I arrived home a few hours after my conversation with Stan. My dad went straight to bed, exhausted from his trip to North Dakota. My mother made my brothers and me some dinner, but I couldn't eat anything.

"Olivia, aren't you going to eat something?" my mother said patting my on the back as Will devoured his grilled cheese sandwich and Tyler gazed longingly at his apple sauce.

"I'm fine. I'm really not hungry," I said, gazing at the sandwich before me. "Actually, I think I'm going to go to the family room and use the phone. I've got to call someone."

"Ok, honey. You're dinner will still be here when you're done," My mom said as I rose up from the table and exited the kitchen.

It's not a big deal, I thought to myself reaching for the receiver, phone book on hand. It's just Kyle. Kyle: the boy who kicked Cartman's ass and broke his hand for me, the boy who is suspended and most likely grounded because of me, the boy I threw up all over, the boy I publically humiliated with my stupid note…. ARG! This may be harder than I initially thought.

The phone rang and rang and rang. Isn't anyone home?

"Hello, Broflovski residence." Oh shit, Kyle's mom.

"Hello, my name is Olivia Marsh. I was wondering if I could speak with Kyle?" My voiced cracked a little at the end of the sentence. It was very unlikely that she was going to agree to my request.

"So this is Olivia Marsh, as in Stan's cousin from the 5th grade class. The one with the pink sweater, blue scarf, correct?" Oh no…

"Yes Ma'am that's me," I said.

"My son's in a lot of trouble because of you. I'm sorry but Kyle's grounded, he can't…" All of a sudden, there was a muffled sound at the other end of the line.

"Livy! It's Kayley. I'm going to talk to my mom about this. You sort of need to talk to Kyle. Dad and I are going to do a little persuading here. Don't worry, wait five minutes and he'll call you." It was such a relief to hear her voice. But I felt a little sick; I didn't really think I'd be allowed to talk to Kyle.

"Thanks Kayley," I said, my voice noticeably shaking.

"Oh, and don't worry, he doesn't hate you at all, trust me. Bye Liv," and with that, she hung up the phone. I took the phone up to my room to wait for the call. She was right. After five or six minutes the phone was ringing in my sweaty, tightly-clenched hand. I swallowed, and pressed the Talk button. Oh well, here goes nothing.

"Hello?" I said, as quietly as humanly possible.

"Hi," his voiced echoed from the other end of the line, nearly as quietly as mine.

"How's your hand?" I asked, becoming a bit more confident as I finished the question.

"It's been better. How's Cartman's face?" Kyle asked. We both laughed, easing the tension between us.

"He looks like shit. I mean, he always looks pretty crappy, but he really looks bad. They can't get him a false tooth until Monday. He's going to look like a hillbilly at the dance," I paused; maybe it wasn't such a good idea to mention the dance. But Kyle laughed and continued.

"That made my day. You get a date yet?" There was silence on both ends of the line.

"No. I'm not going to the dance," I replied.

"Why not?"

"Well, you can't go, so I won't go," I said, my voice was getting higher and higher with every syllable.

"I don't get it. You told me to forget about you…You don't like me." Kyle said, a hint of aggravation in his tone.

"I never said," I replied. There was no response, so I continued to explain. "God, I do like you Kyle. I want you to know that. I. Like. You. You got it? But I can't do anything about it because Nikki likes you and that would ruin our friendship," Whoa, I may have gone a little overboard while expressing my emotion there….

"Oh," Kyle said.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok. I can wait for you. I mean, we're eleven, right? As long as she get's over me within the next few years… I can wait. It's worth it," I giggled at his optimism.

"That was the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to my Kyle," I said, gazing out the window at the moon's reflection in the newly fallen snow.

"Don't worry about it. I understand the whole thing with Nikki. But it's not fair to her if I 'give her a shot' when all I really want is…" he trailed off at the end, but I knew very well what he was going to say.

"I'd come over to see you if I could," I whispered, I could almost feel him smiling at the other end of the line.

"As much as I'd love that, my mom would kill us both. You'll see me on Monday in school," He paused for a moment, and then continued, "My sister came up with a totally sick plan to get back at Cartman, you in?"

"The beating wasn't enough?" I laughed.

"That was my payback. This payback's from you and Nikki," I sighed at the mention of me and Nikki.

"She hates me," I said, tears in my eyes for the hundredth time this week.

"I doubt that. You probably just haven't talked it out yet. Talk to her tomorrow and things we'll be ok. I mean, look: we talked and I feel a million times better. You like me. Who knew?" I rolled my eyes, and smiled.

"Well, I knew. You should've guessed from all the puking."

"Oh my God! Is that why you threw up? Wow, I guess that's genetics for you," he said.

"Yeah, Marsh genes are the strangest in all of Colorado."

"Maybe, but they produced my best friend and you, they can't be all bad," I laughed. But I heard Kyle's mom yelling at him to get off the phone, so I continued. "I guess you've got to go?"

"Guess so, but Livy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just want you to know that I've learned something over the past few months. Making fun of Stan and Wendy's relationship was wrong. I've learned that, when you're in love, it really sucks. Having people make fun of you for it just makes it harder." My smile became so wide it hunt the muscles around my mouth.

"Who are you in love with Kyle?" I asked.

"Oh, shit. Gotta go. See you Monday, Liv." I hung up the receiver, and returned the phone to its rightful place in the living room. I didn't stop smiling for the rest of the night.

I haven't seen so much snow since I was a little girl. There's no way I'm going anywhere for the next few days so expect new chapters!

Wednesdays done! Smoothie King and Kenny's crush revealed in the upcoming chapter or two... :)

But I've got a question: This story could end on Friday, or it could be continued on until Saturday… Saturday's stuff would be mostly epilogue / fluffy junk. Do you want that, yes or no?

Thanks for reading, please review!