Chapter Thirty-Six - Loose Ends.

The unexpected quickness with which normality had returned to South Park High School was sort of bizarre.

After scratching and clawing his way through a weekend that felt like it had been ripped straight out of a horrible nightmare, Stan never imagined that he'd be so happy to be safely surrounded by the bland walls of the school corridor again. It was now Tuesday, and certainly what felt like a lifetime since the teenage boy had last been walking up the hall on the way to his History class. So much had happened since Thursday. The entire ordeal definitely added to Stan's grateful feelings towards the stability of his school and his life in South Park.

That, and the loyal reliability of his friends, of course.

Kyle strolled alongside his best friend on the way to one of his own classes. They were needlessly chatting away as they walked along, before reaching the bottom of one of the many sets of stairs throughout the school. The two bumped fists and swapped a quick 'cya' later' as Kyle ascended the first step to head up to the second floor of the building. Just before he completely disappeared into the throng of hastily moving students, Kyle's ears suddenly perked up at the sound of a high pitched voice calling his name. Both he and Stan slowly turned around, a wide grin appearing across the Jewish boy's lips as he spotted Bebe darting through the crowd towards him.

"Hey," he spoke sweetly to his girlfriend.

Looking up at him where he stood on the first step of the staircase, Bebe smiled right back at him, "Hey," she echoed, "Where were you at recess? I feel like I haven't seen you all day."

"I was just with the guys. I'll see you at lunch though, okay? Promise," Kyle replied, "Go on, you don't want to be late for social studies again."

Stifling a guilty giggle, Bebe felt a blush settle into her cheeks as Kyle stepped back to the ground in front of her and pecked adoringly at her lips. She melted into the all too short moment, feeling her heart thump lightly in her chest as her boyfriend reluctantly pulled back. He smirked down at her once more, hurrying the gorgeous blonde along and coaxing her in the direction of her classroom. With a cheeky roll of her eyes, Bebe was soon on her way, brushing past Stan as she started up the opposite end of the corridor.

Her glistening, green eyes were glued to the floor as she took her first few steps. Her mind was swarming with thoughts of nothing else but Kyle - just as it had been ever since the very moment she had kissed him and collapsed into him on the backseat of the abandoned, black bus on Thursday night. But, then again, that all felt like such a long time ago now. Bebe hadn't exactly been expecting this much of a challenge when it came to sharing Kyle with his friends at school.

Just before she could get too tangled up in all of her messy thoughts, Bebe glanced up from the tiled floor beneath her and found herself forcing a smile at Wendy as she strolled towards her. The dark haired girl grinned right back, but the brightness in her face dropped the second that she spotted the unhappy dullness in Bebe's features.

"What's up?" she asked, meeting her best friend in the middle of the hallway.

Bebe shrugged, trying to feign another positive smirk, "It's nothing, it's just Kyle and me..." she trailed off with a soft sigh, "I dunno', I just sorta' feel like I've barely seen him since we got back."

Wendy frowned, "You didn't eat lunch with him yesterday?"

"No. He was catching up with the guys," she huffed, "And meanwhile, you stayed home comfortably shacked up with Stan all day."
Wendy rolled her eyes at the teasing sarcasm in her friend's voice, "Yeah, if only it had been under better circumstances," she mumbled through gritted teeth. Quickly shaking her head, Wendy took a step past Bebe, turning back to her as she did, "Just talk to him and tell him how you feel. You're in a relationship now, Bebe, communication is kinda' important," she said with a laugh, "Try not to let it get to you too much. Uh... don't you have - "

"Social studies, yeah, yeah, I'm going," Bebe cut in, echoing her best friend's laughter, "Thanks, Wendy."

"Don't mention it, girl," she called back, watching Bebe scurry up the busy corridor. Turning back around, Wendy's eyes shot up to the door of her own classroom, right under the stairs that Kyle had just climbed. The entrance to the eleventh grade History room was all too familiar to her - but nowhere near as familiar as the dark hair, blue eyes and red poof ball hat of the person standing by waiting for her.

Hugging her text books close to her chest, Wendy slowly crept towards the classroom door, her eyes never leaving Stan's. She stared at him and smiled with silent devotion while he gazed back at her with much of the same. The teenage boy was casually leant up against one wooden frame of the door, and as his girlfriend mirrored him and made herself comfortable against the opposite side of the entrance way, Stan smirked down at her.

The blush forming in her cheeks was absolutely adorable. Just as Stan took half a step forward and opened his mouth to speak, he suddenly sucked in a surprised grunt. Both he and Wendy narrowed their eyes at Leah as she spitefully barged in between the two of them, nudging into Stan as she passed through the door and marched over to her desk. They looked back to one another, remaining blank for just a moment, before Stan and Wendy each expelled some soft chuckles.

They were both way past letting Leah, Tori or any of Darcy's many other cohorts causing trouble for them ever again.

Tilting his head towards the door and holding his arm out, Stan gestured for Wendy to enter the classroom in front of him. The dark haired girl felt her skin tingle at the sensation of Stan's gentle hand around her waist as he lead her all the way to her seat.

"Do we just have enemies everywhere we go?"

Wendy scoffed with a cynical laugh. She sat down in her desk sideways, spinning around slightly to face Stan's behind her, "I guess so."

Contrary to how lightheartedly she and Stan may have been handling the multiple confrontations they had endured with the many different people since getting back together, Wendy still didn't feel any less rocked and shaken up after the events of the past weekend. The extra day off school yesterday had definitely helped settle her nerves. Her sleep had been broken, but every time she opened her eyes and spotted Stan snoozing peacefully beside her, she had instantly managed to fall back into her own slumber.

More than anything else, she had been dreading hearing all about her mother's phone conference with Malibu High, but surprisingly, that had even turned out sort of okay, as well. Her old principal had ensured Wendy and her mum that every necessary step was being taken to ensure that something similar would never happen to her or anyone else ever again. A school-wide assembly, letters sent home to parents, the initiation of random cell phone searches in classes - just about every idea that anyone could think of had been put into place to make Wendy feel safe.

So, why then, deep down, did the thought of it all still sting at her heart and make her stomach churn?

Shrugging off the thought as best she could, Wendy blinked in Stan's direction, feeling herself cringe at the shades of his jaw that were still just slightly bruised, "How's your face today?"

Stan parted his lips to reply, but quickly bit his tongue as Ms. Pocks suddenly entered the room and began rambling on about that day's lesson. The teenage boy cleared his throat. He brought his voice to a more quiet tone and murmured under their teacher's booming lecture as she began to scribble on the chalkboard at the same time.

"It's fine," he answered sweetly. He paused, cocking a sarcastic eyebrow, "I mean, fine considering that all I was trying to do was have a nice weekend with my girlfriend, and now the only thing I have to show for it is a lumpy bruise on the side of my head."

Rolling her eyes at him and holding in a giggle, Wendy spun back around in her chair, facing the front of the classroom. She raised her voice just loud enough for Stan to hear her, "Well, all I was trying to do was cheer my team on to a tournament victory, and now the only thing I have to show for it is you..."

Stan's expression widened at Wendy's irresistibly quick wit. He shook his head with a challenging smirk as he held in one loud, cynical laugh. Instead, he simply ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and scrunched it up into a ball, throwing it at her to gently bounce off the back of her head, "C'mon, now, don't go acting like it's a bad thing to be completely crazy about me."

Scoffing in disbelief at his pure audacity, Wendy whipped her head back around, darting the screwed up paper ball right back at him. She murmured through gritted teeth as she laughed at him, "I'm actually trying to pay attention to this lesson, I don't need you distracting me and touching me."

A devilish glisten sparkled behind Stan's blue orbs.

"That's not what you were saying yesterday."

Allowing a loud gasp to escape her, Wendy's complexion turned bright red. Stan's joke had almost totally shut down the teasing back and forth between the two of them before the teenage girl shook her head once more and flicked one of her pens at him. Her teeth grinded together in a quiet hiss, "You're such a shit."

Stan grinned as he dodged the blue projectile, "Love you, too."

"Mr. Marsh, Miss Testaburger!" Ms. Pocks suddenly snapped. Wendy immediately flicked her head back around to face the front of the room. Both she and Stan were forced to silence to find every eye in the classroom glued to them and their teacher's arms folded angrily across her chest, "Could I possibly trouble you to stop ogling over each other for at least five minutes during my lesson?"

Holding down a laugh at the hefty woman's choice of words, Stan forced himself to remain quiet as Wendy cleared her throat, "Sorry, Miss."

Keeping her agitated glare on them for a moment longer, Ms. Pocks soon went back to lecturing them and the rest of the eleventh grade class. Sliding down slightly to slouch comfortably in his seat, Stan tuned out the babbling old lady as he focused every sense of his awareness on the beautiful girl sitting in front of him.

As Wendy's head faced down and she finally started writing some study notes in her book, Stan's heart began to beat lightly in his chest. Her long, black locks flowed like a waterfall down her back. They covered her gorgeously petite frame, running over the irresistibly soft skin of her neck and arms. It took every ounce of strength and control in Stan's very core for him to not just leap over his desk and grab her and squeeze the life out of her. He was absolutely enamoured with her - in every sense of the word.

But, of course, he also loved nothing more than pushing her buttons and teasing her to no end.

As a second rolled up ball of paper suddenly hit the back of her head, Wendy jumped slightly. Biting down on her bottom lip, they dark haired girl managed to keep her brown eyes facing the chalkboard as she slowly shook her head back and forth. He was going to pay for that one, she thought to herself, resisting the urge to echo the innocent chuckles she heard resonate from him.

Stan may have driven her insanely close to her absolute wit's end - but, man, Wendy couldn't thank God enough that he was all hers.

Bebe could sense herself stewing in agitation as she continued to peer across the courtyard at Kyle.

The beautiful blonde and all of her girlfriends were occupying two picnic benches upon the grassy area down by the car park at the very back of the school. Across the concrete slab that stretched all the way down to the back gate, Kyle stood around chatting away and messing about with the rest of the boys. He looked to be having a great lunch time - but it wasn't the lunch time that he had promised his girlfriend.

Bebe let out an aggravated huff as she slumped her chin down into her hand. The time that she and Kyle had spent away in Phoenix had truly felt like a holiday and an escape from reality, despite all else that had been going on around them at the time, of course. But the teenage girl didn't want to have to wait to get her boyfriend alone to be able to spend any time with him. There had to be some kind of compromise or balance between her and his friends, because Bebe was not prepared to play second fiddle. Not even in the slightest.

"You should go and say something to him."

The sound of Lola's voice suddenly snapped Bebe out of her trance as she glanced across the table to her friend. Almost instantly, she had wanted to nod her head in agreement, but Bebe was still wary. She bit down hesitantly on her bottom lip, "And bother him in front of the guys?"

Joining the conversation, Nichole looked to Bebe with a roll of her eyes, "Maybe that's what it's gonna' take to get him to listen to you."

Bebe sighed, "It's not like he's doing anything maliciously or on purpose or - "

"But he did say he was gonna' spend lunch with you, right?"

Staring back at Lola, Bebe was stubbornly quiet for a moment before she sighed again with a small nod of her head.
"So?" Nichole jumped back in, "Go and tell him you're not going to wait for him to be by himself every time you wanna' hang out with him."

"Yeah," Lola added, "You don't want him to start thinking that every time the two of you are alone is just an excuse to have sex."

A sharp twinge of realisation shot across Bebe's chest as her eyes widened in surprise at Lola's words. She snapped her neck around and pierced her vision back over towards Kyle. He was laughing and mucking around with all the guys, including Kenny who had walked over from the workshop during his own lunch break and snuck through the back gate of the school. These two long-time friends, in particular, seemed to be extremely deep in conversation. Bebe felt her stomach turn. She could only imagine what kinds of gruesome, personal details Kenny was managing to manipulate out of Kyle.

Bebe remained frozen where she was seated, mulling over all her thoughts for just a moment longer. She wondered how much of what Lola and Nichole were saying to her could be true. Surely not all of it - Kyle wasn't a player, not in any way, shape or form. He cared about Bebe. But, at the same time, he also clearly didn't care enough to keep his promise to her about spending time together.

As a final wave of anger flashed through her bones, Bebe pushed herself up from the picnic table and climbed over the bench seat, wordlessly making a direct beeline for Kyle. Her vision was blinded by her heated emotions as she strode right by the second table, failing to notice Wendy raising a curious eyebrow at her.

Before the raven haired girl could even open her mouth to question her best friend, Bebe had already hastily scurried by. Wendy's frown deepened as she turned her head to face where Bebe had just been sitting, "What is she doing?"

Lola's expression was blank as she spoke, "She's going to confront Kyle about ditching her."

"What? Why?" Wendy snapped, narrowing her eyes suspiciously, "What did you two say to her?"

Nichole shrugged her shoulders, "Lola just warned her to be careful that he doesn't just spend time with her whenever he wants a bang."

The very moment that the final crude word left her friend's lips, Wendy felt her jaw fly down to the ground in shock, "Oh, Jesus Christ..."

Wendy shuddered inwardly, only imagining the kinds of furiously hormonal thoughts tearing their way through Bebe's mind. Speaking as a young woman recently recovered of insane insecurity herself, she knew the number of different conclusions that her best friend could suddenly be leaping to. But the one conclusion that Wendy was sure Bebe and Kyle could definitely do without was the possible conclusion of their relationship.

Because the dark haired girl was all too aware that their relationship and connection with one another was much, much deeper than just the five days that they had been 'official'.

Completely unbeknownst of what was about to happen to him, Kyle's back was facing the girls while he continued to happily chat away with Kenny.

"So, a bus? Really?" the blonde boy asked, watching his friend eagerly nod his head, "Man, I just can't believe you've done it somewhere I haven't!"

Trying to reduce his laughter and keep the rest of the guys' attention away from him, Kyle simply shook his head with a small chuckle. He had known all along how proud Kenny would be be of him and all his exploits with his new girlfriend - the raw envy from him was just a nice, little added bonus.

"But, damn, man - you are so freakin' lucky."

Kyle felt his heart race slightly at Kenny's words, "Yeah," he sighed in blissful ecstasy, "She's just the best, she's amaz- "

"Well, yeah, there's all that boring crap," Kenny abruptly cut in, "But she's pretty much got the biggest boobs in the entire grade! I've been fanticising about her boobs since we were, like, nine years old..."

"Dude!"

The impulsive feelings of protection that Kyle sensed consume him at Kenny's confession were quickly forced to fizzle away. He almost jumped in surprise to hear an easily recognisable, feminine voice clear from behind him. Spinning around on the spot, the Jewish boy smiled at the sight of his girlfriend.

"Oh, hey," he spoke to her, his tone filled with happiness.

Bebe frowned. Clearly, Kyle hadn't exactly caught on to how narrowed her vision was or how tightly her arms were angrily folded across her chest, "I need to talk to you."

The fire licking off the end of her tongue caused Kyle's cheerful expression to fall from his face.

"Oh, how convenient," Kenny swiftly cut back in, "We just happened to be talking about you."

"What?" Bebe asked with a chuckle, "How come?"

Finding Kyle's eyes with her own once more, Bebe's face scrunched up in confusion as her boyfriend remained silent and his hazel orbs nervously darted away from hers. In the next instance, Bebe's features widened, completely appalled, "You told him?!"

Kyle gulped, "Bebe, wait - "

"Seriously, Kyle, I don't want the whole school knowing!" Bebe yelled, "Who else have you told?"

"No-one," Kyle sharply responded, trying to defend himself, "No-one apart from him and Stan, but you already knew I told Stan."

"C'mon, Bebe, you should be proud," Kenny urged with a cheeky grin, "I mean, I'm jealous of Kyle, imagine how jealous all the other guys would be if - "

"Don't you have to go back to work yet?!" Kyle shot at his friend, rapidly twirling around to glare absolute daggers at him.

Holding his hands up in defense, Kenny forced down an amused laugh, smiling at Kyle and simply nodding his head. As he finally conceded and walked away, the teenage mechanic exited through the back gate of the school, waving to Stan as he walked past him. Stan waved back, but raised a confused eyebrow as he did. Kenny usually hung around with him and the rest of the guys much longer than this whenever he came down for lunch.

Dropping his hand back down and stuffing it into the depths of his jacket pocket, Stan's brow crinkled more and more with every step he watched Kenny take away from the grounds of the school. He wondered what the reason was for his hasty disappearance. It was only moments ago that Stan had glanced up and spotted his two best friends shooting the breeze just like normal. As this thought crossed him, the dark haired boy allowed his eyes to flick back over towards Kyle.

However, the very second that his blue orbs landed on the Jewish boy, Stan felt himself cringe.

"Oh, God..."

By this stage, Bebe's face was visibly steaming in frustration as Kyle continued to hopelessly try to calm her down.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he admitted, "I didn't know it was gonna' make you this upset."

"What was?" Bebe snapped back, "The fact that you were talking about me to Kenny, or the fact that you completely ditched me and broke your promise?"

Kyle's expression fell in severe bewilderment, "What are you talking about?"

"You said you were gonna' spend time with during lunch break!"

"Is that what this is all about?" Kyle asked with a laugh of disbelief, brushing off the subject, "Surely that's not something to totally flip out over? Look, I'll just come and sit with you now if that's what you - "

"No, it's not that simple, Kyle, it's too late to just pretend like you didn't do anything wrong!"

"How is it so wrong, anyway?" Kyle fired back, suddenly starting to become just as annoyed, "You don't see Stan and Wendy spending every possible waking minute together or hanging off of each other twenty-four hours a day!"

"That's because Stan and Wendy spent recess together! Stan and Wendy actually make time for each other!"

Abruptly bursting onto the scene after hearing his name one too many times, Stan grinded his teeth together and rubbed his temples where he was certain all of their arguing was giving him a migraine, "Can we not bring Stan and Wendy into this?" he thundered, gaining both Kyle and Bebe's sudden attention.

Taking a deep breath, Stan tried to gather all of his scattered thoughts. He may have heard every ridiculous word that Kyle and Bebe had yelled at one another, but the teenage boy still didn't exactly have the first clue where to begin, with either of them. He never really pictured himself as much of a relationship counselor, either, but still, Stan bravely licked his lips.

"Listen, dude," he said, starting with Kyle, "You need to be a little bit more patient and consider her feelings, okay? And, Bebe, how's about not coming off so aggressively?"

Kyle chuckled sarcastically, "Ha, good luck with that one - "

"Look, I know," Stan sniped back in, "Wendy hasn't exactly got that technique down, either, but just standing there and screaming back at her isn't helping anyone. Trust me."

As a bemused silence settled in around the three teenagers, Stan shoved his hands into his jeans and awkwardly rocked back and forth on the balls of his heels. He had already involved himself in Kyle and Bebe's problems way more than he would have liked, so as he merely cleared his throat and gestured for the young couple to take a step closer to each other and properly sort things out, Stan chose to subtly take his own exit.

Repeating everything that he had just spoken in their minds, Kyle and Bebe stared into each other's orbs. A much softer expression was present on both of their faces as their anger quickly faded. Loosening her arms from around her chest, Bebe blew out a whispering sigh from between her lips as she was the first to speak.

"I just..." she stumbled, "It just kinda' feels like I've barely seen you since we got back from Phoenix. It's like all you're interested in is hanging around the guys and... I dunno'... you were just settling for me because none of them came with us and - "

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Kyle cut in, feeling pieces of his heart crumble away with each sad word his girlfriend spoke, "Bebe, I love being with you and hanging out with you, okay? I'm sorry, I guess I just obviously need a little bit of time to adjust to this whole balancing act."

As the heated atmosphere around them continued to dissipate, Bebe sensed a smile finally cross her lips at the genuine tone in Kyle's voice. Grinning right back her, the Jewish boy let out a small chuckle, "Besides, the guys are fuckin' idiots most of the time - I much prefer your company."

Feeling her cheeks flush red with a blush, Bebe's giggles mimicked Kyle's for a short moment before she trailed off once more. She fell to some slim hesitation, chewing down on her bottom lip as she repeated Kyle's words in her brain and tried to tie them together with what Lola and Nichole had been saying to her just five minutes ago. As she sensed her boyfriend's concerned vision increasingly pierce her amongst her silence, Bebe quickly decided to open her mouth and release another soft sigh.

"Well, the guys aren't the only ones who can be dumb sometimes..." she paused again, gathering her thoughts. In the next instant, she stared directly into Kyle's hazel eyes, "The girls were saying you must only like alone time with me 'cause it means we... we can sleep together..."

The last three syllables tip-toed off the end of her tongue with a mountain of trepidation. The precise moment that she finished her thought, Bebe felt her heart stop as the light immediately vanished from Kyle's eyes. His expression was blank for the shortest second before the harshest emotions of sadness and guilt filled his face. Bebe's stomach twisted up in knots as she cursed herself in her mind - completely regretting having mentioned any of her friends' stupid comments in the first place.

Just as the blonde girl desperately tried to form an apology in her head and release it from her lips, she felt herself grunt in sudden surprise as instead, Kyle simply tugged Bebe by the arm and pulled her into a tight, affectionate hug. A frown fell into her brow at first, but soon enough, as the teenage boy tightened his grip around his girlfriend, a relieved smile crossed Bebe and she nuzzled happily into Kyle's chest.

There was a serene quiet between them for a minute until Bebe heard Kyle sigh softly into her ear.

"You really think I would've waited around seven months if that was all I was interested in?"

Each of Bebe's features cringed in pure embarrassment as she groaned out loud at her own insecurities, "I'm sorry..." she murmured into Kyle's chest. She pulled back from his hug, gazing up at him, "Girls just have such an over-active, bitchy imagination, I shouldn't have listened to them, I - "

"It sounds like we both need to stop letting our friends dictate where we're going with this whole thing, hm?" he asked, sweetly cutting off her frazzled rambling. Tucking one of her gorgeous, blonde curls behind her ear, Kyle stared down at Bebe with a gentle frown, "You're still okay with all this, right?"

Bebe couldn't answer quick enough as she eagerly nodded her head and leant up on her toes, crashing her lips into Kyle's. The red-head laughed soflty against his girlfriend's mouth, kissing her back over and over again before they parted. There was a loving twinkle in Bebe's emerald green eyes as stared at Kyle through them.

"Completely," she assured him.

Kyle smirked, pecking at her once more, "Good."

An easing sigh dissolved into the air all around them as Bebe grasped at Kyle's side, hiding her face in his shoulder and shying away from his glance. She couldn't believe that she had actually let something so crazy and immature over shadow her better judgment and almost tear a hole right through her and Kyle. But the teenage boy didn't blame her - he couldn't.

As much time as Kyle and Bebe had spent with one another over the past seven months, and as many times as they had kissed each other and hooked up, things were still totally different now. Their connection may have had a powerful history, but their actual relationship was still incredibly fresh. And besides, Bebe hadn't been the only one who had screwed up that afternoon. Kyle still had a lot to learn, too.

The way they both saw it, if Stan and Wendy were still stumbling and falling out of step with one another every now and again after nine whole years - then Kyle and Bebe practically had a lifetime ahead of them to get things right.

"Well, lunch is almost over," Kyle spoke, checking the time on his phone. He wriggled out of Bebe's tight grip for a moment and turned back towards the guys to retrieve his school bag. Quickly after, he lead Bebe back over to he girls, snatching up her bag, too, and hanging it over his opposite shoulder, "Can I walk you to your next class?"

Ignoring the curious glances from her girlfriends, Bebe nodded her head, trying to shake it of its bashful, pink complexion. She didn't care how desperate the girls were to hear how her confrontation with Kyle had turned out - all that mattered to her right then and there how much of an effort he was already putting in to making everything up to her.

Picking up her binder from the picnic table, Bebe tucked it under one arm and then took her other hand in Kyle's. The spark of electricity between them was instant as she shot her pearly, white grin at him and felt herself melt as he smiled back. Neither of them were certain how many more days or months or even years together they had left ahead of them. But if they all turned out to be as blissfully sweet and perfect as this moment they found themselves in right now - Kyle and Bebe were both more than ready to find out.

Why hello and hooray - another chapter from me! :)

I would love to hear what you all thought here, especially considering (as you may have guessed from the chapter title) all that's left to do is tie up a few ends before the story is over. Whichhhh I can officially say, with slim regret, is only three chapters away!

What else could possibly happen from here? Let me know any predictions or thoughts or general comments, and I will see you all again soon! :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyy x