Kyle was the kind of person who saw the best in everyone. Even when he had been proven wrong a thousand times, he never gave up. His friends had often called him out on this, and some saw it as a personality flaw; a weakness, if you will. Kyle always insisted that everything bad had a good side. He had been accused many times that this belief would kill him one day.

Kyle knew that Stan often worried about his wellbeing, and he knew it was for good reason. Stan would warn him not to be so trusting, and after Kyle got burned, Stan would often tell him "I told you so."

This was especially true in the case of Cartman. More often than not, Kyle had insisted to the others that Cartman could change; that there was some goodness left inside the boy. Stan disapproved, but Kyle couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Cartman than he let on. Time and time again, Cartman let Kyle down. Not once did Cartman give any outward indication that Kyle was correct in his assumptions.

But Kyle was just as stubborn at Cartman, so he never let it drop. He stopped mentioning it to Stan, because he knew it frustrated his friend to see him get hurt. He also never brought it up with Cartman, because he knew that he would laugh in his face. But that summer, Kyle had opened his eyes. No longer was he ok with Cartman hiding behind his front. For once, Kyle understood why Cartman was the way he was. It was the same reason why everyone was the way they were in South Park. Kyle had played along, just as Cartman and the rest had done.

But enough was enough. Kyle had stumbled upon something, and there was no way he was keeping this realization to himself.

"You stupid no good rotten filthy dirty low life ginger red-headed ugly stupid JEW!"

Kyle briefly wondered why he had to push Cartman as far as he did. He kept his hands up, his eyes tightly shut as he kept his face turned away as the other boy wailed on him. Luckily, he wasn't getting too hurt. The punches stung a bit, but Cartman was mostly only hitting his hands. He vaguely heard the slapping sound Cartman's fists made as they repeatedly slammed into Kyle's palms. Cartman continued to cry out strings of insults, but Kyle paid no attention to them. Instead, he focused on the tone of Cartman's voice. Kyle knew that he had touched a rather sensitive nerve. He didn't need Cartman's weak, broken voice to confirm that.

Eventually, the punches started to become weaker and slower, and Cartman's insults turned into soft grunts and moans of dying rage. Kyle opened his eyes cautiously and then turned his head to look up at Cartman. He gently caught Cartman's right fist in his left hand. Cartman's head was hung, and his breath was ragged.

"Fuck… you… Jew…" he weakly muttered, his voice hitching softly. Kyle could feel Cartman's fist trembling.

Neither boy moved, both stuck in a moment that seemed to last a lifetime. Kyle was witnessing one of Cartman's rare moments of vulnerability, and there was no way in hell that he was going to interrupt that. Then again, he knew that in a few moments Cartman would recover and try to come up with either an excuse for his actions or a way to manipulate the incident into his favor. Kyle wasn't sure how, but he knew that he had to prevent this from happening.

He also knew that he had to break the silence between them sometime; they couldn't stay like that forever.

"Cartman," he said softly. "It's ok."

Cartman's shaking seemed to subside, and Kyle could see the other boy's jaw clench. "Don't patronize me." Kyle could practically feel the walls coming back up.

"I'm not."

"I'm not fucking weak."

"I know that."

Cartman kept his eyes closed, as if it protected him somehow from the awkward situation.

"I…" Kyle took a deep breath. It took a lot to say what he needed to say, mostly because he knew that normally Cartman would laugh in his face. "I've never thought that you were weak. In fact, I… think quite the opposite."

"I said don't fucking patronize me."

"And I said I wasn't."

Finally, Cartman opened his eyes. Kyle nervously looked back at the boy he had called his enemy for over ten years. The brown eyes held many different emotions that Kyle had not been privy to see very often. Kyle didn't try to hide his own emotions, either. Kyle was tired of pretending that they weren't friends. He knew that they both pretended to hate each other more than they actually ever did, and he was prepared to change that.

Once again, Kyle was gambling everything on his blind trust that there was more to Cartman than the other let on.

They stared, and they continued to do so for a long while. Neither boy said a word. Kyle felt like they were silently trying to work out some sort of agreement; some sort of understanding about what was happening. They didn't move.

Finally, Kyle dared to make the first move again. "I consider you a friend."

Cartman stared at him, not offering a reply.

Kyle kept trying. "I swear on my life that what I'm about to say is true…" Before he could continue, Cartman interrupted him.

"Don't."

Cartman's voice was soft yet gruff at the same time. Kyle studied his face.

"…Why not?"

Another long pause. "Because. We don't do this. We were never meant to."

"And who decided that?"

Cartman didn't seem to have any answers.

"I won't tell anyone about this."

"Good. Otherwise I'd rip your goddamn balls off." Cartman wiped at his face irritably, trying to wipe the wetness out of his eyes. Kyle could tell that he thought that he was lying.

"I swear I won't."

"Whatever."

"… Do you want to talk?"

"Talking is for girls, remember? If you can predict everything I'd say, then you would have predicted that and not asked such a faggy question."

"Fair enough."

Cartman finally rolled off of him, and Kyle was thankful. It had been an unusually close and uncomfortable position, and Cartman wasn't exactly light. Kyle sat up, putting his hands out behind him on the cold pavement of the sidewalk, glancing at the larger boy. Cartman sat cross-legged, glaring out into the distance.

Kyle bit his lip. "You never did rent your movie."

"If you hadn't butted into my business, then I wouldn't have forgotten."

"I guess."

Cartman sighed. "Why do you have to be such a pushover?"

Kyle felt a small smile tug at his lips. Cartman moodily glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and Kyle's chest seemed to contract.

Cartman snorted, looking away. "You HAVE changed, Jew."

With that, they said nothing more. They sat there for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

-.-.-.-.-.

That weekend, Kyle didn't get to see any of his friends. Whenever he wasn't working, he was catching up on his homework. He was glad when Monday came. He got to the bus stop early.

He was the first to arrive, so he threw his bag down on the ground, leaning against the South Park sign as he waited eagerly for his friends. He couldn't wait to talk about his new job with them. He was slightly nervous about seeing Cartman. After they had sat in silence for at least twenty minutes, both of them got up simultaneously and muttered farewells. However, he tried not to worry about it too much.

Stan arrived first, and Kyle was glad he did.

"Hey Stan!" he greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey," Stan responded, taking his usual place on the side of the road. Kyle pushed off of the sign and moved closer to his friend.

"So how was your weekend?"

"Okay… Friday I had practice… Saturday, Wendy and I hung out in her room, and we totally made out for, like, hours…" Kyle tried not to wrinkle his nose at the thought, "and Sunday my dad insisted on helping me fix up that old, nasty tree house we built back in elementary school."

"Why did he want to fix it up?"

"Beats me. I think it's because he's trying to reconnect with me. I've been busy lately, and I think he's craving some father and son time. Or something. Who knows."

Kyle smiled. Since coming back from language camp, Stan and his relationship had been awkward. For the first time that month, Kyle felt that Stan had relaxed about the whole incident.

"Well… how do you feel about that?"

Stan sighed. "I don't know. It's annoying, but he's my dad too, you know? Hopefully he gets over this soon."

"Yeah. Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

"I didn't have any plans…"

"Do you want to hang? We haven't yet since I've come back, and it's been WAY too long."

Stan smiled. "Ok, sounds good. My house or yours?"

"Either is fine with me."

"Cool."

Stan glanced over at Kyle. Kyle frowned as his friend suddenly went pale and looked away from him.

"Stan? Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah, I-I'm fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

-.-.-.-.-.

"This is all your fault, Jew," Cartman whined.

For once, Kyle had nothing to say. He frowned as he watched Kenny making out with some senior girl across from him. Stan and Cartman were watching the pair as well. All of them had similar looks of disgust on their faces.

"You created this beast. And now none of us can enjoy our lunches."

Kyle bit his lip and looked down at his food. "Yeah, I know."

"Dude, this is kind of nauseating," Stan commented, tilting his head.

"I'm glad you don't do this with Wendy in front of us," Kyle groaned. He absentmindedly poked at his food with no intention of actually eating any of it.

"Ah, stop it Kenneh! Shit, go find a fucking closet, you poor sick bastard!" Cartman complained loudly. Kyle looked up to see Kenny casually give Cartman the finger over the girl's shoulder. "Hey!" Cartman shouted in response. Kyle frowned, glancing down at where the girl's hands were fumbling in Kenny's lap.

"Whoa dude…" Kyle commented quietly. Stan snorted at him.

"Yeah, something tells me it's not going to stop there," Stan observed.

Kenny growled softly, nipping at the girl's lips playfully before pulling slightly away. "Dudes, you guys are ruining the mood."

"Kenny, why don't you… I don't know, finish somewhere else?" Kyle asked, making another face as he saw where Kenny's hands were.

"Shit, just because you've never gotten this far doesn't mean you should hate," Kenny laughed, winking at him. "Unless you want to join us?"

"No thank you," Kyle deadpanned.

"Come on, Love, let's go someplace a little quieter," Kenny grinned. He zipped up his fly and took her by the hand, leading her out of the cafeteria.

"Shit, I don't know what his problem is," Kyle fumed. "And besides, he was a virgin before this weekend. He doesn't need to rub it in our faces!"

Stan chuckled. "Well, maybe you should use your newfound popularity to find a girlfriend, Kyle."

"Not interested," Kyle scowled, poking at his food. He could feel both sets of eyes look at him, but he didn't offer up any further explanation.

-.-.-.-.-.

"This is awesome."

"Yeah."

They were at Stan's house. They had just started up the PS3, sitting down next to each other on the couch.

"We haven't played this in forever!"

"Hm."

Kyle blinked and glanced to his left, clutching the controller in his hands. "Are you ok, dude?"

"Yeah, I'm cool."

"Okay…"

They continued to play, but Kyle knew that something was definitely wrong. His friend had been acting strangely ever since he met up with him after school, and things hadn't gotten any better. Granted, Stan had been acting weird since Kyle came back from camp, but for some reason, it bothered Kyle more this afternoon than it had in the past. He decided to not push it. Stan would eventually say what was on his mind. He always did.

"Kyle?"

"Yeah?"

Another pause. Kyle swallowed. Was Stan finally going to talk about it?

"… Are you gay?"

Kyle paused the game. He stared at the TV for a moment, took a deep breath, and looked over at Stan. The dark haired boy was staring straight at the TV, and was obviously not planning on looking back at Kyle anytime soon. Stan's awkward posture and tense hands on the controller told Kyle that he had been meaning to ask this for a while.

Kyle considered for a moment. He HAD been planning on telling Stan, but he didn't even think of the possibility of Stan bringing up the subject first. He concluded that it must have been due to lunch earlier that day.

He licked his lips. He shouldn't be worried. This is his best friend.

"Yeah."

Stan didn't react right away. He kept staring at the TV, clinging onto the controller for dear life.

"D-do you like me?"

Kyle was stunned. "W-what?" He definitely wasn't expecting that question.

"Do you like me?" Stan repeated, his voice a little bit more steady.

"I-uh, well…" he stuttered. "I-I guess I never thought…" Wait, stop. Backtrack. Kyle's mind wheeled. He knew Stan could always tell when he was lying. He tried to get out of the awkward situation without revealing too much. "I don't want … to ruin our friendship," he finally concluded.

Stan didn't say anything, so they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Kyle couldn't take it. He hated long silences, especially awkward ones like these. He absentmindedly picked at one of the grooves in the controller, desperately trying to come up with something to say.

"A-are you ok?" he asked quietly.

Stan took a while to answer. "Yeah, I just… it's going to take me a while to process… this."

Kyle nodded slowly, studying his friend nervously. "I'm sorry I… didn't tell you sooner. Before camp, I didn't want anyone to know. I mean, I was just figuring it out myself."

"How could you tell?"

"Well, uh, I was never interested in girls… and… well, yeah."

"Do you look at other guys? Like that?"

What kind of question was that? "Um… I guess, yeah."

"Do you look at ME like that?"

Kyle sighed, putting the controller down on the coffee table. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Shit, Stan, what kind of question is that?"

"Do you?"

"What? Look at you?" Kyle was trying to buy time.

"Do you find me attractive?"

"Stan, I don't really know how to answer that," he nervously chuckled.

Silence.

"I mean… It's not like I don't, but… Shit, I… you're my best friend."

More silence.

"Plus, you're dating Wendy… not that we would date if you weren't! I just mean, you guys were, like, meant for each other. You guys are perfect!"

Nothing.

"Fuck, Stan, I… please say something… anything! Otherwise I'm going to keep rambling and-"

"Shut up."

Kyle quickly shut his mouth, eyes widening. Stan's voice sounded strange. The air felt thick. Kyle waited for what seemed like an eternity for Stan to finally say something. As he waited, he silently cursed himself. He had sounded like an idiot. Not only that, but he probably gave Stan the wrong idea. His stomach twisted with the fear that he had really fucked up this time.

Stan opened his mouth. Kyle caught his breath.

"I wish you never went to that camp."

Kyle blinked. "Huh?"

Stan tossed the controller lightly next to him on the couch, and finally looked over at him. Kyle couldn't read Stan's expression, and that scared the shit out of him. They stared at each other for a moment.

"S-Stan?" Kyle was terrified.

Suddenly, Stan's face twisted into a small frown, but the look in his eyes was a little bit less foreign to Kyle. Kyle watched his friend as a few different expressions flashed across his face: confusion, curiosity, and then finally…

"Stan? Are you ok? You look like you're going to thro-"

"Go." Stan quickly snapped his eyes away from him, standing up.

"What?"

"Go. You make me sick. I can't look at you right now." Without another word, Stan headed upstairs toward his bedroom. A door slammed. Kyle was left alone.

Numb.

Kyle sat for a moment, frozen. It didn't take him long to recover, however. Kyle shakily pulled out his cell phone, snapped it open, and pressed the speed dial. He placed the phone to his ear, waiting. He silently begged the person on the other side to pick up.

"Hello?"

Thank god. Kyle could feel the panic suddenly rise up through his body as the realization hit him that he might have just lost his best friend. He could barely speak.

"Kenny?"