Later that night, Kyle stood outside the Cartman house with binoculars in his hands and his eyes fixed on Cartman's window. It was getting close to midnight and Kyle had to sneak out of his house to get over here, but it was all worth it when he saw that the light was still on in Cartman's room and it didn't seem like Cartman was getting any closer to coming out of the house and going into the treehouse.

Now could be Kyle's only chance.

Kyle unlatched the lock on the old rickety fence of the Cartman house and made his way into the backyard, hoping the fence wasn't squeaking enough to make anyone think twice about whether or not someone was there. Kyle made his way over to the treehouse ladder, surprised at how sturdy it was. He climbed up the ladder and into the treehouse and reached for the flashlight he had in his pocket.

Kyle almost panicked when it was gone. On the way over to Cartman's, the flashlight must have slipped out of his pocket while he was running. Kyle sighed as he looked around the dark treehouse, not being able to see a thing through the darkness. He'd just have to wait until another time then.

Kyle stepped down the steps of the ladder and once he was on the ground he could hear the squeak of a sliding glass door. He panicked as he turned to see Cartman making his way out to the backyard with a flashlight in hand. Kyle ran around the base of the tree, hiding behind the thick bark.

Cartman walked over to the tree and Kyle stiffened as he felt his heart speed up. What if Cartman found him? Had he even seen him?

As the flashlight turned off, Kyle felt immediate relief, until he heard Cartman start climbing up the ladder.

A light turned on in the treehouse and Kyle face palmed as he realized there must have been some kind of lantern inside the small treehouse. Kyle looked up the ladder and through the hole in the floor that was a makeshift entrance to see Cartman leaning against the wall and writing something else.

Once Cartman was away from the wall, Kyle thought to himself, "It's either now or never."

Kyle froze, "But what if he kills me up there? No, he wouldn't kill me…no wait, yeah he would. Especially if there's something important written up there. But he WAS acting really different today at the diner. Hell, he's been different all summer long."

It was true, Cartman had been distancing himself more and more from his friends every passing day of summer vacation and while he enjoyed seeing Kyle as often as possible, it hurt more than he thought it probably should to see someone so perfect hate him so much.

He had pretty much figured out by now that if he wasn't mean to Kyle, then Kyle wasn't going to be mean to him. Only, he was so used to being mean that any time he opened his mouth, something horrible would come out. Even if he didn't mean to, Cartman ended up shouting obscenities at his true love. So, he just stopped trying to talk when Kyle was around.

Eventually it got to the point where he just stopped being around Kyle all together just so he could stop himself from staring.

Back down at the base of the tree, Kyle was standing on the first peg of the ladder, trying to decide if he should climb the rest of the way or not. If he didn't, there was a chance that he'd never find out, and he'd never know why Cartman had changed so much recently.

Back at the diner it had bothered Kyle how Cartman just glanced out the window instead of losing his cool like always. It usually got him even more pissed off when Kyle ignored his rude comments. However if he did go up into the treehouse, there was a good chance that Cartman was going to hunt him down like a mad man and chop him up into chili, just like the last guy who double-crossed him.

Kyle sighed and climbed up the ladder, worrying more about his friend than what would happen to him.

Kyle reached the top of the ladder and heard a gasp of surprise come from Cartman.

Cartman backed up to the far wall of the treehouse once he saw the red hair peak out from the entrance in the floor. Kyle looked up to see a horrified expression on Cartman's face as he pulled himself the rest of the way up and into the treehouse.

The first thing he noticed was that there wasn't much room at all in the small treehouse. There was hardly enough room for the two of them and Kyle was mere centimeters away from Cartman's sitting form. If he were to move any closer to the other, he'd practically be sitting in his lap.

Kyle's first thought was to turn and look at the wall behind him, but he didn't dare lose eye contact with Cartman. There was an expression on Cartman's face he had never seen before and it was true terror. Never before had Cartman looked truly terrified in front of anyone.

Kyle began to feel uncomfortable under Cartman's terrified stare, so he was the first to look away and down to the ground to see at least a dozen black Sharpie markers with the caps taken off of all of them. Kyle figured that they had dried out from being used too much seeing as how the only one in the treehouse that seemed to be a fresh marker was the one squished under Cartman's palm against the floorboards.

Kyle leaned over, brushing past Cartman to grab the Sharpie under his hand. Kyle could almost feel Cartman stiffen under him as he took the marker from him and leaned back again. Kyle spoke first words of the night, "What did you use this for up here?"

Kyle looked back to Cartman who didn't answer, but instead kept looking back between Kyle, the wall behind him, and Kyle again.

Kyle smiled and threw the Sharpie to the ground, "What? You seem nervous. Is there something behind me you don't want me to see?"

Why was Kyle doing this to him? Did he know something? Was there any possible way he could even know about it? Cartman stopped to think and looked back to the wall one more time. Every single note said something along the lines of "I love Kyle" or Kyle's name in a heart. Why hadn't he been smart enough to never mention Kyle's name anywhere near the wall. At least then he could have played it off as him having a crush on a girl at school, but no. Of course he had to go and write Kyle's name on every fucking inch of the goddamn treehouse wall.

Cartman could see Kyle was about to turn around and look at the wall and as if by instinct, he grabbed his crush by the shoulders and forced him to stay in place. Before he even noticed what he was doing, Cartman reached up and flicked off the light in the lantern.

Now the only light in the small treehouse came from the full moon in the dark sky and the fireflies that came out every summer night. The two teens were face to face in the dark treehouse and Cartman still had a tight hold on Kyle's shoulders, keeping the smaller boy from moving away.