Where Have You Been?
Chapter 10: Umm… What?
A certain McCormick woke up just as he felt the rays of sunlight hit against his face. He sat up straight and rubbed his head. Wait… this wasn't his house. What happened last- He turned his head to see Wendy still fast asleep. Oh yeah. Right. Wendy woke up as well and sat up.
"Good morning, Kenny," she yawned, stretching her arms out. Kenny did the same.
"Yeah… morning…"
"Man, that was amazing. I haven't had such a good time like that since… forever." Kenny laughed.
"I'm surprised. Stan's not good in bed?"
"Eh, he used to be. I'm not sure what happened to him…" Kenny rolled himself off of the bed and searched for his clothes.
"Where are you going?" asked Wendy.
"Home," said Kenny, "I have class in a few hours."
"Oh. Okay." She sounded almost disappointed when she said that. "Well… do you think we can hang out sometime again?" Kenny froze, before reaching for his pants.
"Uh… what do you mean?"
"Oh come on, Kenny! I knew you secretly liked me and didn't use me for a one night stand, right?" There was a certain edge to that last word. "Right?"
Stan let himself into the room before Kenny could answer.
"I'm getting my stuff. Where is it-Well, I see it didn't take you long to find someone else." Kenny huddled himself against the mattress. Shit! Shit! Shit! This was not good! "Is that Kenny?" Double shit.
"Yeah. We're dating now. Maybe I can actually trust him." Kenny wanted to scream. Them. Dating? "Your stuff is in that box."
"'Kay." And he left just like that. Nervous sweat trickled down the sides of Kenny's face. He mentioned he was retrieving his things and he wasn't kicked in the face! This meant only one thing…
Stan and Wendy had already broken up before he got to her and now he was stuck with that-that thing? No… there had to be some other way out of this but for now, he was stuck. This. Sucked. He made a mental note to beat the living shit out of Kyle when he would get home.
"Let's meet up tomorrow, okay?" She got up out of bed and reached for a piece of paper, quickly scribbling something down and handing it to Kenny. "That's my number. Call me, alright?"
…
Bradley looked to his left. Stan looked awfully… irritated. He bit down on his thumb cautiously, eyeing Stan.
"So… where are we going?"
"We're going to try again," was his reply.
"But… didn't we get kicked out"-
"Dude, don't you want to go see Butters?"
"W-Well… yeah…"
Stan stopped the car and nearly dragged Bradley outside, who was mumbling cusses under his breath as he took more steps towards the dorm. Cautiously, Stan knocked, waiting for someone to open up. The door slowly opened revealing a wide eyed Butters.
"S-Stan?"
"Hey, Butters!" Stan smiled, then with a worried frown, "You look like shit."
"Y-Yeah, I know, but come on in, fellas! I'm making chocolate milk!" Stan followed Butters inside, trailing behind him Bradley and sat himself down on the couch.
"Hey, who's that?" Butters asked, bringing Bradley out of his trance. The nervous boy didn't reply. Butters frowned. "Are you okay? You look kinda familiar…"
"Is Kyle around?" Stan asked suddenly. Butters shook his head, proceeding to take out a carton of milk and nesquik powder.
"No, he had to take his midterm first, but he'll be home soon. Have you seen Kenny?"
"Yeah, I have actually," Stan stated as he watching Butters prepare the drinks, "Why?"
"Well, he wasn't home last night and I'm kinda worried, ya know?"
"He'll probably be home in a few hours," Stan said.
"R-Really?" Butters beamed, "Where is he?"
"He's at Wendy's," Stan spat. Butters nearly dropped his tray of chocolate milk.
"W-Wendy's? Why would he go there?"
"To fuck her. I don't know what his other intentions would be." Butters gently placed down the chocolate milk, trying not to tremble.
"Oh," he said simply, heading towards his room.
"Butters? Where 'you going? Is it something I said?" Before Butters could answer, he felt someone tug on his sleeve.
"Wait, don't go." Butters turned around just in time to be thrown under a big wave of nostalgia. "I-I think I might know who you are now! Are you Bradley?"
"Yeah…that's me." The pair stared at each other for a long time while Stan chugged down the rest of his chocolate milk.
"I think I have an idea where this is going… Just do me a favor and take it to the next room."
…
Feeling unusually depressed, Kenny decided to walk back home. He needed to think about this over again.
'I really screwed up this time-literally,' he thought, 'I ended up having sex when I didn't have to and I'm stuck in a relationship with that bitch. Maybe I should've listened to those guidance counselors when they preached about abstinence.'
A car pulled over to the side of the sidewalk where Kenny trailed along. He looked to his right and back forward.
'Cartman. Why not just kill me now'?
"Hey, Kenny! You look retarded walking like that. Get in." He hesitated for a moment, but at last obeyed, sitting down on the passenger seat.
"So…how was the funeral?" Kenny asked after an awkward moment of silence.
"Shitty as expected."
"Hm. That sucks."
The car seemed to be moving a mile per hour and Kenny was ready to jump out of the window.
"You like him, don't you?" Kenny turned his head.
"What?"
"You heard me."
Kenny laughed nervously.
"Wh-who do I like exactly?"
"Don't be playing games with me, man," Cartman said in a more gruff, deep voice, "You like him." Kenny rolled his eyes.
"Stop being stupid, fat ass. I don't get where you're going at."
"Well, you can have him. He's all yours." Kenny relaxed his eyebrows.
"Whoever he was, he was never yours anyway." He expected a typical retort back from Cartman but instead, he said-
"Yeah, I know."
"You know? Really?"
"I have seen the light." Kenny failed to contain his laughter.
"That's what you always say and then you go against it like the hypocrite you are. You didn't learn anything. Do you even understand what you did wrong?"
"Yeah. I do." There had to be something wrong here…
"Okay, then what is it?"
"I can't force someone in a relationship if they don't want it." Whoa. Maybe he was telling the truth for once.
"Alright," Kenny said, "Then why did you?"
"Because I loved him."
…
"Bradley? I thought that you were"-
"No, I got out just in time." Bradley slowly crept his arms around Butters and pulled him into a gentle hug.
"I missed you. I never got the chance to thank you. I don't know what you did… but you saved me." A small smile appeared on Butters' face.
"Anything for a friend, right?" Now letting go of him, Bradley backed away a few inches and frowned.
"That was also something I never got to talk to you about." Butters arched his eyebrows.
"I-I'm not sure what ya mean, Bradley." His thumb slowly filled the gap between his top and bottom teeth again.
"I mean… I always thought about you every day since that day-no! Since we were first roommates, I mean… I don't just like-like you, I… love-love you." He sighed audibly just after finishing his sentence, shivering a bit as he saw Butters staring at him with surprise. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
"No! Of course not!" Bradley quickly said, then a little gentler, "But… I haven't seen you in so long. It's way too early."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess I'll be going now," he sighed, looking for Stan until he felt a tug on his wrist.
"Wait! That's not fair to you. The least I can do is take you out for dinner or somethin'." This made Bradley turn about 180 degrees. It was hard for him to hold back a smile.
"Really? You mean it?"
"Sure! We need to catch up, ya know?" Bradley nodded in agreement.
"I'm free tonight."
"Yeah! Tonight's good!"
At last, Bradley found Stan lounging on the couch and lightly hugged him.
"Thank you for bringing me here. I wouldn't have done it on my own."
"I take it things are well between you guys?" Stan asked with a smile.
"More than okay! Are you going to stay here?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Give me the keys so I can get back to our room and I'll come back later to pick up my date!" Obeying, Stan searched his pockets and handed him the keys.
"Congratulations, dude. Just don't crash, got it?"
Right after Bradley left the scene, another two characters stepped foot into the room.
"Man, Cartman, your shit is heavy! Did you fill them with rocks or something?"
"Don't be a whiny pussy. Just bring 'em in." Kenny rolled everything into the kitchen and sighed, exasperated and glanced at Butters face, which expressed fear as he watched Cartman step inside first and then an angry one as he looked at Kenny.
"Well, look who decided to show up," Stan mumbled.
"Listen, man!" Kenny yelled, "I was doing it for your own good-but then you actually broke up with her on your own first! I'm ready to throw you to the floor and strangle you!"
"Why? So you can pin me down long enough to get into my pants?" Kenny turned his head to Cartman, who was laughing in the background while munching loudly on a bag of cheesy poofs and then back to Stan.
"Dude! I wouldn't go into your pants nor would I want to and your girlfriend's-I mean- your ex-girlfriend's!"
"Then why did you?"
"Because I was trying to get you and Kyle together, that's why!" Stan sunk into the seat of the couch, staring at Kenny unbelievingly.
"He still likes me?" Stan asked.
"Of course he does! He's still fucking crazy about you, man…"
"The other day, he kicked me out… and… I didn't know. He wouldn't talk to me."
"Hmph. Jew." Both Kenny and Stan ignored the remark.
"I'm sorry for yelling, Kenny. I didn't know."
"Well, if you guys end up with each other, consider it as repaying me for sleeping with your girlfriend AND now having to endure her. How'd you do it, Stan?"
"She's actually not that bad once you get on her sweet side. You just have to figure your way around there," he explained.
Kenny clutched his parched throat and noticed already made chocolate milk, ready to down a glass when he noticed something.
"Wasn't Butters just here?"
"He went to his room," Cartman answered. A sudden realization came over Kenny.
"Oh no…"
A/N: Finally! This chapter was a freaking brain stopper, like I didn't think I was going to complete this at all… Well, one or two more chapters to go until we're finished here!