Mended Hearts.
Part XIV.
It had never been a shocker that the winter season in everyone's favorite podunk little mountain town seemed to drag on and on, with below zero temperatures and thick piles of snow that would eventually turn into a disgusting shade of piss yellow becoming one and the same with the ever-present idyllic and picturesque mountain scenery.
And with winter holidays now coming to their unfortunate end, so did the second semester start for many students of South Park High School, with the great majority of them still being in a completely relaxed mood and not really looking forward to returning to their usually hectic school schedules and everything stressful that came with it.
The same thing, however, couldn't really be said about the now seventeen year-old Wendy Testaburger.
The teenage girl had managed to fairly easily fall back into her routine of balancing between school, part time job she had at Tweek Bros' Coffee shop and practices for both sports she played – with the exact same sentiment also carrying over to what had been a fairly mundane Wednesday morning so far.
Wendy was currently sitting in the library during the free block she had along with Nichole and Heidi, discussing the events of the previous week and going through the notes for her next class. She flip-flopped between patiently listening to the conversation her two friends were having and adding something to it whenever she felt like doing so, all while also thinking about her boyfriend and him finally flying back to Colorado in just a few days' time.
''Are you coming to Clyde's party on Saturday?''
Nichole's voice suddenly snapped the raven haired girl out of her reverie, causing her to glance up from her notebook and politely shake her head 'no' in response.
''Thanks for the invite, but I'm not really in the mood for partying.'', Wendy said as she leisurely flipped through her AP Physics notes and let out a slight groan. ''And besides, David told me that he's flying back to Colorado on Monday and that we could see each other if he will be in the mood to hang out.''
''Oh, is he finally coming back?'', Heidi inquired as she looked up from her AP Chemistry textbook, with one light brown eyebrow raised and her curiosity suddenly piqued by her friend's admission.
''Yeah, finally.'', the ravenette replied in a slightly bitter tone, emphasizing the last part of her sentence and unwillingly reminding herself of what her reaction was when her boyfriend had told her that he would be staying in Austin for an additional week and a half.
What had originally been planned to be a three-week stay in Austin for David with his dad and paternal step-family, eventually turned out to be a nearly month long stay instead, with him not only missing out on the first two and a half weeks of school, but also missing out on his and Wendy's second month of being together (much to her chagrin, obviously).
The latter thing was something that greatly upset Wendy, although she chose not to say anything about it and not cause a big deal out of it – because she hadn't really been in the mood to unnecessarily stress herself over David yet again, and especially after he had made up for his lack of effort when it came to communicating and keeping in touch with her over the holidays.
''But I thought you said that he would come back from Austin on the third?'', Nichole asked.
''Well, he was supposed to fly back then.'', Wendy confirmed, letting out a groan and rolling her eyes over what she was about to say next. ''However, he decided to stay there for one more week because he had some family members visiting out of state and wanted to see them as well.''
''That's great to hear.'', Heidi said. ''I mean, at least now you know that he's actually coming back home on Monday, right?''
''Yeah.'', Wendy confirmed with a gentle smile, before changing the topic of the conversation to the question her friend had asked her earlier. ''And about that party, I think I'll go!''
''That's awesome, Wends!'', the brunette teenage girl replied in an excited tone. ''The more the merrier then, I guess.''
''Well yeah, a little party has never hurt anyone.'', the noirette responded with a shrug of her shoulders. ''I mean, what's the worst thing that can happen?''
The rest of the week had seemed to fly by in an inevitable blink of an eye for Wendy.
And come Saturday night, the teenage girl had actually managed to get a bit more upbeat as Monday and the arrival of her boyfriend back to Colorado drew closer – although she still wasn't sure if she really wanted to spend her Saturday night being surrounded by a bunch of her drunk friends acting all rowdy and boisterous around the Donovan residence.
Clyde Donovan, despite kind of lacking in the brains department and generally being considered one of the dumber students in the Junior class, definitely made up for it by being one of the star players on the school football team (with him probably being the next best thing after Stan Marsh, who was the star quarterback and team captain) and being known for throwing kickass parties every so often – with the latter being all more evident by the brunette teenager's decision to make the most out of his father and stepmother being out of town for the weekend and using that as an opportunity to throw the very first party of the second semester.
And the whole party-prepping process had gone on relatively smoothly, with enough booze and food being brought to the party, stereo speakers being set up to play whatever kind of music people wanted to, and the atmosphere genuinely getting better as more people arrived at the party – with them either just busting through the front door, or patiently waiting outside in hopes that someone who was sober enough would heard the knocking and let them inside in order to escape the freezing winter weather.
The latter situation had seemed to be, unsurprisingly, the most prominent one.
"Can someone answer the fucking door?", the party host shouted over the loud music blasting from the stereo speakers, holding a cup of spiked punch in one hand and having his other hand wrapped around Bebe Stevens' waist.
This must've caught the attention of Wendy, who rolled her chocolate brown eyes and groaned inwardly, before setting her phone down and getting up from the couch in order to answer the door, since Clyde was currently too busy with holding tightly onto her best friend's waist and clumsily kissing her on the lips at the same time.
Reaching for the door knob, the ravenette didn't really think too much about who was standing behind the front door, as she was certain that more of her friends had arrived to the party and were probably spewing out profanities over no-one answering the door for the past ten minutes or so.
However, who she really hadn't expected to be standing right behind in the front door, was none other than her boyfriend of nearly three months.
''David?'', Wendy's eyes widened in more than pleasant surprise as she swung the front door open, with her boyfriend giving her a small wave and probably the most adorable smile she'd ever seen grace his lips.
''Well, it's me.'', the teenage boy in question casually shrugged his shoulders and flashed his girlfriend a grin, causing her to squeal in delight and practically jump into his arms out of sheer excitement. He stepped back a bit, catching Wendy by her waist and pulling her into a tight hug.
David planted affectionate kisses all over Wendy's face, before finally leaning down and pressing his lips against hers after what had been quite a few long weeks.
Wendy planted her feet on the ground again and got into a more comfortable position, pressing herself closer to the brunette boy and wrapping both arms around his neck. She let out a slight whimper as David pushed his tongue past her lips and deepened their kiss, which surprised her a bit, since her boyfriend had never really been so open with his public displays of affection before – and especially not in front of so many people.
Once they felt their lungs craving for air, both David and Wendy reluctantly pulled away from each other, wrapping arms tightly around one another and genuinely feeling happy over the fact that they were finally reunited.
''Surprised to see me?''
''Duh, obviously!'', Wendy said as she took a hold of David's hand and dragged him to finally come inside.
Once they walked over to the couch and settled themselves there, Wendy shuffled closer to David and murmured into the crook of his neck, before eventually remembering that her boyfriend had told her earlier. She lifted her head up and raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend.
''But wait a sec, I thought you said that you won't be back until Monday!''
''Oh well, I've wanted to surprise you!'', David revealed. ''I actually took an earlier flight and got back home not even twelve hours ago."
"Well, aren't you feeling jet lagged?"
"A bit, yes, but…'', the teenage boy admitted. ''That still wasn't going to stop me from coming to the party. I've missed you so much and wanted to see you as soon as I got off the plane."
"How did you even know about this party?", Wendy asked.
''Funny story, actually.'', David responded with a chuckle. ''I saw Bebe's Instagram story about the party, and hit her up about it. She then told me that Clyde will throw a party today and that you'll be here. I then told her about coming back from Austin earlier than planned, and she suggested I should come here and surprise you. I couldn't really wait until Monday to show up in school and see you, so here I am!''
''That's great!''
Smiling, the raven haired girl snuggled closer to her boyfriend and leaned forward to catch her lips with David's. Her heart soared in her chest as she felt David wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer to him, giggling in between their kisses and feeling incredibly happy that he was right next to her again.
And while the happy couple was happy to be reunited after what had been several long weeks and continued to indulge themselves into some much needed PDA, a rather tense game of beer pong had been going on at the opposite end of the room.
Both Stan's gang and Craig's gang (minus Clyde, of course) were currently busy with having a little drinking contest between them – despite the two groups of friends usually not interacting all that much with each other during school time, all that apparent tension always seemed to vanish whenever parties and playing drinking games got involved, and made them put their differences aside and actually have quite a bit of fun together.
While some of the boys had already fallen victims to complete drunkenness, like Cartman and Butters, the rest of them hadn't seemed to fare much better either, despite trying to convince everyone that it was the exact opposite.
"Dudes, drink another one!", Kenny shouted boisterously as he draped himself over the two taller raven haired teenagers, earning himself a gentle shove and playful shake of the head as a response from Stan, while Craig simply flipped the blonde boy off and went back to sit on the couch beside Tweek.
Stan, not really being on the same level of drunkenness as his friends yet, drank the remainder of his beer and decided to take a little break from all the drinking games he and the guys had played throughout the evening so far, taking a seat in the easy chair and pulling out his phone from his hoodie pocket.
Unlocking his phone, his heart sank a little as he realized that Melissa still hadn't responded to the text messages he had sent to her last night, adding even more fuel to the fire that was his rekindled insecurity – obviously related to his girlfriend potentially having guys sliding into her DM's yet again and her trying to pretend like that hadn't been happening at all.
Alcohol certainly hadn't helped to ease Stan's nerves, so he then decided not to overwhelm himself yet again with negative thoughts about Melissa, and instead let his eyes wander a bit around the room – eventually averting his gaze towards his ex-girlfriend, who was currently being tangled in a lip-lock with David on the couch.
Stan could feel himself unexpectedly tensing up as he noticed Wendy's boy toy stopping their makeout session and whispering something into her ear, which caused both of them to quickly get up from the couch and start walking hand-in-hand towards the staircase.
Thankfully, his period of unexpected tension had been short lived, as Kenny suddenly appeared by Stan's side again, sporting his characteristically cheeky smirk and looking in the same direction his friend was.
''What are you staring at? Wendy and her loverboy?''
''Dude, what?'', Stan said in a slightly defensive tone. ''I'm not looking at them, geez.''
''Okay, if you say so.'', the blonde boy replied, lifting an eyebrow at his long-time best friend. ''I think you're kinda' lucky Melissa is not here tonight, because I'm sure she would've thrown a temper tantrum if she saw you making eyes at your ex.''
''What? I'm not making eyes at Wendy, Jesus Christ.'', Stan pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out an exasperated sigh at his friend's obvious teasing – which was something he really didn't ask for tonight.
''You sure?''
''Positive.''
Even though Stan could admit that he indeed was happy for Wendy being happy with someone else, he just wasn't sure if he could apply that same sentiment to her current boyfriend – as Stan had never really been subtle about his not-so-positive opinion on David, even way before Wendy moved back to South Park and started dating the latter.
Despite not wanting to say it out loud and potentially hurt Wendy's feelings, Stan knew deep down that his ex-girlfriend could be with someone much better than David.
So, so much better.
"Where are you taking me?", Wendy said as she held tightly onto David's hand, with butterflies fluttering in her stomach and footsteps in perfect synchrony with her boyfriend's.
The two love birds were currently making their way down the first floor hallway of the Donovan residence, looking for a place they could have all for themselves and potentially escape from other people who were drunkenly roaming around the house.
''Just for a place where we can be on our own.'', David responded as he walked over to one of the bedrooms and knocked on the door a couple of times, making sure that that very same room was indeed empty. ''Have you been here before?''
"Maybe once or twice in my whole life.", Wendy replied as David opened the bedroom door and got inside after her, shutting the door behind them with one foot and a rather loud thump. ''Both times for silly school projects in elementary school, and that's it.''
Her boyfriend let out a simple 'mhm' in response, before snaking both arms around Wendy's waist and planting soft kisses on the exposed skin of her neck. She squirmed in his warm embrace, eventually turning around on the spot and swapping positions with David, with his legs now facing the bed.
Standing on her tips toes, Wendy leaned forward and kissed David on the lips, with him kissing her back just as eagerly and hooking his arms underneath her thighs in order to walk them over to bed and get into a more comfortable position on the foot of the bed. And once he did just that, Wendy settled herself in his lap and continued their exchange, tossing her purse on the white fluffy carpet.
However, unbeknownst to Wendy, David had much, much more in store than just kissing her and showering her with love and affection tonight – because he certainly hoped to take things up a few notches and that his girlfriend would be just as eager to do it as he was.
The ravenette, however, suddenly let out a faint gasp as she felt David's hand languidly making its way underneath her shirt and coming dangerously close to cup one of her breasts, forcing her to squirm uncomfortably against him as a way to get him to stop doing whatever the fuck he was attempting.
''David, please…'', Wendy mumbled against his shoulder, before forcibly pulling his hand away from her shirt and hopping off of his lap. ''Please!''
''What?'', David responded, hazel eyes widening over the fact that Wendy had actually ceased their rather steamy makeout session and had moved quite a bit away from him. ''What's the matter babe?''
''I'm not ready for second base just yet, okay?'', Wendy confessed as she laid down on the bed, crossing one leg over the other and breathing in deeply to calm herself down.
''Oh come on Wends, don't be silly.'', the teenage boy said nonchalantly as he shuffled closer to Wendy again. He smirked against her neck, moving his other hand upwards her leg and coming dangerously close to her inner thigh, making the teenage girl freeze for a moment and not believe what was happening to her.
''David, I'm being serious.'', Wendy said in an increasingly pleading tone, hoping that her boyfriend would actually take her seriously and stop with whatever he was attempting to do. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, taking a deep breath before what she was about to say next.
''I'm not comfortable with this yet.'', she admitted nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand and avoiding eye contact with David.
''But I thought you've missed me?''
Wendy's face fell into a scowl almost immediately, crossing her arms over her chest. ''What does that even have to do with what we're doing right now?''
''Well, I assumed that you've missed being with me so much – you know, on all levels.''
''Yes, yes, of course I've missed you, but…''
''But what?''
''This just isn't the ideal way I've pictured us for making up for the time we've lost over the past five weeks.'', the noirette said in a slightly calmer voice now, but not before something flicked inside her head and made her remember what David had said not even ten seconds ago. ''And I don't know what's up with this 'missing being with you on all levels'? Do you think I'm that stupid and don't know what you implied with that?"
While she loved her boyfriend dearly, and had been more than willing to make baby steps towards becoming somewhat more intimate with him, Wendy definitely didn't like the fact that David had been so assertive towards her tonight and had been trying his best to convince her that rushing into intimacy wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Well, at least to him.
''Why? Aren't you enjoying this?'', David asked in a somewhat mocking tone, which definitely caught her off-guard.
''Well, it wouldn't really be fair of me to say that I'm enjoying this right now, when in reality I haven't been really ready to make the next step, you know?''
''None of my previous girlfriends ever minded me getting a bit more intimate with them in early stages of our relationship.'', David stated. ''So, I don't really get it why are you being so upset about it?''
''Okay, so trying to establish some boundaries and tell you what I'm comfortable and not comfortable with is now considered something that makes me upset?'', Wendy retorted, not really believing what was coming out of the brunette's mouth at the moment. ''You know what normal people call it? Having some common sense!''
''Just because your previous girlfriends weren't hesitant about going further with you so quickly, that doesn't mean I'm just like them and ready to give you all of me already.''
''I just thought that –''
''Thought what?''
''That you might not be that different from any of my other girlfriends?''
Wendy fell silent.
''When I clearly tell you that I'm not ready for second base, and when you can clearly tell that I'm not comfortable about going further, I expect you to understand that and not force me to do something that's against my will.'', she explained further. ''And, besides what did you think was gonna' happen tonight?''
''I don't know? That you might sleep with me?''
Widening her eyes in pure horror and disbelief, Wendy fell silent yet again, seemingly left without any words to express just how truly upset and disgusted she was with her boyfriend's actions.
''You know what?'', the teenage girl said defiantly, getting off the bed and kicking David in the shin with all the force she could muster. ''Just go fuck yourself, you inconsiderate douchebag.''
Promptly ignoring his yelps and hastily reaching for her purse that had been haphazardly strewn somewhere on the carpeted floor, Wendy then dashed through the door of Clyde's sister's bedroom and made a quick beeline for the living room downstairs – rightfully ignoring David calling out for her and wanting to explain his side of the story.
She could feel her heart pumping faster and faster as she made her way through what was now a fairly packed hallway downstairs, grabbing her coat from the coat rack and ignoring the stares she'd received from other party-goers; including a particular set of piercing blue eyes.
Wendy was definitely glad that she had come to the party with her own car and that she didn't have to rely on someone else to get her home, because she knew that she couldn't just go back inside Clyde's house and pretend like everything was fine.
And especially not with her boyfriend still present at the party.
Once she was finally outside, Wendy made a direct beeline for her car and unlocked it, sitting behind the steering wheel and throwing her purse onto the passenger seat. She breathed in deeply in order to calm herself down and regain composure, but it was all to no avail as she felt her eyes starting to brim with hot tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks.
Sobbing quietly to herself and wiping away some of the tears, the raven haired beauty put the key in ignition and turned on her car, with hopes of getting home as soon as possible and forgetting about what had been a frankly horrible evening for her.
And it was all thanks to someone with whom she'd fallen in love with so quickly and for who she'd thought might change her new-old life in South Park for the better.
All thanks to someone for who she'd thought would be her serious boyfriend after quite a long time.
'Oh boy, oh boy Wendy. You've been proven so wrong, haven't you?'
For the next two and a half weeks, Wendy had been doing her best to keep some major distance from David and his pathetic attempts at trying to apologize for what he'd done to her – as countless text messages, countless phone calls and pathetic attempts to gain her attention simply hadn't been enough for the teenage girl to convince her that her boyfriend was indeed sorry for his actions and all the hurt he'd caused her.
'Babe, I'm sorry for everything'
Letting out an exasperated sigh as she re-read yet another text message that David had sent to her, Wendy then locked her phone and put it in the front pocket of her backpack.
''Because he obviously thought that a simple apology from him was magically going to fix everything between us'', the ravenette thought bitterly to herself just as she finished doing her business in the bathroom stall and was about to head out towards the cafeteria in order to finally get something to eat.
However, Wendy suddenly stopped in her tracks as she heard the girls' restroom door opening and two very familiar voices gossiping amongst themselves and seemingly talking shit about her and her relationship out of all things.
"What did he say about her?"
"Well, he said that he wanted to fuck her at Clyde's party, but she blew him off and stormed outside."
"Yikes."
''I've always known that David's kind of a piece of work, but I didn't know that he would even attempt to do something like that to Wendy.'', one of the girls said. "What does Wendy even see in him?"
It didn't take Wendy that long to realize that those voices belonged to Jenny Simmons and Lola Evans, causing her to roll her eyes in sheer annoyance as she continued listening to their conversation.
Though she had always been on good terms with both Jenny and Lola, the two long-time best friends did have a reputation for being far too invested in gossip and indulging themselves a bit too much in talking about other people's relationships and personal lives – and it definitely seemed like Wendy's relationship with David just couldn't be left alone by the school's two biggest gossipers.
Deciding to put an end to all the crap the two girls had been spewing out, Wendy stepped outside the bathroom stall and startled both Jenny and Lola, who immediately brought their gossiping session to an end and exchanged a worrisome glance after realizing that their long-time friend must've heard a good portion of their conversation.
"Oh, hey Wendy.", Jenny said with probably the fakest smile Wendy had ever seen have, taking a subtle step back as the other noirette girl took a lingering step forward, with an unpleasant scowl spread across her face and her arms crossed over the chest.
"Yeah, yeah, cut the crap Jenny. I've heard everything.", Wendy said in an irked tone, rolling her eyes.
''Heard what?''
Taking the demanding tone in Wendy's voice as a cue to step in and defend her best friend, Lola then inserted herself into the conversation, with high hopes of weaseling herself and Jenny out of the very awkward and uncomfortable situation as soon as possible.
However, Wendy was having absolutely none of it and immediately cut their plan short.
"Spill it.", the noirette demanded from the two girls, before turning towards Lola and sending an equally threatening glare. ''And Lola, I know you've been dating Matt for a long time. He's one of David's best friends and plays with him on the basketball team, so it's not crazy to assume that David probably told him all those things first, and then he said them to you.''
''Okay, so?''
''So?'', Wendy said. ''You know, I wouldn't have been upset if David had actually kept everything to himself and hadn't told anyone else. I'm more upset about the fact that he told his entire group of friends what he did to me – and subsequently to you, because I know you're in the same group chat as him!''
''But – ''
''And, given the fact that you and your bestie really like to talk shit about other people, it really doesn't surprise me you're talking shit about me and my relationship as well.''
''Well, we're genuinely sorry Wends.'', Jenny said with a hint of remorse in her voice, although it still didn't seem to be enough for Wendy to buy it and leave the two girls alone.
''Okay, are you genuinely sorry, or are you just sorry because you got caught?''
And when the two girls failed to give Wendy an answer, she snorted sarcastically and walked over to the sink to wash her hands, before exiting the restroom and leaving Jenny and Lola all on their own.
Although she'd already felt really upset and sad over everything that happened during the party, Wendy could feel herself getting even more upset over today's revelation and the fact that David had severely crossed the line – as well as thinking even more about what she was going to do about the whole ordeal.
It was a tossup between ignoring David for a certain period of time and just letting things resolve on their own, or straight up confronting him and having one hell of a serious conversation somewhere private.
However, one thought resonated even more inside Wendy's mind, and actually made her decide if having any kind of relationship with David was even worth having anymore – especially with everything that had happened ever since that dreaded Saturday night.
And so the plot thickens yet again!
So, remember when I said earlier that drama will start to unfold in the second part of the story?
Well my dearest readers, the drama has only
just begun and will continue in the upcoming chapters, definitely making things all more interesting and complicated – primarily the relationships of our main protagonists and how all those things will affect Stan and Wendy's friendship (or should I say 'friendship'?).
And speaking of this chapter, what else can I say about David other than he's a giant fucking asshole? He has certainly shown his true colors now and just how shitty of a boyfriend he is, but it still remains unclear if that will be enough for Wendy to dump his sorry ass and move on from him for good.
We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. ;)