Mended Hearts.

Chapter XV.

Wendy woke up feeling like shit.

Wholeheartedly like shit.

After one hell of an upsetting conversation she had with Jenny and Lola the day prior, and finding out that David actually went out of line and told all of his friends about what he had attempted to do to her at Clyde's party a couple of weeks ago, the teenage girl had also managed to find out that her boyfriend had also said some very shitty things about her in the group chat afterwards – inadvertently making things between him and his probable soon-to-be ex-girlfriend worse about tenfold.

Wendy never in a million years thought that David would go to such lengths to make her feel so fucking worthless and actually attempt to do something that she clearly still hadn't been comfortable with, despite telling him the exact same thing several times already and pleading with him to stop with his advances.

Jenny and Lola, despite not really being in Wendy's good graces after their confrontation, had somewhat managed to make up for their mistakes and had informed her about the infamous group chat they were both a part of, showing all of David's messages that lined up perfectly with the aftermath of Saturday's party.

And to make things just a little bit worse, one of David's ex-girlfriends had actually slid into Wendy's DMs and told her about him doing the exact same thing to her and making her feel incredibly shitty as a result of it, which only gave the ravenette even more momentum to dump his sorry ass.

In hindsight, Wendy thought she honestly should've realized the red flags prior – starting with the fact that David had also gotten incredibly touchy-feely with her prior to him leaving for Austin, attempting to grope her whenever they were in such a public setting like school hallway or the school courtyard.

She just wasn't sure how to approach the whole situation, and still had some lingering doubts about the veracity of the messages David's ex-girlfriend had sent to her, but came to a realization that having a relationship with someone as sleazy as David just wasn't worth having anymore, so she decided to confront him and end things between them once and for all.

Wendy groaned at the prospect of even having to talk to David again after avoiding him for nearly two and a half weeks straight, but realized it was definitely the best possible option going forward.

After finally deciding that it was time to get out of her warm and toasty bed, the raven haired girl did her usual morning routine – taking a shower, getting dressed, applying a light amount of makeup in order not to look like a walking dead, and grabbing her backpack, before shutting the bedroom door behind her and walking down the stairs towards the living room area of the Testaburger residence.

Once she walked around the corner and entered the kitchen, Wendy was a bit surprised to see no one in there, since she usually ate breakfast alongside either one of her parents and would often leave the house at around the same time as them.

She just wasn't sure if both of her parents had gone off to work earlier than usual, or whether they both had a rare instance of having a day off together and decided to sleep for a bit longer than they usually got to.

Shrugging her shoulders, Wendy walked up to the kitchen island and sat her backpack and coat down onto one of the other stools, glancing around for a bit and thinking about what was she going to eat – although she knew that she wouldn't stray away from making herself a simple piece of buttered toast, which was what she typically ate for breakfast.

After making herself some breakfast and a warm cup of tea to go alongside it, Wendy ate in a surprisingly pleasant silence, occasionally scrolling through social media apps on her phone or checking out if there was anything remotely interesting to watch on YouTube before she would have to leave for school.

And just as she finished her breakfast and placed the dishes inside the kitchen sink, she noticed a sticky note on the fridge door, which raised her curiosity and made her walk closer in order to inspect what was written on the tiny piece of colorful paper.

Had to leave for work earlier, love you xo

– Mom

Chewing down on her bottom lip, Wendy could vaguely remember that her parents had gotten into yet another argument last night, with her mother storming up to their bedroom and her father driving off somewhere – as that had unfortunately been a regular thing ever since the Testaburgers got back from their holiday visit to Tampa, often souring what had usually been a very pleasant atmosphere in their household.

Letting out a sad sigh, Wendy wasn't sure if she could also deal with her parents' constant verbal arguments and passive-aggressive outbursts towards each other on top of everything she had already been dealing with.

She just hoped things between her parents would eventually get back to normal and resolve on their own.

Well, hopefully.

The rest of the morning seemed to drag on endlessly for Wendy, since she had mostly been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation with her boyfriend and convince him to go with her somewhere they could be completely on their own – but even more importantly, to inform him about the decision she had made regarding the future of their relationship.

She hated the fact that she would have to waste her free period doing this, but she knew she just had to do it for the sake of herself and her self-worth.

After she shut her locker and started walking in the direction of the school library, Wendy spotted David standing on the opposite end of the hallway, right beside his own locker and completely unaware of the fact that his girlfriend was about to finally acknowledge his existence after ignoring him for what had been nearly three weeks at this point.

Maintaining a neutral facial expression, Wendy took a deep breath and started to gather her thoughts as she made her way over to David, thinking about the best possible way to approach the whole situation and not making it any worse than it had already been.

''Hey David.''

Turning around on the spot, David widened his hazel eyes in more than a pleasant surprise due to Wendy finally speaking to him after what had supposedly been very difficult two and a half weeks for him. He smiled softly at her, stepping a bit closer to her in an attempt to smother her in hugs and kisses, as well as supposedly thinking that his girlfriend had managed to already get over everything and was now willing to reconcile with him.

''Hey baby! You're not mad at me any – ''

"Don't call me 'baby', you idiot.", Wendy said with a surprisingly calm tone in her voice as she took a step back from David, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a rather unimpressed look.

The teenage girl was sure he could tell that her calm and cool demeanor was all just a facade and that beneath it she was really furious and disappointed with him, especially when it came to David acting like a two-faced asswipe – acting all mopey and upset on one side, but also not shying away from talking shit behind her back on the flip side.

''We have to talk.''

''Talk about what?'', David asked as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, puzzled by his girlfriend's sudden mood change and the fact that she had seemed to be less than thrilled to see him again.

''Oh please, don't pretend like you don't know what exactly I wanna' talk about.''

Knowing that she was about to bring up his actions from Clyde's party, David decided to come up with a quick excuse and hopefully get himself out of this whole messy situation and avoid talking about it at all costs.

''Wends, I have to get to my next class.'', the brunette boy explained. ''Can we maybe do it after?''

''Oh, don't you worry. I'm not going to waste a lot of your precious time.'', Wendy said sarcastically as she suddenly took David by his hand and walked them over to a more secluded part of the hallway, before checking once more to see if the coast was truly clear and that there weren't a lot of students near them and potentially listening to their conversation.

''So, what did you wanna' talk about?'', he asked once they were alone.

"Why the hell did I overhear Jenny and Lola talking about you complaining to your entire group of friends that I didn't allow you to have sex with me during Clyde's party?'', the dark haired girl said said through gritted teeth, cutting right to the chase and giving her boyfriend one of her signature death glares. ''Or did I hear something wrong?''

Taken aback by the bluntness in Wendy's voice and realizing that she must've caught onto everything he had done in the aftermath of the party, David decided to act dumb and hopefully convince his girlfriend that she'd probably heard something entirely different.

He just couldn't believe that she had the balls to confront him about what he had done to her, as he thought she would simply forget about everything and let things get resolved on their own.

"Babe, that's not what I told them.", David said defensively. "I think you must've heard something wrong. And besides, where did you even hear those things?''

Wendy rolled her eyes in sheer frustration over what she was hearing, having absolutely none of it and not even attempting to let her boyfriend come up with a counterargument, because she could clearly tell he was trying to manipulate her and convince her that she either must've probably heard something entirely different or was dumb enough to think he would even attempt to talk shit about her.

"Do you honestly think I'm stupid or something? I know what I heard, and I heard it very clearly in fact.", Wendy snapped back, trying not to raise her voice too much. "Jenny and Lola both admitted that it was true! They even went as far as to show me the screenshots of your group chat!''

''How do you know that it was them?''

"Lola is dating Matt, one of your best friends!"

"But still – "

"I don't care! What you did to me was horrible in itself, but I can't believe you went several steps too far.", the teenage girl said, voice cracking over what she was about to say next.

"Is getting laid all you care for in life?"

''Wendy, I – ''

"Again, I don't give a fuck about your lame excuses! The fact is that I trusted you with keeping what we do in our alone time a secret! You're my boyfriend, for fucks' sake! You were supposed to keep our intimacy private, and not babble it out to your entire group of friends. It's certainly no one's business what you and I get to do inside four walls.", Wendy cut David off again, narrowing her eyes at him. "And not to mention that you went behind my back and told your friends what you wanted to do with me. I've never pictured you for someone who would stoop so fucking low."

''And that's not even the worst thing you did.'', the ravenette said, forcing down a sob and wiping away a solitary tear that had rolled down her cheek.

"I can handle people talking shit about me, but when it's related to something that is so personal, well, it's not like I'm just gonna' do nothing about it and keep my mouth shut.", she continued further. "And it especially hurts knowing that my own fucking boyfriend went behind my back and said some pretty nasty shit about me!"

"It was a genuine mistake. I'm sorry, okay?", David responded. "I know I shouldn't have done anything bad to you, and probably should've listened to you beforehand.''

''Probably?'', Wendy responded cynically, not really believing what her boyfriend had just said. ''You should've totally listened to me when I told you I'm not comfortable with you touching me against my consent!''

''It was a heat of the moment thing, and I didn't really think about the impact those things I'd said and done would have."

''And calling me 'a dumb fucking bitch for not wanting to fuck you' was heat of the moment thing too?''

''Again, I'm sorry – ''

"Are you genuinely sorry, or are you sorry for being caught?"

David rolled his eyes.

Wendy still couldn't believe that the brunette teenager had been so nonchalant and ignorant of his actions, but a simple, yet pathetic roll of his eyes was all she needed to figure out if her boyfriend truly understood the gravity of his actions and whether he actually had some remorse about it.

"Thought so."

"Wends, I – "

"I'm done with you, okay? Don't you even dare trying to talk to me, or contact me ever again. I'm done with your bullshitting and lame excuses for spilling out something so personal, and not to mention going overboard with something I clearly haven't been comfortable yet. And you talking shit behind my back was only the cherry on top of a pretty crappy cake.", Wendy gave him one more death glare, before turning around on the spot and storming off in the direction of the school library in order to spend the rest of her now shortened free block there. "Just go fuck yourself."

But if Wendy thought her day couldn't have already started on a worse note possible, she wasn't ready for what was about to come next.

Gripping the straps of her backpack and stopping in her tracks for a brief moment, the teenage girl breathed in deeply and tried to calm herself down after ending her relationship with David, but almost got a mini heart attack as she felt her phone vibrating in her jeans' pocket.

Pulling out the small device and reading the caller ID, Wendy was a bit weirded out by her mother calling her right when she was about to go to the library and prepare for the next class, but decided to accept the call anyway.

"Hey mom.", she answered. ''What's up?''

''Sweetie…'', Vanessa said on the other end of the line. ''I got a call from Hell's Pass Hospital.''

Wendy was definitely caught off guard by her mother's shaky tone of voice, and could hear her sobbing and sniffling to herself, which caused the noirette to start feeling concerned and thinking whether something had gone awry.

"What? Did something bad happen?"

"It's about your dad."

''What about him?'', Wendy asked with growing concern in her voice, sitting down on one of the benches that happened to be in close proximity. She clacked her fingertips nervously against the wooden material and chewed down on her bottom lip nervously, hoping to find out what exactly had happened to her dad.

"His car was found in a ditch on the highway towards Denver, and he sustained some injuries.'', Vanessa explained. ''They had to perform some sort of an emergency surgery on him, but luckily, the doctors said that he's been in a stable condition.''

''What?!'', the ravenette replied, ignoring the curious stares she'd received from students passing by. ''Do you know if he'll be okay?''

''Wendy, sweetie, I arrived at the hospital not even half an hour ago. They called me from the hospital right when I was on my lunch break, so I rushed here as fast as I could. They didn't allow me to see dad, so they told me to wait until the doctors show up and inform me about his condition further. I even don't know for long I'll have to wait, but I'll fill you in as soon as doctors tell me the news.''

"Well, what about visits then?", Wendy inquired. ''You know that I can get dismissed from school because this is a family emergency.''

''Sweetie, even if you get dismissed from school today, it wouldn't really be worth getting one, because visits won't be allowed for some time.''

"I haven't received any news about your dad's current condition and visits, but we probably won't be able to visit him at least for the next few days. Well, at least until the doctors do their assessment and decide if he will be in a good enough condition to have people over.", her mother continued. ''The only news I've received was that he got rushed to the hospital and had to go through an emergency surgery. He was actually pretty lucky not to get more severe injuries.''

''Oh, okay then. I guess that's a bit more comforting to hear.''

''He'll pull through for sure.''

''I hope so.''

''I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I get more information, okay? Love you sweetie, and take care of yourself!''

''Okay, love you too. Bye.'', Wendy said as her mother hung up, feeling her vision getting cloudier and cloudier due to tears brimming her chocolate brown eyes and threatening to fall down her cheeks.

She just couldn't believe what was happening to her.

As if having to deal with her now ex-boyfriend's disgusting behavior and actions hadn't been enough, she now also had a whole new emotionally crushing thing to deal with and worry about – because she had never in a million years thought that something devastating like this could happen to someone who meant the world to her and who was one of the most important people in her life.

And now, after everything that had happened to her, there was only a single thought resonating inside her head.

Could this day possibly get even worse?

Stan groaned to himself as he re-read yet another one of passive aggressive messages that Melissa had sent to him, this time about him apparently not wanting to invite her to the party Tolkien would be hosting next weekend.

Since he was currently running a bit late for his eleventh grade English class, the teenage boy really didn't want to waste his time by explaining to his girlfriend that she would get invited to the party anyway and that she didn't have to act so dramatic about it – as it was an understatement that she would be going with him.

And just as he was about to walk towards the classroom and hopefully be cut off some slack for being late to the class due to an unscheduled meeting he had with his football coach, Stan suddenly stopped in his tracks as he witnessed his ex-girlfriend storming down the hallway towards the girls' restroom, looking visibly distraught and with tears streaming down her face.

''Wendy?! Are you okay?", Stan called after her, but it was to no avail since Wendy had managed to enter inside the restroom a split second before she could even hear him calling out for her.

"She's clearly not, Stan.", Bebe said as she suddenly appeared by her best friend's ex-boyfriend, a bit out of breath and with arms crossed over her chest and a look of concern plastered on her face.

''Wait, what happened?'', the teenage boy said as he turned to his long-time friend, swapping a worrisome look with her and shifting his gaze towards the direction in which Wendy had run off.

''I really don't know.'', the curly blonde admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. ''Wendy just stormed past all of us in the hallway, and didn't seem to be okay at all. I haven't seen her ever since our P.E. class earlier this morning, so I really don't know what happened to her or what caused her to be so upset.''

Chewing down on his bottom lip as he thought about what to do next, Stan then decided to go after his ex-girlfriend and see the situation out for himself – but more importantly, to get to the bottom of whatever had caused her to feel this way and offer her his maximum support (without making things too awkward between them, obviously).

''I'll go talk to her.'', Stan said as he started walking towards the restroom, before suddenly stopping in his tracks as he felt Bebe placing a hand on his shoulder and raising one perfectly groomed blonde eyebrow at him.

"Stan, while I appreciate your effort and what not, I'm not sure if you comforting Wendy would be the best idea at the moment.'', she replied. ''I mean, no offense, but you are her ex-boyfriend and you two aren't as close as some of us are to her, you know?''

"Bebe, I know it might not seem that way, but I care about her too.", Stan said, trying to reassure the blonde teenage girl. ''Sure, it's been a while since Wendy and I broke up, but we've been on good terms regardless of that. It really sucks seeing her cry, so all I wanna' do is check up on her and make sure she's alright.''

"Oh, okay then.", Bebe replied, offering the quarterback a kind, supportive smile. ''Good luck with that!''

Giving Bebe a thumbs up, Stan then made a direct beeline for the girls' restroom and entered inside, not particularly caring if he would get weird looks for currently being there, as he cared more about making sure that Wendy was okay and finding out the real reason for her being so upset.

''Wendy, are you okay?''

''Stan?'', a muffled voice came from one of the bathroom stalls, causing the boy in question to make his way over and stand right in front of the stall Wendy had locked herself in.

"What are you doing here? I-I'm fine.", she sniffled, unlocking the stall door and stepping outside to confront her ex-boyfriend.

Glancing Wendy up and down as she finally came out of the stall and locked her chocolate brown eyes with his blue ones, Stan's heart sank at the sight of his elementary school girlfriend looking so disheveled and sad over whatever had caused her to feel this way. He took a step forward, noticing remnants of mascara that had gotten smeared all over her under-eye area and tear stained cheeks.

''Wends, what happened?''

''Well, it's mostly about my dad.'', Wendy revealed. ''Last night, he and mom got into yet another nasty argument and he just stormed through the front door afterwards, yelling about going for a quick drink at Skeeter's and then driving off somewhere to clear his mind. I think he did go to the bar and got drunk to the point where he didn't even bother coming home last night.''

''Then, my mom called not even fifteen minutes ago, and told me that they found my dad's car somewhere on the highway to Denver in a pretty bad condition. And my dad…'', she continued further, wiping away more tears from her face. ''He's been in the hospital ever since he got found. The doctors couldn't really say much about his current condition, but they told my mom that he had a crap ton of luck and was lucky not to sustain any more severe injuries.''

Blue eyes widened as he listened to the real reason behind Wendy's tears, Stan felt his heart splitting in two over what he was hearing and how it affected his ex-girlfriend in real time – but even more importantly, all of that suddenly made him want to do something about her current condition and make her feel better as much as he possibly could.

While his brain was telling him to take a step back and not go forward with what he had wanted to do, his heart at the same time was telling him to go along with it anyway and offer the raven haired girl his maximum support.

Taking a step forward, the teenage boy wrapped his arms around Wendy and pulled her into his embrace, stroking her long, dark locks in an attempt to comfort her and allowing her to let out more silent sobs against his shirt. He promptly ignored the beating of his own heart, and channeled all of his energy towards calming down the girl in his arms.

Wendy, totally surprised by Stan's unexpected yet sweet gesture, nearly felt her heart leaping out of her chest at the feeling of being in her ex-boyfriend's warm embrace after such a long time, making all of her negative emotions quell down and cause an odd feeling of warmth to spread inside her.

''Wendy…'', Stan began as he pulled away from her, but still maintained a gentle grip on her shoulders. ''Are you feeling a bit better?''

''Yeah, I am.'', she said, before letting out a faint sigh and gently removing Stan's hands off her shoulders. ''I'm sorry for bothering you with my shit. You probably have better things to do than to run after me and see why I've been such a mopey mess."

"Wends, stop it. You're my friend.", the teenage boy shook his head in disbelief, before placing both of his hands on Wendy's shoulders again, forcing her to look straight into his bright blue eyes. He let out a gentle chuckle, hoping that his next words would lighten up her mood just a little bit. "And besides, there's no one better than me when it comes to understanding someone else being a mopey mess, so I totally get you.''

Wendy chuckled, her lips spreading into a small smile.

Stan let out an inner sigh of relief at the sight of his ex-girlfriend finally looking a bit less down in the dumps, before his mind started to cycle back to another possible reason for Wendy's tears – the one that unfortunately had a lot to do with one particular person, as well as them being responsible for making her New Year's Eve celebrations crappier about a tenfold.

"Has something else been bothering you?"

The ravenette immediately fell silent.

"Is it about David, maybe?"

A silent nod from Wendy only further confirmed Stan's suspicions.

"I have eyes, Wendy. I've seen the way you look at him with pure disgust, and yeah, I did hear those rumors about you.", the teenage boy admitted, balling his fists up. "Piece of shit. I really wanted to go and kick his ass."

"You know that I could've done it on my own, do you?", letting out a sarcastic snort, Wendy felt her lips upturning into a small smile, but not before that same small smile faltering a bit. ''And yeah, he spread those rumors about me not wanting to go further than just kissing.''

"And then I find out I'm not the only person he has done this to before.", she continued. "If I had known what kind of a disgusting person he truly is, I would've never ever given him a chance."

"But he shouldn't force you into doing something you're not comfortable with yet. Those things take time.", Stan admitted. "You deserve someone way better than him."

''I know, but I'm just exhausted from everything.'', Wendy said. "First, this entire shitshow with David, and then my dad's car accident – I just can't keep on pretending like everything's been all fine and dandy and then force myself to smile through everything."

"I know, and it's okay to let those emotions out when everything gets too overwhelming.'', the dark haired boy said, smiling. ''The Wendy I met all those years ago is also vulnerable, no matter how much she tries to deny it sometimes."

"Thanks Stan.", she replied as she wiped away the final remnants of mascara from her face, catching a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror and noticing that she now had a faint blush spread across her cheeks. "I really needed to let everything out."

"Anytime."

''No, I'm serious.'', Wendy responded, giving him a sincere smile. ''Thank you so much for coming after me and comforting me. I'm feeling much better now.''

''Don't mention it.'', he said. ''I'm just glad to see you smiling again and going back to being your old self.''

The two teenagers then walked out of the girls' restroom in peaceful silence and stood in front of it for a brief few moments, before Wendy had one idea suddenly pop into her mind.

''Hey, Stan.''

''Yeah?''

''I know that this might sound weird, and it's okay if you don't wanna' do it, but do you maybe wanna' go outside and chat for a bit?''

"Sure, why not?", Stan smiled, shrugging his shoulders. ''I mean, my English class has already started and I really don't really feel like listening to yet another class of Cartman and Kyle arguing over some meaningless crap and throwing insults at each other back and forth.''

''Isn't that what they usually do?''

''Yeah, true. You've got a point there.''

After skipping his English class and having one heck of a pleasant conversation with Wendy, Stan was relieved to see her in a slightly better mood and hoped for her to maintain it as long as she possibly could – especially given her current not-so-positive family and relationship circumstances.

And while he had been in his own good mood, that same good mood got soured the very moment he saw Melissa leaning against his locker and angrily typing something on her phone, clearly being too busy to notice her boyfriend approaching her.

''Hey Mel – ''

''Where were you?'', she cut him off suddenly, straightening her posture and crossing her arms over her chest, with an even bigger scowl now spread across her face.

Stan rolled his eyes.

He knew that if he told his girlfriend about the real reason why he had skipped his English class and hadn't bothered to respond to her messages, Melissa would for sure lose her shit and throw yet another hissy fit – but given the fact that she had a tendency to lie about things, the teenage boy thought the two could definitely play a game, so he decided not to tell what exactly he had been up to over the past half an hour.

''I was busy comforting a friend.'', he said, his words not helping to calm Melissa down. ''What? I'm not even supposed to do that anymore?''

''Was it that Wendy girl again? I should've known that you were screwing around with her – ''

''I wasn't.'', Stan cut her off suddenly, feeling more and more agitated. ''Can you just stop pulling this crap on me again?''

The extreme look of displeasure sitting on his girlfriend's face certainly wasn't helping the whole ordeal. ''Yeah, sure. Are you using that as an excuse to sniff around that little ex-girlfriend of yours?''

''Mel, seriously?''

''Yes, seriously.''

''You know what, just forget that I said anything.'', Stan admitted. "Anyway, Clyde's hosting yet another party this weekend, so I've been meaning to ask if you would like to come with me?"

"I don't know. I've already made plans for Friday, since my cousin is celebrating his eighteenth birthday.", Melissa said as she twirled a strand of hair around her index finger. ''But, I'll let you know about it, okay?''

''Yeah, sure.'', he replied back flatly, feeling his cheeks blush a bit as the brunette girl stepped on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek, before walking towards her next class – seemingly forgetting about yet another one of her passive aggressive moments she had in their text messages.

Following that particular train of thought, Stan grabbed his phone and opened his messaging app, scrolling just a little bit down.

He chewed the inside of his mouth tentatively, mulling over the decision whether he could send Wendy a quick text message, as there was a part of him that just wanted to rest assured knowing that she was feeling slightly better than she had felt earlier in the day.

Because seeing her smile again and being her usual self was something that always brought a smile to Stan's face – and as long as she was happy, so he was for her.

Poor Wendy, she really can't catch a break, can she? :(

Despite a mixed bag of emotions in this chapter, I actually had so much fun writing it, and even smiled like a huge idiot when typing the scene of Stan comforting Wendy over everything that's happened to her and them spending time together during her free block. That particular scene was planned out a long time ago, and it is meant to serve as sort of a bonding moment for Stendy.

Obviously, they are getting closer to each other for the first time in years now, and that will for sure have an impact on their 'friendship' and make them think twice if they have truly been over each other. Not to mention that this is a rather big step forward in their 'friendship' and how things will play out for them in the upcoming chapters.

I'm also happy to say that new updates should be posted on a weekly basis now, since most of the remaining chapters are either halfway written or have a rough draft made that just needs to be written.

And yes, more things will happen between Stan and Wendy, so don't you guys worry about that!