The Most Unlikely Places

Wendy PoV

I am relieved when the curtains begin to illuminate with the morning light from outside. I had been lying awake for hours, staring at a piece of tape glued to my ceiling. I had no clue how it had got up there, I had thought over and over in my head about reasons it could have done and still had not reached a conclusion. It seemed like sometimes things just happened by magic, both good and bad, or just pretty damn weird. But that was life, it was strange sometimes, things just happen with no explanation, no reason why and we just have to deal with it. Because there's no road without twists and turns and bumps and rocky patches, no life was simple, no life was straight forward.

Kyle PoV

Why me? But that's a question everyone asks themselves. Even if it's something petty from why everyone got a Three Musketeers bar in their lunch bag, but I got an apple. To why everyone else was born straight and I was born different. I didn't know what I was, but I knew I wasn't simple, like the majority of the population. I just happened to be that one in ten, what were the chances? Of seven billion people, some barely affected by anything at all, some living a rollercoaster of a life. It's just a lucky dip, it's just the roll of the dice, it's just chance. But we only get one of them, so whatever happens, we need to live it to the full, no matter what life throws at us.

Stan PoV

My eyes remain closed even when the orange light reflects on them, a natural alarm clock. I don't wake up sweating from a nightmare, I don't feel exhausted from lying awake all night. I just never want to wake up, I want to lie here in bed forever, to stay hidden away. But as much as we want that, it's never gonna happen. There's always a tiny bit of strength, even in the weakest person and the smallest thing, from dragging yourself out of bed in the morning, is what makes that grow. It's our natural instinct to focus on the bad things, the things we are deprived of, the anger and the upset. But every so often, we'll see the golden colour of the autumn leaves, parting with the trees. Or a policeman buying a homeless person a coffee, rather than moving them along. Or an uplifting piece of music will start playing through your headphones. That's when we realise that life's not all bad, if we gave the good a chance, it could change everything.

Kenny PoV

I wake up shivering in the damp patch on my carpet. An acidic, poisonous taste lingering on my tongue. The vile substance we all consume to feel alive, to give us confidence, to 'celebrate', to drown our sorrows. My head is pulsating in agony, my stomach is churning in disgust. This is it, once again, I feel like pure shit.

Bebe PoV

"Wendy we're gonna be late!" I snap, why she was taking so long on her makeup I didn't know, we were going to Cartman's mothers meeting, not the final of Miss America.

"And you really care?" She comes down the stairs, eyebrows raised. I'm jealous for a few seconds, jealous of her skinny figure and her flawless skin. Then I remember that underneath she has scars and still has chemo to battle in a few days time. "Anything?"

"You what?" I frown, opening her front door.

"Any sign?" She gestures, locking the door behind her.

"Of an annoying best friend?" I snigger. "Yeah, plenty."

"Of labour!" She rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed at my sulky attitude. I didn't care, if she was four days overdue, she'd be the same.

"Nope, he's lazy, just like Kenny." I sigh, trying to conceal my anger.

"What's actually happening with you two?" She dares to ask.

"He's a pile of cow shit." I respond, bluntly and there's a short silence.

"...Not really the answer to my question though, is it?" She shrugs in a sarcastic tone and I give her a death glare. "Or it is..."

Cartman PoV

I position the snacks on the table and stand bored for a few seconds before looking at the clock. They were all one minute late, but of course, this wasn't a big deal to them at all. I get into a habit of entwining and unravelling my fingers, I wasn't going to pretend I wasn't nervous. I'm glad when the door bursts open because I'm not stood going over it in my head.

Kenny PoV

"Details?" I ask Kyle, almost excitedly and he raises an eyebrow in my direction.

"You sound like a thirteen year old girl." He laughs slightly.

"It's exciting!" I grin and he shakes his head.

"It's not." He scoffs, his face softening slightly. "I don't want it to be either, please don't say anything. Not even to Bebe, you know what a mouth she has on her."

"I can assure you I won't be saying anything to Bebe." I sigh, before stopping outside a door. "This is it, right?"

"Wait, let me just-" Kyle begs me, before trailing off. It was the first time he had seen Stan in months, he was trying to conceal it with this Noah guy, but I could tell he was panicking.

"It's gotta happen at home point." I try to explain.

"Not really." He frowns. "We go to college in a few weeks, I'm sure I can go undercover until then."

"Do you really want to do that?" I raise an eyebrow. "After everything we've been through here, all the adventures, the laughs, the tears, you really want this to be how it ends?"

There's a long pause and I'm surprised I actually said something half decent for once. He sighs and I know I've got through to him, I must have done.

"...Yeah I don't give a shit to be fair." He shrugs and starts to walk off before I grab the hem of his shirt and practically throw him through the door.

Kyle PoV

I stumble through the door, tripping on the hem of uneven carpet. Fantastic, another handful of karma I didn't deserve. I look up, coughing slightly to try and make my fuck up look smooth, and my eyes fall straight onto Stan, and his eyes fall straight on to me.

Stan PoV

I try to force myself to look away, but I can't. I haven't seen his eyes for months, they look so different now, now I know everything. I wonder how long those eyes have looked at me like this for and until now I'd looked back, having no clue. He swallows, moving his eyes away before procrastinating by giving Kenny a death glare and punch in the arm.

"Welcome fellas, come and take a seat." Cartman smiles sickly to them and Kenny pulls a face, traipsing over to us and slouching in a seat next to Bebe. She gives his foot a little kick as if it is over the 'safe zone' and he scoots his chair away from her in a dramatic fashion. Kyle on the other hand, gives another cough and sits on the edge of his chair, awkwardly, placing his hands in his lap, then by his sides, and then back in his lap, causing me to roll my eyes slightly. That alone was a clear sign that wasn't clear prior to this moment. "Right, now everyone is here."

"We can go home, whoop-de-do." Wendy jumps up, clapping her hands and I pull her back down, grinning at her subtly,

"I guess you're wondering why I called this meeting." Cartman crosses his arms, a smarmy look across his face. "I'd like to thank you all for making an appearance-"

"Get to the point else I'll be giving birth in here." Bebe snaps.

"...At least we're in a hospital." Kenny drones with a disgusted expression.

"I think we all need to talk." He proposes, glancing at all our reactions. "About what's been happening, how we've been feeling, the situations we've got ourself into. If we all share it, like a counselling session if you will, then we can really understand what everyone has been going through and take it into-"

"You are the most racist, sadistic, offensive, homophobic, selfish asshole the world has ever had in existence." Kyle cuts him off and I can't help but smile slightly. His eyes move straight to me and he sees it, and the corner of his mouth raises slightly as he shoots a slight smile back. A pang of the past hits me and I force it away by looking back at the floor, causing Kyle to revert back to what he was saying. "Why would you even care?"

"Yeah, we're all going off to college in a few weeks." Kenny shrugs. "We're never gonna see each other again, why does it matter?"

"That's exactly the point." Cartman sighs. "Even if we don't ever see each other again, do we really want to leave it like this? After everything we've been through?"

Cartman PoV

There's a long, torturous silence. I waited, I waited for them to get up and leave, sniggering and rolling their eyes. I debated who would get up first; Kyle hated me the most, or maybe Wendy did, but Kenny was less patient and Stan was fed up with life anyway. I decided it would probably be Bebe, she didn't have time for this, she was already pissed at the world and in the most uncomfortable position on these hard hospital chairs. The friction was itchy beneath my bony flesh, causing me to shift uncomfortably for many reasons but that one.

But then, to my surprise, one of the haunted individuals stands.

Six teenagers were sat in a circle, staring into one another's eyes and daring someone to speak first. There were secrets that had to be told, secrets that could not forever be kept inside them. It was now or never.

Stan Marsh rose bravely, observing his five friends. "I used to be the boy with the red puffball hat. The simple kid of the group. The 'norm'. Until this aura began to crush me, pushing down on me with its full force of negativity. It was drowning me, I didn't know why, what had happened to make me feel this sad, down, low. What have I done to deserve this? What happened to give me depression?"

"Well you all know me as the 'Jew'. Stan's 'side-kick'. 'The boy with the green hat'." Kyle Broflovski followed in his friend's footsteps. "But you don't know my full identity, the real truth, the real me. See I was brought up to believe that Jesus created me to follow his rules, live the life he made for me. Which is all very confusing, because... Being gay is difficult when you don't know whether to trust the Torah, or believe in who you are supposed to be. But I guess I'm finally finding myself now."

"People say I sleep around." Bebe gave a slight cough. "I suppose it's true... Well you all know it's true. Problem is, I didn't realise it was true until something turned me in the other direction, something I can't change. So now I am going to have this baby, because it is my responsibility, my consequences, it is part of me. They say everything happens for a reason... Let's hope that is true. "

"My name is Kenny McCormick and I am an alcoholic." Kenny raised his voice. "You see people say that all the time on TV programmes. But it is so much harder to say when you actually mean it. When the words weren't just written in a script. When you have had the time to come to terms with the truth. Everyone has enemies and my enemy is the bottle. The cold, refreshing liquid that kills you whilst you are living on cloud nine. My mother always told me that it's the things we need most that destroy us. But never did I think that thing would come in a can."

"Well I suppose I had it coming to me. Because anything I try to prevent just gets stronger." Wendy Testaburger was shaking as she stood up. "I worked so hard to raise awareness for breast cancer. I collected money, painted posters, even physically hurt those who disrespected the people who were being hurt by it themselves. So of course it was going to happen to me. The least expected student in the school. The studious, witty girl who was full of potential. It had to find me to weaken."

"We have all heard the rhyme 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me'. But we all also know that despite saying it is a pile of shit, it is actually the truth." Eric Cartman recites, clenching his fists as he does so. "Because words don't hurt you. They kill you. They kill you without a weapon. They sink into your brain and eat out your thoughts. It is more painful than any other physical pain, because it stays with you. Being told you are fat, is something a lot of people are told, true or not. But either way, it is not nice. Especially when you have been like this since you can remember. So that's why I stopped eating, because I couldn't take the words anymore. The words stopped and so did my heart for a short while. Because they drove me to anorexia."

"You're really packing all those shoes?"

"Make sure you have a filling breakfast before you set off, poopsikins."

"You're not gonna get anywhere without this passport I found under your bed!"

"Call me when you get there, won't you. Actually, ring your mother. Or don't ring either of us, it's the first time we'll have the house to ourselves in months."

"Make us proud sweetie, take everything from this past year, and use it to live life to the full."

"I love you, I know I don't always show it, but I do. Take care of yourself."

Stan PoV

"So this is it then." I sigh, preventing my voice from cracking.

"I guess it is." Kyle glances up the snowy street, squinting slightly in the morning air.

"It seems so much smaller... But bigger at the same time." Kenny reminisces. "Like nothing but everything has changed."

"...Well it has been built back up about six hundred times." Bebe shrugs, heading towards us out of the house.

"Have you said goodbye to him?" Wendy asks, as Kenny smiles at her and she nods, bravely.

"Hardest thing I've had to do, apart from this." She bites her lip, soft blonde curls falling perfectly over her shoulders. "But I know Garrison is gonna be a great dad, and I can visit whenever I want to."

"That's something I never thought would be said about good old Garrison." Cartman grins. "Good job that baby isn't an egg, hey."

"I'm really gonna miss you guys." Wendy's voice breaks as a tear rolls down her cheek and Craig is the first to hug her, as Tweek watches on, just smiling warmly.

"Oh Eric, I'm going to miss you." Butters attempts to give Cartman a hug but he is pushed off abruptly.

"Alright it's college not the Titanic." Cartman responds defensively. "...How about a playful fist bump, to pretend we were ever friends?"

"I remember when I first got out of the cab in this street, back in 4th grade." Nicole recalls. "I mean, apart from being locked in the gym changing rooms and being stereotyped automatically, it was a great feeling. A fresh start, and now we're all gonna have the opportunity to have another one."

"Oh yeah, and Cartman had that imaginary friend." Kyle smirks, clicking his fingers. "What was his name, um..."

"Cupid me." Token scoffs.

"That was the one." Kyle claps his hands. "Hey, we always knew you were weird."

"Yeah and we always knew you were gay." Cartman puffs his chest out. "Ever since I wrote Little Red Riding Kyle."

"Nah we all knew before that, dude." Clyde elbows Kyle and he rolls his eyes.

"See, I remember none of this." Douglas whispers in my ear and I turn to him.

"But you've got your own memories. I've got mine." I shake my head. "See, I've learnt something today, this past year actually, and that's that memories are an amazing thing; some may be together and some may be apart, but they are always from our perspective. That's what makes them so special, it's the little things only you ever picked up on, the feelings only you ever felt, because at the end of the day, you're gonna go off and make so many more. Without anyone else, the only person who will always remember everything, who will always understand, is you."

"The cars are here." Wendy sounds, softly as Douglas hugs me, before returning to have Emily wrapped around his shoulders. Kenny wipes away a tear quickly, as Bebe runs at Wendy, almost knocking her over as she bursts into tears.

Wendy PoV

"Thank you for everything." She whispers in my ear and my tears soak her hair. She doesn't care, I don't care, and for that minute we are holding each other I never want to let go, because I know this was the last time we were ever going to be this close. We were going to be living on separate sides of the United States, we could kid ourselves, and we could stay friends. But never were we going to have what we've had for the past eighteen years. She had depended on me and I had depended on her. We had fallen out but fallen back in again. But there's a point in our lives when however scary it is, we have to let go. That's the whole point of life; to live it.

Bebe PoV

"Thank you." She breathes and I hold on to her words, praying I will never forget them. "I love you, so much."

"I love you too." I whisper, pulling away because I knew if I didn't right now, I never would. She moves back to where Stan grabs her waist and I envy them, I envy the fact they worked out, I envy the fact they're going to carry on and know each other, live together, get married, have a family. They would, they were strong enough and I was so happy for them, and that exceeded anything else. I turn to Kenny, meeting his gaze.

"Good luck." I smile warmly, and part of it hurts, but the other part of it feels right.

"You too." His face softens, not knowing what to say even though there were so many things we needed to. "I won't forget you, us."

"I guess it would be hard to forget me." I fight back tears and he wells up, nodding with a slight smile on his cheeks. He hesitates before pulling me in for a hug and my head rests in his chest. "Stay safe, you."

Kenny PoV

The words hit me like a tonne of bricks. I would, I knew I would, I was done with the silliness and the immaturity now. The self-loathing and the pity, and that had made it all the more clearer.

"I promise, I will." I grip her tightly for a few more seconds before letting go. "Remember to use a condom." I playfully punch her in the arm.

"You too." She laughs beneath tears, so that her voice cracks just enough to reveal the past. I turn to see Cartman stood alone, hands in his pockets, watching the scene go on.

"For you." He looks up in surprise as I approach him, handing him a silver necklace from my pocket. He flips it over and reads the writing engraved on the other side. F.F.

"You kept this?" He frowns. "But I was just trying to get my hands on your PSP."

"I know." I nod. "But maybe somewhere, deep down, it meant something. And to be honest it's the only thing you've ever given me that really meant anything... Apart from that can of string beans you donated to school that I won for my family on Thanksgiving. So yeah, I kept it, because you're a prick Cartman, you really are. But I guess... That's what made our childhood, someone had to be like that and without you it wouldn't have been the same. Not at all."

Cartman PoV

It was one of the nicest things anyone had said to me, and it wasn't much. I slip the necklace into my pocket, promising I wouldn't drop this one in Kitty's food and never see it again...

"Thank you, Kenny." I smile, genuinely. "And thank you for being so poor so I could cover up that my mom used coupons to buy my school dinners."

"You're welcome." He shakes his head, a grin on his face. He reaches out and shakes my hand. "Look after yourself."

I watch him walk away, and in those few seconds I feel completely changed. I feel like I actually did have some good impact on people's lives, in all our years here.

"Kyle?" I call over and he turns away from Tweek, to look at me, a puzzled expression on his face. I go over, smiling slightly before cocking my head to one side. I debate whether to go in and hug him, but resort to just a pat on the back. "I'm proud of you."

"...What?" His eyes widen slightly and I screw my nose up at the cringe.

"I said, I'm proud of you." I repeat and his face relaxes, trying to judge whether it was a joke or not. But I stand, as myself, in front of him, with everything stripped away, and eventually he smiles.

Kyle PoV

I'm in shock for about a minute, trying to work out if he had just said those words. Trying to work out whether it was Cartman, or the opposite Cartman from the parallel universe that we used to play pretend about as kids. But it was him, this was him being genuine.

"...Thank you." I whisper, hesitating in the awkwardness, shuffling my feet slightly. "Take care, and remember to think before you speak. That's your downfall."

"And you remember that Jews don't have rhythm." He nods and pull a face at him, but not feeling pissed off or annoyed at his comment. I spin round, shocked as I almost bump into Stan, who had been stood behind me.

"Oh, sorry." I cough slightly, but he doesn't move.

"No I'm sorry." He admits and I realise this was an intended mistake. "Sorry for not making this last year as good as the rest. For pushing you away and not understanding."

"Likewise." I resist him, before giving up and sighing all of my pain out. I force back tears because I know this is the last time I will ever see him. I force back tears because all our memories are now tainted. I force back tears because even if we were staying here forever, things would never be the same. "Thank you for being such a big part of my life."

"I won't forget you Kyle, you know that, yeah?" He looks at me intently. Those deep, caring eyes I'd known for so many years, since I could remember. I force myself to look at them, and tears start to fall down my cheeks.

"Yeah I know." I gasp slightly. "Because I won't either."

"I'm so sorry." He starts crying too, stepping slightly closer to me.

"Apologies are pointless." I shake my head, smiling at him. "Because we know it's not gonna change anything that's happened, or what is ever gonna happen..." I pause, trying to prevent myself from doing what I know I'm going to do anyway. He puts his arms around me and I put mine around him. "I'll miss you so much."

"I'll miss you so much." He repeats, before moving back and I immediately feel empty again. "You deserve to be happy, Kyle. Let it happen."

"Have a good life." I beg him, tearing my eyes away and grabbing my suitcase, opening the door to the first cab. I climb in, not daring to look behind me before I am moving, moving forwards and down the road. Past the array of multi-coloured houses that border the streets of snow. Past the children in puffball hats, throwing snowballs, glad winter had returned after the month of summer. Past Elementary school, past Skeeters, past the community centre, past Stark's pond, the remnants of Soda Sopa and Kenny's house, the field of cattle, the South Park sign.

Past everything I had ever known, moving towards the unknown; the start of a new adventure.

'The greatest secrets are always kept in the most unlikely places'. ~ Roald Dahl.