Chapter Twenty-Three - Coming Clean.

As soon as the high pitch of the school bell went resonating between the four walls of the classroom, Stan and Wendy's eyes shot up to meet each other.

For a short moment, all they could do was hold a silent gaze. Soon enough, Wendy beamed a gentle smile at her boyfriend. The promise he had made her at the beginning of their history lesson was all too fresh in her mind. Stan had never really been one to purposely let her down before, but as she continued to project him an encouraging, supportive grin, the teenage girl secretly hoped that this situation would prove no different.

Staring back at her, Stan mirrored her sweet smile. It didn't take much for him to know exactly what she was thinking. As quiet as Wendy may have been about her feelings concerning the entire Darcy ordeal, Stan knew that deep down she was desperate for him to just step up and end things with her already.

By this point, all the other students in their class were hastily springing up from their desks with the eager intention to head outside and enjoy their lunch break. But as Stan took an innocent glimpse over Wendy's shoulder, he quickly discovered that one of his classmates in particular seemed to be in quite the rush. Narrowing his eyes as Leah leapt out of her seat and made a beeline for the classroom door, the teenage boy's heart suddenly froze in surprise as Darcy's best friend stole a deliberate glance at him.

Images came flooding back to Stan of Leah spending an awful lot of time texting on her phone during their history lesson, but before he could quite piece together the rather obvious situation at hand, his train of thought was suddenly derailed as Wendy stood up in front of him.

"Everything alright?"

Blinking a few times before looking up at her, Stan sheepishly nodded his head, "Yeah… yeah, I'm fine. Just sorta' nervously deciding what I'm gonna' say to… ya' know."

Sighing incredibly softly to herself, Wendy simply picked up her school bag and began to head towards the door, "I'll meet you in the cafeteria?"

As he followed her out, Stan went to open his mouth to speak, but before even the slimmest sound could escape him, the teenager felt his left arm viciously being ripped and clawed at, forcing him to spin around.

"Hey, you."

With wide eyes, Stan gulped, forming a sickly lump in his stomach as he locked vision with Darcy. Just out of the corner of his eye, he could spy Leah standing off to one side with another one of their girl friends. Apparently, it was all just as Stan had suspected – Leah had obviously made sure that Darcy knew to rush around to the eleventh grade history classrooms right on the bell before the dark haired boy had the chance to avoid her again.

As if the current predicament couldn't get any worse, Stan abruptly felt his face turn red and Wendy sensed her heart slightly sink as Darcy uncontrollably leant up and kissed her supposed "suitor" on the cheek.

"Oh, no way!" Heidi barked under her breath from where she was stood supportively beside Wendy, "That bitch did not just kiss your boyfriend!" she steamed threateningly.

"Wait, wait, it's fine," Wendy pleaded with her, grabbing onto Heidi's arm before her friend had the chance to angrily approach Darcy, "It's not her fault… she doesn't know…"

There were a million terrifying thoughts flying throughout Stan's mind by this point, but none more so than the notion that Wendy may have become irreversibly upset with him after what Darcy had just done. As he took the most subtle glance possible back at his girlfriend, his heart settled with immense relief to see her force an understanding smile at him before blowing him a soft kiss and wandering off with Heidi towards the cafeteria.

"Why am I only just hearing that you were home alone all weekend and didn't invite me over?"

The sound of Darcy's voice vigorously pulled Stan back into the conversation at hand. Looking down at her, blank faced, he gulped once more.

It was now or never.

"Uh… Darce," he slowly began, "Can I talk to you about something? Over here?" he bravely went on, taking her by the hand and leading her to edge of the corridor by a row of lockers.

Darcy immediately frowned, "Stan, I'm only joking. I don't care if you wanted to just have a guys' weekend."

"It's not… It's not that…" Stan stuttered, reaching his hand up under his blue and red beanie as he awkwardly scratched his head, "I… There's something I gotta' tell you."

The frown on Darcy's face was only increasing, "What is it?"

All up, there were probably about ten or eleven ways that Stan had desperately played this conversation out over and over again in his head. But still, he didn't have the first clue what the gentlest way to break to Darcy what he to break to her would be. In fact, the only certain thought that he could form in that moment was how much of a huge jerk he had been.

"…God, I am such an asshole."

"Stan," Darcy cut in, visibly sounding a lot more worried, "Just tell me, okay? What is it? Just tell me."

Sucking in a deep, deep breath, Stan remained silent. It was only when Darcy tenderly took a hold of both of his hands and an image of Wendy guiltily flashed into his mind that he quickly pulled away, "Darcy, I have a girlfriend."

The last word stumbled off the end of his tongue as a fresh quiet swept over the two of them.

Stan's heart was pounding as he regretfully stared down at the ground. Bringing his vision slowly back up, he tried to read the expression on Darcy's face. But all he could see was confusion. Confusion, and hurt.

"You…" she whispered, "You have a… girlfriend?"

Stan nodded his head.

"That's why we could never go public?" Darcy spoke sadly, "Because you secretly just had a girlfriend the entire time you were hanging out with me?"

Stan fastened his eyes shut and ran his hand down his face. Oh, how much simpler that scenario would have been to explain.

"No," he confessed, "No, that's not it… I only… We only stated dating on Friday."

Instantly, Darcy saw red. Was she really hearing what she thought she was hearing?

"Friday? Last Friday, like, three days ago?" she spat, "Who is she?"

Another huffing breath escaped Stan, "You know that girl you were telling me about? The one who helped you with your math homework in the library last week?" he swallowed, "Wendy?"

A fire bubbled in Darcy's stomach and lit up behind her eyes, "The new girl?" she screeched, suddenly not caring if any passer-bys were now staring at her and Stan, "What the hell, Stan! Do you even know her, have you even spoken two words to her?!"

"No, Darcy, you don't understand. She's not new," Stan said, trying to console her. He reached his hands to gently take her by either arm, but only flinched as Darcy viciously ripped away from him, "She was born in South Park. I've known her forever, we went to elementary school together, and then middle school, and…"

Hopelessly trailing off, Stan took a breath to try and calm himself. His blue eyes pierced Darcy's, slightly reprieved to see that he had now at least gained her attention and she was listening to him more steadily. He definitely needed to be acutely careful with how he chose to continue to explain himself.

"And… we dated. We dated for years, we dated forever. But… then in ninth grade, she had to move. She moved all the way to Malibu, and we broke up, but now she's back and…"

Cutting off his own frazzled ramblings, Stan stopped, gazing at Darcy once more. Her brown eyes were pooling with all kinds of emotion, and the sadder she appeared, the more shame Stan felt in himself. But he couldn't allow that to overtake him. Somehow, he had to force himself to remember why he was doing all of this.

And to be blatantly honest, at the end of the day, it was pretty damn easy to do so.

"I've been in love with her since I was eight years old."

His words echoed harshly between Darcy's ears. This was exactly the kind of raw emotion and passion that she had been searching for within Stan for so, so long. But now that she had finally bared witness to it, all she had discovered was that none of it was directed at her. And it probably never would be.

Holding back the few trivial tears that threatened to fill her eyes, the auburn haired beauty stubbornly chewed down on her bottom lip, "But… on Thursday here at school when we – "

"I know," Stan cut in, "I know I kissed you but… she and I had this huge fight and I just – "

"You just wanted to make her mad."

The firm statement drifted coldly from Darcy's lips as she pierced daggers at Stan, daring him to try and tell her otherwise. But his silence spoke more to her than any other excise ever could.

Eventually, all that the teenage girl could do was shrug her shoulders in humble defeat, "Well, I guess I can't really compete with that, can I?"

The strangest sensation immediately swelled in Stan's chest. It was such a huge relief to not have Darcy yelling at him anymore, but the solemn sorrow in her voice still made his heart splinter, if only slightly.

"I'm sorry, Darce," he finally admitted, "I honestly, really didn't want to hurt you. I tried so, so hard not to have feelings for her again when she came back, but I – "

"It's fine, Stan, it's okay," she interjected, "I guess I appreciate you telling the truth and stuff…"

Stan could tell Darcy was lying.

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

Timidly, she glanced up at him, busting herself as she forced the smallest possible smirk, "Thanks."

The insane awkwardness consumed the both of them instantaneously as Stan could only take one step past her as he began to leave, "I might cya' later?" he offered lamely.

"Sure," Darcy spoke half-heartedly, "Later."

Her steps were weighted, and her heart was even heavier as Darcy hung her head down and scurried away from Stan as quickly as she could. The teenage boy watched on, following her up the hallway with his eyes as a stabbing feeling pierced his guts. He couldn't help but feel horrible – no matter how much more he adored and cared about and loved Wendy, Stan couldn't help but feel like an absolute piece of crap. But Darcy would be okay, he was sure of it. She was pretty and popular and smart, and the right guy would be out there somewhere for her.

The only other source of solace that Stan could find, was that his perfect girl was waiting for him and finally, truly could be all his again.

As he adjusted his school bag on his shoulder, Stan spun around and raced towards the cafeteria, trying to shake all negative thoughts of Darcy from his mind. The moment that he opened the large double doors and spotted Wendy sitting at a table in between Bebe and Heidi, the task definitely became a lot easier.

Disregarding a lunch tray or even any food, Stan zipped over to Wendy and forcefully squeezed himself onto the bench beside her and Bebe, grinning from ear to ear.

"Excuse me, ladies, is this seat taken?"

The ears of all the girls instantly perked up at the addition of a slightly deep male voice at their lunch table, but none more so than Wendy as she swiftly glanced beside herself and blushed at how closely Stan was sitting next to her.

"Um…" she began with a murmur, "Are we… all good?"

Smirking at her sweet, adorable nature, Stan eagerly leant in and kissed her on the cheek, "Everything has been taken care of," he announced, grabbing her hand and lacing their fingers together on top of the table.

As Wendy's face instantly flushed an even deeper shade of amazed red, Bebe squealed in happiness from where she sat beside Stan, flinging her arms dramatically around his torso.

"Ahhh, yes!" she screeched, "Finally! Oh my God, I am so beyond happy for you two!"

"Ha," Stan chuckled as Bebe reluctantly wriggled away from him, "Thanks."

"Wait a minute, what?" Red suddenly snapped in confusion from across the table.

"Yeah, hang on, you two got back together?" Nichole joined in, echoing the curiosity of all of Wendy's friends.

Coolly shrugging his shoulders, Stan let go of Wendy's hand and comfortably slung his arm around her instead, "Oh, come on, don't act so surprised."

The teasing tone in his voice gelled right in with the rest of the excitable chatter at the lunch table as the girls went back to giggling and gossiping amongst themselves. The smiles plastered on all of their faces made Wendy beam in happiness. She was so relieved that all of her oldest girl friends were so glad for her. It definitely made the abrupt transition of getting back together with Stan feel that much natural and easier.

Looking at him out the corner of her eye and catching his charming smile, Wendy bit her lip, "So, um… how did she take it?"

Pausing in hesitation, Stan soon shook his head slowly at her, "Don't worry about her," he spoke gently, pushing a loose strand of black hair behind Wendy's ear, "The only people you need to worry about now are you and me, okay?"

The tender whisper in his voice gave Wendy goosebumps. His sincere and promising tone was only crescendoed by the sensation of him giving her shoulder a devoted squeeze. It made Wendy's heart soar.

No matter how doubtful she may have been about how this day was going to go, or how many fearful concerns she may have had, Wendy knew that none it mattered anymore. Stan had kept his promise. He had proven himself to her, and more importantly, he had proven just how seriously he was intending on taking their relationship this time around. Not that Wendy had really had any distrust in him.

But after doing what they had done on Friday night, it felt especially good for her to know that they truly were now boyfriend and girlfriend again.

As Stan followed Wendy up the corridor, playfully prodding and poking and tickling her with every few steps, she almost wanted to teasingly slap his hand away. But no matter how much she considered the thought, she simply couldn't. The affection he was bestowing upon her was far too satisfying for her to resist.

Her delighted giggles soon became too much to handle as she flung herself away from his touch and into a row of lockers, cheekily gazing up at him. Their lunch break was almost over, and in a few minutes, the pair of them were somehow going to have to suffer through two whole classes without the other before the school day came to a complete end.

Matching her adoring grin, Stan rested one hand against the lockers beside Wendy's head as he stared down at her. Despite the fact that just about everyone in the school was suddenly aware of their newly rebuilt relationship, whenever the teenage boy locked eyes with his girlfriend, it truly felt like they were the only two people in the whole world.

He teased her with a sarcastic smirk, "So, we're really doing this?"

"Having second thoughts, are we?" Wendy sniped back.

The devilish grin on his face remained, "Only when you're in a really bad mood."

Gasping in surprise at the cynical tone in his voice, Wendy brought one hand up to jokingly shove Stan away from her. As quick as anything, though, he grabbed onto her wrist, shaking his head at her. Hadn't she learnt by now that there was absolutely no way for her to outwit him in a play fight?

Bringing both of their arms down and pinning hers firmly against the locker, Stan raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice to a seductive whisper, "Well, now that everything's out in the open, we can finally pick up right from where we left off on Friday night."

An immediate sensuality bubbled in Wendy's stomach. She replayed Stan's sentence over again in her mind, dissecting each word that he had spoken to her, until one rapid moment when her eyes widened. One, single syllable that he had murmured pierced her brain as she frowned and pulled herself from his grasp.

"Wait, why only now?"

The abruptly grim tone in her voice made Stan screech on his brakes as he gawked down at her, confused and blank faced. Slowly bringing his hand away from hers, he nervously cleared his throat, "Huh?"

Wendy's eyes narrowed even sharper as a dismal thought from the weekend reappeared to her, "I knew there was something weird going on," she said. The teenage girl placed her manicured fingertips against her boyfriend's chest and gently pushed him away, giving herself some space, "Ever since I went home for dinner on Saturday night and then came back for the rest of the weekend, you started acting sorta'… distant."

"Distant?" Stan echoed, "Distant how?"

"Well, before Kyle and the guys showed up we were about to… you know…" she awkwardly argued, "And then the same thing happened on Sunday afternoon where you just kinda' brushed me off, and – "

"So, wait," Stan cut her off, "This is all because we didn't do anything else like that after the first time?"

As ridiculous as it all may have sounded, Wendy eventually nodded her head. She knew that there were a million other things more important in a healthy relationship than just sex. Of course she knew that. But after how sharply and quickly she and Stan had gone from hot and heavy to completely dull over the weekend, it was only fair that she would have her concerns.

Sighing to himself, Stan ran a hand down his face, "Wendy, that wasn't because of you, or anything like that," he timidly began to explain, "I was just trying to protect your feelings."

"What do you mean?" she asked, watching his face flush pale with nerves.

Stan gulped. Just when he was starting to think that the terrifyingly difficult stages of his day were over, he was quickly discovering that he still had a lot of explaining to do.

"Okay, that text message from Darcy that you read this morning?" he began, watching Wendy nod her head, "She was sending me messages like that all weekend. She wouldn't stop bugging me."

Clearly unimpressed, Wendy folded her arms against her chest and cringed. The longer that this day was dragging out, the less she was quickly beginning to feel sorry for Darcy.

Huffing out an agitated breath, Stan took Wendy by the waist, not allowing her to pull away as he went on, "And I felt bad about it, okay? I felt like if we did anything with each other again, it would sort of be screwing you over a bit."

Wendy's curiosity instantly peaked as Stan sensed her settle more into his grip, "It was just, like…" he continued, gathering his thoughts, "There was some other girl out there who liked me, and who thought I liked her back, and I just decided until I sorted it all out, I wasn't going to let you just give yourself to me again."

A faint wriggle crossed Wendy's face as the sweet words from her boyfriend almost made a smile appear. Scrunching up her nose, she stole an embarrassed glance at her feet. Had she seriously been that silly and worried over nothing this entire time?

"So…" she mused gently, "How do you feel about it now?"

"Now?" Stan repeated. He took his forefinger to Wendy's chin, tilting it up to gaze directly into her deep brown eyes, "Are you kidding me? We would do it right now if we could."

Steamy goosebumps went ricocheting up Wendy's arms as she bit her lip and lost herself in the pooling blue of Stan's eyes. Giggling to herself, she shied away for a short moment before glancing back at him to find him smiling just as affectionately.

"I'm sorry," he finally admitted with a chuckle, "You should have told that it was upsetting you."

"I know, I know," Wendy droned, "I just thought, you know, we've only just got back together, and if I started nagging you and trying to rule your life already, then – "

"Then what? You'd be, like, pushing me away, or something?" Stan asked, spotting the bashful confirmation in Wendy's face, "Baby, you are stuck with me, okay? I'm not going anywhere."

The exultant joy in Wendy's grin made Stan's skin tingle in pure happiness as he stroked the side of her cheek and twirled a long strand of her hair loosely around his finger, "The next time I do something that pisses you off, just tell me, alright?"

Nodding her head with immediate consent, the smile remained glued to Wendy's face. For a short moment, her mind started to wander. She and Stan had never been a pair who were afraid of confrontation with one another, and they had definitely had spats over jealousy in the past. It had never fully torn them apart before. If anything, the fact that they were older and slightly more mature surely meant that they were even better equipped to handle those sorts of issues now.

And aside from all of that, of course – Wendy was going to be damned if she was going to let anything or anyone come between her and Stan ever again.

"If she ever texts you again," Wendy began sternly, "I want to know about it."

Stan sneered, trying to hide his laughter. This was the resilient, ass-kicking Wendy that he knew and loved.

"Okay, okay," he agreed, extending his hand for her to shake, "Deal?"

Narrowing her vision at his hand, Wendy blushed, gazing straight up at Stan and shaking her head at him. He was such a dork.

"Dumbie," she spat, grabbing onto the collar of his jacket with both hands and yanking him in towards her.

Laughing and smiling into her kiss, Stan shut his eyes, passionately lapping his lips against Wendy's over and over again. As the bell for the end of lunch finally rang in the background, the young couple stubbornly ignored it, simply revelling in the first of many kisses they would share that school year. Wendy's heart soared as she felt Stan caress her hips and flirtatiously grab onto the belt loops of her jeans before pulling her closer.

She knew that she could count on him.

Why hello lovely readers!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :) Everything just seems to be nicely falling into place, doesn't it? Well, allow me to let you know that this story is farrrrr from over. I'd actually hazard to say it's only just over half way through, so for those of you growing a little impatient, I highly suggest you pull on your big kid pants, buckle up and enjoy the long ride :)

So, what else do we think could possibly happen from here? Have Stan and Wendy dealt with Darcy for the last time? Will they have more problems? Hm. Leave a review and let me know what you think!

As always, I truly appreciate all of your reviews, especially from those of you having just as much fun with this as I am! :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyy x