Stan's POV
"Are you sure, Kenny?" I ask Kenny. I don't have any classes this morning and all I have is a radio session this afternoon. I stop by Harbucks to get my daily cup of espresso and hear about Z after Kenny took over.
"Yeah, I didn't see a kid with black hair or anyone there really." He says as he hands a cup of iced coffee. "All I saw was a bunch of 20s on the bench with a pair of shoes and a pack of opened tissues."
That's weird, was Z mad at me for choosing Kyle? I hope not. Speaking of Kyle, I have to talk to him. I think I might have overdone it last night since Kyle was already gone before I even woke up. All that's left was his phone with its battery dead, I wonder how it got there. I'll have to give it back to him when he gets home.
I suddenly hear someone gasping behind me, "Holy shit, they weren't lying."
I turn back to see Sue and Charlie at the door, both of them looking at Kenny. Makes sense seeing how I mostly made it out with a few bruises on my body while Kenny has a one forming just below his eye.
Charlie snaps out of her shock, switching into concern as Sue starts, "Rumors around campus is that you guys got into a fight with Jake's guys."
"Yeah, stupid dumbasses." Kenny then smiles triumphantly. "We put them in their place though."
"How did it even happen?"
"Those assholes came at us first, we were just enjoying the night and they came picking a fight with Tweek because he apparently stole 'Jake's girl'."
Sue looks taken back before her face flickers into realization and anger. I, being the thickheaded idiot asks her softly, "Since when did you start dating Jake?"
"I didn't." She says with her jaws and fist clenched. "Thanks Kenny, I'll see ya later."
With that, Sue stomps out of the café. It's uncommon to see her stressed out and it's even rarer to see Sue furious. I do not want to be near her now, nor do I want to imagine what will happen to whoever crosses her today. I stop thinking about her as I hear Charlie talking to Kenny.
"Are you guys OK?" She asks with a gentle, caring voice. "Sue called me and said you guys got into a fight, I got here as fast as I could after the bell rang." Even though she said 'you guys', I know her question is more directed towards Kenny. Her eyes haven't left him since she entered.
"Don't worry, princess." Kenny responds with a smug look. "We're from South Park. We can hold our own."
"Clearly." She rolls her eyes. "I'm more worried how it happened."
"Again, we South Park folk have our ways of attracting trouble." He shrugs. I have to say, he's not wrong.
"Whatever, I'm just glad I'm visiting you at work and not at the station."
"You wouldn't be the first girl paying my bail."
"But you know I would if I could, hotshot."
I just stand there in silence as they keeping talking, seemingly lost in their own world. Man, those two are flirting like crazy now. I bet they've even forgotten that I'm here.
I clear my throat and break up the little 'lover's spat', Kenny shoots a glare at me for ruining their moment. "So where have you been?" I ask Charlie. "Haven't heard much from you since you went with Francisca."
"High school." She replies with a groan. "You know I forgot about how boring it is to spend 8 hours of your life in a classroom listening to someone can be. Almost makes me wish I was still on the run, almost."
"Be thankful at least you didn't have our teachers." Kenny points out. "Mr Garrison and Mackey were so shit, man."
"Kyle told me about Garrison. I think he said he was an 'unqualified manwhore who probably has poor Lemmiwinks stuck up his ass'. I'm quoting him here." She says with a playful laugh and a shrug.
Kenny and I chuckle at the statement. Yeah, that sounds like Kyle, alright.
We keep joking and laughing, much to the annoyance of the customers and Kenny's manager. Obviously he didn't really care but he goes back to making coffee to keep his job.
"Kenny's gonna get himself fired one day if he keeps this up." Charlie giggles as she watches Kenny brew his next order.
"You know you care a lot about Kenny." I say knowingly with a raised eyebrow.
Charlie catches on to what I'm implying and she responds almost defensively, "I care about Kyle too. You guys are like, my heroes. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."
She says with admiration and I don't doubt that for a second but that's not the answer I'm looking for.
"Yeah, Kenny isn't the only one good at reading people." I take a sip of my espresso. "I can tell that the way you care about him is way different than the way you care about the rest of us."
My words leave her speechless. Her face glowing pink and her mouth gapping like a fish, trying to come up with some kind of denial or rebuttal. I feel bad for calling her out like that.
"You don't have to say anything, kid." I mock-zipped my lips. "These lips are sealed."
She smiles a bit with the reassurance but immediately her face drops into troubled confusion. She sighs as she asks, "Is it weird that I have feelings for someone I only met a few months ago? I mean, I know I adore Kenny, I like how reliable he is and how protective he can be, especially after hearing what he does for his little sister. But I don't know if it's love or if I'm even ready to fall in love again."
Hearing Charlie say this reminds me of what Kyle told me last night, so I give her the same response. "Then just think about how you're feeling and what you want to do next. There aren't many wrong answers when it comes to these things."
"What do I do when I figure them out?" She looks at me, hoping for some kind of guidance.
"Just follow your gut, kid." I reply. "But if you want advice on how to get Kenny, you better go talk to Kyle or Tweek. They've known him longer than I have."
She sits quietly, taking it in before nodding with a hint of determination. "Ok, thanks Stan."
Suddenly, I notice a familiar blonde coming into the store, I greet her with a slight wave.
"Hey Bebe." I greet her, catching her attention. She walks over to me and Charlie.
"Hi Stan, didn't expect to see you here." She says half-heartedly, her eyes darting around the area.
"You here for some coffee?"
"No, umm…" She's now actively looking around, frantically searching for something. "I'm looking for someone. Have you seen Kenny?"
"Yeah, he-" I start as I point to the counter he works at, only to notice that there is no one there, "-was just here…" I trail off, confused. Where did he go? I turn back to Bebe and ask, "What do you need to tell him?"
"I need- it has to-" She stutters nervously, her fingers twitching with anxiety from explaining herself. She calms herself down a little bit before continuing, "I have something I need to talk to him about, and it has to be face-to-face."
Charlie stands up, surprising me and Bebe. "I'll look for him."
"Thanks, uhh…" Bebe trails off, she probably doesn't know about Charlie. Bebe looks at me, begging me to help her.
"Charlie." She introduces herself.
"Oh right, you're that kid Kyle saved."
"Thanks, nice to know that's the only thing people know me for." Charlie says sarcastically before going under the counter. Clearly she doesn't give a shit.
"So where's Clyde? Did you come here alone?" I ask Bebe, looking over her shoulder for her boyfriend.
"Clyde's at work, I asked Cartman to drive me here." She answers, keeping her eyes now glued to her phone.
Cartman's here? Hearing that name just reignites some of that residue rage, part from the affair and the other being what he did to Kyle in Middle school. I stand up with my jaw clenched.
"Wait here for Charlie, I'll be right back." I say with a flat tone before marching outside to confront the fatass that was once one of my best friends.
Cartman is leaning up against his car, on his phone, probably texting Wendy or something. He looks up from his phone, probably expecting Bebe to come out, and his face pales when he sees me coming over to him. I don't even give him a chance before throwing a punch straight to his face.
"That's for fucking Wendy behind my back." I growl.
Cartman falters before regaining his balance, he touches his left cheek where my fist collided with his face. It'll probably leave a nice bruise. "Ok… Fine I deserve that." He groans.
"I'm surprised you could feel remorse, you fat fuck." I scoff at him.
"Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if it weren't for two reasons." He tells me, with no regret in his voice. "One, you're my moneymaker. I'm still your manager and we need to work together, something you obviously don't see, seeing the calls I've gotten from our usuals."
After Cartman betrayed me, I made sure to ask my prospectors to call me directly when it comes to gigs and opportunities.
"You're surprised I did that? You're lucky I didn't do this years ago."
He's clearly furious about what I said but he pushes his anger down and continues, "Secondly, I did it for them."
"Them?" I raise an eyebrow.
"The two important women in my life, Wendy and your mom, Sharon." He explains. "Believe it or not, I do feel things and I feel nothing but gratitude for what Sharon did for me after my mam ditched me. Sharon took me in like I wass her own child, it wasn't much but it gave me a better sense of family than my own did." He says earnestly. I can tell because I could even feel it, he's not lying. "Wendy and Sharon wouldn't want you to end up broken again because of my love for Wendy, so I did my best to make sure you wouldn't fall apart again by sending you to the one person who can do that."
"So that's why you got me to move in with Kyle." Now everything makes sense. I should have known that Cartman would never help me just for the sake of it.
"I don't expect you to forgive me, but I do hope you go see Sharon again. You've been visiting her less and I can tell she misses you."
"I wonder why." I scoff. I feel bad for mom because it's not really because of her but Cartman and Shelly. I should at least go back to my usual visiting schedule. "Fine, I promise."
We've come to a mutual silent truce, I don't know when I can forgive him and Wendy but I don't hate his guts. All of rage left that mark on his left cheek. Before I go back inside, I turn back to him
"Also." I throw another punch, just as powerful as the last one, onto his right side this time. "That one's for Kyle."
Kenny's POV
"Kenny?" I hear Charlie's voice. What's she doing here?
"Charlie!" I exclaim, turning to her, trying to act like I wasn't trying to hide from my ex-girlfriend in the storage room. "What's up?"
"What are you doing in here? There's a girl named Bebe outside looking for you." She asks with her arms folded. Something on my face must have shown anxiety and rage when she mentions Bebe because she drops her arms and asks me, "Is something wrong?"
"I'm fine, it's just I don't know if I can face her right now." Not without losing my job or scaring Charlie.
"Should I just get rid of her? I could if it'll help." She asks me innocently. I would laugh at her proposition if she wasn't being serious.
"You don't know her, Bebe Stevens won't stop until she gets what she came here for." I pinch the bridge of my nose in annoyance, Christ I need to stop hanging around Stan so much. "Tell her to come back after I close shop, 5 pm."
Thankfully, Charlie seems to get that I don't want talk about Bebe right now and just does what I ask. She comes back in after delivering the message. She warns me that Bebe is still outside.
Charlie sits down on the floor, next to me, "Kenny, who is that girl?"
"Someone I used to date." I answer flatly.
"Oh…"
"Look Charlie, there was just some stuff that happened and I'm not sure if I could face her while I still need Harbuck's paycheck."
"It's fine. You don't have to tell me. I get having some stuff you don't feel comfortable sharing."
"No, I just… I don't know how to tell you."
"Kenny," She places her hand on my shoulder, comforting and reassuring me with that sweet smile of hers. "it's fine."
"So how has school been? Any dickheads messing with you?"
"I'm fine… There will always be those guys, especially after telling my story to all of fucking Colorado. Got a new nickname too, 'Popper'." I feel my anger grow towards those people, her aunt has diagnosed that Charlie has depression and PTSD from what happened with her family, luckily her depression can be controlled with some anti-depressants.
"But there are people helping me, I even have a few girl friends to watch my back." She continues, her voice filled with joy and hope.
I hate asking her this but I need to know. "Have you thought about what you're gonna do about your family?"
She closes her eyes and sighs, she answers with a tired tone, "I want them out of my life but Francine said that as long as I'm a minor, I don't really have much of a say in the matter. They're still my legal guardians, I could file for emancipation but luckily I haven't heard from them yet so maybe they just decided to leave me the fuck alone."
"Charlie, why not just report your family?" I ask her cautiously. It seems like the obvious answer. If she did that, she'd be free and she'll just the justice she deserves.
"Call it cowardice or empathy, I just don't want to deal with them anymore. But they're still my family, I hate their guts and I want nothing to do with them but in the end, I am still a Baxton, their blood runs in my veins." She says with a grim tone. "So call it an unofficial truce, if they don't come back to fuck with my life, we'll go our separate ways but the minute they pull anything, I'll call 911 in a heartbeat this time."
For her sake, I really hope they don't come back. She's been through so much within such a short time. I go back out to notice that Stan walking back in, looking a little roughed up. When I ask him about it, he tells me not to worry about it. He just went to 'talk' to Cartman. I don't know what he did to piss Stan off and I don't know if it had anything to do with our plan to get Stan and Kyle's friendship fixed. I decide not to question him and let it at that.
It's one hour to closing time and Tweek hasn't come into work today, I didn't even get a phone call, which has me really concerned. I hope he's OK. Maybe whoever Jake is might be giving him a hard time. Tweek's strong but he really doesn't know how to fight back. He only does it to protect me or Kyle, maybe even Sue now.
It makes me happy that Sue is so accepting of Tweek's anxiety, a lot of the girls he's met couldn't really deal with him and he's been shut down so many times because of it. But if Sue really is dating someone else, poor Tweek is gonna have his heart broken.
5 o'clock comes around and like clockwork, Bebe arrives at the door. The shop is really much empty by now so we both take a seat. "Hello, Kenny."
"Bebe." I greet her, then look around for her 'boy-toy'. "No Clyde?"
"No, Kenny. I wanted to talk to you and Clyde doesn't have anything to do with this."
"Is there anything left to talk about?" I ask her cynically.
"Yes, I do have things I need to say and you're not making it easier. I feel awful about how we left things."
"I wonder why." I scoff, I don't care if I'm acting like a dick right now. She knows what she did.
"Kenny McCormick, how dare you!" She stops herself before raising her voice any higher. "I'm not here to get into a fight about it. Clyde said we might need closure for what happened and I somewhat agree. I can't get you out of my mind."
"You had your chance at high school. Besides, you're with Clyde now. Unless you want to go back to your 'blonde slut' phase?" I say mockingly.
"You know what I mean. I may not love you anymore but that doesn't mean I'm not worried about you. I know my decision hurt you but it wasn't yours to make."
"You didn't even give me a choice!" I slam my hands onto the poor table. "I know I treat death like nothing but that doesn't mean you can do that to-"
"STOP!" She yells, cutting me off before she continues in a burned-out yet pleading tone. "Kenny, you know why I had to. I have my dreams, I wanted to go to college, and I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to prove that I'm not some dumb blonde stereotype. I can't really do that as Mrs. McCormick."
"Could've fooled me." I look away with my arms folded against my chest.
"This isn't going anywhere, I'll come back when you can act like an adult."
She storms out of the café, leaving me frustrated and upset. I sit down at one of the tables and shut myself out from the world.
My mind is brought back when I hear the sound of a cup placed in front of me, I see a red cup of coffee and Charlie with another cup in her hand.
"Americano, I hope you don't mind."
I take a sip of the coffee she made, it's not half bad. "I didn't know you knew how to make coffee with these machines, princess."
"You try living with a workaholic psychiatrist, this is her favorite."
"That could be Kyle in a few years." I chuckle at the thought, before asking her, "What are you doing here, Charlie?"
"Moral support." She answers straightforwardly. "The way you talked about Bebe didn't spell for many positive outcomes and…" She puts her cup down before saying with worry laced all over her voice, "from what I heard when I walked over here, it sounds about right."
I put my head down onto the table and groan. Great, the girl I have feelings for had just heard me fight with my ex. "Christ, how much did you hear?"
"Just the bit at the end."
I pull my head back up and sigh. "I guess I owe you an explanation."
"Kenny, you don't owe me anything."
"I do want you to know though." I take a breath before saying with as much feeling as I can muster, "Charlie, these past few months you've been gone I've felt something I haven't felt for someone for a long time, yearning. I was longing to see you again. I didn't even recognize this feeling until Tweek called it out and when you came in earlier today, you have no idea how happy I felt. I want a chance to be with you but I think you deserve to know everything about me before you make this decision."
"Bebe, she was my ex-girlfriend from high school." I start. "Kyle probably told you by now that I'm a self-proclaimed whore so when Bebe wanted to be fuck buddies, I jumped at the offer. It was supposed to just that, sex and no strings attached. But soon we became a real couple, things were pretty good. That was until senior year, Bebe asked me about my future and I told her that I'd probably just get out of South Park with her and the guys and find a job. I didn't really care much for college and it wasn't like I had the money for it. She yelled at me for not thinking about our future and that she didn't want to end up that way too. When I asked her what she meant, she pulled out a bunch of stuff, college pamphlets from schools I knew she was considering… and a pregnancy test. Positive. I just looked at her then hugged her as she started crying. She was scared out of her mind and I was shocked too, but I wasn't gonna abandon her. So I told her that I'd take care of the both of them. I wanted to make sure that this kid wasn't gonna have the rough childhood I had." I feel my heart tighten at the memory. "But I never got the chance."
Charlie stays silent as I tell my story, her face blank and free from emotion, making it hard to tell what she's thinking, "After 5 months, I noticed that Bebe hasn't changed at all. I asked her how the baby was doing and she just told me it's gone… At first I thought she had a miscarriage so I started freaking out, wanting to take her to the hospital and make sure she's alright. But she confessed to me, she had an abortion. She didn't want to give up on her dreams so she gave up our child. I was so mad then. I called her a murderer and a monster."
I take another sip of Americano to calm my nerves. "I knew I went too far but I never took it back. I resent her so much for what she did, I thought my love was enough to convince her that we'd still be happy despite everything we would have to forgo. But it wasn't, so I made sure to cut every thread I could find with the people I sleep with. I'd never think of kissing anyone or hold them in my arms."
I look up into her eyes and place my hand over hers. "You were the first person I felt something for since, your smile lights me up and I love your sweet chocolate eyes. You're strong, fun and inhumanely amazing. I fight the urges to even touch your face because you're just this beautiful treasure that I want to keep from the world. I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend on the spot, but I hope you consider me an option."
Charlie pulls me up from my seat and into her arms, hugging me as I listen to her soothing voice, "Kenny, I'm sorry that Bebe did that to you and it hurts knowing how much you're suffering without mentioning it to me or Kyle or anyone."
"Kyle and Tweek know, they were there. They helped me through my grief. But I doubt Stan knows, Bebe wouldn't share this story around."
She pulls back from the hug a little, just enough for her to see my face."Anyways, I'd be lying if I didn't think the same about you. So let's just see how this'll play out."
My eyes widen at her words. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I cock my head a little and ask,"Which means…?"
She just smiles as she pulls away from the hug. "Meet me at the cinema this Saturday, we're going to see Split. The gentleman pays for the snacks." She teases playfully with a wink.
I don't know what she's making me feel now, but goddamn am I addicted to it.
A/N: Young love, how precious~ But yeah, Kenny and Charlie are acting on their feelings way faster than any of the other guys. That's what happens when you have two reckless young adults in love with each other, but they don't know that yet c; This chapter is the longest one I uploaded to date and I think I might start writing longer ones to push the stories on a little faster. Next time, we follow Kyle as we see his side of the day.
This was one of the few that took me a while to write, I found two songs to listen to while writing this,
The Bebe and Kenny scene is Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer: watch?v=9u3y5fmoAvA
Charlie and Kenny's would be Young Love by JEdward: watch?v=fKmI3BDs_KQ
Yay for 5000 views and over 30 review, thanks so much for all the support you guys give for this. I'm so glad that you guys like it so much. c:
As always, feel free to check out the drama this story is based on, "It's Okay That's Love" by SBS.
Take care and happy spring break (for all the students), Loves.