Eric sighed as he looked out his bedroom window. His mom was out late again tonight. She had been doing this a lot lately. Something about a new job, or whatever. Honestly, he wasn't paying attention when she told him about it. All he knew was that she was home a lot less these days. Usually, this would make him happy because he got more time to play around with the few kids he could consider to be his friends. But lately, they had started to exclude him from their games. Hell, the most time they spent together was when they were doing their vigilante stuff.
This gave Eric mixed feelings. Mostly, he felt passed off. They were supposed to be his friends, and yet they were pushing him aside like he was some old toy they had grown out of!
And yet...
Deep down, Eric knew that he tended to be a douchebag. The things he had done...the things he had said...
Despite his overbearing, loudmouthed facade, Eric knew that he went too far in just about everything he did and said. He knew, and he hated it. He didn't know why he acted this way, but he did. He didn't know how to ask for help, and quite frankly, he felt he shouldn't. In his mind, he made anyone that could offer any semblance of support hate him, even if they didn't say it.
As a result, he was forced to keep going, to keep with this personality he built for himself.
And now, this all culminated in him being locked in a prison of his own design, one where the bars were forged of hatred and indifference.
Eric rolled his eyes, stepping away from the window. Inner monologues like this were for sissies, no matter how true they were!
Meanwhile*
Butters sat in his room, absently reading a book. His parents had grounded him again. He didn't even know the reason this time. But, this wasn't different from most of the other times.
Oh, sure, his parents told him why he was getting grounded. But that didn't mean he fully understood what he did wrong. Sometimes, it felt like he hadn't even done anything at all.
Of course, he'd never actually say that. That would make him a disrespectful little boy, and he never wanted that to happen!
But he supposed it didn't hurt tothink about these things. After all, people thought a lot of things, and as long as he didn't tell anyone, he wouldn't get in trouble...right?
Sighing, Butters let his gaze drift from his book and out the window. It really stunk to be grounded all the time. Just when he thought he was doing good, he was doing bad? It didn't make sense, half the time.
No matter how bad things were, however, Butters never liked to stay down in the dumps for long. Whenever he got upset, he liked to think about his friends. They had all sorts of fun together! For example, he and Cartman really liked to play superheroes together. Butters liked to play the villain sometimes, but wasn't all too good at it. Nevertheless, he still enjoyed hanging out with him.
While Butters would never claim to be a social butterfly, he hung out with his little social circle enough to notice little trends within them. The latest thing he noticed happening was the odd tension between Cartman and the others. For some reason, they had begun to grow apart. Butters knew Cartman could be a bit much at times, but he didn't think the guys would start excluding him and ignoring him like they had been.
Oh well. This meant that Cartman hung out with him more, and he certainly wouldn't be opposed to some more time with him! This extra time made him notice things about Cartman, things that he was sure he never would allow anybody else to notice. For example, whenever he said something that offended people, there was this dark look that tended to flicker across his eyes, if only for a brief second. Whenever he laughed at someone, it tended to come across as a bit forced.
Butters knew that deep down, Cartman was a sad person. He really wanted to ask what was wrong, but didn't want to make him feel worse. But just sitting by and not being able to do anything for his friend made him feel worse. Between his conflicting feelings about his parents and whatever Cartman was hiding, Butters felt like he was constantly being forced into inaction, and he couldn't stand it.
Something had to give.
