Friday – 20 days before the murder

You make them wild now

You make them lost now

You're in the zone

You make them want you

Oh, how I want you, not to go

- Brush If Off Plan Three

Act 1. KYLE

When I woke the next morning I was coved with sweat after a nightmare. I couldn't remember what kind of nightmare but my heart had a really high speed. I've woken up like this for the past few days.

I looked at my digital watch on the nightstand.

07:29, one minute before I'm supposed to get ready for school. I stopped the alarm and got up from bed, with my heart still racing. I stepped out in the hall, only dressed in boxers and found my way to the toilet.

While I washed my hands I looked at myself in the mirror. My emerald eyed reflection looked back at me. I didn't look that bad, did I? I sighted and dried my hands on my towel before I got back to my room to get dressed.

Downstairs I found my mother and my brother Ike. My mother sang while she turned the page in the morning papers. Ike didn't look too happy. He was going to the dentist today and he knew I was going to Tokens party tonight.

"Why can't I go?" Was the first thing he asked when he saw me.

"Because you're too young." I simply said. "Good morning, mom." I smiled towards my mom who smiled back to me.

"Good morning, sweetheart." She said. I rolled my eyes and begun prepare my breakfast. She always had to give us stupid nicknames, but I didn't blame her, I just couldn't.

When I was done my mother took Ike to the dentist.

"The bottle is in the cupboard. Take it easy tonight." She said before she left and kissed my forehead.

"I will, mom. Thank you." She left and I prepared my bag before I left for school. I was trying to forget about yesterday, when we went inside of Mr. Jones house. I didn't like the fact that we were on private property. We broke inside of someone's house! I was the one who was lift through the window, and let the others in, did that mean that I was the one to blame? How much I tried to forget about it, I just kept thinking about it!

When I arrived at the bus stop, Stan was already there.

"Hi, dude!" I said, smiling of course.

"Hi, Kyle!" He smiled back. "How do you feel today?"

"Alright, I guess. And you?"

"Alright." He smiled. "Shelly bought me a bottle."

"Really? She did?"

"Yeah, but she just left it in my room without a word."

"Awesome."

Cartman arrived. He looked like a thunder storm in his face, he usual morning temper was on the edge. It was no idea to talk too much with him, he would just yell at us.

"'Morning Cartman." Stan and I said, we got a little humming to respond, he didn't even try to sound awake.

It didn't take long before Kenny joined us too. He seemed to be in a better mood than Cartman. He talked happily about everything and anything, like he always did before any parties.

The bus arrived and we took our usual seats. Me next to Stan, Kenny behind us and Cartman just walked past us and took a seat in the back of the bus. Something must have pissed him off before he left his house this morning, otherwise he would take the seat somewhere near us. I didn't really care, it felt a bit more peaceful when he was not around.

The day continued like always. We didn't have English or History on Fridays, so we didn't meet Mr. Jones at all, which was a relief.

By lunch time Cartman got in a much better mood. He ate like an elephant, and he didn't stop talking, not even when he had food in his mouth. I left the table early because I couldn't stand seeing that. When I stood up, I accidently looked over at the table where some girls were sitting and there I saw what Stan had been talking about. Wendy was looking at our table, and if I didn't know Wendy as well as I did, I would think that she was looking right at Cartman.

I left the cafeteria and just wandered around, saying hi to Jimmy when he passed by, but in the end I stopped by the library. I was already reading a book, but maybe I should check if I found anything interesting to read next.

I read most of the time. Well, not when I'm hanging around with Stan or are doing homework, but I read quite a lot. It makes me relax and forget about everything for a moment. Sometimes, if I'm reading a thriller, I could get stuck in thinking about solving the mysteries and stuff. Sometime I don't even respond when people are talking to me because I don't noticed they are.

By that moment I saw one book. It was one of the newer books, and it was standing in the stand like it was waiting for me. I grabbed it and didn't care to read on the backside, I just opened it and started reading.

Death and Chocolate was the title of the first chapter of the prologue.

First the colors.

Then the humans.

That usually how I see things.

Or at least, how I try.

There is a small fact:

You are going to die.

- I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice.

Nice has nothing to do with me.

Reaction to the aforementioned fact:

Does this worry you?

I urge you- don't be afraid.

I'm noting if not fair.

- Of course, an introduction.

A beginning.

Where are my manners?

I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough ad soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly turned around and found Stan smiling at me.

"I knew you would be here." He said.

"You know me too well." I said, closing the book.

"C'mon, dude. The class has already started."

"What? It has?" I took a look at the clock that has hanging on the wall, and yes, the class had indeed started.

"Let's go." Stan said, grabbed my arm and pulled me with him. I didn't even get to return the book to the stand.

Act 2. Cartman

After school we all went to our houses to prepare for the night and nothing much happened after that. We all were going to meet at Kyle's house by half ten and then go to Tokens party together.

Time went slowly, and I thought of going back to Mr. Jones house. But I didn't, I was not in the mood for that anymore. I just wanted to drink. I wanted to get drunk. I've been waiting the whole damn week for this. I looked at the clock, it was just one hour after we had left school and I was sitting on the couch, staring at the TV screen without even caring what it was showing.

I tapped my fingers on the arm rest of the couch, counting each tap.

4.

8.

14.

23.

I stood up, didn't know what to do, sat down again. I tapped my fingers again, stood up, down on my back and started to do sit-ups. I've been doing that a few days before school had started, and I have no idea why. I guess I want to change my body. Plus, if I train my body now it means I have to shower, so I have something to do for a while.

When I was standing in front of the full size mirror in the bathroom after I showered, I always felt like I wasn't a part of this world. My body was horrible, and I understood why people are talking about it behind my back.

I, Eric Cartman, am not the young boy of young girl's dreams. Never been, never gonna be. But that's their problem.

I dressed quickly and looked at myself again.

Much better. I even smiled at myself.

Down stairs I watched the clock. It wasn't time to go yet in many hours. I walked around in the house and tried to find something to do. I found some cookies in the kitchen I ate up, sat down by the TV again, got up, searching for more cookies, sat by the TV and there I sat, until I went to Stan's place a quarter before we were going to meet at Kyle's. Stan was already outside the door when I arrived. He had dressed nicely for the party.

"Hey, Stan." I said.

"Oh, Cartman. You're going to Kyle early too?"

"Yeah, want to see what bottle he got."

"I got this one." He held the bottle in one hand but in a hard grip to not drop it.

"Nice." I said.

We walked next to each other all the short way to Kyle's house. After we rang on the door bell Kenny opened.

"Hey guys! Come inside!" He opened the door so we both could get in, and closed it as we were inside. "Kyle will come down soon. Come to the kitchen, we got some snacks."

"Great!" I said, smiling.

Act 3. STAN

I followed Kenny into the kitchen. The kitchen I've been in so many times. I've eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks in here. I knew what was inside each cupboard and what drawer, where and how they put things in the fridge. It was different from my place, but I loved it here as much as I loved it at my place.

My hand automatically found its way down in the bowl that was standing on the table, and I ate some of the snacks. It was almost empty. Kenny must have eaten most of it while Kyle was upstairs.

Cartman commented it, but Kenny didn't say much about it.

Soon, Kyle entered the kitchen.

"Hi dudes!"

I turned around and looked at him. He had just showered, his red, curly hair was still a little wet, and he had dressed nicely.

Kenny was the only one who hadn't dressed up. He was wearing the same clothes he has been wearing all day, and it didn't surprise me, he didn't have many clothes at home to wear at all.

Kyle walked around the table, opened a cupboard and put down a bottle on the table. The bottle was green, so we couldn't see the color of the liquid inside.

"How about a little taste?" Kyle asked, smiling.

"Bring it!" Cartman said.

Kenny reached out and grabbed the bottle to open it, while Kyle went to another cupboard and brought four glasses with him. The glass was thin and really easy breakable. Kyle put the carefully down on the table and Kenny filled them.

The liquid was colorless, shining through the glass.

"Cheers!"

We lifted the gasses to our lips and tasted it. First it didn't taste anything, but then, it felt like the tongue was burning, and then, slowly, it felt soft and cold. We exhaled in surprise and Kyle closed the bottle.

"We- " He begun. "We'll keep this for later."

"Yeah…" We all said.

That bottle was fucking awesome. No way we are taking that to Token's party, that stuff is too good.

Kyle took it with him.

"Where are you going with that?" Cartman asked.

"Somewhere where Ike can't find it." And he disappeared upstairs again.

Act 4. KENNY

When Kyle got back down we all headed to Token's party. He didn't live that far away so it only got ten minutes to get there. It was quiet in the neighborhood but we saw through a window inside of Token's house that music was playing and people were dancing.

We rang on the doorbell and Token opened. He welcomed us with a smile. Stan gave him the bottle and said that he could put it in the kitchen. Token smiled and did as he was told. We took off our shoes and jackets. It was already really hot inside.

And there, we split up.

Kyle followed Stan like a puppy and I never saw them more that night. Cartman ran like a pig into the living room to get something to drink right away. He loved drinking, even though he never remembered anything the day after. He always asks if he had fun last night.

I stood by the door to the living room. Everyone we had known all our lives were there.

Wendy was drinking while she looked through a bunch of CD's, sometimes laughing at what Bebe said, who was standing next to her, talking with a big mouth.

Token came out from the kitchen, placing a bowl on the table.

I couldn't just stand there and look over the party. I had to do some fun too. I'm sure Token is not drinking tonight, to keep his house in one piece. While making my way through the living room I saw Cartman taking one of the CD's from Wendy's hand and put it in. She said something to stop him, but Cartman didn't listen, instead he took her glass and drank from it, then walking away.

I laughed to myself and shook my head.

I stopped by the table in front of the couch and grabbed a hand full of snacks. Even though I had eaten almost the whole bowl at Kyle's house I still was hungry. I took one more hand full and automatically looked over to see who was sitting on the couch.

Unluckily, one of them was Butters.

And he was staring right at me.

I pretend that I was looking at something behind him and stood straight again, with my back against him. It had been harder than I thought to ignore him since that day. Why doesn't he just give up?

I sighed and Craig gave me a glass. I took in and swallowed it all, but it didn't taste as good as I thought it would. I put my glass at the table and left it to mingle around with some, and ended later up with Clyde, Heidi and Red.

Clyde's nose was red and he was talking about stuff I never thought would come out from his mouth. Red laughed but me and Heidi looked like we didn't know if to laugh or just be quite, so I just smiled.

Suddenly he was talking about his family. About his father who he said was going to beat the hell out of him when he comes home. Heidi's eyes got wider like she couldn't believe what Clyde was telling us, and Red just patted his back when he broke down crying.

I stood there, shook my head and left them. I knew Mr. Donovan never would hit Clyde, he is a great man and Clyde had just drunk too much. And the clock was just… I checked the time on the DVD clock.

11:48.

Had I mingled around for that long? And I felt like I hadn't started yet! How many glasses had I drunk? Two, one at Kyle's and one here. And I felt like I didn't want anything more, I wasn't that hungry either. I just wanted to talk to anyone.

Right at that thought, I saw Pip standing alone in a corner.

Act 5. CARTMAN

I was in the mood for singing.

Why don't they play some freakin' songs you can sing along to?

I grabbed the remote to the TV and screamed into it.

"PUT IN THE CD GODDAMN IT!"

Nobody listened. They looked at me, and then talked again. I saw in the corner of my eye that Wendy changed song and smiled at me.

I turned away and begun to sing along, and I got attention.

"I wanna be a billionaire so fucking baaad, buy all the thing I never had, I wanna be on the cover ooof Forbes Magazines, smiling next to Operah and the Queen"

Act 6. STAN

My body moved on its own and I couldn't think clearly.

I wanted to be close, be warm. It must be the alcohol that is making me feel that way.

I stepped closer and closer to Kyle, who was talking to Craig. And as a slow song begun to play in the other room, I grabbed Kyle and turned him around.

"Let's dance." I said.

I almost collapsed over him, with my arms over his shoulders. Craig laughed and Kyle looked like he didn't know what to do.

I rested my head on Kyle's shoulder and closed my eyes.

Act 7. KYLE

Stan began so sway around slowly, trying to match the music. It didn't work any good. Suddenly my back was pressed against the wall, and Stan refused to move. I felt his breath behind my ear, and how his arms fell and slowly wrapped around my waist.

He lifted his head and looked at me, at the same time a new song started, and we heard Cartman's horrible singing voice, if you can call it singing, it was more like he was dying.

Stan giggled and rested his forehead against mine.

I was long lost in his ocean deep eyes.

Act 8. KENNY

Pip smiled at me as I came closer so we could talk without screaming through Cartman's singing.

"Why are you standing here?" I asked him.

"I like seeing people having fun." He smiled.

"Wouldn't it be more fun to join the fun?"

"Oh, but if I did, everyone else wouldn't have any fun!" Pip was still smiling, maybe a little sad smile, but what did I know. We both were quite for a few minutes.

"Come." I said and begun to talk to the back door. "I need to smoke, and I don't want to be standing alone out there."

"Alrighty then." Pip said and followed me.

Act 9.

As the clock turned 00:00 am Cartman dragged Wendy up and let her join the singing, Stan and Kyle kissed for the first time, and Kenny gets to hear about what Pip wants to do in his future.

It was Saturday, and 19 days left until one of the four friends is found dead.

The book Kyle was reading was; The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The song Cartman sang was; Billionaire/Travie McCoy/Lazarus