**Well, this has taken a while, but it's finally done (and all in one night!). Had a lot of school work recently, but now that term is over should have more time to write and uploads should be coming more frequently. Which is good. I think. :)**
Both avoided each other's gazes, starting at the floor uncomfortably. Kyle was sure that he had felt a connection between him and Kenny at that moment, as if they we one being rather than two, he merely an inferior half of a superior whole. He had never felt such a bond to another human before. Kenny could see this in Kyle's eyes as he stole a quick glance at him. There was something other than friendship there, something more. However, despite Kenny being very outgoing and confident, he was yet to experience true love. Most of his sexual knowledge he had picked up from his father, who had never thought tell Kenny any more than his misogynistic views of women. Due to this, Kenny was still very emotionally naive.
Neither of them spoke as Kyle walked towards the window and slid the latch shut, in an attempt to maintain the little heat that the room currently had. As Kyle started towards the bed, Kenny began to speak softly under his breath. Kyle sat back down next to him and listened intently.
"It's all just too much. We always found it easy, you remember, school was nothing to us. Just a place to piss about and enjoy ourselves. And if we failed, it didn't matter. We'd just laugh about it and life went on, in exactly the same way as before. The future wasn't a worry, we just focussed on friendship and fun and all of that shit that we got up to. Kids with not a fucking care in the world. Because we owned it. It was ours to do what we wanted with it."
"But there would always be a tipping point. You knew that and so did I. One stage where we had to actually try, abandon those childhood dreams forever and accept that cold hard reality. Where things are never as easy as they seem, there's always something there to trip you up, hold you back. I could feel it coming, enveloping me like a cancer, waiting for the perfect time to strike. And now it has. Childhood is over."
"It's always so fucking easy for you," Kenny hissed and although Kyle could see the anger this time, bubbling through the enraged boy, it wasn't aimed at him. It was aimed at society, those who made him grow up, not his greatest friend, who was the only one helping him keep up that childhood pretence.
"I don't know how you do it. Living the same life you always have, but with all this newfound pressure, obstacles constantly in your way. Not just school, if that wasn't enough, but everything else, your parents splitting up, Stan being an absolute arsehole and Cartman… Well, I never quite did realise how you dealt with him. But I admire you for it Kyle, more than you can ever imagine…"
"My head's just fucked up right now. You know that science essay we got today?" said Kenny and Kyle nodded slowly, "I spent all night on it. Five hours reading through that bloody text book, revising, working as hard as I motherfucking could. And look…" He waved a blank workbook in front of Kyle's face. "NOT A GODDAMN THING!"
Kenny looked down at the floor and Kyle slipped his arm around him, squeezing the top half of his left arm gently. Licking his lips, Kenny quietly continued. "I've been to the councillor about it, but nothing he says will do anything. It's not that I don't try. I think I've just physically reached the end of the line, that point where I'm just not clever enough. Just another stupid kid that's gonna spend the rest of his life flunking the ninth grade and not getting anywhere. Like my dad. That's what I'm going to be. A violent drunk who can think of nothing better to do than shout at him wife, take drugs and give his kids none of the mental support that they so clearly need…"
He trailed off and muttered under his breath for a moment, while Kyle moved in closer and took Kenny's left hand in his gloved right. "Look dude," Kyle spluttered, "I know it's hard. It might look easy for me, but trust me, it isn't. It takes so much effort just to get up in the morning, never mind going to school and all the rest. But you can do it. Don't even think for one moment that you'll flunk. I won't let you. Trust me Kenny, you're all that I've got and if you think I'm just going to let you get left behind, you've…"
Kyle was cut off suddenly as Kenny looked straight at him with his big bright blue eyes and kissed Kyle straight on the lips. It was so sudden that Kyle sat there, unable to comprehend what was happening, but his hands subconsciously moved behind Kenny's head and grasped the rough golden hair that tumbled down his neck. Their lips moved in unison, as both boys' eyes slid shut. Kenny's mouth slipped into a smile at the edges, as Kyle returned his kisses, all barriers broken, nothing preventing the love that had been building for years and was now finally set free.