(A/n: Letting you know now that this is a filler chapter. Please enjoy)


Chapter 20: Distance

The sound of shoes squeaking and a bouncing ball assaults the clean vinyl flooring of the gym. Some others are sat on the bleachers chatting or either watching the ones on the court playing basketball. There are two teams consisting of six people, one of the teams' player has the ball and is making his way towards the basket.

"Kenny I'm open!"

Looking to see who said that, Kenny sees a brunette with dark blue eyes trailing behind him on his right gesturing for him to pass him the ball. Kenny shakes his head then nudges his head for the boy to look behind him, seeing that he is about to be surrounded by two others on the opposing side.

"I got this," Kenny tells him with a small smirk. He picks up his pace.

"Someone stop him!" Someone shouts.

"On it!"

Kenny quickly comes to a halt when another brunette suddenly appears in front of him, Kenny now on the free throw line. He glares at the male while dribbling the ball. "You're a damn cheater."

"I don't know what you're talkin' about," Clyde says with fake ignorance behind his smirk.

An hour has passed since fourth period started, only thirty-five minutes are left until it ends. "Get em Clyde!" Butters cheers from the bleachers.

Clyde winks at him making Kenny roll his eyes. Just when he decides to take that short opportunity to shoot the ball, a shrill sound of a whistle calls for everyone's attention. Walking from out of his office is Coach McCormick, releasing a big yawn he doesn't bother covering up as he scratches behind his head. "Alright ya'll gametime's over," he says lazily while fixing his cap, standing behind the black line of the court.

"Aww c'mon," the students whine. No one hasn't even scored a point yet.

"Yeah yeah whatever," Stuart grumbles as his students continue to complain about the abrupt stop of their game. "Neither of ya'll scored anything anyway, so quit whinin' and just sit on the bleachers until the period ends. I need to talk to Clyde and Butters about somethin'." He beckons Butters over with the wave of his hand.

As the students vacate from the court with the exception of Clyde and Butters, Kenny turns around and tosses the ball into the hoop with one hand before walking to the bleachers, not caring if he made it or not but it would've been cool if he did make the shot though. The brown haired boy that was on his team walks beside him. "Dude your dad's such a killjoy for that, you were so gonna make that shot."

Kenny shrugs in response. They grab their blazer and sit down, Kenny placing his jacket around his shoulders while the brunette sets his over his lap. "Hey Mark can I spend the night in your room again?" Kenny asks, looking at his father talking to Clyde and Butters. He could enhance his hearing to overhear what they're discussing, but for some reason he feels that he doesn't want to know, plus he can always ask his dad about it later if he wanted since he's so nosy.

Mark eyes him with a raised eyebrow for a moment, then follows his gaze. "Sure I don't mind, but are you still not getting along with Kyle and that Tweek guy?"

Kenny furrows his eyebrows as his lips go into a hard line, thinking back on when he saw Kyle and Tweek kissing in their room. When he saw such a scene, not only was he shocked, but he also felt a bit heartbroken. Seeing Kyle kissing another guy was something Kenny thought he would never see since the redhead never showed any interest in being in a relationship, let alone being intimate with anyone. Not even with Kenny which the blonde only did jokingly. And to make Kenny feel even more brokenhearted, Kyle seemed like he was enjoying it. Kenny remembers the relaxed face his friend made while locking lips with Tweek, but not the blood that was trailing down their chin.

"Kenny?" Said teen blinks back to reality at the call of his name, looking over to his side to see Mark giving him a look of concern. "You okay man?"

Kenny faces away with a sigh, slouching forward with his elbow on his leg followed by his cheek in his palm. "Yeah I'm fine."

Mark obviously appears that he doesn't buy it as he continues to stare at him, but when Kenny says nothing more he looks away. He hasn't known Kenny as long as Kyle has, and Kenny only comes to him whenever he isn't on good terms with the redhead, which is rare to say the least. They seldom fight or argue, but when they do it's mostly about how Kyle is keeping things bottled up again and never telling Kenny about them. That's all Mark knows since Kenny doesn't go too deep into the issue between them, and it kind of irritates him, thinking that Kenny doesn't trust him enough to spill private matters to him. Thinking that he is just an outsider that Kenny can rely on to a small degree.

RIIIIIIING~

Kenny gets up as do the other students that were still sitting down, he looks to Mark when he notices the other boy still sitting and looking off into space with a sort of troubled yet angry gaze. Kenny frowns in confusion, and waves a hand in front of his face for his attention. The brunette blinks with a jolt, then looks at Kenny who's pulling his hand away. "Are you okay?" He questions.

Standing up and slinging his blazer over his shoulder, Mark laughs off his question. "Of course I am. C'mon, let's hit up the cafeteria before we head to my room." He walks down the bleachers, Kenny eying him for a brief moment before following after him. Stuart, Clyde, and Butters are walking to the man's office, seemingly still going to continuing their talk.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kenny asks again once they're out in the hallway. "You know you can always talk to me if somethin's botherin' you, it's the least I could do since-"

"I'm fine," Mark interrupts in a monotone. He forces up a small smile in Kenny's direction. "Honest, there's nothing bothering me." He looks away maintaining his forced smile. "Plus this isn't about me."

Kenny presses his lips tightly together as he looks down at the floor. Does Mark not trust him either? First it was Kyle, a friend he's known since childhood and now it's Mark, another friend he's known since his sophomore year. Just what is it about Kenny that makes people not tell him anything? Especially when it's obvious something is troubling them? He doesn't push, but when his own friends don't trust him...

It's thoughts like these that get to Kenny, making him think that people don't see him as trustworthy enough. But why is that though he wonders. Out of all the people here in this school, Kenny believes he is the most trustful. He can keep secrets. If someone tells him not to tell a soul he wouldn't do it, even if threatened. Kenny always keeps his word.

The two of them reach the cafeteria after a minute and go in. It doesn't take them long to grab a snack and eat at a table, although Kenny isn't in the mood to eat anything. Both he and Mark chat for a few with Pip and his friends once the British teen spotted Kenny and joined them at the table. Every single day once school is over Pip and his group always go straight to the cafeteria, almost everyone sees them here and they're bound have a nickname too since they're well known.

Kenny and Mark announce their leave and bid the four of them goodbye. "Never knew we had food fanatics here and that you're friends with one," Mark says lightheartedly once they're out in the hallway.

"Me neither," Kenny chuckles. It seems talking to Pip and his friends lightened the mood around him and Mark, which is good because being moody isn't Kenny's forte.

After a minutes walk they reach Mark's room. He is the only one that has a room to himself, however just like everyone else he did have roommates. They were Eric Cartman and Kevin McCormick. Kenny doesn't know the reason why Cartman is no longer in this room, but it's a good thing since the teen is nothing but a troublemaker and he doesn't want Mark around an asshole like him. As for his brother Kevin, he just moved himself to another room, one that was closer to the courtyard so he can smoke there in peace. It's a surprise Mark hasn't complained about being lonely ever since then, and Kenny assumes that he's been suppressing it to tell anyone.

Kenny quickly shakes his head to erase the thought. If there are things his friends don't want to tell him, then he isn't going to dwell on it nor push them for it. Not everything needs to be said aloud and he knows this, but it's still hurtful to be left in the dark when the person you care about is struggling by themself and they won't tell you.

Mark opens the door and they walk in, Mark flipping the light switch on instead of the lamp. Kenny shrugs his jacket off on the bed and takes off his shoes, Mark doing the same on the bed next to Kenny's. At first the two extra beds in here had no purpose, at the time the Principal was searching for people to bunk with Mark, but no one volunteered. Most didn't want to leave the comfort of his own room although all of the rooms looked the same. That is until Kenny found out, and invited himself and Kyle over. The three of them would sometimes hang out in here, but slowly became less frequent when Kyle became the President of the Student Council. He tried getting Kenny and Mark to join, but they declined saying that they didn't want to do whatever students do in the Student Council. Since then it's just been Kenny and Mark with Kyle seldom joining them whenever he had time.

"Soooo," Mark says breaking the silence.

Kenny lies down placing his hands behind his head. "I dunno, but what I do know is that we need freakin' t.v's in our room. There ain't shit to do in them, and it makes me wonder how the hell you can stand being in here by yourself."

Chuckling, Mark lays down as well with one arm over his stomach and the other behind his head. "I dunno either, but somehow I manage without dying of boredom. You think Kyle can hook us with some t.v's? I'm sure he'll do it if it's you asking him."

Kenny frowns. "He isn't the President anymore, Token's taken his place for awhile."

Mark shoots up into a sitting position at that, looking at Kenny in great shock. "No way for real?! What the hell did he do to get replaced all of a sudden? And why are you just now telling me this?"

Kenny sighs deeply. He knows he's in the wrong for not telling Mark beforehand but he didn't know about it himself until a few days after it had happened, he was just as surprised as Mark is right now. "I don't know how it happened, Kyle won't tell me. He didn't even tell me that he had gotten replaced, I had to hear it from some of the members in the committee and that was like three days after. I'm sorry for not telling you earlier." The part about him not knowing the reason was a lie, Kenny knows without a hunch the purpose of Kyle stepping down from President and it's something he can't tell the other. Or anyone for that matter.

Mark scowls at him, looking deeply hurt that he wasn't told of this until now. He looks away with a huff, staring down at his feet. "It's fine, at least you told me now instead of not telling me."

Kenny hums and says nothing more, allowing the room to fall back into silence. But it is quickly broken by a question from Mark.

"When are you gonna patch things up with Kyle?" He didn't look at Kenny when he asked this, he found the carpet and his feet more interesting to look at.

Kenny doesn't reply right away, thinking when are they actually going to be back on friendly terms again. He and Kyle are both stubborn, but Kyle has it worser than Kenny and he might drag this on longer than it needs to. "I honestly have no idea. With the way he's acting we might be like this for awhile."

Mark shakes his head. "You two are hopeless."

"Kyle's the one bein' difficult, always keepin' shit to himself," Kenny grumbles, getting upset. "Whenever I ask him what's wrong he never tells me, you can't say that I'm not tryin'. He just doesn't open up to me." What really pisses him off is that Kyle didn't tell him about Luke, instead he had to find out on his own and many other things that day when Tweek was turned into a vampire. He didn't figure Kyle's twin brother was inside of him and a bad person to boot, he nearly lost his shit when Luke suggested that he might have been the one who harmed his little sister that night. The bastard almost killed her!

"What else is bothering you dude? You look like you're ready kill someone right now."

Kenny closes his eyes with a sigh, feeling a headache coming forth. He turns over on his side, away from Mark. "It's nothin'. I'm gonna take a nap."

"Tch, asshole," he hears his friend mutter under his breath, and Kenny can't help but think that he is since just like himself, Mark is being left in the dark as well.

(A/n: I hope you enjoyed and the next chapter will be up soon)