O_o My god. Heeeey guys. Okay, I know I haven't updated in, like..., almost three weeks. I am so sorry if I made it seem like I left you guys hanging. Seriously, this chapter was so hard to get out. It's like I was hacking up a hairball.
Okay, so I'm not a cat, but you get the idea, right? Point is, this chapter was giving me some serious trouble most of the time. That's why it took so long to get out. But it's over now, and I actually have the rest of the story roughly planned out! I'm going to say that there's going to about 22 chapters for this whole thing. So yeah. You have that much more to look forward to! =D And until then...
Enjoy!
(I hope you guys like it because I'm not that thrilled with it. :/)
I haven't been home in over a week. Ever since I stepped foot into Eric's house I haven't been able to bring myself to leave. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because it's just so... inviting. Even though I'm all alone in it, it's much better than what my house is now.
My phone has been ringing non stop since then, too. Mom, of course. She must not only be worried sick, but pretty pissed, too. Actually, I know. I've listened to the multiple voicemails she's left me. After about twenty straight calls in a row I just switched my phone to vibrate, only checking occasionally to see if anyone besides her has called me. No such luck there.
Eric was right. I do need an extra place to stay aside from Stan's house. Not that I'm totally against staying there; Stan's my best friend, but I don't really need the extra drama that would come along with me staying at his house. He would probably cause a big uproar about what Cartman did and how I'm faring by not being able to even go home to my own house everyday, and I'd rather have the peace and quiet that comes with Eric's empty house than that.
The relationship between me and my parents since the incident, you ask? Well... it's not bad or anything. I pretty much kicked myself out of my own house. We're still on pretty good terms. At least, my dad and I are. My mom I'm not so sure of. She kinda has this whole mindset of making the world perfect for her little 'bubbe,' and of course I already told you about the voicemails. I guess the best way to put it is that she feels that it isn't my fault, and is more concerned about fixing the problem that isn't there. She hasn't really paid much attention to me besides trying to call me and get me to come home, so I'm still on okay ground with her.
Yeah, it's all more complicated than you think. Having a hard-headed mother isn't always the best thing.
Actually, I can't really think of a time when it was a good thing. Oh well.
Anyway, it's been a month or so since Eric just up and left. I'm getting really impatient now and am really, really tempted to go out and look for him myself. But the thing is, where do I start? Butters claimed he was going to Denver, but that could be completely wrong. Eric may have just told him that to throw all of us off track so that we couldn't find him.
And if it's true that he went off to Denver, who's to say that he hasn't already gone somewhere else? If he's really out there looking for his mom, he could be anywhere trying to find her.
So that's really a lost cause. Like he said, I need to just stay put and wait for him to come back. If I go out there, I could get hurt, and I don't want to risk that happening if he does indeed return. Besides, if I just stay here I'll have a better chance of seeing him again as opposed to me going out and blindly searching for him.
I just want him to be back now. I feel like it's been too long already. I'm starting to get worried.
Really worried.
Kenny said that he would be back soon. I would have figured that by that he meant at least a week, two at the most.
It's almost been four and a half.
But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I mean, who's to say how long 'soon' really is?
…
...Surely shorter than four freaking weeks!
God... I just want him back... I want to know that he's safe and okay...
Call me impatient or whatever you want. I don't care. I'm exhausted, I'm stubborn, and I want my way.
I mean... I at least deserve it, right?
Maybe I need to find something to do to pass the time. School keeps me occupied during the week, but weekends are a different story. I can't just sit around and worry about Eric getting home. It's already driving me up the wall, and if I keep it up surely I'll go insane. So if I find something to keep myself busy with, I'll be okay until he gets back, right?
I sure hope so.
Right now I'm on his couch in the living room. I haven't really been anywhere else in the house yet except for the bathroom of course. Ike helped to sneak out some of my things from home so that I wouldn't have to come and get them. I'm really glad he was willing to do that because I was so not looking forward to having to explain to my mom exactly why I was 'moving out.' There are some things that you just don't mess with, and my mom is one of them especially when she's in one of her stubborn moods.
So like I said, I couldn't thank Ike enough for doing that. Of course, he being 'cool' and all (I love how he thinks he is; sometimes he's as big a dweeb as I am), shrugged it off and said it was nothing at all. I couldn't exactly argue with him there. All he had to do was stuff it in his bag, bring it to school, and give it to me there.
He's really funny, though, because as cool and tough as he tries to act and be, it's still way obvious that he's the caring little brother I know deep down. After giving me the essentials from my house (mainly clothes and hygienic things), he offered to sneak me food from the refrigerator. As nice of a gesture as it was, I refused it saying that I didn't need it. There was enough food here at Eric's to hold me through until he got back, and I would be just fine.
Now I'm beginning to think I should take his offer. Again, it's been over a month since he left and since the food's been restocked. He left a lot for me to eat from, but most of the food is about to spoil and I don't exactly have the money to keep buying more especially if he's going to be gone much longer.
I'll have to get with Ike tomorrow and talk to him about that. Only thing is, I'm not looking forward to him smirking at me and saying, "I told you so."
But whatever. I'll swallow my pride and admit my mistake if it means I'll get what I need to survive.
Besides, it's better than living at my house.
Yeah. Never thought I would be saying that.
Well... okay. Maybe that's not entirely true. Living under a woman who has the uncanny ability to rule with an iron fist isn't the easiest thing to do. Add seventeen years to that while you're at it.
..But really. My mom's not a bad person. It's just... she can make things suffocating at times. For example: school.
Yeah. You've got half of the idea. She does push grades and all of that good (or not so good; she pushes it HARD) stuff, but there's something that you're forgetting.
She's president of the PTA.
Aha, yeah. Exactly. That's what I'm worried about. I'm not sure if you know this, but when I was in third grade, she really to the 'protecting her baby' to a whole 'nother level. Basically, there was a Canadian film that we saw that had all kinds of profanity in it and it was so cool that we started mimicking it; she blamed it on Canada for bringing an influence like that into our country and corrupting our 'fragile little minds' (as Eric put it), and so she took matters into her own hands and ended up causing a war.
Yeah. That's why I'm scared of what she's going to do to oust the 'influence' that caused my sexual orientation.
Ugh. I told her before that I just want her to be my mom; blame me for my mistakes; but she never listens. She acts like she does, but in the end I really think that she just can't help but go out there and try to change the world.
Although, I don't think that she'll go that far this time. She really only thinks that the community has something to do with this. I don't know how she sees that, but sometimes her logic is really skewed. Anyway, I'm still a little wary of what she's going to do.
I just... I have this bad feeling that it's only going to end up backfiring somehow, and someone's going to end up getting hurt.
Of course, what am I saying? I live in South Park. Going a day without getting hurt is more unusual than anything.
Still... I'm going to have to be careful. If she goes out and does something drastic, more than likely I'll be blamed for it. And who knows what'll happen after that.
Hopefully she won't go too far with this.
I look over at the clock on the wall. Three thirty. And today's... Sunday. The twentieth. Of January. Can't believe that the school year's already halfway over. Of course, the past two months kind of helped to push it along, I guess.
Still... only a few more months... Not only will I be eighteen soon, but I'll be a senior. I'll have to start thinking about college and the rest of my life pretty soon.
Man... how am I even going to do that if I screw up my relationship with my mom? Maybe I should just go back home and try to straighten things out. I know she's probably a combination of freaked and pissed that I haven't been home in over a week.
I sigh. You know what? I don't even want to think about that right now. I just want to set it aside and relax. It's Sunday, a day that I always used for laying back and doing practically nothing before I had to go to school the next day. I know that makes me sound like a lazy bastard, but you should know I always did my homework on Saturday. I still do. What little homework I get...
So yeah. I'm still the teacher's pet and the typical, perfect student that everyone... hates.
...Okay. No one really hates me, per se... but you get the picture.
Anyway, relaxing. I need something that'll get my mind off of things. Like I said, I haven't really been anywhere elsein the house. I've been sleeping on the couch because I haven't dared to go in his room yet. It's not that I'm scared of what I might find, it's just that...
...Well, it reminds me that he's actually gone.
But now curiosity's gotten the best of me and I can't stand to not take a look. I know the old saying, but I don't care right now. Sometimes it's better to let curiosity take over. If nobody was curious, we wouldn't have the things and know the things we do now, right?
I slowly make my way up the stairs and stop outside his bedroom door. It's slightly open, and I can tell just from the slight crack that he managed to leave the room a mess. I suppose I can't blame him, though. Not only is he an extremely messy person, but I wouldn't have worried about leaving my room nice and tidy if I had to leave in a rush.
And that's saying a lot because I'm a neat person.
Pushing the door in all the way, I sigh at the sight. Yep, it's definitely a wreck.
I guess I could do him a favor and clean up the place for him. Not that I'd get anything in return.
But what can I really expect from him? And who's to say he'll really come back...?
I shake my head, pushing those thoughts out of my mind. No, I can't start thinking that. Kenny said that he'd come back. We just... don't know when.
I quickly take my mind off of this as I start tidying up his room, musing that this is probably something he was expecting me to do in the first place. I roll my eyes. That would be just like him. Have the Jew do his chores for him. Even though he probably doesn't even have 'chores' to do. I know his mom and how lenient she is. He's probably never lifted a finger to take out the trash, let alone do something as simple as cleaning up his room. Unlike most of us, he's probably never done anything of the sort in his life.
...Spoiled brat.
Still... I love him. Spoiled brat or not. If anything, I'm doing it out of that.
Love.
He's left a few shirts out on his bed, probably in his haste to leave. I pick them up and look at them. They look perfectly clean. They must be clothes that he decided not to take and threw out in place of others. I can't imagine why he did. They're nice shirts. Collared... he always did look pretty hot in collared shirts. I'll bet anything they even smell nice.
As I hold one of the shirts close to my face, I can smell the faint aroma of his cologne on it. I was right. They smell nice.
No...
They smell wonderful.
I had forgotten just how nice he smelled. The few times he got in my face nearly had me fainting.
His cologne must be really expensive if it smells that nice. I wonder what he uses...?
I shake my head furiously, my face heating up as I'm thinking this. Dammit, that's only going to remind me even more that he's gone! I don't want that!
Of course... I am staying at his house. How can I not think about him? Especially being in his room and rummaging through his stuff. That's certainly not going to get me to stop thinking about him.
Oh well. I started cleaning up his room, so I might as well finish it. The place still looks like it was hit by a hurricane.
After neatly hanging the shirts back up in his closet, I start on the rest of his room. As I'm cleaning up his desk, which is littered with papers, I manage to find a video camera underneath the mess. Immediately I remember the night that basically started all this madness. I chuckle, thinking back and remembering what he said about me using 'Jew magic' on him to make him feel the way he did.
What an idiot.
Sad thing is, he probably still believes that.
Nah. I'm just kidding. Still, he is pretty childish and foolish sometimes. Just him leaving on his own says it all.
Hm. I can only imagine what's on this thing. In fact, I really don't want to know. For all I know, he could have managed to videotape me in the shower or something.
I shudder. Creepy.
Before I can get much farther in the cleaning, I hear a knock at the front door. My stomach immediately plummets as I think that my mom's finally found me, and is coming to drag me back home. I really hope not. If it is, I'm not sure if I'll be lucky enough to see the light of day ever again.
I trot silently over to the window and push the curtains aside carefully, trying not to draw the eye of whoever's down there. Thank goodness that the window is on the side of the house where you can actually see the front door. The fact that it's on the second story is a plus.
I'm relieved to find that it's only Butters, standing outside in the cold and shaking like a leaf. Not wanting to leave the poor guy outside to freeze, I race downstairs and open the door, greeting him with a small smile.
"Hey, Butters," I say, "What's up?"
As soon as I open the door, he smiles happily and trots inside, obviously happy to get inside the warm house and chase away the chill he got from standing outside.
"Wuh-hey, Kyle!" he chirps cheerily as I close the door, "I, uh... wuh-I came to see how you're doin'!"
He suddenly looks around nervously, like he has something else to say but doesn't want to say it. I'm quickly convinced that he didn't just come over to see how I'm faring. Still, I won't force the truth out of him... yet.
"Kay." I cross my arms, giving him a skeptic look, "I'm doing just fine, Butters."
He still looks around nervously, carrying out his old habit of playing with the hem of his shirt. "Wuh, h-how's life been?" he stutters more than usual, looking at me tentatively.
"Good." I reply simply, choosing to walk over and sit down on the couch, propping my feet up on the table.
He nods, looking uncomfortable and out of place. However, this doesn't stop him from asking me another empty question. "School's not givin' you too much trouble is it-"
"Dammit, Butters, what do you really want?!" I shout, standing up quickly. He jumps and whimpers slightly, causing me to sit down, sigh, and address him again in a calmer tone. "I'm getting the feeling that you want to tell me something else." He nods. "Okay. What?"
"W-well you see... I was thinkin' that... since Eric left and all, I c-could tell you a secret he's been meanin' to keep from you." he says shyly, looking down at the ground, "B-but I don't know i-if I... s-should now. I mean... what if Eric finds out I told you?!" he cries in a slight panic, "H-He might try t-to kill me!"
Wow. Is he serious? Eric wouldn't do tha-
Wait. What am I saying? Maybe he would. Not only is apparently bent on keeping secrets, he also probably wouldn't hesitate to kill Butters if he had a reason to do so. Though, it is Cartman. He does things regardless of whether he has a reason to or not.
I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "He won't kill you, Butters. Not as long as I'm around to stop him. Now what is it?"
Unfortunately, this only seems to make him more nervous, and he gives no answer. Figuring that I'm not going to get any kind of answer, I head back upstairs, calling down to Butters from the top. "If you change your mind and decide to tell me, I'll be up in Eric's room cleaning."
Much to my surprise, this sparks a response from him. "O-oh, wait up! I'll help you!"
Well, it's not the response I was looking for, but I don't dare turn him down. I could really use the extra help cleaning up this slob's room. Even though I have nothing else really to do today, I definitely don't want to spend it all cleaning Eric's pigsty. Besides, it's more fun to clean when you have someone to keep you company.
He trots upstairs after me, and we soon begin working on cleaning up the rest of Eric's room.
As I'm cleaning up the bookcase and putting books away (all of which have some relation to either Hitler, the Holocaust, or Mel Gibson; go figure), Butters pipes up, breaking the silence between us.
"O-oh. Well I w-wonder what this is."
I turn around and see that he's holding a picture album in his lap as he sits on the floor. He thumbs through the pages, looking at each picture carefully. "Wuh-I didn't know that Eric w-wa...was into photography."
Blinking, I walk over to where he's sitting, looking at the pictures over his shoulder. "Yeah..." I say slowly, recognizing some of the images that flip by, "I remember him showing me, Stan, and Kenny some of these pictures when we were back in fourth grade. In fact, he even took some pictures-"
As soon as I gasp in realization of what I was about to say, Butters flips to the very page I was about to mention.
The collage of pictures that Cartman had taken all those years ago; pictures that he had taken while Butters was asleep and unaware that he was being pranked.
A dark look crosses Butters features, and I won't deny admitting I'm a little bit scared. After all, Butters never gets this mad.
"That jerk..." he mutters, slamming the album shut. I blink in response, the force of the shut blowing a burst of air onto my face.
"Well... what do you expect?" I say, trying to calm Butters down before he does something really drastic. "It's Cartman. He does, or at least did, that kind of stuff all the time. Don't feel bad."
Butters doesn't say a word, that dark, angry look still on his face. I decide to try my reassuring approach again.
"Hey, you know that picture of him with your junk in his mouth actually makes him look gay, right?" I chuckle, hoping that I'm getting somewhere with him.
What he says next surprises me. "I don't care what that s-son of a bitch thinks." he growls, something that doesn't fit him at all, "I'm tellin' you that secret."
I simply blink, at a loss of what to say in return. "...Okay."
He gets about two words into it, managing only to take a deep breath and say 'Here goes,' before I hear yet another knock at the door. Immediately he stops, looking at me in confusion. I shrug because I have no clue as to who it could be either. I wasn't expecting so many visitors today.
That was half sarcasm, half not. Just in case you were wondering.
Holding a hand up to keep him from speaking again, I get up and make my way to the door. "Excuse me." I say in a joking tone, "Let me go get that."
I leave him in there to trot downstairs to open the front door, eager to see who else wants to visit me this fine Sunday afternoon. Maybe it's-
...No. Don't get your hopes up, Kyle.
I open the door and am greeted by the sight of Stan. A look of disbelief and maybe shock is evident on his face, and I begin to wonder just what he came over for. By that look, I get the feeling that's it's not exactly something good.
"Um... hey, Kyle." He greets me in an uneasy tone, his hands stuffed in his pockets like usual. He takes one out to point behind him, looking back as well. "I think you might want to come out and see what's going. Your mom is... kind of going over the edge again."
I blink, and as soon as he mentions my mother, my stomach drops. If he has that kind of look on his face and is talking about my mom in the same sentence, then it definitely can't be good.
With a look that probably matches the level of shock he has on his, I slowly nod and step outside, expecting the worst yet hoping for the best. "Okay."
Maybe he's just overreacting? I hope so.
I barely notice that Butters has since trotted down the stairs after me. The three of us walk out of Eric's house and all the way down the street towards mine. Before we reach it, I can already hear her voice, projected by what is probably a megaphone.
Yeah, that's clue number one that this is bad. That must mean she's talking to a good number of people.
I can't exactly pick out her voice well enough to figure out what issue she's addressing, though. Stan hasn't said a single word since we left, so I haven't received any inside info yet. But that's okay. I'll find out soon enough I guess.
A crowd of people stands between me and my house. Great. Clue number two that this is not going to turn out well. If there's a group of people gathered around my house, all of which my mom is talking to, that's a big indicator that she's planning to put something big into effect.
Same thing happened all those years ago when she managed to start a war between America and Canada.
Damn.
I hate to admit it, but my mom and Cartman are alike in many ways. They have the power to manipulate and can manage to get a whole mob of people behind them, planning to take over things and push anyone aside if they get in their way.
Only difference is, my mom is trying to do things for the good of the community and, sometimes, the world. She isn't usually aware that what she's doing is only going to cause more problems for the ones she loves. Cartman, on the other hand, is very aware that he's going to hurt other in the process. In fact, that's the main reason he does many of the things he does. He wants to hurt others, get his way. Reign supreme.
Although... I can't really call him out on that now. That's really something he used to do. Now... well, he's still insane, but in a different way.
But I can't worry about him right now. My concern isn't him, it's my mom.
"...and that is why we must put these monitors on our children! The problem will never solve itself unless we address it headfirst!" she bellows through a megaphone, standing on a podium placed right in front of the house, "Our children must be watched and tracked every hour of the day to keep record of their activities so that we can cleanse them in the most proper and effective way possible!" she pounds a fist down, "We must put a stop to-"
She pauses in her speech as her eyes dart to the back of the crowd. More specifically where I'm standing. If you think that she's spotted me standing back here...
...then you are absolutely right, my friend.
Her expression immediately brightens as she sees me. "Oh bubbe!" she calls through the megaphone, "There you are! Come here, come here!"
Nice. Not only has she managed to completely embarrass the hell out of me in front of the entire town (the parents at least; still, they're all staring at me and making me even more uncomfortable), she wants me actually stand up there like I'm supporting her cause.
Augh. What do I do? Do I go up there or not? What if she turns on me and grounds me for two years? No, I'm not kidding about that. I wouldn't surprised if she actually did do that. Or should I run for it and take the chance of pissing her off even more than she may be now?
I'll go with the first option. She can't possibly be that mad at me. If anything, her relief will overpower that and make her forget about grounding me at all. If I run, I'll only manage to make things worse. I'll only give her more reason to get angry with me. Besides, if you disobey my mom... well, I'll just say that things don't turn out well of you do.
I sigh and drop my head for a second. I glance back up, giving Stan a knowing look. He nods back apologetically, his expression telling me all I need to know.
'It'll be all right.' it says.
I nod back, turning to walk all the way up to my mom.
...Oh, that's really nice. Everyone decided to stand back and clear a straight path for me to walk up, so they can all stare at me and make me even more uncomfortable.
Goddammit.
Uh huh. Yeah, I was being sarcastic about that. You're catching on quick, aren't you?
Feeling like I'm in some movie right at the dramatic part where the hero walks up to face his death or something, I trudge my way up to her slowly, avoiding her eye as I get closer to her. I step up onto the podium grudgingly, yelping out as she grabs me in a swift hug. Tight, too.
"I shall initiate this plan starting with my own son, Kyle!"
Yeah, love you too, mom.
She takes out something that resembles a wristband, taking my right hand into hers and clamping it around my wrist. I blink in confusion and look at it like it's nothing big. It has a red blinking light on it, probably the indication that it's 'tracking' me, but I can't see why I can't just take it off. It's like one of those wristbands you get at a theme park; you can just cut it off with scissors...
...Wait. It's... It's not...
I tug at it, but it's not made out of the flexible plastic that the typical wristbands are made of. It's almost like it's made of... metal or something. But it's still pretty flexible... it's not digging into my wrist or anything. It's as uncomfortable as the regular bands are, but it's not like it's terrible. Just annoying.
I guess I'm not getting this thing off with scissors... Dammit. What if I just tried to unsnap the thing that holds it togethe-
Bzzt!
Ow! What the-?! It fucking shocked me! Are you kidding me?! Damn, she's fucking serious about this.
I try to tug harder on it and ignore the shock, but the longer I struggle to get it off, the more intense the shock gets. Jesus Christ!
"I trust that you have already attached these wristbands onto your sons!" What are we, guinea pigs?! Why can't she just face the fact that this is reality?! "Soon we will turn our children around and have them heading down the right path again! We will put a stop to this madness!" The crowd cheers and I'm absolutely stunned. She take a bow, speaking into the megaphone one last time, "Thank you!"
The crowd disperses, and in a few minutes it's just me, Stan, and Butters standing out in the snow. Just as I'm beginning to wonder how in the hell this is even going to work (how in the hell could the parents have been able to convince their kids that they should wear these), Stan and Butters walk up with their own wristbands showing, confirming the fact to me that this has indeed already gone into effect.
"What in the hell is she thinking?!" I cry, throwing my arms up in frustration.
Stan shrugs. "I dunno. Dude, your mom's a bitch."
I sigh, nodding my head slowly. "Yeah, I know."
"We should split up before she suspects something's going on with the three of us." he suggests.
I nod again, turning to head back to Eric's house. "You're right. I wouldn't be surprised if these things have cameras in them or something."
"They do."
We all jump, looking around to see Kenny standing just a few feet away from us.
What the-?! How in the heck did he get here without one of us noticing? I could have sworn I didn't see him before. Creepy... I'm almost convinced that he has some kind of power where he can show up at anywhere at anytime.
Psh. Supernatural friends.
"Let me guess," I chuckle with a smile, "You only know because you already know the future?"
He laughs and shakes his head. "No. I just looked at them. See? There's a camera lens by the red light."
I look down and inspect the thing again. Sure enough, he's right.
"Goddammit..." I huff, crossing my arms, "This is ridiculous."
They all nod in agreement. Not wanting to take any chances with her finding out that I'm still hanging around these guys, I turn to leave, waving goodbye.
"Well, we should split like Stan said. I don't want to know what my moms' going to do if she finds us together and thinks that we're doing the nasty-"
Bzzt.
Ow, shit! It shocked me again! Huh. This must be similar to the v-chip that she had implanted into Cartman's head. It'll shock us each time we mention something related to us...
Oh geez. If this is what she's planning to do to 'fix' us...
...then we're in for a long rest of the school year.
Ow. My head hurts (any mistakes let me know; I'm exhausted). Yeah, so that's what I managed to bring you guys. It seems a little bland to me for most of the chapter, but that's just me. At least the big thing happens at the end, right? That's right, I'm leaving you with a cliffhanger of sorts... kinda. What will happen to Kyle next? You'll just have to wait and find out!
Don't worry, though. I don't plan on having you guys wait too long. Like I said, I basically know the rest of the story from here, so it won't take me as long to get the chapters out. I promise that there'll be a happy ending, just like Kenny promised Kyle there would be. There's... just going to be a lot of stuff going on inbetween. But that makes it fun, right? Right?
Anyway, I'll leave you guys with that for now. See you soon, and thank you for reading! I appreciate the support you've given me so far! =D
Love you guys!
-Soul