Kyle wasn't really sure what was going on, and that made him more than a bit nervous.
He didn't know what the hell Stan was doing, and he was scared that he had forever lost his best friend. The last time they had a big fight Kyle knew exactly why they were fighting. But this time, he wasn't so sure. The confession about his sexuality had triggered the current situation, but Kyle knew that they had been on rocky ground since he had come back from camp. And no matter how much Kenny and Cartman tried to tell him otherwise, Kyle refused to believe that Stan was having issues about his own sexuality. Kyle knew for a fact that Stan was straight, and no one could convince him otherwise.
He wasn't sure why Kenny seemed to be able to act as if nothing was wrong. Sure, Kenny was obviously affected by the whole situation, but he was definitely distracted. He was practically going nuts with all the attention he was getting from girls, and he had turned into a sex-crazed fiend. Kyle certainly wasn't angry at his friend, but he was still baffled that despite the situation, he was still able to ditch the group for the whole weekend for some girls. Kyle figured that it distracted Kenny from his problems.
And then there was the whole deal with Cartman. It wasn't that he couldn't figure Cartman out. In fact, he probably knew Cartman better than he knew Stan, which was a disturbing thought. No. Kyle couldn't figure out…
Well, he didn't really want to think about it.
"Can't help it. It's just so easy to. Oh! I love this song!"
Kyle grinned and started singing along with the song, and Cartman soon joined in, not one to miss out on a chance at singing. Kyle was relieved. Although Kyle was now trying to be honest about whom he was and how he felt, he didn't want to continue his conversation with Cartman. It wasn't as if he was that uncomfortable with the subject matter. Ok, maybe he was. But it was more the fact that there really wasn't much to talk about. Kyle had no idea what the hell their relationship was turning into. It was still new, and there was no way for them to find out except to just see where it went. Kyle also knew that Cartman was just as unsure, uneasy, and weary about the situation as he was. They were both confused, and Kyle didn't see the point of discussing this confusion.
Ok, that was bullshit and Kyle knew it. But he didn't want to start analyzing the butterflies in his stomach, or the playful banter that resembled flirting that he now had between Cartman and himself.
No. He definitely wasn't going to think about it.
"God, I love this movie!" Cartman sighed happy after the song concluded, and Kyle grinned over at him.
"Me too. This was definitely a good pick."
"I'm glad I picked this movie."
"I'M the one who picked the movie."
"You can choose to believe that if you want."
Kyle huffed and rolled his eyes, glancing at Cartman. He could faintly see a small smile playing on the larger boy's lips, which caused him to smile a bit himself before looking back at the screen.
-.-.-.-.-.
Before he knew it, it was Monday again. Kyle kicked at the ground absentmindedly. He had gotten to their usual bus stop earlier than usual, but he wasn't really sure why. Luckily, he wasn't alone for too long, because Kenny showed up a few minutes later.
"Hey Dude."
"Hey Kyle. What's up?"
"Not much. Have a good weekend?"
Kenny grinned, rocking back on his heels happily. "Why yes, yes I did, thank you very much."
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Thanks for ditching me and Cartman all weekend."
"My pleasure. I'll make it up to you."
Kyle knew that Kenny had just apologized, in his own way. Kyle had already forgiven him. "You better."
"If you want, I'll let you give me a blowjob."
"Not in a million years."
"Aw, you're no fun."
"Do you think Stan will talk to us today?"
"Maybe if you give HIM a blowjob."
Kyle rolled his eyes again. "I doubt that would help the situation."
"You never know."
"Hey, douche bags," Cartman greeted, walking up to them. Kyle couldn't help but smile when he saw him. It was a small change, but Kyle couldn't help but feel happy about it.
"Hey Fatass," he responded.
Cartman wasn't wearing his hat.
-.-.-.-.-.
"What. The. Fuck."
The three of them stared ahead, all three wearing the same shocked expression. None of them spoke for a few moments after Cartman's uttered words of astonishment.
Finally, Kenny muttered, "Maybe this was inevitable."
"Why do you say that?" Kyle questioned softly, barely paying attention to Kenny as he stared at a student walk past him.
"Well, think about how popular you were, Kyle. And then when I changed, I was suddenly popular. Then Bebe. Who doesn't want that kind of popularity?"
"All those people look just as faggy as both of you," Cartman grumbled, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets.
Kyle pursed his lips. They had noticed one student on the bus had changed his wardrobe completely, but when they got off the bus, they were shocked to find that quite a few people had made the exact same decision. It wasn't as if half the school had changed, but it still took the boys aback a bit to see the handful of students who had chosen the same weekend to get makeovers.
Before, Kyle would have thought that he would be happy about the possibility of more people changing the way they looked. However, Kyle had a suspicious feeling that the changes were for the wrong reasons.
"This better not cock-block me," Kenny grumbled, leading the way forward into the school.
Kyle and Cartman quietly followed. Kyle couldn't shake the sense of uneasiness that had suddenly crept up his spine.
-.-.-.-.-.
As Kyle walked down the hall to his second class of the day, he accidently bumped into another boy he didn't know. He quickly began to apologize when the boy growled at him.
"Stupid fag, get out of the way." With that, the other student continued walking down the hall.
Kyle gaped after him, stunned that he had been talked to like that by a stranger, but he didn't think too much of it. It was impossible for someone he had never met to know that he was gay.
Right?
-.-.-.-.-.
Kyle munched on a carrot thoughtfully as he stared at Stan from across the cafeteria. The week seemed to be passing slowly, and Kyle couldn't believe that it was only Thursday. He felt like it should be the weekend already. Nothing had really changed, save a couple of more makeovers. Stan was still being evasive and refusing to talk to anyone in their group, and Kenny was… well. Kenny hadn't shown up for lunch all week.
"Stop staring at him like a kicked, lost puppy," Cartman grumbled crankily, taking a bite of his burger.
"I can't help it. This whole situation sucks."
"Fuck him."
"No thank you."
"What's so great about Stan anyway?"
Kyle lifted one eyebrow, looking at Cartman across the lunch table. "Jealous?"
"No. I just don't understand what you see in that douche."
Kyle sighed, popping the rest of his carrot piece in his mouth. "Lately I've been wondering the same thing myself."
"Forget about him. You've done nothing wrong. He's the one with the stick up his ass."
"I can't just forget about him, Cartman. He's my friend."
"Pussy."
"I thought we went over this already. I'm not a pussy. Besides, had I just forgotten about you every time we had a fight, we wouldn't have made it past kindergarten."
"I guess that's true," Cartman conceded grudgingly.
"So I'm glad I didn't give up on you."
Cartman looked a bit embarrassed, but Kyle didn't comment further. "I'm just pissed, is all," Cartman mumbled.
"I know. Me too."
"Oh, look who finally decided to join us?" Cartman jerked his head in the direction of an approaching Kenny. Kenny flashed them both a grin, sitting down next to Cartman.
"Hey guys."
"Hi, Ken."
"Hey Kenny, glad you could find the time," Cartman said sarcastically.
"Sorry, sorry," he laughed, putting his hands up. "I've been a bit busy."
"Yeah, really busy."
"What crawled up your ass?"
"Nothing."
"He's mad because Stan's still ditching us, and you haven't shown up all week for lunch," Kyle explained.
"Am not," Cartman whined.
"Ah, I see. Sorry guys, really. I guess I didn't really think about it. But it seems like you are getting along just fine without me."
Kyle simply shrugged.
"But I'm here now!" Kenny grinned, stealing a French fry from Cartman's tray.
"Hey!"
Kenny laughed, munching on the fry. "So, how weird is it that all these kids have chosen to change their wardrobes?" He once again started reaching for Cartman's food.
"It's really stupid," Cartman snapped, moving his tray as far away from Kenny as possible.
Kyle shrugged again. "I don't know. I guess I should be happy about it, but something doesn't feel right. I guess I just sense a bunch of tension in the hallways. Some kids look really pissed about it, especially the kids Stan has been hanging around. I mean, look at how they glare at everyone."
"Yeah," Kenny agreed. "I think I have noticed that as well. Hey Kyle, tomorrow I'm not going to have dinner with you. But can I come over later to do laundry?"
"No problem, dude. Another date?"
Kenny grinned. "How did you know?"
"How about tonight?"
"Tonight's good. I'll be there at the usual time."
"Do you go over there every night?" Cartman asked, looking from Kyle to Kenny and back again.
"Yep!" Kenny chirped. "We're REALLY close," he said as he reached across the table to run his hand up Kyle's arm.
Kyle simply rolled his eyes.
"I'm going to roll, but I promise to eat lunch with you guys tomorrow. See you!" With that, Kenny popped up and left the lunch room.
Kyle sighed. "Bye," he muttered, even though Kenny was already gone.
"You're mom feeds him every night?"
"Yeah. I talked to her about Kenny's situation, and both my mom and dad felt sorry for him. I begged them to let him eat dinner with us, since he normally doesn't get much. I guess it's not every night, but most nights. Sometimes he has other things to do, or he eats with his family. But he comes over every night for a shower, and sometimes to do laundry."
"That's nice of them."
Kyle nodded. "Yeah. See? Sometimes my mom can be nice."
"She's still a bitch though."
"Don't call my mom a bitch, Cartman."
"You know it's true."
"Whatever."
"You know," Cartman started quietly, swirling a French fry in some ketchup, "Maybe we could hang out after school once in a while."
Kyle blinked. "I don't see why not. Since Kenny isn't eating with us tomorrow night, do you want to take his place?"
"Don't you work?"
"No. Carol, one of my coworkers, wanted more hours this week, so I let her have my Friday shift. I work Saturday and Sunday, though."
"Won't your mom freak that it's me?"
"Probably," Kyle grinned, "but that will make it more interesting, won't it?"
"Heh," Cartman snorted, "I suppose it will."
-.-.-.-.-.
Kyle knew immediately that something was wrong when the large group of seniors approached him, laughing and generally looking a bit threatening. Even though they made Kyle nervous, he wasn't the kind of person who backed down, no matter how huge their muscles were.
"Hey, are you Broflovski?" one kid inquired, stopping in front of Kyle and crossing his arms across his chest.
Kyle closed his locker, turning to face the newcomers. "Yes? Who wants to know?"
"None of your business. We're just here to tell you that we don't take kindly to your kind."
"And what kind is that?"
"Fags."
Kyle's breath caught in his throat. How the hell did they know?
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Someone else in the group snorted. "Of course you do."
"Anyway," continued their leader. "You better stay the fuck out of our way, otherwise you'll regret it." He roughly shoved Kyle against the lockers.
"Hey!" He felt his anger rising.
"You don't deserve to go to this school."
"Fuck off. I have every bit of right as you do."
"Don't compare your pathetic self to us."
"I think you're the pathetic ones, ganging up five to one on a junior."
"Fuck you, Broflovski!" the leader growled, swinging a punch aimed at Kyle's face. Kyle, however, had gotten into a lot of fights with Cartman in the past, so he instinctively knew the exact moment to duck. The senior rammed his hand into the locker where Kyle's head had just been, and he yelled out in pain. Kyle then slipped between the leader and the lockers, trying to distance himself from the group. However, the leader recovered quickly and grabbed at Kyle's arm.
Kyle kicked at his shin, which caused another howl of pain to escape from the larger boy's mouth, but Kyle's victory was short lived. The others had decided to get involved, and two of them grabbed at Kyle. He fought back against them, his heart pounding in his chest. He knew that he was no match for them, especially since there were five of them. He held his own for a few moments, but they soon started to overwhelm him. His legs were suddenly lifted and held by two seniors, and his arms by another two. Kyle weakly tried to kick again, but the effort was in vain. The leader growled angrily, cracking his knuckles as he prepared to punch Kyle square in the jaw.
"Get the fuck off of me!" he screamed, hoping that maybe some teachers would hear the commotion and come to his aid.
Instead, someone else came.
"Hey! Let him go!" came a familiar shout from down the hallway. The senior's fist had frozen midair, hovering dangerously close to its target. Kyle looked over his shoulder, and was shocked to see Stan standing down the hall, his hands in fists of rage at his sides.
"Fuck, it the quarterback," someone hissed.
"I said," Stan repeated, "let him go."
The jocks all looked at each other, frozen for the moment as if deciding what to do. However, the two who were gripping Kyle's ankles let go, and Kyle was once again safely on his own feet. The others let go of his arms, and Kyle quickly jerked away from the seniors. He noticed that he was panting, and his heart felt like it was going to break out of his chest.
"What the fuck, Stan, we were just having a little fun," the leader complained. "He just started to get rebellious, is all."
"I don't care. Just go," Stan growled, walking up to the group.
They all looked at each other, and then the leader jerked his head down the hall. "Come on, guys. Let's go."
"Why the hell are we listening to that stupid junior?" Kyle heard one of them whine as they left.
Stan watched them go before turning toward Kyle. "Are you ok?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.
He should have felt comforted by the fact that his best friend had saved him from a horrible fight that would have most likely left him seriously hurt. He should have been relieved that Stan was even talking to him. He should have felt happy that he could use this moment to fix their friendship and put everything back to normal. But instead, Kyle could feel a deep rage within him. He felt hurt and betrayed, because he knew exactly how those seniors found out about his sexuality. In the past, he would have immediately suspected Cartman for this careless act, but he knew better.
Kyle was pissed. Stan had taken his feelings and tore them apart all week. He had turned his back on their friendship. And even worse, Stan had told someone else a secret that Kyle had entrusted in him. Kyle was beyond angry.
Fuck you, Stanley Marsh. Fuck you.