It's an abusive relationship they said. Those people were right, it was an abusive relationship. She knew this all too well. And yet... she found herself thinking about the good times.
Kyle said that Eric manipulated her. Whispered her sweet words when she was vulnerable. For him, she was only a toy that he threw away when he bored with her. Kyle probably right, that'd explain his sweet behavior on their early relationship. The more their relationship go on, the more sweet Eric became... Cartman.
She knew this and yet... she still think of him when she couldn't sleep at night.
She remembered when they go ice skating together. He was holding her hands. Guided her through the ice rink, as if they were dancing in some fancy ball.
She remembered practicing for a play with him. She was a nervous wreck and always screwed her lines. Eric would rehearsed her lines, with the confident that she will never had. She ended up failing her audition. But Eric's comforting words was enough for her.
She remembered the both of them sitting together in the park. Just talking about whatever come to mind. They would laugh and holding hands just like any other couples. It was nice... Really nice.
She would remembered all of this and forgot about Eric being a horrible human being. She always treasure the good old times, before everything become downhill. Maybe that's why she would never completely forgot about him.
The first time she really talked to him after their break up was in highschool. They were chosen as partner in a long term science project. At first, their conversation consist of schoolwork. Then they started to catching up with each other lifes. She would laugh at his ridiculous adventure with his gang. While he would throw side comments about her story, but he still listen tentatively.
He then asked about her job as an editor at the newspaper club. That question surprised her. When she asked how he knew about it, he just shrugged. Saying why wouldn't he didn't know about it.
The newspaper club members's names were printed in the corner of the newspaper. Nobody really payed attention to it and only a few people knew about her involvement in the newspaper club.
Did it's wrong of her to feel butterfly in her stomach? For her to unable to resist Eric Cartman? Because two weeks later, they were dating again.
It was wonderful. To felt his arms around her again. He apologized for his wrong doing when they were dating back then. Which she already forgave him.
But of course, coming back together with Eric meaning constantly hearing criticism from her friends.
"I can't believe you're dating him again!" Wendy barked. "I thought you finally realize how terrible he is."
"People change Wendy." She said softly. "You just never really know him."
"I doubt anybody want to know him." Red muttered, shooting a look to her. "If you really know him you will know that he's a sociopath."
Heidi smiled at her. This is her life as long she dating Eric and she was fine with this. She knew that deep down, no matter how deep it was, Eric had a heart. And she was the only person that ever took a peek at Eric's heart. Well except for Mrs. Cartman of course. And probably his cat too.
Eric was a light. He attracted other, including her. He was charming and he knew it. He attracted other like a moth attracted to light. Maybe thats why his gang always hang out with him, even though they knew first hand how troubling Eric was. Eric was a light, while she was the moth whom began to fly closer to it.
She hoped the light didn't burned her. Please don't let it burn her.
But the light burned her. And just like their last relationship, they broke up.
There were no gun or suicide's threat involved. But there were a lot of screaming, a spaghetti, and they almost burned a restaurant. She really didn't wanted to remember that night at all.
Thankfully, it looked like almost burned a restaurant really gave you a big wake up call. She stopped anything that resolved around Eric. Beside some hello and school works, she tried to restrict herself from Eric. Which was hard considering Eric's schemes and presence was always been big, loud, and troubling to say the least.
Heidi focused herself with school and friends. Dating with Eric made her realized how ridiculously smart she was with numbers and all that science stuff. Which made her closer to Wendy and Kyle, the smartest kids in school.
During those time, Kyle asked her for a date once in awhile. Which she always declined, she didn't feel like having a boyfriend at the time. Beside, she wanted to remain as neutral as possible when it come to Wendy and Kyle. Their rivalry to be the first on everything was ridiculous.
Times flew by and she suddenly a college student now. Faraway from home and her overprotective father, Heidi found herself being a little bold. So for some reason, she thought going to a party was a good idea. A party with a lot of booze.
You see... good girl Heidi rarely drank anything alcoholic. She went to parties alright. But she rarely drank. Seeing that she needed to be sober if she wanted to drive her friends home safely. And seeing your friends doing something stupid was just plain amusing.
But when Heidi didn't has any obligation to stay sober, seeing that her dorm was just 5 minutes away... she drank. A lot.
She didn't remember what happened that night. But she remembered waking up the next day. On someone else bed.
Heidi groaned. Her head hurts and she felt terrible. She forced her body upward, ignoring her aching head. She examined the room. It was a typical dorm room. A bed on each side. Two desk on the middle. Though one of the residents of the room was working on something on the said desk.
The guy was a bulk fellow. He hadn't noticed her yet, to engrossed by the scattered paper on the desk. He began to write furiously on the paper, occasionally muttered as he glared at the paper.
Heidi squinted at the strangely familiar guy. Brown chestnut hair, bulk body, a swastika pin on his jacket.. Wait a minute...
SHE SLEPT WITH ERIC CARTMAN!
Heidi immediately looked down, relieved to still wearing the same red slutty dress that Red bought her for her 18th birthday.
"You finally awake?" Eric's grump startled her.
"Yeah.." She slowly answered. Eric was definitely in a bad mood and the last thing her head needed was an angry Eric Cartman. "So... It's been a while. How have you been?"
Eric snorted. "Yeah. Its been a while since I dragged your drunk ass to my room."
"Yeah.. what happened?"
That caught Eric's attention. "You don't remember?"
Heidi frowned, trying to remember anything from last night. She had a few drinks and then... God her head hurt. "Nope."
"Well aren't that interesting?" Eric snickered. "I remember how existed you are to show off your boobs."
"WHAT-you know what just skip that part. How did I ended up in your room?" Heidi stammered.
"Seeing that you're too drunk to bring yourself home and I don't where your dorm is. I bring you to my place."
"You.. What?"
"You can barely walk and trust me. You don't want to fall asleep with that dress while you're in a party." Eric answered, eyeing her dress.
She suddenly felt really embarrassed. How did Red managed to convince her to wear this again?
"Thanks..."
"Sure Hoe." Eric waved her off, focusing on whatever he was doing before.
Heidi slowly stand, silently cursing her throbbing head. She peaked at Eric's work. There were many papers scattered on his desk. Most of them were filled with Eric's handwriting and numbers, but some of them definitely wasn't his. It's looked like Eric was trying to learn from the other person's work.
Eric began to notice her peaking as she bent down slightly. She ignored Eric's protest, focusing more on the number and calculation on Eric's papers. Her brain began to work around those numbers. Wait a minute...
"Eric... Are you trying to build a time machine?"
Eric didn't say anything for a few minutes. Only staring at her as if she was some kind of alien entities.
"W-What are you looking at?"
"I can't believe I forgot how smart you are." Eric said with awe. His brown chestnut eyes staring into her soul. When was the last time he looked at her like this? As if she was the only woman in the world.
Heidi began to play with her hair. A nervous habit of her. "Smart and funny?" She added lamely.
Eric looked at her dead in eyes and said, "There's nothing funny about you screaming how I kidnapped you and almost get me arrested. TWICE!"
And this was the time when Heidi face resembled a tomato. Also the time when she swore to not touched any alcohol. Except for wine, wine was okay.
Regardless the humiliating experience that alcohol caused her. Heidi couldn't help but to be grateful. After Eric realized how smart and not really that funny she was, they worked together to try build a time machine. Despite how ridiculous it sounded, the numbers didn't lie. There was an actual change of success on this project.
After college, Eric and her decided to move to New York. They rented a small apartment together, spending most of their money into their project. After years of working together and now living together. Was it really a surprised when they began a couple again? Eric asked her after they finished moving. He didn't look at her, staring intensely to his pizza. He wrapped his free arm into her, shielding her from their cold apartment.
She said yes immediately. She would never forgot the smile on Eric's face. How his eyes gleamed with pure happiness. Eric dropped his pizza and wrapped his arms around her. Eric wasn't the type of person whom initiated physical contact. But Heidi would always love his hug. His hug felt like a blanket. It was safe, warm, and gentle.
After struggling living in New York, Eric somehow managed to find investors for their project. They founded their first company not long after that, Heiman.inc
It wasn't the best, but they wanted to Incorporated both of their names and this was the best thing they could come out with. Despite Eric feeling a little bitter about how her name was first. He had to live with it if he wanted to eat take out for the rest of his live.
A lot of failures later and they actually did it. They successed. They actually build a freaking time machine. Sure their test subject only went back for 5 seconds and their test subject was dead when it came back. But they did it!
Everybody was cheering and Eric was jumping up and down. He hugged her and screamed at her face, "Heidi! We fucking did it!!! Heidi, will you make me the happiest man alive by marrying me and then bragged to Kahl about our awesome achievement together!"
It was the weirdest marriage proposal ever, but she said yes. Everyone was cheering and she could hear someone opening a champagne bottle in the distance.
It was one of many happiest days that yet to come.
But Eric was serious about bragging to Kyle. He even brought a megaphone with him and shouted at Kyle's house for hours. The only reason the redhead hadn't kill him was because the ring on her finger.
Oh and of course the wedding. It was wonderful! How could she forget the day she became Heidi Cartman. Liane was crying, Butters and his ACTUALLY REAL girlfriend were dancing, and Kenny brought a lot of booze. So everyone drank a lot. And the wedding was really... South Park?
Yeah...
But the cake was good. And the fireworks were probably illegal.
But the cake was good!
Nother less, she was happy. Even if she married the most racist, sexist, manipulative, evil in the universe. Eric made her happy. She loved him and he loved her back. Wasn't that the most important thing? After all, love was the reason she was sitting in their home, waiting for the child in her stomach to be born.
"Babe! Dinners ready!" Eric shouted from the kitchen. He was pretending to cook dinner in the kitchen. Declaring that she needed to rest and to trust the kitchen to his hand. Eric couldn't cook to save his life, he probably ordered something. The bigger her stomach, the more he babied her. She swear that her baby didn't need a whole room filled with toys.
But still, Heidi could help but giggle at her husband antics. He would be a good father.
"Your daddy and mommy can't wait to meet you honey. You will be the happiest child in the world." She whispered, smiling when she felt a kick from her stomach.