Chapter Twenty-Two - Reality and Limbo.

Checking the number on the mailbox against the address that was typed into his phone, Stan smiled as he pulled up next to the curb in front of Wendy's new house. The dark gray bricks of the two storey family home stood out from the sheet of white snow coating the front lawn. Stan could just feel the butterflies in his stomach beginning to take flight as he unbuckled his seat belt. He was equally enthusiastic to see the inside of the house and to see Wendy's parents again for the first time in two years, but more than anything else, the teenage boy couldn't contain his excitement to just simply lay eyes on his girlfriend again that morning.

Right as he was about to jump out of his car and head up the front path, Stan sensed a frown collapse into his features as he spotted the front door of the house suddenly swing open. He continued to watch on, his grin only growing more and more as Wendy appeared on the front step, closing the door and locking it behind her.

For a short moment, Stan was frozen, merely gazing Wendy up and down. She was wearing light-washed denim jeans and warm, brown boots with fur that laced the top of them. She had a beige woollen jacket wrapped around her, and her luscious, black locks came flowing out from behind her as she made a quick dash to Stan's car.

The sound of the passenger door clicking open snapped Stan out of his bemused trance as he reached over and moved his schoolbag for Wendy to sit down, "Your parents aren't home?"

Shutting the door, Wendy glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Stan, "Nah, they both had to go to work already."

"Aw," Stan sighed, disappointed, "I was excited to see them."

"They're looking forward to seeing you, too."

The sweetness of her voice made Stan's skin tingle. As she reached across and grabbed her seat belt, Wendy's brown orbs met the blue of her boyfriend's, causing her heart to skip a beat. Their inviting smirks mimicked one another as Stan placed an arm over her shoulders and slowly pulled her in towards him.

It had been less than twenty-four hours since they last kissed goodbye the previous evening, but even so, as Wendy felt her lips collide with Stan's, an explosion of overwhelming warmth went rushing throughout her entire core. She smiled into him, completely hypnotised by the innocent exchange before he pulled back and quickly pecked at her twice more. He narrowed his grinning eyes at her as he noticed her subtly bite down on her bottom lip. Today was definitely going to be another good day.

"You can come around this afternoon, though, if ya' like," Wendy suddenly spoke again as Stan pulled away the curb and back into the street, "You could stay for dinner?"

Almost instantly, Stan sensed an uncomfortable grumbling in his stomach, "Actually… you and me kinda' already have plans for tonight."

"What do you mean?" Wendy asked with a frown. Her confused gazed followed the gesture of Stan's head as he nodded towards the glove box of his car. As she nervously opened it, an instant of bewilderment washed over her at the sight of her lip gloss and hairbrush. But then in the next second, it all clicked, "Your parents found out?"

Keeping his eyes on the road, Stan solemnly nodded his head once more, "My mum pieced it all together pretty quickly," he joked dryly, "But it's fine, it's totally fine. I explained everything to her."

Wendy felt her stomach twist up in a sick knot, "Everything?"

"Everything," Stan confirmed, "Like, she said it doesn't excuse you leaving so harshly, but she gets why you had to let it drag out for so long."

Taking a quick look at her out of the corner of his eye, Stan sighed at the apprehensive expression clearly plastered across Wendy's face, "Wendy, it's really fine, I promise. My parents both said they just want me to be happy, and I told them that you do make me happy. So, you're gonna' come to mine for dinner tonight, and then you'll see for yourself that everything is okay, okay?"

Wendy allowed a soft smile to cross her. There was no way the nervousness attached to coming face-to-face with Stan's parents was going to subside until the moment itself was well and truly over, but as long as she had Stan in her corner to support her – no matter what Sharon and Randy said – she knew that she didn't really have anything to worry about.

"Okay," she conceded, shooting him a confident smile.

Stan felt his heart flutter. He took one hand away from the steering wheel, but just as he reached down to meet it with Wendy's, the two of them jumped in slim surprise at the sound of Stan's message tone ringing out from his phone.

The teenage boy gulped. He was extremely reluctant to retrieve his device from the centre console, and as he eventually did, his nervous suspicions were immediately confirmed. As she watched on, Wendy was silent for a moment or two. But soon enough, she sighed, daring to take an educated guess at who was texting her boyfriend.

"Darcy?"

The sound of the auburn haired girl's name drifting out so coldly from between Wendy's lips made Stan shudder. He couldn't to bear look at her. Mainly because he didn't want to take his eyes off the road for too long, but partly because he also felt incredibly guilty for the fact that this back and forth between he and Darcy was still going on.

The last thing he wanted was to make Wendy feel like there was something going on behind her back. So, in a final attempt to quell some of her uncomfortable feelings, Stan bravely held his phone out towards her, "Can you see what she wants?"

Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, Wendy hesitated. She was sort of surprised. Of course she didn't feel like Stan was hiding anything from her… not yet, anyway, but the fact that he was willing to prove it was certainly was reassuring to her.

Gingerly taking his phone from his hand, Wendy watched for a second or two as Stan put all his concentration back on driving his car. She took a deep breath, opening up the text message and gluing her eyes to the screen. Almost immediately, she felt her heart plummet in anger and her teeth grind together.

'Hey you. How about before the bell we head down to the back of the library for an early morning study sesh? ;)'

Wendy's whole body tensed up, infuriated. Every one of her muscles and tendons felt like they were going to implode inside of her body. Just as she sharpened her forked tongue and went to open her mouth, she suddenly stopped and second guessed herself.

If this had been at absolutely any other point in time in their lives and in their relationship, Wendy would firmly put her foot down to Stan and probably blow her top at him. But this wasn't just any particular moment in time. She had only just gotten Stan back – she didn't want to freak out on him and push him away.

Glancing back at his phone, Wendy cringed as she scrolled up and read the last message that the two had sent to each other the night before.

'Try not to miss me too much till tomorrow. Nighty night handsome xxx'

'Sweet dreams x'

It definitely stung to see another girl placing so much affection on her boyfriend. As much as Wendy felt like she wanted to openly show how much it upset her and take all of it out on Stan, she soon swallowed her pride. Shaking off a slight tremour, she instead went back to Stan's main mailbox and clicked on her own name.

As she re-read his 'goodnight' message to her from just over twelve hours ago, that was all Wendy needed for the smile to emerge back on her face.

'I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I'm gonna sort all this shit out as quick as I can. I promise baby. You have no idea how happy I am that I've got you back. Sweet dreams, I love you xxx'

Wendy sighed. She had an inkling that getting through this first part of the day was not going to be easy. Pretending not to have any involvement whatsoever with the guy she loved after finally winning him back was going to be as difficult as all hell. But, when it all came down to it, Wendy knew that she needed to trust Stan. She just hoped she wouldn't have to keep this whole façade up for too long.

"So?" Stan suddenly asked, breaking Wendy from her nagging daydreams, "What did she say?"

"Oh!" Wendy exclaimed, blinking a few times and gazing at him, "Um… she just asked if she could meet you before the bell."

Right as they drove through the school gates and into the parking lot, Stan felt his heart stop, "What?" he asked in disbelief.

If that wasn't bad enough, just as they got closer to the main building, Stan and Wendy could both just make out the image of Darcy standing on the front steps of the school. She was holding her phone clearly in her right hand and seemed to be frantically looking around the whole car park, keeping her eye out for one particular vehicle.

Putting the car into park, Stan collapsed back into his head rest. Groaning to himself, he wiped his hand down his face in agitation, "God, I haven't even thought about what I'm gonna' say to her yet…"

Watching on from where she sat in the passenger seat, Wendy stifled another silent sigh. Of course more than anything else she wanted Stan to just end everything with Darcy so he could truly be hers again, but deep down, she knew by this point that things just weren't that simple. And as much as it killed her, Wendy understood why she had to let Stan handle everything at an easier pace.

"Okay, well how about you just let me out here before anyone sees us," she mused softly, "Then you can drive round to the car park behind the gym and go into school through the back door."

Amazed, Stan looked at Wendy, wide-eyed, "Are… are y-you sure?" he stuttered out, "I mean I don't want to do anything that's going to upset you, Wendy, I just – "

"It's okay," she cut him off, subtly taking her hand down into his, "It's fine, just… just make sure it's done by the end of today, okay?"

Immediately Stan nodded his head, "I swear," he promised her, gently squeezing her hand, "I won't let you down, I promise."

Taking a moment to quickly make sure she was certain in what she was doing, Wendy eventually nodded her head. She reached down and grabbed her school bag off the floor of the car before opening the door. As she tried to climb out, Stan kept a tight grip on her hand, causing her to look back over her shoulder.

As he tenderly let go of her, Stan smiled, "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Wendy's heart melted as the hot pink of a blush settled into her cheeks, "It sounds kinda' familiar," she teased, smiling back at him right before she closed the passenger door, "I'll cya' later."

"Bye, beautiful."

As the door shut back into place and he watched Wendy make her way towards the steps of the school, Stan breathed out a heavy groan. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he went over everything that had just happened in that short car ride. Between talks of his parents and even more conversation regarding Darcy, he figured that the whole ordeal could have gone worse. Much, much worse. But, luckily for Stan, Wendy was incredibly understanding. Smart, sweet, caring and understanding.

Keeping all of this fresh in his mind, Stan looked back up and just spotted Darcy once more before he roared his engine back on and put the car into reverse. As good as this day was going to eventually be, it was also going to be very long. Stan may have been physically backing away from Darcy at this point, but he knew there was absolutely no way he could back out of their conversation that needed to take place.

Stan owed Wendy way too much for that.

Chewing thoughtfully on the end of his pen, Kyle gazed out of the classroom window. It had certainly been an interesting day thus far.

When Stan had first arrived at school that morning and did not happen to be flanked by his newly reinstated girlfriend, Kyle had sort of immediately assumed the worse. It was only when Stan explained their current predicament – being that they had to act completely absent towards one another for Darcy's sake – that Kyle discovered how much more harmful those details actually were.

Oh sure, he had thought to himself, 'Cause added complications is exactly what this endlessly bizarre saga really needs.

But, soon enough, the dark haired boy had somehow managed to convince his best friend that he and Wendy knew what they were doing. Even up until this very moment, though, Kyle still questioned whether Wendy was one hundred percent okay with playing right into Stan's little scheme. It was obvious to anyone within breathing space of the two of them how much it meant for Wendy to have her boyfriend back, and anyone else that happy wouldn't be particularly thrilled with the notion of allowing said boyfriend to let someone else think he was completely enamoured with them.

Thinking about it all made Kyle simply shake his head. He supposed none of it was really his concern. All he had promised his best friend was that he would support him unconditionally, and be there for him as comfort whenever necessary. And judging by that agreement, it didn't mean that he had to listen to every sickly romantic or awkwardly tedious happening in Stan and Wendy's relationship. And quite frankly, Kyle was happy for things to stay that way.

"Alright everyone," the teacher at the front of the room suddenly spoke, "We're going to continue on with our work from last week and look more in depth at some of Shakespeare's best work."

Kyle's English teacher, Miss Dean, was a young woman in her early thirties. She had light brown hair that just reached the top of her shoulders, and was incredibly sweet and kind to all of her students – as long as they treated her in the same way, of course.

"Sorry I'm late, Miss!"

Kyle blinked in surprise at the sound of the voice echoing from the classroom door as it suddenly swung open. Immediately, he gazed over with a smile, all too aware of the sweet sounding tone that he instantly recognised.

"Miss Stevens," Miss Dean said, giving Bebe a stern look, "At least you didn't miss anything important this time. Why don't you find a seat?"

Hiding her cheeky grin, Bebe took a quick glance around the classroom. Her regular seat by all of her girlfriends was already taken, but as her head turned to look over to the opposite side of the room, she suddenly didn't mind all that much.

Kyle kept his eyes glued to her, smirking sweetly as Bebe sauntered over towards him and sat in the desk next to his. Placing her bag down beside her, the teenage girl flicked her curly, blonde locks to one side and faced him, narrowing her teasing expression.

"I heard you had an interesting weekend," she whispered below their teacher.

Kyle shook his head at her daring sarcasm, "'Interesting' is probably the least accurate word for it."

"Okay, so now that we're all here," Miss Dean picked up again over the rumblings of her students, "I'm going to hand around some of Shakespeare's most famous scripts, and in pairs I want you to try and translate at least one scene into modern-day English."

As he waited for their teacher to make her way towards them, Kyle turned back to Bebe. A small amount of chatter began to reverberate around the classroom as the Jewish boy licked his lips, opening his mouth to speak to her again, "So what did you hear?"

Bebe frowned for a second before she realised that Kyle was still on their previous topic of quick conversation, "Probably a lot more from Wendy than what you heard from Stan," she joked, "But come on, you have to admit it was a little too weird seeing them together but not together?"

"Well…" he trailed off cynically.

"Kyle," Bebe warned. Before she could scold him any further, Miss Dean appeared in between their desks, placing two scripts down in front of Bebe. The blonde girl picked one of them up, taking a glance at the front cover before slowly starting to flick through the pages. Her discussion with Kyle regarding Wendy and Stan was still not over, "Like, it's super obvious that they're so much happier together than they ever were apart."

"I know, I know," Kyle conceded, "I'm just… ya' know, wary," he admitted, "It's so much different this time. Who knows what could happen between them."

"Yeah, who knows," Bebe repeated, her sarcastic tone still holding strong, "Maybe they'll stay madly in love and be together forever and ever."

The teenage girl giggled as she spotted Kyle rolling his eyes at her, trying to hold in his own chuckles, "Doesn't their happiness make you wanna' at least try and find some of that for yourself?" she continued to prod.

Instantly, Kyle scoffed, "Are you serious? If anything, it makes me wanna' make sure that I don't go just rushing into something like that."

Looking up from the wads of paper she was holding in her hand, Bebe's eyes pierced Kyle's. For a split second, the intense expression kind of unnerved him, but soon enough, the features of Bebe's face softened.

They had danced around this similar topic of debate a million times before, neither of them quite brave enough to starkly mention their obvious state of relationship limbo. But Bebe didn't mind. As much as she may have liked Kyle, she didn't want him committing to anything if he was still unsure of himself. But then, at the same time – was she really willing to wait around for him forever?

Shaking off the serious thought, Bebe handed Kyle the second Shakespeare script, smiling at him, "Here, start reading from that sentence I underlined."

Soaking in the words in front of him, Kyle frowned, clearly confused as he read them out loud, "'O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do'…"

Forcing himself to trail off once more, Kyle froze for a second or two. Reading ahead of the short paragraph that Bebe had underlined, his eyes came to an abrupt halt at a small command written a little further below in italics.

Kisses her

The welcomed anticipation quickly overwhelmed him as Kyle curiously flicked back to the front cover of the play. The two names written on the front of it – Romeo and Juliet – made his stomach queasy with excitement as he eagerly read on.

"'They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair'."

Bebe grinned, the sudden confidence that coated Kyle's voice almost making her giggle again, "'Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake'."

Spinning outwards in his seat so he was now sitting in it sideways, Kyle gulped, excitedly inching closer to Bebe, "'Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take'."

The precise second that the final word left his mouth, Kyle licked his top lip, watching as Bebe fluttered her eyes gently shut. Their original task of translating the old play had rapidly been forgotten. The only thing that the teenage boy was interested in deciphering was the tasteful sensation of Bebe's lips against his. Just as he presumed to lean in and quickly kiss her right on the edge of the classroom, Bebe's eyes swiftly snapped back open as she pressed her finger to Kyle's mouth.

Sneering at him with incredible cheek, the young girl let out a light laugh, "Aw, I'm sorry, but I just really don't wanna' rush into anything."

The ecstatic expression dropped cold from Kyle's face as Bebe's extreme cynicism flew carelessly from her lips. He tried not to smile at her and encourage her laughter as he backed off and folded his arms heatedly across his chest, "Ha ha."

"Oh, come on Kyle, I'm only joking," she sang apologetically.

The adorable charm in her voice absolutely resonated throughout Kyle's core. As much as he tried to stay annoyed at her, he just couldn't.

Of course he had feelings for her. Anyone with eyes and half a brain could see that. But Kyle didn't see his slow pace and careful movement with Bebe as anything that should be held against him. After all, the pair were already guilty of rushing into unwarranted relations from their very first night together when they had gotten drunk and gone all the way. And aside from all of that, as far as Kyle was concerned, he and Bebe had the perfect example available to them of what could happen if even the strongest relationship were to go just slightly amiss. And he didn't want the two of them to have to live through even a fraction of what Stan and Wendy had.

Shooting her an accepting grin, Kyle felt his heart skip a beat as Bebe brought the back of her hand to his cheek. He playfully swatted her away, chuckling again. He knew deep down that she felt the exact same way that he did.

"Besides," Bebe spoke with a smile, "I think we're having way too much fun."

Coolly leant up against a row of lockers, Stan's eyes eagerly scanned the hallway. It was the final period before the students were due for their lunch break. It also happened to be time for Stan's eleventh grade history class. And he was desperate to see Wendy again.

He was also yet to run into to Darcy throughout the day so far, but Stan wasn't necessarily sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was certainly good that he hadn't had to face the music of confronting her, but the fact that he now had to explain that to Wendy was definitely a bad thing.

Sighing to himself as he shook his head, Stan suddenly felt a smile cross him as he spied Wendy on the opposite side of the corridor. Zipping over to plant himself directly by her side, the teenage boy nonchalantly nudged his girlfriend with his elbow.

"Hello there, beautiful," he whispered softly.

Rolling her eyes, Wendy sharpened her teasing tongue, "I'm sorry, aren't we supposed to be keeping things on the down low?"

Resisting the urge to grab onto her hand as he followed alongside her, Stan swallowed a nervous lump in the back of his throat, "Speaking of that…" he began slowly, "I read that text message that Darcy sent me this morning. I'm sorry it upset you. You should have said something to me."

As they approached their classroom door, Wendy let out a mute groan. This was not a topic of conversation she was particularly keen on opening up again, "It's not your fault," she said, simply brushing it off.

Stan frowned, "Well, the more I drag this out, the more it kinda' is."

The dark haired boy dissected his own words as he and Wendy sat down in their desks beside one another. He was sort of expecting so much more opinion and emotion from Wendy. So much more… anger. But so far, she was instead letting Stan carry right along and handle their situation however he saw fit. It wasn't particularly all that fair.

"I don't want you getting the wrong idea, or thinking that there's something going on, or…" trailing off, Stan locked his eyes with Wendy's, smirking at her apologetically, "Or that it hasn't always been you."

Wendy felt her heart flutter right out of her chest, "I would never think any of that."

"Well, it's all still not very fair to you," Stan argued, trying to keep his voice low beneath the gathering students in his class.

Sighing to himself once more, Stan kept his gaze on Wendy. She had never really been able to fully escape his mind, but after spending Friday night with her, that was all that Stan had completely been able to think about. He wished he could re-live that night over and over again. But while that wasn't entirely possible, the next closest thing would certainly be letting go of all of his intimidations and concerns, and simply going public with his and Wendy's relationship.

"Screw waiting till the end of the day. As soon as the bell rings and lunch starts, I'm gonna' go and find Darcy and tell her everything. Absolutely everything," he promised her, "And then you and me can finally go back to normal. Okay?"

Staring into his eyes, Wendy felt goosebumps pop up over her skin. She may have been much more incredibly annoyed about the whole Darcy situation than what she was letting on, but she was desperate to not allow that to create a rift between her and Stan. The mere thought of the two of them returning to "normal" was more than enough to keep her pushing through. A small part of her was awfully unnerved by the distance perpetuating between them, but Wendy knew she needed to trust Stan. She needed to know that he loved her, and that he wasn't going to let them slip apart again.

"Okay," she agreed, grinning a love-struck goofy grin at him.

Stan couldn't help but match her expression. He reached his arm out, subtly daring to take her by the knee, right before they were rapidly and regrettably interrupted.

"Oh, good, you two are friends again?"

The young couple jumped in surprise as their eyes darted upward and landed on the image of Heidi standing above them.

"Any chance it can stay that way this time? We do still have a presentation to give on Friday," she joked sarcastically, "I swear, you are the two most bipolar people I've ever met in my life."

Narrowing her eyes cheekily at Stan, Wendy bit her lip, "Oh, you have no idea…"

The curious tone in her friend's voice brought Heidi's thoughts to a winding halt for just a moment, until her eyes abruptly snapped wide open, "Oh my God, you two got back together!"

Glaring in shock at the brunette girl, Wendy's jaw fell open, "Shush!"

In the next instant, the final member of their study group joined them, "You two got back together?" Clyde echoed.

"Shut up!" Stan sniped.

"We're not exactly making it public knowledge just yet," Wendy said, backing him up.

"Why the hell not?" Heidi questioned in disbelief, "This is, like, astronomical news, why wouldn't you want to tell anyone?"

"Because," Stan countered through gritted teeth, pausing to gather his thoughts, "Because… I haven't told Darcy yet."

Almost instantly, Heidi's expression dropped in understanding, "Oh…"

"Oh?" Clyde repeated once more, "What do you mean 'oh'? Who cares, she was just a play thing wasn't she?"

Sensing his insides tense up at Clyde's words, Stan glanced at Wendy out of the corner of his eye, bringing his voice to an agitated murmur, "It's a little more complicated than that," he spoke simply, "I want her to hear it from me, and Leah is sitting right over there, so can we just drop it, please?"

As the group's collective vision drifted over to the other side of the classroom where Darcy's best friend was sitting with a couple of her other girlfriends, Clyde and Heidi quickly bit their tongues. If there was one relationship in South Park that everyone knew not to get involved with, it was certainly Stan and Wendy's.

It was only a matter of time until everything would be out in the open again, anyway. Stan's newly rejuvenated courage would make sure of it, as would Wendy's determination to absolutely take her boyfriend back for herself and only herself.

They both swapped a quiet glance with one another as Ms. Pocks entered the room and began the lesson. Their affectionate smiles totally penetrated each other's souls as Stan gawked at her with remorseful eyes, and Wendy teasingly twirled her hair around the end of her finger. They both knew their tortuous two years apart was almost completely over. Just like they knew that they could totally and wholly trust one another.

Oh well, hallelujah, finally a new chapter from me! ;)

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all you beautiful readers who remained patient with me and didn't complain or submit any rude, anonymous reviews. You're exactly the kind of people that I love to write for :)

So on that note, I can't wait to hear what you all think here!

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyy x