Okay you all deserve some SERIOUS sweets! Just as a heads up yesterday we broke the record HARDCORE for most views, you guys totaled it to 190 views overall! I don't even think I have something as awesome to give you xD. Thank you, truly, you guys have made this story what it is and really keep me on my toes for certain! Which is why I'm going to throw yet ANOTHER chapter your way! Everyone I truly do appreciate everything you have made this story become and I hope you all continue to do so! All over the world fans are reading this and you guys across the waters, I LOVE YOU! Poland, UK, Canada, every single reader throughout the world! I couldn't have done this without you ^^. Thank You…

The song today is going to be Need You Now by Lady Antebellum which I felt was TOTALLY appropriate considering how we left everything off on the last Chapter. Ooyuki this is so you are not left hanging! ;)

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November in general was a crappy month, but to say that this year it seemed to be particularly shitty was an understatement. The snow on the ground was constantly renewing itself overnight and road conditions sucked but apparently they weren't bad enough to call off school. You know that feeling; you look outside and see at LEAST six feet of snow but classes STILL aren't cancelled? That's kind of how Wendy felt when she woke up on Monday and peered out her window. Sitting at her table she thought of the events that took place a little over a week ago and just how different everything felt to her now.

Sipping her coffee, she desperately wanted to call in sick today and just avoid the tension and discomfort altogether. Everyone has those days where you get so frustrated and feel so helpless when friends are fighting right? So you eventually explode and begin crying to the first person who talks to you. Completely normal! This was serious though and she had no idea how to act anymore around him! Groaning she started blaming her emotions on Kyle and Kenny. This whole thing started three days ago! Right when Wendy and Cartman noticed the serious tension with Kyle and Kenny around last Wednesday, a week gone by already since they stopped talking.

XxX

She sat at her locker and looked up, waiting to see the green hat appear in the Common's area. Nothing yet. Looking down at her books again, she clutched them tightly against her chest, trying to even the tightness that was constricting her lungs. She almost didn't dare breath for fear someone would ask her again what was going on between Kyle and Kenny. Groaning, she slammed her head into the door and winced,

"Damnit!" she rubbed the back of her head, however a voice managed to weasel its way into her ear.

"Yeah I heard that would hurt like a bitch. Never felt the need to try it myself but I guess watching you was knowledge enough." Rolling her eyes, she turned towards the sound and saw Eric only a few feet from her. Sighing, she just didn't have the energy to fight with him this morning and made that quite evident as she slid to the ground.

He watched her, she seemed tired, almost weak from exhaustion. A slight worried look passed his features but he quickly masked it by smirking and following the girl to the dirty floor of the school. Letting there be at least one locker door between them, he leaned his own head back but it was in frustration.

"How's Kenny doing?" her voice was soft, almost fearful as she spoke, eyes closed. She almost seemed like she wanted to neither hear nor see the truth in front of them. Eric however, was feeling the same way.

"Honestly?" He saw the vertical movement of her head and continued, "He looks like shit." A light laugh came from her throat and it surprised Eric for a moment, but the sarcasm wasn't lost. The past week had been hell for everyone in their group. No one truly knew what happened except those two morons but they didn't speak about it and whenever asked they either ignored the question or started another topic. It was really starting to piss Cartman off at how childish they were acting. Opening his left eye slightly, his jolted at the giant blue orb mere inches away from his own. She obviously wanted to know more.

"Alright Alright! Jesus Christ! Look, he's not sleeping, he won't eat a damn thing, he just sits in his room or class and stares into space then goes to work. I mean FUCK! Druggies on a six week string out look better than he does!" Wendy's face turned into one of instant shock and disappointment, but Eric only crossed his arms and furrowed his brow in thought.

"Eric!" she finally spoke and he turned to her, confused at her appalled appearance.

"What?! They do!" She glared at him and a displeased line formed on her lips.

"No! I mean how do you even know what that!?" A devilish smirk played across his own face now as he leered towards her, closing in on her personal bubble.

"I watch television Hippie! You should get one, their NICE!" the taunt almost made things feel normal for them and a smile, half-assed as it was, was exchanged. Groaning, they both leaned back once more and waited for the second warning bell to ring, dreading class today.

Wendy was exhausted! She knew there were probably bags on top of her bags under her eyes by now, and her hair was just thrown into a careless ponytail for the day. Leaning her head on the edges of her textbooks, she exhaled deeply. This sucked! A sudden wet trail appeared on her cheek and caused her to jerk up in surprise. A tear. She was so frustrated she was now crying! A pained smile caused Eric to look her way and she caught his eyes, deep chocolate and blue melting. An emotion flitted across his face and she saw his arm move towards her, however her body made her head turn away, leaving only what could have happened in the past.

"Kyle isn't doing well either Eric." No jeers, no comments, no smartass remarks. She recognized that his full attention was on her now. "He's constantly crying when we are alone. When he's not crying he's asking me thousands of questions, sometimes the same ones over and over again. They're all about Kenny…" she tore her gaze away from the glossy floors and turned to Eric's face, his shock reflecting in her ocean blue. "I can't answer any of them for him! I can't give him a single moment of relief or comfort! I feel so useless Eric!" the tears seemed to multiply and began to fall onto the floor.

He looked around and noticed others staring at her with pathetic glances, some had even began to whisper. Cheeks turning red, he knew his next action. His hand gripped her arm gently and pulled her over to him. Cartman's face however remained stony and many would think he was just saving face for her. Pulling her into his chest, he put his large hand on the back of her head, nearly covering the entire surface and let her cry in his arms. No one else had to know what was going on and Eric made sure to glare at each and every student who was brave enough to do a double take. He could feel her body shaking beneath him and Eric wanted nothing more than to make that pain stop for her. Even as a boy, he never admitted it but he HATED seeing Wendy cry.

A sudden shift alerted him to look down and he came face to face with a tearstained Wendy, she looked up at him, not seeming to care or give a damn at who was holding her.

"He genuinely doesn't understand Eric…Kyle has no idea why this is affecting him so badly!" he let out the breath he was holding and merely shoved her head back against his chest, allowing her some privacy and giving him the ability to actually speak.

"I know it's hard Wendy, but there's nothing we can do." He felt the desperation and frustration from her as she cried silently into his shirt. Ignoring the uncomfortableness of wet clothing, Eric merely pushed on. "This isn't our fight. If we did anything to interfere in the battle between them, it could be more disastrous than helpful in the end." He understood her frustration at being able to only look on at the horrible scene before her and feel the helplessness of being unable to do nothing for the one she cared about. He knew that feeling all too well.

Blinking back several tears that made their presence known, Eric rested his head on top of hers, inhaling the soft scent of her shampoo. It was strawberry and he felt the corners of his mouth turn in a smile, that suited her quite nicely.

"Look, eventually they will either grow from this or they will lose out on something that could become very special in their lives. I know it's hard Wendy but your turn will come, until then just watch and support them when they need it most." He slid a finger underneath her chin and brought her teary gaze to his, "You're good at that."

This action, combined with the kind smile coming from the large boy made Wendy's heart skip but her face showed small confusion. There was a moment here, something that was happening between them and then she noticed that Eric's face was getting closer to her own. Instinct told her to close her eyes, she listened, feeling his soft breathes of air against her neck; it almost caused her to shiver outright. Instead, she found her voice.

"Eric…" soft, almost wanting, it was a plea. She wanted this, she needed this to happen! Wendy could physically hear her heart pounding in her ears and her mind, screaming of logic, was silenced. Slowly, she tilted her head up to meet him.

"Cartman! What the FUCK!?" A voice jerked them both back to reality and where they actually were instead of in private. Kyle stood there, glaring at the other boy and she turned back to look up at him, his expression unreadable. Suddenly, he leaned forward and she gasped, however, as quick as the action was, it ended. Standing up, he handed her the books she set aside earlier and smirked.

"Just handing her the books Jew. Jesus, don't get so territorial." She took them and then looked up to watch as he grabbed his bag and headed off to class. Kyle rushed over to her and started asking if she was okay and demanding to know what really happened but Wendy, the only thing she could do was watch as Eric walked away without a second glance.

XxX

Lunchtime finally came and Wendy still wasn't talking to Kyle about what he saw in the hallway this morning, truth was, he really didn't want to know. Groaning, he walked outside to catch some air and decided to let Wendy have some peace to herself for a while. She had been such an amazing friend the past week, putting up with his emotional rollercoaster. Looking down at his tray of food, Kyle picked a spot next to the brick wall under the building. Sitting in the snowless area, he began to pick at his food more than eat it.

His gaze was instead, brought to a small brown paper bag to his right. Worn from use, it was evident there was something in it. Sliding the piece of metal away, Kyle brought his knees to his chest and picked up the warm bag, smiling sadly. Even though they were fighting, Kyle still thought of Kenny all the time. During the entire week of no talking, he always brought the stupid bag lunch. Tears began to stream once more as the pain hit his chest, hard. Fighting the urge to scream and cry, Kyle buried his head in the empty space between his chest and legs.

He still remembered the first time he brought it for Kenny. While their friendship was still forming, the blond never spoke much about his home life but Kyle had noticed that during lunchtime, he was often at the table with nothing in hand. At one time, he could have sworn he saw Kenny picking through the garbage for leftovers of some other child's lunch. The next day, Kyle woke up earlier than normal and asked his mother to teach him how to make sandwiches and other lunch ideas. When she asked him why he wanted to know, Kyle smiled up at her,

"My friend doesn't have enough money to buy lunch Mom. So I don't want him to go hungry ever again." The tears in his mother's eyes was something Kyle would never forget, the same with Kenny's shocked face when that day at lunch, Kyle presented him with a crookedly cut sandwich, some carrots, an apple that was cut (with help from his mom) and a giant thermos of milk. All of it, wrapped up in a beautiful new brown paper bag.

From then on, it was custom that Kyle always brought the same bag to lunch for Kenny and eventually, it was passed on to both him and Karen.

"Kyle…"

His head shot up and he looked towards the direction of the voice, coming face to face with Karen McCormick. His heart sank deeper and the sparkle of hope in his eyes diminished entirely. A sigh escaped his lips and he turns his head away from her, eyeing the paper bag.

"Hey kiddo, are you hungry?" She stared at him curiously and slowly lowered herself next to him. Over the years, Karen had grown up beautifully. She was now a sophomore in high school, stunning and smart as hell. Her beautiful brown hair was in layers around her face, ending at the middle of her back with small notes of blonds mixed in from her days of play during summer. She stood only at 5'4 and was easily one of the shortest girls in her class. Her days of working at her summer job, however, kept her nice and in shape as she enjoyed running as well during the long days when Kenny worked. Her face resembled that of a much younger child, her button nose slightly turned up and lips polished with pink. Her eyes however, was what made her stand out, beautiful golden with flakes of every color intertwining and dancing at a constant party.

He smiled gently at her and handed her the bag and she examined it. As was custom, they had both scribbled their names at the bottom to make sure it was the same bag. A shy smile crossed her face and she opened it gently, the bag already holding several tears from past lunches.

"It's just a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Nothing special, I also threw in an apple and a small cup of tomato soup since it was cold today. There's milk as well so you can keep up your energy." Like Christmas the girl savored every move into the bag, smiling brightly at the goodies before her and she split the sandwich like always. One half for her, the other for Kenny. Slowly she picked apart the gooey sandwich and began to munch.

Kyle rested his head against the brick behind him and smiled at the sight. Karen didn't have a single greedy bone in her body. Always grateful and respectful of what she got, she was nothing short of inspiring. Closing his eyes, the wind created an orchestra with the traffic and pedestrians meandering along the road nearby. It was a calming scene and he took a moment to enjoy it.

"Kyle…do you hate me?" the question caused him to nearly fall over and he turned his head hard enough to probably give himself whiplash. Coming face to face with Karen once again, his green eyes caught her brown ones but she seemed almost ashamed to even ask the question.

"Karen…why would you even think that?" he asked her gently, tilting his head in confusion. "Where's this coming from so suddenly?" Putting down the sandwich, she gripped the edges of her shirt and Kyle saw her body start to shudder. Within moments, the girl was in his lap sobbing, each one wracking her body with such a deep intensity. Putting his hand on her head, Kyle gently began to stroke her hair, this reaction not being typical of the girl.

"You never came back." Her voice finally came out through the tears and Kyle looked down at her form. His eyes widened in shock. "I thought I upset you somehow because of the cooking." A tight feeling in his chest instantly surfaced and Kyle Broflovski felt like the biggest Asshole on the planet. Last Monday, he had come over to assist Karen with baking some cookies for Kenny so he could have something to snack on. Karen had accidently forgotten to check the cookies a few minutes after they were in the oven and a fire almost started. He remembered scolding her on being so careless and that she had to be more careful. After that, they cleaned up the mess together and even managed to get some new cookies done just as Kenny came home.

Bringing himself back to the present, Kyle sighed. That was the day before the fight he and Kenny had.

"I thought you didn't want to be around such a scatterbrain anymore and didn't want to come by again. I thought you left…just like mom and dad…" Those words instantly plucked at his heart and he pulled her up and wrapped his arms fiercely around the girl.

"Karen, you know I would NEVER leave you like they did." Her tears drowning out all other cares in his life right now. "I'm sorry sweetie, I'm SO sorry I scared you like that. I promise it will never happen again okay?" He felt the nod of her head and Kyle continued to rock her back and forth in his lap to calm her fears. Ever since her mother and father were thrown into prison, Karen had a big fear of being abandoned all over. Kenny came to him, desperate to have someone be with her when he was at work. She had gotten to the point of saying up just to make sure he walked in the front door, crying as she hugged him. This would be two or three in the morning! She was losing sleep and the constant fear was disrupting her thoughts.

He remembered how grateful she was when he started coming over, he helped her with homework, taught her some music lessons, they had even begun cooking for Kenny so he had a meal when he came home. However, Kyle always made sure Karen was asleep at a decent time, even if he stayed in her room until Kenny came back. How could he have forgotten about Karen?

"The truth is Karen, right now, Kenny and I are sort of fighting." He confided to her. The tiny girl looked up at him with wide eyes of confusion.

"Why?" it was such a child-like question but Karen brought up a very good point. Why were they letting this continue?

"Well, you see, one day he just decided not to talk to me anymore." Several small tears began to fall as he spoke to her. "He won't even look at me Karen and I feel so horribly invisible to him now. I just don't know what I did sweetie. I tried to talk to him, but…..nothing. Silence is all I get and he runs away whenever I approach him." His frustrations were now coming clean and Karen watched and gently patted him on the back.

What surprised Kyle next wasn't what the girl said but the gentle smile that crossed her face. It was one of understanding, of knowing exactly what was going on and at that moment, a wave of relief rushed over Kyle. He could finally breathe again. Standing up, she put the spare half and everything else back into the bag.

"Kyle, can you meet me by the bushes near the basketball court after school?" He looked at her in confusion, not quite sure what to make of this.

"Sure Karen, but why?" The girl turned on her toes and winked at him.

"I think I can help you with this." A sudden serious look crossed her features and she leaned forward to him, almost giving him a daring look down her shirt. "As long as you promise not to disappear for a week and not tell anybody again!" she held out her pinkie finger and Kyle smiled slightly. Wrapping his own finger around hers, a nod came.

"I promise you Karen. You'll be the first to know."

XxX

The bell rang signaling the inmates' release and soon a flood of children had exited the school. While Kyle was normally one of the first to go, this time he stayed behind, giving Ike the keys to get home. He was curious, just how was Karen going to help anyways? Waiting by the snow-covered bushes, Kyle didn't have to wait long because Karen appeared waving at him frantically.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late! Listen, I don't have time to explain just get down here and hide okay!" she quickly shoved his head down and he found himself buried in the snow. Shivering at the ice melting on his skin, Karen quickly raced off and Kyle began to wonder if he had been duped.

"Come on Karen we have to go!" the voice made a sharp tug in his chest and Kyle moved closer, peering between the branches of the brush. Kenny was being dragged by a demanding Karen and right into Kyle's view. "Seriously, why are you dragging me out here?" She stomped her foot and paused, only a few feet away from him.

"Cause you won't talk about it in public! Here it's private now!" Kenny looked around and Kyle kept his head down, holding his breath so no sign of him was noticeable.

"Yeah I see that." The sister rolled her eyes and crossed her arms darkly.

"Bro, what's up with you?" the air suddenly changed around them and Kenny stuffed his hands in his pockets, unable to look Karen in the eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play that shit with me big brother! What's with you?! You've been acting strange lately and now Kyle hasn't been by to see me in seven days! What the fuck is going on?" A groan escaped Kenny's lips and he turned around, but didn't leave the spot. "Kenny…what did you do?" her voice was softer this time, she was calm and levelheaded. This was exactly what Kenny needed to hear.

"I don't' know Kar. I have no idea what happened. It was weird! Like one day I saw him run up to me and I couldn't think of anything else than to agree with the urge to run in the opposite direction! "The truth was finally coming out of Kenny and Kyle could only sit and watch. "Every time sis! Every Time I see him, hear his voice, I feel…scared. It doesn't make sense to me at all! I couldn't talk to him without turning red at every FUCKING sentence he spoke! It was like Stan back when he was younger; you know how he threw up whenever he liked someone. That was IT Karen! But at the same time, it wasn't."

She sighed and put her arms around him gently.

"Why don't you just talk to him you moron?" Kenny growled with irritation.

"I'm trying, I really am but…at the same time I can't until I know what this means. I don't hate him Karen, I never hated him. In fact, what I'm feeling right now, it's the exact opposite."

Kyle felt his heart cling to his chest deeply and a small part of him was very lost. So, Kenny wasn't going to talk to him until he knew what to say? A huge amount of sadness hit him at this thought but at the same time, a piece of understand shown. He understood that Kenny needed time to sort out everything; he also knew if he showed any resistance, he could lose Kenny entirely. Pulling off his hat, Kyle rubbed his head, this whole thing just sucked!

"Hey, you can get up now. He's gone." Karen's voice jolted him out of reality and she looked down at him smiling. "Do you get it now?" He had no idea why she was smiling; this still meant that he didn't want to speak to him for a while. Karen took noticed of the annoyance in Kyle's posture and giggled, extending her arm, she offered her hand.

"Come on loser, you have a week's worth of homework to help me with." Groaning, Kyle took it and the pair walked home together.

XxX

Ever since Kyle told Wendy about the events he witnessed, she couldn't help but want to smack the crap out of him and say how much of an idiot he was. Looking at the time, the number seven blinked brightly at her to let her know it was time to get moving. Wendy slammed her head down on the table, disrupting her parents reading the morning newspaper across from her, and spilling a little of her coffee. This whole past ten days could be summed up in one word, "Fuck!"

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…..Was that too much for anyone? *looks around nervously * Well, I guess you'll let me know huh ^^. Today's treat for reviewers! SUGAR COOKIES! *shoves plate* enjoy everyone! ^^ Love Lina.