night."
The following morning, Kenny woke up with Stan's mom's voice, telling them that breakfast was ready. He yawned and stretched his arms, but the room was so cold (since Cartman had left it hours ago) that he didn't want to leave the sleeping bag. Of course, that wasn't a choice he could make. Stan's mom's voice was giving him a splitting headache, which forced him to brave the cold and go downstairs. Hopefully, the sleeping bag would still be warm when he returned.
Kenny noticed that he had been the last one to get up. Cartman was obviously gone, considering the room's temperature, Stan was on the stairs, but Kyle was nowhere to be seen. Kenny looked around and realized that the bathroom door was closed. He stopped for a few moments and put the pieces together.
"He must be in there."
"Kenny, are you coming or not?"
"What? Oh, right. Yeah, I'm going. Chill."
Kenny sat down and started looking around as he waited for Kyle. The kitchen was fairly small, and the fact that it was overstuffed only made it seem smaller. There were at least eighteen counters with various small appliances on them that completely covered three of its walls, save for the two spaces that housed the stove and the dishwasher. The fourth wall only had the door, which Kenny thought was weird. Then again, he wasn't much of a designer. In the middle there was a tall granite "table" with four high chairs all around it.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
"I'm just waiting for Kyle."
"...Suit yourself."
Thankfully, Kyle arrived only seconds after Cartman's remark, fully dressed, and everyone finished their breakfast shortly afterward. Kyle took this opportunity to say goodbye to his friends and left as quickly as he could. However, Stan still wanted to talk to him.
"Make it quick." thought Kyle as he sighed.
"Kyle, I'm sorry about forcing you to-"
"Yeah, I know."
"I guess I was a little drunk."
"That's an understatement. I don't even understand how you got drunk with so little alcohol, but whatever."
"Look, let's just forget about it."
"Alright. See ya later."
"Not likely."
Once Stan went back into his room, he found Kenny and Cartman getting ready to leave.
"You're leaving? Already?"
"Y-Yeah. I just remembered I had something to do."
"What about you, Cartman?"
"Well, since Kenny's leaving, I guess I'm leaving too."
"Come on, dude!"
"I'd stay, but you have a lot of cleaning up to do. Good luck with that."
"I need new friends."
A few hours later, Kenny was going door to door, asking if anyone had any odd jobs he could do (for a fee, of course). Unfortunately, nobody wanted to hire him, and the only house left was Kyle's.
"I didn't want him to see me like this, especially after what happened yesterday, but... I really need the money."
Kenny knocked on the door, his hands getting increasingly shaky with each knock. Much to his surprise and dislike, Kyle was the one who answered the door. Of course, that just made him even more nervous.
"H-Hey, Kyle."
"...Hey."
"Um... Can I talk to your dad?"
"...Sure. I'll go get him."
Kenny resisted the urge to peek inside the house and instead looked around. Several flowers had bloomed, and some trees he couldn't identify also had little flowers on them that were losing their petals. They almost looked like pink snow flakes. Their scent was also quite pleasant – not even Cartman could deny that. The wind was very mild; almost soothing, the skies were perfectly clear... South Park was truly a beautiful place to live. Aside from the intermittent monster attacks and other strange events, it was actually pretty peaceful most of the time. As he turned his gaze downward, Kenny also noticed something that should help him make a small amount of money.
"Hey, Kenny!"
"You seem oddly cheerful today. Kyle, on the other hand..."
"Hey. Uh... Sorry to bother you, but... I need some money, and I was thinking maybe I could mow your lawn or something?"
"Hm..."
Kyle's dad carefully examined his front yard. The grass wasn't that tall, but it was strangely uneven, as if someone with extremely large square feet had squished parts of it and left the rest intact. Since Kenny was doing all the hard work anyway, there was only one more thing he needed to know.
"How much?"
"I dunno... 20 bucks an hour?"
"15."
"...You're lucky you're my last chance."
"...Fine. I'll come by tomorrow; is that OK?"
"Alright. Just talk to Kyle when you get here."
"Great."
"Well, I'm going home now. See ya."
Kenny left, feeling slightly annoyed by the fact that he was going to have to do use every cent he had for the game he wanted. At most, he was looking at $30 from mowing Kyle's dad's lawn. That was about half of what he needed. If he put together what he already had, maybe ask his brother for some more, he might be able to buy it.
Unbeknownst to him, Kyle was staring at him from his bedroom window. He wondered Kenny was doing at his house, but he soon found something else to think about.
At home, Kenny started to think about what else he could do to get some more money. He already had a little bit, but it was nowhere near enough for the game he wanted. The fact that he was going to be stuck at Kyle's house for a couple of hours just made it worse. After what happened, those hours would feel like an eternity. Even now, just thinking about Kyle made him lose all sense of time. He couldn't stop thinking about that kiss. It felt unlike anything he had felt before, although he ascribed it to the alcohol, as well as several other drugs he had taken before going to Stan's house. However, his thoughts soon turned to something slightly more important, albeit still related to Kyle.
"What if he tells me to leave because his dad forgot to warn him? If I tell him the truth, he's... Well, I don't really know what he's going to say. But it's probably not gonna be good."
Kyle was also thinking about Kenny and the kiss, but his feelings towards it were somewhat different.
"Why can't you stay and give him the stupid lawn mower?"
"Your mother and I have a meeting tomorrow with the principal. Don't you remember Ike's little... incident?"
"He was just standing up for himself. Besides, who the fuck schedules a meeting on a weekend?"
"Yes..."
"Anyways, it's just Kenny! You guys are still friends, right?"
"Yeah, and now everything tastes like him, which is a lot more disgusting than it sounds... And that's saying something." thought Kyle as he nodded.
"Alright then. Hey, don't you have homework to do?"
"No, dad... I already finished it hours ago."
"Good. Also, don't forget your exam next week."
"I know."
"Will you ever get off my back about school?"
After his dad left, Kyle sat down at his desk and opened a small notepad and a book, to study for the exam. Although he had slight feelings of resentment towards his father for making him study so much, he knew that he was just trying to do what was best for him. His high grades were also one of the few things that made him smile nowadays. He had been feeling increasingly empty; completely unaffected by pretty much everything around him. His friends, on the other hand, seemed happier than ever, which just added to his emptiness. Everyone had something to make them happy. Everyone except him.
"Just try not to think about it... That's what you do with everything else. Just ignore it and hope it will go away. Hm... I'm even more pathetic than I thought."
The day went by with both boys thinking about each other, but for different reasons. Kyle was trying to think about something else other than his feelings of worthlessness, which eventually led to Kenny, due to the recent events, whereas Kenny was simply unable to stop thinking about Kyle. Regardless of how much he tried, everything just kept reminding him of Kyle. Even his room was similar to Kyle's. The desk and the bed on opposite sides, the window on the opposite side of the door, the small bookshelf with games... The only difference was that Kyle's room was always kept impeccable, whereas Kenny's was always messy, and had several hiding spots for his many stashes of drugs. Thankfully, that realization finally gave him something to do other than thinking about Kyle.
"I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to cleaning my room... But I guess it's better than where I was going."
Kenny was becoming concerned over his apparent obsession with Kyle. He thought Kyle was somewhat cuter than the other boys, but lately his feelings had been shifting more towards an actual crush on his friend. Ever since that stupid dare, he couldn't get Kyle out of his head. He still felt as if Kyle's lips were pressed against his own. He still remembered every detail, even if his sense of time had been completely messed up. Kyle putting his hand on his face; pressing his soft lips against his own... And, of course, the "main event" – when their tongues intertwined. At that moment, time itself appeared to have stood still, and his entire body went haywire. His heart was beating erratically, his muscles twitched uncontrollably, and thoughts about Kyle raced in his mind. Then it ended just as quickly as it began.
Kenny started to wonder if Kyle liked him, but nothing even remotely indicated that he had any feelings whatsoever for him. If anything, Kyle's feelings toward him (and everyone else) ranged from friendship to minor acknowledgment of his existence. It had been that way for a while.
Kyle had always been a cheerful guy, but as he grew older, he became more and more distant, until he almost had to be forced to spend time with his friends, by his friends. They enjoyed his company, even though he didn't seem to enjoy theirs anymore. Of course, they didn't know that the real reason for that was because being around happy people just made him even more depressed. Seeing what he didn't have anymore – what he couldn't have anymore – made him lose all hope. He saw how happy his friends were and became jealous, which he knew he wasn't supposed to feel, which made him sadder. The sadder he felt, the more his friends' happiness affected him, which made the initial feeling of jealousy even worse. It was a vicious cycle that would inevitably destroy him. Kyle wasn't dumb, though. He knew exactly how broken he was. He knew it better than anyone else. He had just given up a long time ago. His will had been shattered over the years, and now the only thing that kept him going was his aversion to suicide. He just couldn't end his own life.
