Woo, thanks for the reviews, guys! I love feedback. The wangst staaaaartssss NOW.

Kyle wasn't well enough to go to school until Tuesday. He approached the building with trepidation; no one had spoken to him since Saturday afternoon, and all his texts to his friends had been unanswered. He felt that, perhaps, he had done something wrong, but couldn't think of what that might be. Sometimes when he and Stan had a spat, they'd go a few days without speaking, but that never applied to anyone else.

Walking into school, Kyle immediately noticed things were... well, weird. Everyone seemed to be whispering and giving him sneaky glances. Terror seized his heart, and all he could think as he walked to his locker was, "They know, they know, they know."

Cartman must have told everyone... That was the only explanation for the weird looks he was getting. He'd broken his promise, and outed Kyle to the entire school. Why else would everyone be giving him looks that ranged from pitying to malicious?

Approaching his locker, he saw Cartman and Kenny standing near it talking. Kyle opened his mouth to rip Cartman a new one, when Kenny walked forward, grabbed him by the arm, and steered him away.

"Kenny, what are you doing?"

"We need to talk, Kyle."

"Kenny, I don't know what Cartman told you, but-"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I need to tell you this before you hear it from someone else. Kyle... Stan and I were... well, I guess fuck buddies is the best term. Stan and I were sleeping together, and someone at the party on Saturday found out, and now everyone knows. I'm sorry."

The room had filled with water... that was the only explanation for how Kyle was feeling. Suddenly there was no air, and there was an intense pressure on his chest, and his face had somehow gotten wet.

"What-" he stopped to wipe the tears from his face, "What are you apologizing for?"

Kenny gave him a sympathetic look, "Because I know how you feel about him. It's obvious; at least to me it is. I'm sure no one else knows. But... this thing between him and me, it didn't mean anything. It was just... he was trying to figure stuff out, you know? He... he really cares about you."

"Cartman knows, actually, and what do you mean by 'figure stuff out', and WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT'S OBVIOUS?"

Kenny glanced around the hall. Several students had stopped when Kyle had screamed at him. "Maybe we should take this conversation somewhere else."

Kyle gave a defeated sigh, "No, you know what? I don't want to talk about this anymore. Not with you, not with Stan, not anyone else. I'm done with it."

Kenny tried to grab Kyle's arm as he stalked away, but Kyle just shook him off and darted through the crowd of kids milling around, until Kenny lost sight of him.

"That was amazing."

"Shut up, Cartman."

Kyle spent most of the rest of the day hiding in the bathroom, crying. He didn't care about missing class, or lunch, and he certainly didn't care when several of his friends came into the bathroom to try and get him to come out.

He'd never felt this bad about anything in his life. If Stan was gay, why hadn't he said something? And why was he with Kenny?

All his feelings of inadequacy came to the surface, and he kept asking himself over and over, if Stan had stuff he needed to "figure out", why hadn't he come to him? Did he not trust him anymore? Did he not love him, even in a friendly way? And thinking that he'd rather sleep with Kenny than him... why? Kyle suddenly felt too ugly, and like too much of a burden to even deal with Stan anymore. Maybe he was annoyed with Kyle's chronic sicknesses. Maybe he thought he was too naggy, or pushy. Maybe he didn't care about Kyle at all, and only hung out around him out of habit... or worse, maybe it was just because Kyle also spent time with Kenny, and Stan just wanted to be around his whatever-he-was-to-him.

This morose train of thought was interrupted when the object of his affections came into the bathroom to find him. From his place in the locked stall, he could hear the awkward shuffling, and then Stan softly say his name. The sound of it drove shivers down Kyle's spine. Why did it have to be this way? Why was Stan only coming to him now?

"Go AWAY!" he shouted through the stall door.

"Kyle, we need to talk."

Kyle was starting to hate those words.

"Please just open the door and let me talk to you. Ok? Please?"

Kyle reluctantly unlatched the door, and stepped out of the stall. Maybe it was better to just get this over with, because he knew his best friend would be relentless until he gave in. He wondered just how much Stan knew about him. If Kenny'd figured out his secret, and Cartman already knew, surely it must have gotten around to Stan by this point, either by word of mouth, or him just figuring it out on his own.

"Hi," said Stan, looking relieved.

Kyle just mumbled something at him and stared at the floor, trying to fight the next wave of tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes.

"Look, Kyle... Um. Are you upset at me? Because I'm... you know... gay?"

Kyle's head snapped up, and he stared incredulously at Stan. Did he really not know? A rush of anger overtook him.

"B-because you're gay? God, Stan, how fucking blind are you? Why would I be in here crying my eyes out for an entire day just because my best friend is gay? I'm not that sensitive, and besides, when have you ever known me to be uncomfortable with homosexuality? Y-you're s-so stupid!" he finished, as the tears began to pour from his eyes in earnest once again.

Stan shuffled his feet uncomfortably, at a loss for what to say or do. He reached forward to wipe the tears from Kyle's face, but his best friend shoved his hand away violently.

"Don't touch me!"

"Kyle... I don't understand what's going on."

"Why, Stan... why Kenny?"

"What?"

Kyle just stood and sobbed, and pushed Stan's hands away each time he tried to reach out and comfort his friend.

"I... I don't... Why are you so upset, Kyle? What do you want from me?"

"I want you to leave me alone, Stan. Please, please just go away and leave me alone."

Stan stood there awkwardly for a minute, trying to catch his breath. He didn't understand what the problem was... If Kyle didn't care that he was gay, then what was it? But his crying friend was clearly not about to divulge any information at the moment, so with a strange, choked sound coming from his throat, he turned on his heel and walked out the bathroom door.

That was the last time they'd speak for nearly two years.