Later after school...
Stan looked back at Kenny trailing behind, "Kenny are you coming?".
Kenny shook his head out of the clouds, "Huh?"
"We're gonna go get something to eat.", Kyle said reminding Kenny of their plans, "You're coming right?"
Kenny shrugged, "Fine as long as I don't have to go home." He was sick of hearing his parents fight.
At Happy Burger...
"-& a large coke, two apple pies, large fries, two burgers & wait three apple pies &-", Cartman was cut off from finishing his order.
"My God Cartman! Anymore & you'll explode!", Kyle shouted.
Cartman shouted right back, "Shutup you stupid Jew!"
Stan added in, "Cartman he has a point. You're confusing the waitress. Hurry up & order already!"
Cartman put on a face of defeat, "Fine, that'll be all."
Stan noticed Kenny hadn't ordered anything, "Kenny aren't you getting anything?"
Kenny felt as if there was a spotlight shinning down on him, "Uh... No I'm not hungry." Kenny wasn't stupid. He saw the look Stan gave Kyle. Kyle went up to the counter to order some more.
Cartman couldn't keep his big mouth shut, "What did you do that for? Is it because Kenny can't afford his own food-ouch!" Stan had kicked him under the table.
Kenny rolled his eyes, "Fuck you Cartman. You guys I'll be right back, I'm gonna go look at the arcade games."
Stan nodded, "Ok, We'll call you when the food comes."
Kenny needed sometime to himself to clear his head. Being alone helped. He was constantly thinking of the future. He had no clue what was gonna happen to him when he got out of highschool. He was scared he'd end up like his parents. He was glad his friends were buying him food. The truth was he was pretty hungry. It was just so damn embarrassing. Growing up he was always the kid at school who couldn't afford the newest, coolest toys. He got only the cheesy knock offs. He noticed a crowd had formed around the packman machine. Kids were screaming, "OMG she's really gonna do it! She is gonna beat the high score!" Then the game over sound came on & the crowd dispersed. "O, man...", a girl moaned. He saw her sitting there. She had her light amber brown hair up in a ponytail, with thin bangs falling down the sides of her face to her chin. Her green eyes sparkled like emeralds as the sunlight hit them. He had to go up to her. Kenny was known to all as a "playa". He was pretty much used to talking to girls.
Kenny gave a muffled, "Hi."
She looked up & smiled.
Kenny cleared his throat, "I'm Kenny. I just thought that you did a pretty good job. I mean, you almost beat the high score. No one has ever gotten that close."
The girl laughed, "Thanks, but I'm pretty pissed I wasted all those quarters. I'm Erin." She put out her hand & he shook it.
"So do you live around here?", Kenny asked.
"Well not exactly here. I live in the next town over, North Park.", Erin replied.
"O."
"Yea, my friends & I hang here when it gets boring over there. Plus one of my friends lives here. Maybe you know her?"
"Who?"
"Bebe?"
"O, yea. She goes to my school."
"Cool, it's such a small world. Have you heard about the party she's having?"
"Yea."
"Are you going?"
"I was thinking about it."
"You should.", she smiled coyly.
He wondered what she was thinking. Was she just being friendly or was there something else? Or was it just all in his mind? Still he had to play it cool.
Kenny stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Maybe now I will."
"Smooth.", he thought. Erin looked away to hide her blushing face. "Here I am", she thought, "concerned about beating a high score one minute & the next I'm flirting with some guy I barely know... I really shouldn't be flirting... Gosh what do I say now?-" It was only a pause of silence outside of Erin's racing heart & mind. Before she had a chance to panic Kenny laughed to himself. Erin, who figured he was laughing at her, asked with a sour face, "What is so funny?"
Kenny shrugged, "Nothing."
"Come on tell me."
"Never mind, it's not important."
"No, I wanna hear!"
"Fine. It's just that most girls- I mean people can't understand what I'm saying cause of my hood. Usually, I have to repeat myself. Only the people who really know me understand."
"Well I hear you just fine."
"Yea, I told you never mind. It's just a stupid observation."
"No, that's cool. It's nice to know."
Erin calmed down a bit. She raised her head back up from starring at the floor. She shook her head to get her bangs out of the way. She was about to say something else to him, but she totally forgot. Immediately after she had looked up, those eyes! Those blue piercing eyes! Those eyes just stopped the world from revolving! Stopped time itself! And she just forgot -everything. Heck if at that very moments you asked her for her name, she wouldn't have known. Or if a unicorn went galloping by, she wouldn't have cared. Nothing could've phased her at that moment. She never expected it. It just happened. Kenny noticed it to. He just stared back at her smiling face. He wished he could know her. He wanted to know everything about her. He didn't know why. It's like he needed to have her. He needed her to be his & no one else's. It was the weirdest thing like no other girl could ever compare. What to them felt like a century was actually a couple of seconds. It was soon interrupted by their names being called. They quickly snapped out of it.
Erin leaned over to pick up her backpack, "O, well I have to go. My friends have finished eating & it's getting late."
Kenny looked over to where the guys were sitting, "Yea, I think the food is ready for me."
Erin stood up, "So I'll see you around?"
Kenny beamed, "You can bet on it."
Erin skipped off towards the door. She had to tell her friends about this as soon as they were in the clear. "O God,", she thought, "I feel like an idiot for staring too long at him! How embarrassing! I hope I didn't look like a total shallow retard! I can't wait to see him again. Damn it, I should've gotten his number! O, but I shouldn't be thinking this... what is wrong with me? Do I purposely wanna wreck all the relationship I have?"
Kenny watched her leave till she was completely out of sight. For some reason he wasn't able to take his eyes off her. He got up & walked over to the table where his friends were calling him.
Kyle motioned Kenny over, "Hey Kenny, good thing you're here. Are you hungry? Cause I ordered too much food. Could you have some for me?"
Cartman scoffed, "O, real not obvious Kyle. That was hella lame! You do it like this." Cartman took a burger & threw it on the floor.
Cartman shouted, "Here Kenny fetch!"
Stan shook his head, "O man Cartman, are you a fucken asshole or what!?"
Kyle looked at Cartman with disgust, "Yea, real weak dude. Kenny just ignore him."
Kenny picked the burger off the floor, sat down & began to eat it.
Kyle's hands went up in the air to stop him but didn't, "No dude, you don't have to eat that! I've got more!"
Kenny shrugged, "Whatever, it'll go to waste if I don't."
Cartman laughed, "Yea you guys should know by now Kenny's family is poor! You're poor Kenny! You're Poor!" Kenny just ignored Cartman. He was used to it by now.
Kenny sighed, "I'll take the rest home Kyle don't worry about it."
Stan punched Eric in the head. Cartman put his middle finger up to Stan, "Eh! Watch it or I'll kick you square in the nutz! Uh, you know what? Screw you guys! I'm going home!"
"Fine you go do that!", Stan shouted.
"Fine!", Cartman stormed off.
Kenny was getting sick of being the subject matter at hand, "You guys I don't need your pity, I can defend myself-"
Kyle interupted, "No, we know- We're just trying to help-"
Stan chimed in, "You act like it doesn't bother you all the time, but if I were you it would bother me."
Kenny shrugged, "Whatever."
Kyle lost his temper, "You know what Stan let's just leave since our generousity is obviously not appreciated!"
"Yeah!", Stan agreed.
The two got up & left.
Kenny sat there alone, trying to process what just happened.
"Damn.", Kenny said to himself outloud. The subject had never been touched on out in the open like that before. He had no idea how they felt & they needed to know how he really feels.
Kenny felt like crap walking home with his doggy bag of food. He didn't even get to tell the guys about the girl he had just met. He was thinking... "I should've told them thanks for the food, but I'm sick of being a charity case. Still, I had never had a fight with them before." He felt so alone. And this time he really was alone. There probably wasn't one person thinking about him at this very moment. "That girl probably won't even show up to the party. Stupid me, I should've got her number. Heck she probably wasn't interested or she would've asked for mine. Who am I kidding? Why would anyone like me? In the words of Cartman, I'm poor. My parents are probably home & fighting by now. My brother, who knows what he's up to. Stealing cars? Dealing drugs? I tried to tell him that's not gonna help our family one bit. That his future is gonna go nowhere. And mom & dad aren't gonna have the money to bail his ass out of jail."
It was getting dark & cold. Kenny surrendered and entered his house through the back door. Like he expected there was the sound of muffled yelling through the paper thin walls. He got undressed, didn't bother to take a shower so not to raise the water bill & got in bed. But the little McCormick didn't sleep. It was so hard for him to sleep. The one thing he could do to escape, but his body wouldn't let him. To try to sleep he listened to his walkman. He had to just lie there & wait. He tried not to think about the day's events until morning. He hoped his depression wouldn't get worse.
(listening to Stay Together For The Kids by Blink 182)
Its hard to wake up, when the shades have been pulled shut
This house is haunted, its so pathetic, it makes no sense at all
Im ripe with things to say, the words rot and fall away
What stupid poem could fix this home? I'd read it every day
CHORUS: So here's your holiday,
hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away
It was mine, so when your dead and gone,
will you remember this night, twenty years now lost,
it's not right.
Their anger hurts my ears, been running strong for seven years
Rather then fix the problem, they never solve them, it makes no sense at all
I see them everyday, we get along so why can't they?
If this is what he wants, and its what she wants,then whys there so much pain?
CHORUS
So here's your holiday,
hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away.
It was mine,so when your dead and gone,
will you remember this night, twenty years now lost,
it's not right
its not right
its not right
its not right