I DO NOT OWN SOUTH PARK!

Kenny wasn't at school the next day. Or the day after that. When Friday came around and no one had seen or heard from Kenny, Stan decided to something about it. Once school got out he made excuses to Kyle and Cartman about his dad needing his help on something. Instead of heading home, he went to Kenny's. He answered the door when he knocked, the chain in place, and simply stared at him.

"I want to talk to you. Let me in."

Kenny sighed and closed the door to remove the chain. He stepped back and let Stan into his apartment. "What do you want?"

Stan stepped in and the first thing he noticed was that Kenny had gotten a new bed. "When did you get that?"

"Yesterday." He closed the door and stepped over to the counter to finish pouring a glass of orange juice. "Does it matter?"

"No. It's nice."

Kenny took a sip of juice and leaned back against the counter. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"You said that. So talk."

Stan shifted uncomfortably and looked down at his feet. "Look. I know we aren't as close as we used to be."

"That's your fault, Stan, not mine. When you and Wendy got serious you completely shut me out."

"I didn't mean to. And I'm sorry for it."

"Still found time to hang out with Kyle and Cartman, though. Just not me."

"You live farther away from me then they do."

"Never stopped you before." Kenny put the glass down and crossed his arms. "I guess you just wanted to be closer to home in case Wendy called and wanted to see you. As long as you spent time with your girlfriend, your friends didn't matter to you anymore."

"That's not how it was. I love Wendy. You know that. I used to talk to you about her all the time. You listened when I needed you. I thought you would understand my wanting to spend more time with her."

Kenny felt a tear slide down his cheek and he grit his jaw. He would not cry. Not over this. Not again. "Did you ever think that maybe I needed you, too? You were my best friend. For the last few years I've needed my best friend. But you haven't been there."

"I'm sorry, Kenny. Why didn't you ever call me? If you had called and told me you needed to talk, I would have been there."

"I shouldn't have had to call you, Stan. You have always been able to tell when something is bothering me. But once you and Wendy got hot and heavy you ignored me. I've changed a lot in the last three years. And you haven't bothered to notice."

"I did notice. But you pulled away from me, too. Any time I tried to talk to you, you would walk away and start talking to Kyle."

"He listened to me."

"Right. But obviously you never talked to him the way you used to talk to me."

"How do you know?"

"Because last night he came to my house and told me everything."

Anger flared. Kenny turned to look at Stan again. His face was pale and he look slightly scared. "What did he tell you?"

"Everything, Kenny. What he did to you in the movie last week, what you talked about in the bathroom later." Stan shifted again and crossed his arms. "What the two of you did here on Monday."

"Great. So he told you. Now you know." Kenny moved the few steps to sink onto the couch. "Yes, I'm gay. Yes, I'm a whore. Yes, I let Kyle fuck me. What else did you want to talk about? Did you just come here to tell me that you know?"

"No. I came here because I want you to talk to me. You've been my best friend since we started school together. We tell each other everything. I told you about the first time me and Wendy had sex. Why haven't you told me this stuff?"

"Like what? I was supposed to call you and say, 'Hey, Stan, guess what? My parents had this fat guy over earlier and they forced me to let him fuck me for the $20 he was offering them.' Or better yet, 'Hey, Stan. Today I made $100 giving blow jobs.' Is that what I was supposed to do?"

"You should have told me. I would have helped you."

"How? How would you have helped me?"

"By turning your parents in for one. What kind of parents force their kid into prostitution?"

"And then what? Me and my brother and sister get put into foster care. Who would take us in?"

"My parents would have let you live with us."

"And my brother and sister? What about them? Could your parents support 5 kids? Or would they only have taken me and left my family to their fate? I don't care about my parents, Stan. I care about my brother and sister. When my parents told me to do it because it would make money, I did it. Because money meant food. Did you know that my sister almost died three years ago from lack of food? No. No one did. Because my parents hid it. The money I made bought food. And it saved her life. So I kept doing it. And it put food on the table. It put beer in the fridge, too, but I didn't care about that. I cared about the food."

"Okay. I can understand that." Stan sat on the couch next to Kenny. "You sacrificed yourself for them. I wont argue with you about it. But there are other things you never told me."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that you are gay. Kyle said you told him you have always known you were. So why didn't you tell me that? The way we used to talk about sex and girls, I never would have guessed that you're gay."

"I didn't want you to know. I talked about girls because that was the normal thing to do. I'm already made fun of for being poor. I don't want to be made fun of for yet another thing I cant change about myself. And me being gay doesn't effect you."

"I have never made fun of you. If you had told me, we could have talked about it. I'm not homophobic, Kenny. I've talked to you about Wendy. I would have listened while you talked about guys."

"About Kyle?" Kenny looked over and Stan, who gave him a supportive smile.

"Yes, even about Kyle. Do you really love him?"

Kenny sighed and pulled his knees up to his chest. "I thought I did. But now I'm not so sure."

"Because of what happened on Monday?"

"He didn't listen to a word I said. I told him I wasn't ready. But he made me feel like a whore, Stan. Even more then I do everyday when strangers use me."

"What did he say?"

"He said it wasn't fair that I let strangers touch me, but I wouldn't let him touch me when I say I love him and he loves me. I told him, I wanted what was between us to be special. I wanted passion and love and something slow. I didn't want it hurried. I have sex with strangers to survive. I wanted my first time with some who wasn't paying me to be different. But he made me feel so bad. So I just gave in and let him have what he wanted."

"You should have just told him to leave until he understood."

"I did tell him to leave. He just kept pushing. I figured the best way to shut him up and get him out of my house was to just give him what he wanted."

"And hurt yourself in the process."

"I'm used to being hurt. It's nothing new. What difference does it make if Kyle does? It's just one more person."

"Kyle isn't just one more person to you though. You're in love with him."

"It doesn't matter how I feel. He doesn't understand. He doesn't listen. He used to. But now, when it's really important, he isn't listening. Did he tell me he loves me just so he could have sex with me? Because he knew I put out?"

"Kyle said the thing he did to you in the theater was before you told him about the sex with strangers. He didn't do that because he thought you would put out. He did it because he liked you."

"Right. I know that. But after that, when we talked, he told me he wasn't sure he was gay. That he liked me but he didn't feel that way for other guys. How do I know it wasn't just an experiment? Then he found out I let people fuck me so he though he could get in my pants by telling me he loves me. Then, when I wont put out for him, he talks to me like I'm a whore and makes me feel so ugly that I just gave him what he wanted so he would stop saying those awful things to me."

"He told me you weren't making sense. That you said you wanted I to be special, then he said anything with you is special, then that's when you gave in."

"Because he wasn't listening and I was tired of him talking to me the way he was." He sighed and let his feet fall to the floor again. "What difference does it make? It happened, it's over. The end."

"It matters because Kyle is really upset about what happened. He is worried about you not being at school. He said he has called you several times and when he speaks you hang up on him."

"I don't want to talk to him. I haven't been to school because Tuesday I was sick. Wednesday I needed to do some extra work to make up for Monday and Tuesday. And yesterday I went to buy my bed. Today I just didn't want to go to school."

"You were avoiding seeing Kyle."

"Maybe. I'll be back at school on Monday. I'm not going to be a drop out like my dad. I want to graduate. We only have a year and a half left and I'm not going to give up on it. I may not be able to go to college and really make something of my life, but I can get a high school diploma and not be a complete loser."

"You need to talk to Kyle."

"What would be the point? When I talk about how I feel and what I want, he doesn't listen. All he can see is that I let strangers fuck me. So of course I must be all into having sex and want it right away with him. He doesn't see that there is a huge difference between my needed to whore myself for money for survival and him being horny and wanting to fuck. Just because I'm a whore doesn't mean I want sex. I don't even get hard when they fuck me. I close my eyes and think about anything but what is happening to my body."

"Maybe you should tell him that. Tell him what it feels like to be used. He isn't completely heartless. You just need to sit down and explain it as best you can."

"I don't want to talk to him, Stan. He hurt me. I trusted him, and less then a week later he walked all over me. He used me. I don't know if I can ever trust him again."

Stan leaned forward and put his hand over Kenny's where he was clutching at his knee. He took the boys hand in his and held it tightly. "You need to talk to him. You need to make him realize what he did to you. He loves you, Kenny. I know he does. He cried last night when he was telling me about what happened. If you wont talk to him, trying writing it all down in a letter for him. Maybe you can better express you feelings that way."

"No way. I'm not putting any of this into writing. The last thing I need is to risk Cartman getting a hold of it."

"He wont. You write a letter tonight. Tomorrow, I will come by and pick it up and I will take it to him. I will stay there while he reads it and then I will make sure he burns it. No one else will see it. Not even me. I wont read what you write."

"I'll try." He gave Stan's hand a squeeze and pulled away. "Thanks for this. I feel a little better. I didn't realize how much I needed to talk to someone about this."

"You can call me any time. I miss my best friend."

"I miss you, too. But don't make promises you cant keep. If I call you when I need you, it would break a part of me to hear you tell me no because you were with Wendy. You are the only person I have ever really trusted. Kyle was a good friend when you pulled away. But it wasn't the same."

"Kenny. If you call me and tell me that you need me, I know it would be for something urgent, something important. I don't care who I'm with, I will not ignore that call. Even if I am with Wendy. I might ask you to wait a little bit while I gave her an excuse and said goodbye, but I would not ignore you."

"Okay. I'll call you if I need you. But if you hurt me again I'm never talking to you again."

"Deal." Stan stood and put his hands in his pockets. "I should get going."

"Date with Wendy?" Kenny stood as well and walked Stan to the door.

Stan shrugged. "It's Friday. We usually go to the movies on Fridays. Call me tomorrow when you have the letter ready, alright."

Kenny nodded. As he was reaching for the door, the phone rang. He picked it up, said hello, and Stan watched as his face turned bright red and he turned away. He whispered into the phone and hung up as quickly as he could.

"It's okay, Kenny. I understand why you're doing it. I don't like, I think it's a stupid thing to do, I think you're putting yourself in a great deal of danger, but I understand the why behind it. I'm not going to try to talk you out of it because I know there isn't much you can do to make money. I'm not going to tell you that you can come stay with me, because you wouldn't. But I am going to tell you to be careful. Use protection. Don't let them hurt you."

Kenny watched his feet as he opened the door for Stan. "I'm always careful. I use condoms, I get the money up front, and I never go to a strange place unless it's with a regular I've been seeing for at least 6 months. I know how to look out for myself. But thanks for your concern."

"It was nice talking to you like this again. I'll see you tomorrow."

Kenny smiled to himself as Stan left. He may have had his heart crushed my Kyle, but at least he had his real best friend back.