Stan's POV
God dammit, Kyle just rushed out of the building. Sue is holding me back to talk about the arrangements for my first session. I can't believe it, my first time in years and I haven't even gotten the chance to go talk to him. Seeing him again is so weird, I feel a wide mix of emotions, joy, anger, sadness, betrayal. I don't know what to think, but I do know that I want to talk to him again and try to figure how what happened to our friendship.
I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket and a familiar ringtone playing. Knowing who it is, I answer with a dull tone. "Hey fatass, I finished the podcast."
"Kewl, you're free for the day." Wait, he ignored me calling him a fatass? What the hell? "Also your hippie bitch called earlier, told me to let you know that she's staying with her folks for a few days."
Great, Wendy's out for a while. Now what? As desperate as I am, I'm not about to ask Cartman for some quality bonding time.
"OK then. I guess I'll talk to you later."
Saturday night. Alone. Damn that's weak. Maybe I should visit that club, if I'm gotta get loose, might as well.
It turns out that it is a pretty popular spot among Boulder students. Sue and the crew invited me to come with them to hang out and let loose. So here I am now, standing outside the club called Styx & Stones. It's a pretty big place and I can already feel the beats and lights pulsating around me.
I take a look to see a crowd bigger than the one I fought through during Black Friday when I was a kid, but it doesn't look like we'll have to join them or anything because Sue manages to get us all in. That girl is a wizard, I tell you.
The inside of this club is killer. It's totally dark except for the lights at the bar, the effects on stage and neon lights on the railings, a large dance floor in the middle of the club and right in front of a high as hell stage, too high to stage dive unless you're prepared to break a few bones, with a high tech DJ set on it, wired to the 2 story speakers behind it along with the wall speakers all over the club. Needless to say I'm really impressed by all this.
The guys all spilt off to do their own things and I'm left here aimlessly admiring the layout, since I'm here might as well pay Kate a visit. I walk to the bar and I see a few girls and guys working the bar. The guys are dressed in a red button top with a black vest and pants, the girls are wearing the same type but it's so low and obvious that it looked like someone tried to rip some buttons off their shirts to get some cleavage.
I see her mixing up a drink for another client, I decide it to play it smooth and have some fun. I lean into the counter and tap her shoulder, "You know you shouldn't be offering drinks to minors." She turns to me and giggles. "Don't worry about me superstar, what can I get ya?"
"Jack Daniels, straight up." I order. "Well someone here's a badass." She smirks, she grabs a bottle from under the counter and pours it into a glass. "Here you go, hot stuff."
I take my drink and thank her, the people here are going insane and so is the DJ, who is looks like he's high of the energy. He's wearing a gasmask and bouncing on stage, he's so hyper I'm pretty sure he thinks he's the fucking ringmaster, bringing everyone's mood up to past eleven. Within the sea of waving arms and glowing sticks brackets.
I see a familiar head of red marmalade hair, I walk into the sea of dancers, it's hard to walk with everyone knocking me around and I'm losing sight of that bright red beacon. I feel my foot stepping on something soft, I lift it up to see a lime green lump. I grab it to see another set of hands reaching for the soft lump and a pair of eyes meeting mine.
Now that I see Kyle without his hat I noticed another difference, his hair is much shorter now. He trimmed his sides, it's barely covering his ears and leaving his puffy red curls on the top and in the front, it stands out now and forms his bangs that hang in front of his face, framing his face perfectly. I straighten myself with the ushanka in hand, dusting it with my hands before giving it back. He awkwardly accepts it and stuffs it back on his head, muttering a thanks while avoiding my eyes. This is wrong, he was once my best friend, why does he act like we shouldn't know each other?
"Kyle…" I start. "I know this is weird but can we talk?"
"Sure. Let's get off the dance floor first." he nods and says softly, I grimace at the fact that he looks so scared to be around me. What happened to him? This isn't the same Kyle Broflovski I saw today on the podcast and definitely not the one I knew 8 years ago.
We walk to a wall away from the mash pit of a dance floor and start talking.
"So, how has your summer been?" Great conversation starter, Marsh…
"Not a lot, South Park's been kinda mild nowadays compared to the adventures we had together as kids."
"I didn't know you were going to Boulder."
"Well, why not?"
"I guess, what are you taking?"
"Psychiatry, I'm trying to be a psychiatrist." He replies.
"Psychiatry?" I ask him confused, I mean he's smart and all but I never thought he'd want to be a psychiatrist.
"Yeah, ma wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. If I'm gonna be a doctor, might as well be one I want to be."
"Cool… I'm taking music." I add,
"Yeah, I've noticed."
…
Well this is awkward. Look at us, 8 years ago no one could even separate us and now we're standing at a club, making stupid small talk. I can't help but chuckle at our situation, Kyle looks at me with a confused expression.
"You've changed a lot, Kyle." I explain to him.
He shrugs, "Not really. I'm still the same old me. You on the other hand…"
"The Kyle Broflovski I knew would not be partying on a weekend." I point out. He snickers a bit, good to know that part of him hasn't changed.
"I'm here with some friends." He explains. I hear an explosion from the stage, I turn to see the DJ waving goodbye which probably means that must be the end of his set because I see another bear masked man on standby. "That's one of them." He gestures to the gas masked DJ.
I see the DJ walk over and remove his mask. I'll be honest, I don't know whether to be surprised or not by the man behind the mask. "Stan Marsh?" He says after the mask is off his head. Yup, it's the one and only Kenny McCormick. I wink at him and do a little pose, "Do you know anyone else this awesome?"
"DUDE!" He screams and gives me a hug. "I haven't seen you in forever! What are you doing here? What happened after you left South Park?" He then acknowledges Kyle's presence, giving him a fist bump. "You two finally rekindling the bromance?"
"Kinda." I answer for the both of us. "Damn, I could hardly recognise you without that oversized parka. It's kinda weird now to see your face and hear your voice like this. You look great."
"Nice to see you're charmed, Marsh. Would you care for a drink and a ride home with me?" He waggles his eyebrows suggestively and Kyle punches him in the shoulder. "Chill that temper, Kylie. You know I'm always up for a threesome." Kenny laughs and takes another punch and a glare given by Kyle. "Ignore him, Kenny's been trying to get into everyone's pants, the day I arrived he wanted to me to break in his bed with him." Kyle sighs. "And Trust me Stan, me and Tweek took forever to get used to this" he gestures his hand to circle Kenny's face.
"Tweek? You mean Tweek Tweak? The spazzy coffee kid?" I ask.
"He's not as spazzy as he used to be, we started hanging out with him after you… Well, you know." Kenny trails off and scratches the back of his head while Kyle just looks down in silence, avoiding my glaze.
"…After I left" I finish for Kenny.
So Tweek's my replacement?
What the fuck you guys!? Tweek was once Kenny's replacement after he died for about a year and we ended up kicking him out because he wasn't fitting in with us, and now it sounds like they've been fine without me. I feel my temper boiling, I've been upset that we've stopped hanging out because of my cynicism and I was so happy to find my old friends again only to find out that I've been ditched again.
I glare at them, making no attempt to hide my rage, Kenny noticed and Kyle just shrinks further. I wanna yell at them, I wanna lash out at them, especially at Kyle for making me feel the same goddamn way after all these years. Hatred, abandonment and betrayal.
Before I can say anything, I feel something hit my head, hard and a force charging right at me, knocking me to the ground. I feel a fury of punches hitting me before I could even register what happened. I see Kenny and Kyle shocked as they try and pull off whoever is assaulting me right now.
I decide to fight back, giving this jerk one good kick to the gut. He gets knocked back with the air knocked out of his lungs, Kenny and Kyle take the opportunity to grab him, pulling him back. After I regain my breath, I glare at my attacker but it softens a bit when I see who it is. It's Tweek, he's so much stronger and I wouldn't have recognized him if not for his messy spiky blond hair along with the constant twitches on his face.
"Tweek calm down! It's Stan!" I hear Kyle scream. Tweek looks like he's blinded by rage, unable to comprehend Kyle is saying. "Tweek, he's not gonna hurt us. Remember Stan, right? From when we were kids?" Kyle's tone softens into a soothing voice.
Tweek seems to have cooled down, rage quickly replaced by shock and anxiety. Our little brawl has drawn a crowd and everyone is watching us. I want to go hide somewhere and forget that all of this happened but Tweek decides to go full breakdown on us.
"OH GOD! THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME! THEY THINK I'M SOME FREAK!"
No offense Tweek, if they didn't just then, they definitely do now. Kyle and Kenny are now panicking, trying to calm Tweek who's shaking, like he's two steps away from a seizure, panting and breathing rapidly. He looks like he's about to black out right there. But instead, he runs so fast that no one could stop him, a few people are even on the floor thanks to the blond shoving them. The three of us immediately run after him, he's in no state to do anything now. If we let him out on the streets like that, he is going to get himself killed.
A/N: The boys all meet again. Poor Tweek and Stan, they didn't start off their reunion well though. Next time, we get Kyle's side of the night.
I'll be trying to give you guys 2 chapters a week, one on Monday and one on Friday. This will go on at least until January. Thanks to all those who follow this story and special thanks to Mekabella for the constant reviews.
As always, feel free to check out the drama this story is based on, "It's Okay That's Love" by SBS
Take care, Loves