Chapter Six - Never Have I Ever.

"Do you like beer?"

Wendy's heart skipped a beat with each word that slipped out from between Stan's lips.

Despite everything that the two had been through – or not been through – over the past five days, Wendy hadn't felt more torn since being back in South Park than how she felt right that very second.

On the one hand, part of Wendy was screaming at her to look over her shoulder just to make sure that Stan was actually talking to her. But on the other hand, the dark haired girl only feared immensely that if she turned away, even for a split second, she would glance back only to see that Stan had disappeared.

So instead, she opted for the choice that was all too obvious to her. The reason it was so obvious was because she still couldn't exactly will herself to do anything else. Wendy was still frozen, her eyes still locked with the soft expression that sat in Stan's.

She gulped. Maybe this supposed olive branch that was being offered was genuine?

"My dad will sometimes let me have one when I watch football with him."

For the absolute briefest of moments, the sweet tone of Wendy's voice made Stan's entire world light up. It was the first time all week that the stunning girl standing in front of him had been able to speak to him properly without nervously stumbling over her words, and it made the teenage boy's heart race.

Soon enough, though, Stan brought himself crashing back down to the dull reality that he and Wendy still weren't exactly on speaking terms. Not after everything that had happened – and Stan knew that it was a horrible idea to go out of his way to try and fix things, especially at a party of all places. But no matter how much he kept telling himself that, he still reached down and picked up a can of beer, offering it to Wendy.

Quit it, dumbass!

"Is he still a Broncos fan?"

Examining the arm that had been extended out to her, Wendy stopped in a moment of hesitation. After almost a whole week of being shrugged off and completely ignored by Stan, Wendy wasn't sure why he had seemingly changed his mind about her so quickly now. But the one thing she was sure of was that she was on the verge of being flat out desperate for the chance to have a conversation with him.

With the party still noisily raging on in the background, Wendy's uncertainty quickly became just as blurred as her concentration as she leant forward and took the drink from Stan's hand. Cracking it open with a manicured fingernail, she smiled to herself, remembering what he had last asked her as she took a seat on the floor opposite him.

"Of course he is," she answered. She scooted back on the carpet, resting her back against the couch that was across from the beanbag Stan was sitting in, "He loved Malibu, but his heart was always in Denver."

There was the strangest sensation that coated the air between them. No matter how hard he tried, Stan just couldn't quite put his finger on it. But this was only one item on a whole list of swarming uncertainties that the dark haired boy could sense circling his mind. After so vehemently casting Wendy aside for all this time, why on Earth was he finding it so easy to talk to her now?

"He must be happy to be back then," the sentence left Stan's mouth before he even gave himself the chance to consider the timeliness of it.

He watched as Wendy's eyes quickly darted downwards at the mention of ever being gone, before slowly, her brown orbs settled back onto him. She took a small sip of her beer, licking her lips to speak again, "So, what about your family? Your sister and stuff?" she asked with a smile.

Mimicking her previous action, Stan raised his drink to his mouth, "Well, uh, Shelly's studying nursing at the University of Colorado."

Wendy nodded her head with a grin, "Whoa, that's pretty cool," she managed to say before momentarily trailing off, "And… you?"

Stan was quiet for a second or two at the thought of answering this particular question. He adjusted his red and blue beanie on the back of his head, trying not to become completely enthralled with Wendy's adorable grin as he sunk into the beanbag chair, "Ya' know. School, part time work, football – still playing quarterback. And a little bit of soccer during the summer. Just for fun, though."

With each task and hobby that the young boy opposite her rattled off, Wendy's eyes widened more and more. It was only two years ago that Wendy could swear up and down the only things Stan was ever interested in were football and video games.

Suddenly feeling a lot more nervous, the dark haired girl took another swig of her beer, "Wow. You're busier than ever."

Scratching the back of his neck, Stan offered a lame chuckle, "Ha, yeah," another fleeting silence overtook them as the teenage boy gulped, "What about you?"

The curiosity in his voice brought Wendy to a halt. She furrowed her brow in deep thought as she mulled over what he had asked her.

This whole situation was beginning to seem so crazy to her, crazier than she ever could have imagined upon returning to the small mountain town. Here she sat, opposite someone that she had known for as long as she could remember, someone who not too long ago she had been completely inseparable from. And now the pair were more or less catching up with one another, like a couple of mere acquaintances who only saw each other from time to time. That was the part that was bizarre to her, it was crazy how much things had changed. But that didn't mean Wendy was ungrateful for being able to talk to Stan now.

Giggling to herself at the painfully blatant awkwardness that had now well and truly settled between them, Wendy grinned at Stan, her giggle turning into a full blown laugh, "This is so – "

" – weird?"

As he finished her sentence for her with a similar thought, Wendy narrowed her eyes at Stan. A delighted glisten sparkled in them as she saw that he was now smirking back at her, just as widely while he managed a chuckle of his own. Never in a million years did she think she was going to see that charming smile ever again.

"So, are you happy you're back?"

Almost instantly, Wendy sensed the bliss fall from her face. She looked slightly downwards, repeated Stan's question in her head, and tried not to burst with impulsive, overwhelming joy. Stan may not have known it, but asking if Wendy was simply 'happy' was probably the biggest understatement in her entire universe.

Pushing her thoughts of Malibu to the back of her mind, Wendy replicated her previous elated expression and tried her absolute hardest to hold back her erupting emotion, "Yeah, I guess it's pretty good."

The surprisingly dry answer from the girl in front of him made Stan pause in thought for a moment, "Two years is a long time."

Before the comment was even completely out of Stan's mouth, Wendy immediately brushed it off and changed the subject, gesturing back towards the hallway where the party could still be heard blaring into the small room, "So, is this what you all get up to these days?"

Stan bit his tongue before his hasty response had the time to escape. It would have been nice, he thought, if Wendy had the courtesy to at least acknowledge the fact that she had vanished into thin air for so long. But soon enough, Stan shook his head. This was only their first real interaction with one another since her return. And he still wasn't certain if there would even be a second or third just yet.

Quickly deciding to just leave the awkward topics alone, Stan went back to answering Wendy's question, "Not as much as you probably think," he said, raising his voice over the loud, thumping music, "That's why everyone's cutting a little loose tonight."

"Cutting a little loose? Don't you mean getting totally crazy?" Wendy asked with a laugh, thinking back to everything she had seen happening within the thunderous walls of the house, "It's almost as crazy as Bebe and – "

" – Kyle?"

Again, her heart pounded lightly in her chest as Stan read her mind before the two began laughing at the obscurity of their best friends.

The dark haired boy was sort of surprised in himself at how much he and Wendy were still in tune with one another. It caused tingling goosebumps to slowly pop up all over his arms. With each bristle that exploded across his skin, he seemed to feel his uncertainties begin to fade. It was almost as if the two hadn't even skipped a beat.

"One innocent little kiss in the third grade all lead up to this," Wendy said, snapping Stan awake from his deep trance.

Stan smirked in agreement, only imagining what Kyle and Bebe must have been getting up to together, "Well, I can guess that you had some pretty insane parties living in Malibu, too?"

Wendy quickly shook her head, "I wasn't really much of a party girl," she admitted, taking another tiny sip of her drink, "I'm still not."

"Yeah right," Stan sniped, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"I'm serious!"

"How could you live in California and not have any crazy party stories?" the teenager questioned her, glaring at her with a devilishly joking expression, "I call total bullshit."

Wendy's lips parted in a small scoff as she stared back at the playful sarcasm in Stan's eyes. He tilted his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders, waiting for her to argue back as he took a swig from his drink. God, he could drive her crazy sometimes. And, God, did it make her heart melt.

"Okay, fine!" Wendy suddenly snapped in determination. She propelled herself forward from where she was slumped against the couch and sat up straight. Crossing her legs, she placed her beer can on the ground in front of her and stared Stan directly in the eyes. Before she even considered what she was about to say, Wendy licked her lips and pointed a challenging finger at him, "Never have I ever skulled an alcoholic drink."

Throwing his head back with a smug laugh, Stan looked back to Wendy, leaning just as far forward as her and grinning rebelliously, "Oh, you really wanna' try this game with me?" he dared. As Wendy remained firm, Stan matched her unwavering grin and took a sip of beer in admittance, "Okay, never have I ever swam in the ocean drunk."

Wendy threw an arm out to the side, "You can't make assumptions based on where I lived!" she barked.

"Ah, see," Stan continued to tease her, "I knew there was a bit of a crazy side to you."

Taking her drink, Wendy didn't let it hinder her, "Never have I ever thrown up from drinking," she said, chuckling as Stan took a sip.

"Never have I ever thrown a party while my parents weren't home."

"Hey, if you could see that house I lived in, you wouldn't blame me," Wendy remarked between her sip, "Never have I ever been in a drunken fight."

Stan snickered in disbelief, "What? What do you take me for?"

By this point in their conversation, or silly little game, or whatever anyone wanted to call it, both Stan and Wendy could hardly believe how quickly and easily they were managing to bounce off one another. Wasn't it only five days ago that they had first agreed upon this unspoken vow to not talk anymore? After two years of complete silence, it surely couldn't have been that difficult to follow through with. Especially for Stan. From how their history read to all those around them, he had been the one who had gotten hurt. So why waste his time trying to get to know Wendy all over again?

The air between them was all of sudden starting to clear a little bit, just as Stan could sense that his thoughts were. It was surreal for him to be hearing all about what Wendy had gotten up to over the past couple of years, and for whatever reason, he wanted to know more. So much so, he barely even stopped to scan over his next question before it left his lips.

"I've never kissed a random at a party?"

Wendy screeched into an astute silence. She was instantly confused. Not about the question – she understood exactly what the question meant and how she was supposed to answer in terms of the rules of the drinking game. What she was confused about was why Stan would even want to know something like that?

Reluctantly biting down on her bottom lip, Wendy slowly lifted the can of beer to her mouth, "Okay, but there's much more to the story than just that," she stated plainly, taking a small sip.

Her brow furrowed in the slimmest frustration. If Stan wanted to play hard ball, she could play hard ball, too.

"I've never had sex?"

Without a single moment of delay, Stan raised an eyebrow. The immediacy of Wendy's retort was so sharp that he hardly had the chance to even react to hearing of her experience with another boy. And yet, for some peculiar reason, all he could do was smirk at her.

"What? And you think I have?"

Trying to match his cool, calm and collected expression, Wendy lazily shrugged her shoulders, "The school quarterback? Sporty, smart, and totally –" she suddenly cut herself off. She had been so close to adding 'adorable' to that list, "…totally independent? Maybe I do think that."

Their vision remained locked, neither of them wanting to waver even in the slightest. The smirk was still plastered complacently across Stan's face, and it caused a sense of unease to bubble in the depths of Wendy's stomach. Right as she was beginning to regret her choice of question, the dark haired girl felt her heart stop as she watched Stan slowly raise the can of beer to his lips.

A dull sting began to pound across her chest as she watched him, until all of a sudden, the quarterback brought his actions to a halt. The pause in time seemed to stretch on for an eternity to Wendy, before Stan finally let a small, smug laugh emit from the back of throat as he lowered his drink back to the floor.

Stan had come close once, and only once. And still, it hadn't been close enough.

"Sorry. Next question?"

The torturous grin that was still being directed at her combined with the sarcastic tone of his voice made Wendy glare playful daggers at Stan. She slowly shook her head with a small scoff, eventually shrugging off the comment with indifference. Of course, her lack of concern was all just an act. Wendy didn't want to admit it, but deep down, she was pretty damn relieved.

Just as she motioned for Stan to continue on with their game, the dark haired girl suddenly jumped in surprise at the sound of someone bursting through the door of the room.

"Wendy! I've been looking for you ev- "

It was only a matter of seconds before the surprised emotion transitioned from Wendy to Bebe. The blonde girl stood in the doorway of the open room with wide eyes, hastily flicking her vision between Stan and Wendy with the upmost bewilderment.

"Um…" she attempted to begin, still thrown at the image of the ex-couple sitting together and smiling at each other, "Uh, my mum keeps calling, Wendy, she's gonna' come and pick us up now."

Pushing her long, black locks out of her face, Wendy subtly glanced over to Stan before looking back to Bebe and clearing her throat, "Um, okay, I'll be right there."

Part of Bebe was reluctant to turn around and leave Wendy behind. And who could honestly blame her – she wasn't certain by any means of what exactly was going down between Stan and her best friend. But still, as Wendy's assuring eyes hinted at her that it was all okay, Bebe slowly turned around on her heels and headed back out into the mass of teenagers who were still partying on.

Left staring blankly at the empty doorway, Wendy allowed a small gasp to escape her parted lips at the realisation of just how awkward the exchange with Stan had suddenly become again. Twirling the ends of her ponytail around her finger, she spun back around in his direction, her eyes gracing the carpet beneath her. Soon enough, the teenage girl gradually brought her sight back up to him.

Her brown eyes met his blue ones. And they smiled softly at each other.

Hurriedly gulping down the remainder of her beer, Wendy placed the empty can on the floor beside her and shot back up to her feet. She adjusted her purple jacket, hugging it around her body as she took one step towards the door in search of Bebe. But then almost as quickly as she had found her feet, Wendy stopped.

Stan watched on with interest as Wendy nervously stuffed her hands into her pockets and licked her lips.

"How many of those have you had?" she abruptly asked, pointing to the can of beer in his hand.

Stan was quiet for a second or two, adjusting his position in the comfy beanbag, "This is only my second one."

"So, you're not, like… drunk at all?"

"No?" he answered with a frown.

In a flash of confusion, Wendy timidly scratched behind her ear and gestured down the hallway. Up until now she had all but forgotten about the original counterpart that Stan had been sitting with when she found him. And from what she remembered, Darcy had seemingly had more than just one or two drinks.

"But, um, what about… uh – "

" – she… was sneaking drinks at the dance," Stan said, immediately catching on, "Well, that and she can't really hold her drinks well to begin with. She's pretty wasted," he added with an awkward chuckle. He coughed slightly, "Were you gonna', like, ask me something, or…?"

"I, uh…" it was no use, "I just…"

The ease and confidence of their previous conversation was suddenly lost to Wendy as all she could seem to do now was stumble and stutter and trip over her own tongue. Her eyes tightly snapped shut as she huffed out in annoyance.

It had been a long, long while since Wendy had last felt herself racing along an emotional rollercoaster such as what the last five or so minutes had been for her. But despite the variety of feelings that she had unwillingly felt, Wendy couldn't deny what the peak of the ride had been. And that was the almighty high that she had felt to have Stan smiling at her and talking to her again.

Wendy sighed. She didn't want to go back to being without that feeling.

"Will you stop ignoring me at school now?"

Stan was taken back slightly by the pure blatancy of Wendy's question. He stewed in deep thought for what he knew must have felt like too long a time, when in actuality, he wasn't even using the time to ponder over his answer. What Stan was doing was trying to convince himself otherwise of the desired answer that had instantly popped into his brain. He was stuck with the exact same decision that he had been forced to make no more than five or six minutes ago. Let Wendy in, or continue to push her away?

No matter what other factors that he may have considered earlier, Stan was sure of which one of those two options took the least effort.

"I might cya' on Monday?"

As much as she tried to hide it, Wendy's whole face lit up.

Simply nodding her head so as not to ruin any imperfect moment of the entire imperfect situation, Wendy hastily whirled around and dashed out of the room. Her mind was a haze of blissful, unsure, doubtful, hopeful mixed thoughts. Her heart was racing even faster than the rate that her brain was ticking over. She didn't have the first clue about how she was going to manage to find Bebe between all the drunk, crazy teenagers and her even crazier thoughts.

And what had an even slimmer chance of ever being properly analysed was exactly how she now truly felt about Stan – something that Wendy had already begun to desperately ask herself.

What the hell just happened?!

The smile on Wendy's face hadn't shifted a single inch. Even by the time she arrived back at Bebe's house and started getting ready to turn in for the night, her cheeks were still flushed an embarrassed shade of pink and her heart was still pitter-pattering along.

Standing in front of the bathroom basin, Wendy wiped off the last of her make-up and stared at herself in the mirror. Pulling out her hair tie, she let her ponytail fall free and allowed her curly, black locks to cascade over her shoulders. She raked her hair back between her fingers and narrowed her eyes at her reflection. The teenager leant in closer towards the mirror and examined the one or two spots and pimples that sat on her skin. Letting out a huffing sigh, Wendy frowned.

It sure had been one long night from the beginning of the Homecoming dance up until now. Wendy just hoped that she had at least looked half-presentable while talking to Stan at the after party.

Stepping back into the upstairs hallway of Bebe's house, Wendy looked down the opposite end of it, calling out goodnight to Mrs. Stevens as she noticed her bedroom light switch off. The warm carpet felt comforting beneath Wendy's sore feet after having walked around in high heels all night long. As she made her way back into Bebe's bedroom, the dark haired girl softly closed the door behind her, spinning around just in time to see her best friend leaping off the bed and shooting directly towards her.

"Okay, girl, what the hell just happened?" Bebe demanded, grabbing onto both of Wendy's shoulders.

Laughing to herself, Wendy wrestled her way out of Bebe's playful grasp, "Well, I was kinda' asking myself the same thing..."

"Bullshit, Wendy!" Bebe joked, slapping her friend on the arm, "Don't think that you can even attempt to hide the tiniest detail from me. You and Stan talking to each other is, like, major!" she exclaimed, "Are you guys talking about, like... getting back together?"

"No!" Wendy instantly snapped back, "No, no, God no. We were just... talking."

"Talking about what?"

"I dunno'," Wendy answered with a giggle, "Anything. Everything – we were just catching up. It's no big deal."

Bebe folded her arms across her chest, "Are you sure?"

"Bebe, nothing happened! Nothing is going to happen, but even if it did, you would be the first to know."

The blonde girl's expression remained firm, "So, where was Darcy?"

The mention of the tanned, auburn haired beauty caused a grin of slight triumph to cross Wendy's lips. Darcy certainly hadn't looked as gorgeous as Wendy remembered when she saw her at the party, "She was throwing up in the bathroom, actually."

Matching the satisfied expression on her best friend's face, Bebe threw her head back with a cackling laugh, "Ahh, well, I can imagine that was an attractive look," she spoke sarcastically. Wiping her weary eyes, she settled them back on Wendy with a more serious appearance, "So, you and Stan are all good or whatever now?"

As she was in the middle of pulling her jacket back on from the cold, Wendy froze for a moment. She asked herself the same question. It wasn't difficult for her to decipher that she and Stan were certainly not 'all good'. But they weren't necessarily all bad either. Were they?

The more she thought about it, the more Wendy considered that the two of them never really were completely bad with one another. Since her return to South Park, they hadn't really been anything at all. Just silent strangers. And now since that silence had been momentarily taken away, it only made Wendy think that maybe she and Stan would become a little less strange to one another, as well.

The notion of all of this made her chest swell in happiness, "We're... we're okay, ya' know? I'm just gonna' see what happens next, I guess."

Slowly nodding her head at everything she heard, Bebe then grabbed her pyjamas and silently stood up to head towards the bathroom. It made her feel content to see her best friend genuinely smile again, "Do you wanna' hear what Kyle and I talked about?"

The joke and sarcastic wink from her friend made Wendy immediately shake her head, "Ew, girl, no. I don't want to end up throwing up, as well."

Chuckling at her own sniping remark, Wendy laughed even louder as she ducked out of the way of Bebe's hairbrush that came flying towards her. Soon enough, though, the curly-haired girl joined in with the hilarity of it all as she beckoned for Wendy to toss it back to her, "Okay, sorry, can you pass that back, I actually need it."

Still tittering away to herself, Wendy threw the brush back across the room. She couldn't believe that she had been so defiantly reluctant to attend Homecoming that evening, and now she was all but literally sitting on cloud nine.

It had been one thing for Wendy to be simply happy to be back in her hometown of South Park. In fact, happy was an immense understatement. Wendy was beyond relieved to be back at home with her family and to be attending her old school again with her close friends.

But if on top of all that, Wendy was to have Stan brought back into her life, as well?

"Hey, Wendy?"

The dark haired girl shot her brown eyes back up to the bedroom doorway. She could have sworn that Bebe had already ducked out of the room to use the bathroom, but as her friend abruptly snapped her out of her trance, Wendy raised a curious eyebrow.

Bebe scratched her head, taking a minute to sigh, "Look, Wendy, just don't get your hopes up about him too much, okay?" she gently advised, "It was only one night."

The two best friends smiled softly at each other.

Bebe may have been delighted to finally see her friend so cheery again, but more than anything else, she knew that she still needed to look out for and protect Wendy, as well. It's not like she thought that Stan would ever go out of his way to intentionally try to hurt Wendy – that wasn't Bebe's concern at all. What was much more worrying to her was the severe possibility of Wendy focusing far too much on the past and only eventually hurting herself.

Luckily for the both of them, however, Wendy wasn't completely blind to everything going on around her. She knew not to look too much into things, and she knew not to get her hopes up. But, honestly, none of that meant that she wasn't allowed to finally feel a bit of optimism again.

As Bebe at long last exited her room and headed for the bathroom, Wendy rolled onto her stomach on her best friend's bed. Snatching up her mobile phone, she lit it up, checking the time that stared back at her. One forty-four a.m.

It sure was going to be one long wait to see what would happen once school rolled back around on Monday morning.

Hello friends, I'm finally back!

I hope those of you reading along feel good about how this chapter turned out. Stan and Wendy's first real confrontation with each other was one of many, maaany scenes I've been most looking forward to writing, but it surprisingly took me a little bit longer than I thought it would.

Be sure to let me know what you all think of this chapter, and any guesses of what you think might happen in chapters to come :) To be honest, I haven't exactly planned out much for my next update... so bare with me and we shall all find out together!

Thanks to those who leave me a review, I truly do appreciate it :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyy x