Sitting in the back of Clyde's red 2014 Kia Rondo felt alien. Kenny, who had never been much of a car guy, really only remembered the make and model because Clyde hadn't shut up about his car for over a week when he'd first gotten it from his dad. It was a terribly cliché sixteenth birthday gift, he thought at the time with some bitterness, fully knowing it was just jealousy fueling his annoyance. Other than that, he hadn't given the vehicle much thought, and now, two years later, he'd gotten over his envy and the car was just a car to him. It was more cramped than he thought it would be—he and Craig were stuck in the back with a cooler, their bags, and other miscellaneous stuff he assumed was for the day, though the front didn't look much more comfortable; Token was riding shotgun and was practically pressed against the dash with how far forward his seat was, which was likely due to Craig and his long ass legs sitting behind him.

"Mornin', Kenny!" Clyde greeted enthusiastically, taking the car from zero to forty-five the moment Kenny was buckled in. Jesus see him through this.

"Morning," Token and Craig greeted simultaneously, neither bringing attention to their twin greeting. Cartman would've demanded a soda in exchange for jinxing.

"G'morning," he replied lightly, stealing a glance at each boy. He felt out of place amongst them, having had his identity so closely tied to his own group of friends for so long that he didn't know where he belonged without them. Craig's group of friends was larger than his own, more popular, and had their own dynamics that he hadn't bothered to pay much attention to throughout their time in school, and even with his observant nature, they were in a league of their own and he didn't know how to navigate them. For a brief moment—a flash of time no longer than a nanosecond—he wished Stan was with him.

It took no longer than ten minutes on the road together for Kenny to figure out something very interesting about Craig's group: they seemed to be pretty quiet, unexpectedly so. Where there was normally bickering, name-calling, crude jokes, and laughter with his friends, there was a calm, relaxing silence with the three boys. Even Clyde, someone he knew to be an obnoxiously loud chatterbox, was quiet as he drove, his hazel eyes locked onto the road ahead of them; Token looked to be engrossed in an article of sorts on his phone, though Kenny had no idea what it was about; and Craig was merely looking out the window, lost in his own little world.

Part of him wanted to speak and break the silence, but his mind couldn't conjure anything of interest to bring up, so he kept to himself.

Seventeen minutes later (he knew because he'd had his eyes glued to the clock on the radio for the entirety of those seventeen minutes), a song Kenny vaguely recognized started to play, and he began to nod along with the beat, the almost electronic-sounding rhythm and strong drumbeat taking him somewhere beyond the constraints of time and space. He couldn't place where he knew the song from, what it was called, or even who it was by, but it felt familiar all the same. Something about the notion of a ship taking him, stealing him away (letting him escape?) from his memories and the people who loved him stirred emotion in him, a craving so deep and longing and aching that he couldn't tell where the lyrics ended and his own desires began. Perhaps, in another life, another universe, another timeline, someone wrote that song for him?

"Sorry, dude, want me to turn up the volume?" Clyde asked suddenly, briefly making eye contact with Kenny in the rearview mirror before directing his attention back to the road.

He wanted to say yes. The volume sounded like it was only a few notches above mute, and he liked the song, but not wanting to breach their norm, Kenny gave a slight shake of his head with a half-shrug. "Nah, man, it's good."

"You sure? I know it's quiet."

Before Kenny could turn down the offer again, Token spoke, half-turning in his seat to look back at him.

"It's okay if you wanna listen to something, Kenny. It's just low because it helps him concentrate, but it can go a little higher."

"And if the music's ass, blame Craig. It's his playlist," Clyde added with a huffed laugh.

"Fuck you, my music is great," Craig quipped, not looking away from the window. Seeing the back of his head like this, Kenny only now noticed how long his hair had gotten. His once cropped haircut had grown out to be rather choppy and wavy, inky black strands nearly past his ears and with the bits in the back almost at the base of his neck. Huh. When had that happened?

"Any requests?" Clyde asked teasingly, nodding to where his phone was resting in the cup holder.

"I like this song," Kenny said, looking back to meet Clyde's eyes in the mirror again. As much as he felt compelled to inspect Craig's hair further, he knew it'd make him look like a freak to stare too long—even noticing his hair like that was weird…seriously, what the hell was that? "I feel like I know it already, just don't know what it is."

"Vindication, asshole," Craig declared, tearing himself away from the window to flip off Clyde.

"Aw, Ken, don't take his side!" Clyde whined. "We already listen to his emo shit enough!"

Token picked up Clyde's phone and tapped the screen to life. "It's 'Starlight' by Muse. Is that emo?"

Craig and Clyde answered at the same time: Clyde insisted it was, but Craig denied it.

"Muse is so fucking emo!"

"No, they're not, dumb fuck. They're rock." Was Craig's flat, unamused response.

"Is there even that much of a difference?" Clyde pushed.

"Yes." This time, it was Kenny and Craig who answered together.

Kenny's eyes snapped to Craig as soon as they spoke, partly surprised that they both answered so quickly, and just a little embarrassed, though he didn't understand why he felt, of all things, that way. Craig was looking at him too, a clash of brown meeting blue as his espresso eyes bored into him, making him feel strangely vulnerable—no, seen—and Kenny ripped his gaze away, looking down to the dirty floor of the car. Suddenly, the balled up Taco Bell bag peeking out from under Clyde's seat was very interesting and required further examination.

Seriously, what the fuck!?

Thankfully, if anyone else noticed the awkward tension or Kenny's odd behaviour, no one brought attention to it.

Clyde and Token continued conversing in the front, partly teasing Craig for his poor music taste (which Kenny happened to like quite a bit. Even as the playlist continued, he liked just about every song that played) and mostly just talked about future plans that he obviously knew nothing about—apparently Token and his parents were going to spend a week in the Bahamas near the end of summer, that sounded cool. As Kenny listened to the chatter, though, he couldn't help but notice that Craig was putting in very minimal input, seeming to be more of a listener than an active participant as well, which was almost entirely expected of him. He felt his eyes on him every so often, too…not quite stares, but more than happenstance glances. He refused to look anywhere but at the floor or out the window.

The rest of the ride to Pi Pi's Splashtown wasn't nearly as awkward, though it wasn't exactly fun like the rides he shared with his friends. As the traffic picked up the further they got from town, the chatter from Clyde and Token had stopped altogether, and somewhere in their journey along the I-70, Craig texted Kenny privately to inform him that Clyde had ADHD and generally needed quiet in the car so he could focus, and that it wouldn't be so weird once they were parked, which he appreciated because part of him had begun to regret accepting the invite.

True to Craig's digital word, almost as soon as the car was parked and everyone was out and stretching their legs, they all seemed to liven up (well, Craig wasn't very animated as-is, but whatever).

Kenny stretched his arms over his head and let out a satisfied sound as the tension left his cramped limbs before he ducked back into the car to help Token grab their things.

"Have you heard from the girls yet?" Token asked the brunet as he hoisted a heavy-looking bag over his toned shoulder, holding the cooler in his other hand. Both objects looked bulky and cumbersome, but he held them like they weighed almost nothing at all. Kenny supposed that, maybe, four years of high school football had some benefits after all.

"Bebe says they're a few minutes away," Clyde replied as he typed away on his phone.

"Didn't they leave before us?" Craig asked, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and making no attempt to help with the other things that needed carrying.

"Yeah, but Heidi's a nervous driver," Clyde shrugged. Before anyone could question why Heidi, a nervous driver, was driving to the waterpark instead of someone more confident, he continued, "Wendy doesn't have a license because of the negative environmental impacts or whatever, and it's Heidi's mom's car, so Bebe isn't allowed to drive it."

"Isn't allowed?" Kenny asked, raising a brow.

"Heidi's parents don't like Bebe, something about her drinking 'some' of their good wine at a sleepover in sophomore year. Bebe says she doesn't remember all the details."

"So, she probably drank more than 'some,'" Craig stated, eliciting a short laugh from the rest of the group, though he wasn't laughing at all.

"Probably," Clyde said with a shrug. "But either way, Heidi's the only option for driving. Don't sweat, they'll be here in, like, five minutes, tops."

"Don't sweat, you say," Craig said sarcastically, pushing his long fringe back to wipe away the sweat building on his forehead. Even after he dropped his hand to back down to his side, he left his hair pushed back, paper-white forehead exposed to the world (though, Craig as a whole was pale as fuck, so it wasn't as if his forehead was a noticeably different colour). "It's ninety-five degrees."

"Dude, your forehead's reflecting the sun right at me," Clyde whined, dramatically putting up his hand to block his view of Craig's forehead. "Put your hair back before I go blind!"

"No. You're making us wait out here and it's hot as balls."

"Blind Heidi then!"

Kenny chuckled to himself as the pair continued to bicker, Token occasionally throwing in a half-hearted knock it off, guys or people are starting to stare that didn't quite hold the sincerity of someone who was genuinely bothered; more so, it was like he was saying it out of obligation than anything else, forever designated the "mom friend." He wandered a few feet away, standing under the shade of a tree that was partly leaning over the fence that divided the parking lot from the road. It wasn't much cooler under the tree, but the relief from being under the sun's unforgiving rays was enough to make the wait for the girls more bearable. Back at the car, it didn't seem like the other's noticed he'd stepped away—Clyde seemed to be trying to put Craig in a headlock, and Craig was dodging every attempt with the grace and fluidity of water, obviously familiar with this particular dance. Token, also seemingly familiar with whatever they were doing, just watched, shaking his head in mock-annoyance as he chuckled and took the occasional picture. Were it not for the loud laughter coming from Clyde with every failed lunge, jump, and grab, and the slight grin on Craig's face, he could've believed the fight was real (if it were his own friends, Kyle would've had Cartman crying on the ground by now, whether they were playing around or actually fighting).

It was then that, for the first time in weeks, Kenny wished his camera wasn't broken. Something about the scene before him—the way Craig's grin showed just a little bit of his teeth, the way the sun lit up his face just right, and the way his tall, lanky frame moved with the grace of a wave as he dodged Clyde—made Kenny want to capture it for eternity. He had a feeling that the image of Craig in front of him, all boyish grins and inky black hair and legs that went on forever, would be seared into his memory until his dying breath. It was something he knew without really understanding it, and he didn't care to explore why he felt that way; he just knew it to be true, the same as his knowledge that the sky was blue.

Kenny's thoughts (and strange desires) were broken by the approach of a silver Toyota-branded car, the driver tapping the horn to get their attention before none other than Bebe stuck her head out of the passenger window, shouting a drawn out heeeey, bitchesss! at them.

Kenny rejoined the group as Heidi parked the car in the spot next to Clyde's and the three got out, exchanging jumbled up greetings with the boys as everyone spoke over each other at the same time. When the girls eventually turned their attention to him, Wendy was the first to offer him a warm smile and, unexpectedly, pulled him into her, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing him tight, like he was a close friend she hadn't seen in a long time instead of just a friend of her ex. He hesitated for a moment, surprised, but tentatively wrapped his arms around her midsection, holding her close without feeling like he was forcing her to stay in place. It was nice, and Kenny realized now that he hadn't been hugged by someone in a very long time.

"I'm glad you came," Wendy said just before she pulled away from him, her voice soft and melodic, the voice she reserved for friends.

"You are?" he asked, eyebrows raising a bit in surprise.

Wendy scoffed slightly, as if his question was ridiculous. "Of course," she said. "You deserve some fun too, Kenny."

Before he could ask what she meant by that, Wendy flashed him another small smile and stepped away to join Token and Clyde, who were digging around in Clyde's trunk. His eyes followed her as she leaned down to pick up some of the bags they'd unloaded from the car, ever the team player. He wondered what she meant by her odd statement and behaviour, having never been so friendly with him before. It certainly wasn't flirting, that much he knew for sure…but there was something cheeky about her, as if she was letting him in on an inside joke that he didn't understand. He'd ask her about it later, he decided, then turned his attention to Bebe and Heidi, who each offered him a shrug and cheerful greeting before breaking off to grab their own belongings from the trunk of Heidi's car.

He wondered how often they all hung out, Craig's group and the girls. He and his friends were so isolated from the rest of their peers that he figured all the groups in town kept to themselves. The goths. The vamps. The moms. The dads. The girls. Craig and those guys. His friends, his world. It made sense, and he never once thought to question it…but seeing them together like this, Bebe draping herself over Clyde as he hooked his arm around her lower back, Wendy and Craig giving each other knowing looks as they watched Token and Heidi awkwardly flirt with each other, Heidi becoming a blushing mess after Token said something to her that Kenny couldn't hear…it all made him realize that they were more than just classmates or friends-in-passing; they were friends who hung out and probably did things like this often, whereas he still felt like an outsider infringing on their time together despite the invitation. When had his world gotten so small?

"You coming, Kenny?"

Clyde's loud, boisterous voice broke Kenny out of his thoughts and he looked in his direction, where the group was looking at him expectantly. They had finished grabbing their things from the cars and were about to head into the park, and he had been too lost in his own head to notice. He flushed and moved quickly to catch up to them, and as soon as he was back with the group, Clyde pulled everyone into a football-esque group huddle and leaned in.

"Same plan as always, okay?" he whispered, despite having parked relatively far from all the other cars and no one else in the lot was paying attention to them. A group of teenagers in the parking lot of a waterpark during summer wasn't anything particularly suspicious, after all. Still, everyone nodded along with the seriousness of people getting ready to pull off an Ocean's 11-type heist. At their confirmation, Clyde turned his attention directly to Kenny, speaking low and slow. "Okay, dude, there's an employees-only door behind the inner tube and inflatables rental. I'm gonna go in and make sure there aren't any managers or narcs around, then I'll let you guys in, but you have to be fast, okay? Get in and don't wait for anyone else, just go. You guys can meet after everyone is in. If any of us get caught, we're—and I mainly mean me—monumentally fucked."

"How many times have you done this?" Kenny asked, impressed.

"A bunch," the brunet said simply, a grin breaking through his faux-serious demeanour. "I've been working here the past three summers."

"And he started sneaking me in during his literal first week," Bebe interrupted, straightening her back and beginning to gather her wild mane of blonde curls into a large, messy bun on the top of her head, apparently no longer interested in playing espionage.

"We come almost weekly, sometimes more," Token supplied.

"And you've never been caught?" he asked, now a little more dumbfounded than impressed.

"Not once," Clyde said, his pride evident in both his tone and expression. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

"For sure," Kenny nodded. "Lead the way, then."

With that, Clyde nodded firmly, taking on his serious persona once more as he guided the group along the fenced wall that separated the parking lot from the waterpark, the chain link material too tall for anyone to climb or jump easily, Kenny noted. If someone were to get more than halfway up it, they'd surely be seen by a member of staff, and if they somehow made it to the top, they'd have to climb down or risk breaking something if they jumped, which was likely to get them caught, too. He also took notice of various warnings against trespassing posted every few feet along the length of the fence, white 12"x18" metal signs stating in bold red that trespassers would get slapped with a $500 fine and/or get persecuted by the fullest extent of the law (blah, blah, blah…only if they were caught, of course, but that part wasn't mentioned). Clyde wasn't the first to sneak people in, apparently.

Eventually, they reached a break in the fence and Clyde put up his hand to halt their walking, though again, no one was nearby or paying attention to them. The tall chain link gate before them was held shut by a thick metal chain and a heavy-duty padlock, the type his brother used to carry around on the end of a lanyard to use as a makeshift self-defence weapon back in his teen years. It wasn't the most high-tech security system, but he supposed it did the job well enough.

"Okay, this is it. We clear on the mission, everyone?" Clyde asked.

Everyone nodded, so Kenny nodded too, feeling almost like a little kid again. Perhaps Clyde held onto Mosquito the way he had with Mysterion.

Clyde gave the group a firm salute and turned to the gate, taking his keyring out of his pocket and picking out the one he needed to unlock the gate. His march into enemy territory would have been much cooler if his key hadn't gotten stuck in the padlock, resulting in him tugging and fighting with it pathetically for a few moments, muttering quiet curses and insults at it all the while. It was a rather embarrassing display and totally broke whatever badass illusion Clyde had been going for, but for the sake of a free day at the only waterpark nearby, no one said anything (or they were just used to this kind of thing from him). With the battle eventually won, Clyde opened the gate carefully and stepped into the park, disappearing for a few minutes before returning.

"We're good," he said. "No managers are around right now, so we gotta be fast."

Kenny watched as Clyde stepped back out onto their side of the fence and held it open, allowing for Heidi and Wendy to slip past with their belongings, quickly walking along the length of the fence toward the park entrance until they found a good part to break off, to which they immediately blended into the crowds of people coming in who actually paid. Bebe was next, giving Clyde a quick peck on the lips before going in, boldly making no attempt at blending in at all; she just walked in as if she belonged there. Token took a few careful steps past the threshold, sticking to the back of the innertube and inflatables hut before taking off when another group of teenagers passed by the small building, blending in perfectly with them before going off on his own.

"Okay, dude, you're next."

Clyde was talking to him. Shit.

Kenny took a deep breath and nodded, peering through the open gate at the crowds of people passing by the front of the inflatables rental. Parents were wrangling their young kids; teenagers were either paired off or in large groups, laughing and taking photos together; nearby, there was a trio of adolescent boys roughhousing and pretending not to hear their parents telling them to stop. Luckily, everyone was too wrapped up in themselves and their friends or family to notice Kenny, Craig, and Clyde observing them, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

"You gonna go, man?" Clyde asked. "My shift starts in a few minutes. We gotta do this now."

"I'm waiting for an opportunity to get in," Kenny said, watching the parkgoers intently, looking for his chance to slip by. "It's getting really fucking busy in there, I don't wanna be the reason you get caught."

"There's never going to be a good opportunity, you just gotta take the plunge," Clyde said, though Kenny felt like he was just trying to urge him in rather than actually make him feel more confident.

"Do you use that line when you're trying to get little kids to go down the slides?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, just when they won't get in the deep end of the pool."

"I don't think little kids should be going in the deep end," Craig interrupted, giving Clyde a questioning look. "Isn't that, like, one of the main rules at big parks like this?"

At that, Clyde made a face somewhere between startling realization and abject horror and, seeing his reaction, Craig's eyes widened in a way that was very close to shock. "Dude!" Craig said sharply, smacking Clyde's bicep when the brunet still made no attempt at defending or explaining himself, which pretty much told them all they needed to know about his understanding of pool safety.

"Ow! I—ah, no kids have drowned on my watch!" Clyde cried, as if that was a justifiable defence.

"Thankfully," Kenny said with a short laugh. He looked back to the gap in the open gate, watching the crowds. "I still don't think—"

"Act cool," Craig interrupted again, taking hold of Kenny's hand and leading him into the park.

Now, normally Kenny would totally be down for playing it cool; acting the part and pretending to be someone else was something he did well, after all. But something about Craig's large, bony hand in his left him too distracted to be someone other than himself. He felt as if his brain had short-circuited. He followed Craig's lead dumbly, trailing alongside him hand-in-hand, unable to think of anything beyond the contact between them and how it felt much more intimate than it should have. At one point, he stumbled over a crack in the cement walkway and Craig's grip tightened when he caught himself, giving his hand a firm squeeze that made his mind forget everything about where they were, who he was, or anything that wasn't Craig Tucker.

"You good?" Craig asked lowly, tilting down a little to get closer to Kenny's height. Who knew four inches could feel so big? Well—

"Yeah, never better," he answered quickly, looking around for any sign of their friends. Not at Craig and his stupid hair and coffee-coloured eyes.

"I think I see the girls over there," Craig said, nodding in the direction of three girls who looked to be around their age.

Kenny held his hand to his face to block out the sun, squinting and near-blind as he watched them for a few seconds before one of them—Heidi—spotted him and Craig and waved them over. He quietly thanked God that he hadn't just been staring at some random girls like a complete creep.

"Good spot, huh?" Wendy asked when they approached, organizing her things around a teal-coloured plastic lounge chair. Heidi and Bebe were doing similarly with their appointed chairs on either side of her, Bebe having claimed the bright yellow one to her left and Heidi taking the white one to her right.

It was a really good spot, actually. They were a few feet away from the pools, but far enough that they weren't likely to be splashed; they were near the junction that split all the slides, the wave pool, and other attractions from the lazy river and regular pools; there were a few food stalls near them, ranging from smoothies to subs and other park-type food; and they were close to the changing rooms and lockers. The only downside was that it seemed like the other chairs surrounding them had been occupied already, and he doubted that the girls could've gotten away with holding six chairs, so he, Craig, and Token either had to share with them or just chill on the ground. Whatever, he didn't mind either way.

"Really fuckin' good," he said, setting his stuff down on the floor next to Heidi's chair. "How'd you get this premium real estate?"

"Just got lucky," Bebe said in a happy singsong.

"There were a few boys here when we got here. Bebe said she'd let them watch her change into her bikini if we could have the spot," Wendy said, biting back a smile as she spoke.

"Oh," Kenny breathed, not really sure what to think or how to react to that. Were it something he'd heard from his friends, he'd probably laugh, but given the morning he just had with the boys, he felt iffy about it. Were she and Clyde not together-together?

"Oh, don't make that face, Kenny!" Bebe laughed. "I already had my suit on under my clothes, so they just had the pleasure of seeing me take off my shirt and shorts. No nudity for those losers." She gestured to herself, as if showing off her bright red bikini that left very little to the imagination, then to the t-shirt and denim shorts she had been wearing earlier that were discarded at the foot of her chair.

"And no breach of social contract," Wendy added. "We kept up our end of the deal."

"Cool," he said, though he didn't really mean it. He just had to say something to acknowledge that they'd spoken.

"Where's Token?" Craig asked, dropping his things by Wendy's chair. Kenny couldn't tell if he was also somewhat against their means of attaining the spot, or if he just didn't care enough about Bebe's antics to react. It was hard for him to imagine Craig being okay with it, given how close he and Clyde had been their whole lives. Kyle would burn down a small village for the sake of defending Stan's honour, and Kenny couldn't help but think that that's what true friendship meant, even one as tainted by romance as that of Stan and Kyle.

"He went to check out that surf simulator they got," Wendy said, stripping off her own t-shirt and shorts to show that she, too, was wearing her bathing suit under her clothes. It was a cute lilac tankini (thank you Karen for teaching him that word) that was a lot more modest than Bebe's bikini but was also just so Wendy. She looked beautiful, really, though Wendy had always been a stunner in his opinion. "I'm going to go too, you guys coming?"

"I'll come," Heidi said, having also stripped down into her mossy green one-piece.

Bebe made a face and shook her head as she reclined back in her chair. "I'm staying here. I want to be bronzy all over by the time we leave," she said simply, putting on her sunglasses and laying her head back.

"Kenny? Craig? You guys wanna surf?" Wendy asked, looking to them.

"We can…if you want," Craig said, more talking to Kenny than Wendy, though he could tell by the everything about Craig that he did not want to at all.

"Ah, is it free?" he asked.

An uncomfortable look came over both Wendy and Heidi's faces and Kenny knew the answer. Really, he knew the answer before he even asked, because extras were never free.

"It's twenty dollars, I think. Maybe a bit more," Wendy said softly, looking guilty for even asking to begin with.

Kenny pressed his lips into a thin line and tilted his head to the side for a beat, his way of shrugging without really shrugging. "It's okay," he said. "I don't really have twenty to spare right now, maybe another time?"

"I can pay for you if—" Wendy began but was quickly cut off by Craig.

"I don't have money for it either," he stated.

"Oh," both girls said, deflating a bit. He supposed Heidi wasn't up to paying for Craig, and Wendy probably couldn't (or didn't want to) pay for them both.

"You guys go, there's tons of other stuff to do," Kenny said lightly because he really didn't mind at all. It would've been cool to try, but trying a surf simulator was by no means important to him.

"You sure?" Wendy asked.

They both nodded, and the girls shared a look before promising to meet them in the pools later, then turned to leave, off to find Token and ride artificial waves.

"Not a surfer, Tucker?" Kenny teased once the girls were out of earshot, a coy smile on his face.

"Not at fucking all," he said. "Never tried it, don't want to, and never will."

"Well, how shall two broke fucks spend their time? What do you usually do?"

Craig didn't answer right away, though he was beginning to get used to waiting for his delayed responses, no matter how mundane the question. While (presumably) gathering his thoughts, Craig glanced around at their surroundings, watching random people come and go around them, then to the various slides and other attractions in the distance. "I dunno," he said finally, eyes still drifting off to anywhere but Kenny's face. "I guess we usually split up. I like the lazy river."

"Of course you do," Kenny said sarcastically.

"The wave pools are too crowded usually," Craig continued, glossing right over Kenny's response. "The regular pools are fine."

"Do you like the slides?" he asked, eyeing the massive red and black slides that were near the back of the park. They were the tallest ones and even from far away, the sheer size of them felt incredibly daunting, let alone their twists and spirals. If he listened close enough, he was sure he could hear screams coming from those particular slides.

"I guess," Craig said, glancing briefly at Kenny's face before following to where his eyes were looking. "The red one—Devil's Vortex—is cool. It's fast, has a corkscrew, and is open in the second half, so you can see over the edge if you lean your weight over to one side. The black one is called Laughing in the Dark. I've only been on it once."

"Laughing in the Dark? What the fuck kinda name is that?" Kenny asked, astounded, while looking intently at the black slide. It was an absolute beast—it had to be nearly fifty feet tall and started off with a near-straight drop that transitioned into a series of twists and curves that wrapped around various other slides, had no opening except for the exit, and the end of it launched you right into a large pool. It was definitely the type of ride that teased the line of what could be considered a breach of safety regulations.

"I think it's supposed to scare you so bad that all you can do is laugh. It's also too narrow for you to go down it in a tube, so you have to lay on your back and go down."

"Jesus Christ," Kenny cursed, looking back up at Craig. "Well? Did you laugh?"

"I don't remember. I think I blacked out," he shrugged, pulling his shirt over his head and dropping it by his other belongings, followed by his shoes and socks. "Clyde cried the first time he went down it, though."

"That's reassuring," Kenny mumbled, following suit and stripping off his shirt, shoes, and socks as well. "So, we doing Devil's Vortex first or are you in the mood to laugh?"

"Sunscreen, boys," Bebe hummed from her chair, still reclined back and not looking at them. Christ, he thought she'd fallen asleep.

"Already got it on, mom," Craig responded snarkily, though his tone held no actual malice.

"Kenny?"

"I'm good," Kenny dismissed for no real reason beyond just not being in the mood to wait for the cream to absorb into his skin. It took too long, he hated that gross greasy feeling it left behind, and he just wanted to go do something. "I don't burn that easy."

"Skin cancer's a killer~" She sing-songed to him.

"Don't worry about me, some would say I'm immortal," he said wryly. To that, Bebe just shrugged and dropped her argument there, having done her due diligence and lost the battle. "So," he began, attention back on Craig, "what's the move?"

"Let's see what the devil has in store for us, then we can see how funny everything is."

The line for Devil's Vortex ended up being longer than either of them anticipated. After spending nearly an hour in line, they were finally close to the top of the slide. From where they stood in the dangerously crowded, narrow, and winding staircase to the top of the tower, they could see that the park was truly bustling now; it was probably near maximum capacity, and it fucking showed. As far as Kenny could see, it was just people—people walking, people lounging, people swimming, screaming, laughing. It felt like all of Colorado had congregated in one park.

There were people surrounding them, too. Kids, couples, groups of friends, and even lone daredevils. They were all shoved together on the stairs leading up to the top of Devil's Vortex, trying to make the best of their cramped, damp, and heavily chlorine-scented predicament. Despite the slight discomfort, Kenny couldn't find any reason to complain…because Craig was behind him, pressed against his back in an attempt to leave some room between himself and the people behind him.

"Sorry, don't like touching strangers," Craig mumbled lowly, and Kenny's heart thudded in an irregular pattern when Craig's words brushed past his hair and curled around the shell of his ear.

"No problem," he murmured back, hoping his cheeks weren't as pink as they felt. Christ on a stick, why was he blushing!?

"Hey, McCormick," Craig began slowly, his voice a low, lazy drawl. Kenny didn't need to look back to know that the taller boy was closer, nearly leaning over him. He could smell the tropical sunscreen on his skin and feel his body heat seeping into his bare back, and he sent a silent prayer to every God and Superhero he could think of, begging them to allow him to keep his cool for the time being and figure out why he found everything about their current situation so alluring later. Much later. "What type of music do you like?"

"What?" he asked, half-dazed.

"What music do you like?"

"U-uhm, a little bit of everything, I guess?" he responded, now completely lost. "Why?"

The people in front of them shuffled forward, so Kenny did as well. He didn't have time to miss Craig's heat before he was back on him, and something about that made Kenny glad.

"You liked my car playlist, figured we have similar taste."

"Oh, yeah, I guess." It was suddenly as if he'd forgotten every artist, band, song, or even tune he'd ever heard in his life, and it took an embarrassingly long few moments for him to come up with anything worthwhile to say, and even then, part of him was strangely insecure about what Craig would think of his picks, as if he'd ever cared about the opinions of others before.

"I like Fall Out Boy? Good Charlotte's cool, so is Three Days Grace. Bon Jovi. Green Day, of course. Uh, Karen's got me listening to Chappell Roan, she's got some catchy stuff…" He trailed off, counting the artists on his fingers. "I liked a lot of what was on your playlist, too, but I didn't know all the names."

"Cool," Craig hummed, his voice flat, but not holding any indication of humour or judgement. "We should swap playlists sometime."

They were near the front of the line now, only a handful of people left in front of them. Thank God, Kenny thought with relief, knowing he couldn't be cool about Craig being pressed up against him so…sensually…for much longer.

"You mean make playlists for each other?" he clarified, looking back at Craig briefly in a way he hoped seemed casual.

The dark haired boy nodded. "Yeah, you send me your favourite songs, I send you mine, or just whatever songs we think we'll like or something, doesn't matter."

"That sounds fun," Kenny said, a smile tugging on his lips. "What about you? What music do you like?"

"I like Muse a lot," Craig said simply, for once not having to take some time to gather his words. "Sum 41, blink-182. I don't listen to a lot of artists per se, more just songs that I like, you know?"

"Yeah, that's cool," he nodded. "I don't know what Clyde was complaining about earlier, I liked, like, all of the music that played."

Craig scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Clyde likes pop and country and shit. He doesn't like anything remotely close to rock or alt, that's why he was being a bitchbaby about it."

"Yet you get playlist privileges in his car?"

"He knows I won't go anywhere with him if the music is shit, so it's my playlist or nothing," he shrugged. "I don't mind being cramped in the back, bracing for my life when he speeds, or anything else, but I require good music."

"Fair enough," Kenny chuckled.

Before either of them had a chance to continue the conversation, the attendee at the mouth of the slide—a twenty-something-year-old guy with bleach-blond hair and a dark brown soul patch—beckoned him forward, signalling that it was finally his turn to go down.

"Are you guys together?" he asked Kenny, motioning to him and Craig, who was a few feet behind him in the front of the line. Instantly, his mouth went dry.

"…What?" Kenny asked, his question coming out almost like a statement as his mind reeled, immediately going into overdrive trying to figure out what they did to give this guy the idea that they're together—he couldn't have possibly seen the way he was blushing when Craig was on him in line, and other than that, they weren't acting any different from everyone else! Did they just look gay? Because seriously, what the ever-loving fu—

"Are you guys a group?" the guy asked again, giving Kenny a mildly annoyed look as he held up the line with his idiocy.

"Oh," he breathed, the tips of his ears beginning to burn. "Yeah."

"Cool." He beckoned Craig over and dropped a medium-sized blue raft into the mouth of the slide, using his foot to keep it anchored in place so it wouldn't go down on its own. It looked roomy enough, like it could hold three people comfortably and maybe four if everyone sat close. "We're out of the singles, so you guys can go down together."

The boys nodded simultaneously, both getting in on opposite sides of each other. When Kenny figured that they were good to go, though, the attendant hesitated, looking back at the line. "You guys too," he said, waving over the next two people.

Suddenly, Kenny found himself with a whole new dilemma. In an attempt to make room for the pair of, what he assumed to be, sorority girls that were getting in the raft with them, Craig shuffled over to Kenny's side, pressing so close to him that they were practically hip-to-hip. Their knees knocked together with every slight movement, and he wondered if Craig felt an electric current run up his spine, too.

"Good, you guys?" the attendant asked.

When everyone nodded, he began to count them down from five, then shoved the raft through the mouth of the slide, launching them into the Devil's Vortex.

All at once, they were plunged into a bright, overwhelming red. A red like you never saw red. Before his mind could catch up with what was happening, they were spinning, the rushing water around them throwing them down the corkscrew part of the slide, the raft swaying dramatically from left to right as they spun and spun and spun together.

The girls were laughing and screaming, clinging onto each other as they got doused in the water that was splashing into the raft. Kenny was laughing, too, at the girls and their screams, at the needless spike of adrenaline he was feeling, and just because he could. Because he was at the waterpark with new friends on a nice summer day.

And because Craig was laughing too. However subtle it was, with Kenny pressed so close against him, he could feel it.

Before he knew it, the raft was shooting out of the end of the slide, the red-orange water around them going back to a clear blue as they left the tunnel and were thrown into a large blue and white pool, the swimmers around them making room for their raft to drift towards the edge of solid land.

The girls jumped out of the raft as soon as they were in shallow water and took off on their own without saying a word to either Kenny or Craig, leaving them with the responsibility of returning the bulky floatation device.

"That was fucking sweet," Kenny said, still a little giggly as they waded out of the pool.

"Glad it was worth the wait," Craig said simply, taking the liberty of handing the raft back to the employee outside the pool. "What's next?"

Kenny put his hand to his chin, making a show of mock-thinking for a few seconds before pointing to the black slide a few yards away. "I dunno, man, you talked up Laughing in the Dark a lot to me."

"I literally just told you that I blacked out on it, Clyde cried, and that it's supposed to scare you into laughing," he stated, though he began walking in the direction of the slide anyway. "I wouldn't call those major selling points."

"Yeah, but I'm an unusual buyer," he hummed, practically skipping after Craig.

The line for Laughing in the Dark was significantly shorter. This time around, they only had to wait for twenty-odd minutes and the line was…quiet. Even the people who he could tell came together weren't really speaking, as if everyone was mentally preparing for something terrible.

Even Kenny was feeling the pressure. When they were in line for Devil's Vortex, he was antsy and excited, practically buzzing with energy. Now, though, with a few people left in front of him before it was his turn to go down the slide, all he could feel was that awful heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, the type you felt when at the top of a rollercoaster and there was an extended pause before the drop. It made his insides feel like lead, like every lungful of air was an Olympic feat.

A thick breeze blew by, and he shivered. Despite still being pretty wet from the pool, he knew it wasn't because he was cold.

"You getting nervous, McCormick?" Craig teased, though Kenny could see that he was clenching his fists at his sides.

"Nah, just getting used to the altitude."

"Oh, yeah, for sure," he said sarcastically.

"You're not getting scared, are you, Tucker?" Kenny teased back.

"Nah," Craig dismissed, giving his head a slight shake. Kenny's eyes flicked down to Craig's still-clenched fists, then back to his face. The taller boy made no move to unclench them, but he grinned a bit, knowing that Kenny knew he was feeling the nervous energy too. "Just getting ready for a fight."

"For sure," he chuckled.

"Next!"

Kenny jumped at the shrill call of the slide attendant and before he even had a chance to step forward, Craig was brushing past him, opting to go down first. It was only moments before he was gone, swallowed into the shadows and rushing water. And, because he was Craig Tucker and he was too cool for life, he didn't even scream.

"Fuckin' asshole," Kenny mumbled to himself, coming forward to wait his turn by the mouth of the slide, the lead ball in his stomach rising into his chest and choking around his heart.

Peering down tunnel, it was just…a void. He'd heard people argue about what black was before—whether it was a colour or a shade, if it was either one of those options at all—and he now understood what people meant when they said it was nothing. Black like this wasn't just dark. It was the complete and utter absence of light and colour. This was the type of blackness that people meant when they said they were afraid of the dark.

The attendant must've gotten a signal from someone at the bottom that Craig came out unscathed, because she suddenly directed her attention to Kenny and gave him a thumbs up. "You're good to go, man. Lay on your back and cross your arms over your chest. I'll push you down," she said, sounding strangely authoritative for someone manning a waterslide.

He did as she instructed, though, because hey, who was he to disobey the orders of a professional?

Apparently, this woman didn't believe in counting people down; when she determined Kenny was in the right position (and foolishly believed he was emotionally ready), she nudged his shoulder and sent him gliding down into the pitch-black depths of the slide without a farewell, warning, or the offer of a prayer.

The moment he was consumed by Laughing in the Dark, all Kenny could think was: Holy shit, someone turned off the sun, and that was the last cohesive thing he thought until he was launched out of the other end. The rushing water in the slide was the only sound that accompanied his screams as he fell, twisted, tumbled, and slid. It echoed around him as if the tunnel itself was mocking him. Really, he never knew which way he was going or what direction he was falling, the blackness of the slide only added to his disorientation. Then, whether it was seconds or hours later, he was abruptly hit with the blinding light of the material world outside and was submerged in the deep, chlorine-stinging water of a pool. He came up coughing and sputtering, wiping the water away from his nose and eyes as he tried to orient himself.

"You good, dude?" A familiar voice called. Craig.

When his sight cleared, Kenny swam in Craig's direction and joined him at the edge of the pool, hugging the wall to keep himself afloat. "That was fucking ridiculous," he said.

"Did you find it 'frighteningly funny' or whatever?"

"No. In fact, I'm pretty sure I screamed the whole time."

"You did," Craig confirmed with a solemn nod. "I could hear you basically the whole time, don't think you even paused to catch your breath."

"At least I'm not crying," Kenny said with a sigh, feeling somewhat lame for freaking out over a waterslide. Now that he was out and the experience was done, it felt like it was nothing at all, like all that anticipation was wasted on a minute or two in the dark. "Seriously, that shit felt like I was gonna die."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna go on that one again for a while," Craig said simply, squinting as he looked back up at the slide. "It's not worth the trouble."

After surviving Laughing in the Dark, the pair decided to stick to more low-key activities for the rest of their time in the park. Mostly, they just lounged in the lazy river in comfortable silence, or they chatted about whatever nothing-topic came to Kenny's mind—he had picked up pretty early on that Craig's social battery was depleted, or close to it, but he was polite enough to still answer Kenny when he asked him questions, so he wasn't too bothered about it. As much as Craig was a bad talker, he was a very good listener, and it was nice having someone listen to him so intently for once.

At one point, after an immeasurable amount of time spent drifting in the lazy river, Token, Wendy, and Heidi found them and dragged them away, saying that they had to spend some time together, and collectively decided that they needed a break from the water and other such activities, so it was time to eat. The group ended up joining Bebe at their chairs, all six of them squeezing close together so no one had to sit on the ground. It was a tight fit, but no one protested.

"I'm going to get a sub," Token declared, standing. "Anyone else?"

"Yeah, a sub sounds great," Heidi said quickly, springing up from her spot in the chair she was sharing with Kenny. Together—not quite hand-in-hand but definitely teasing that line—they left.

"I'm gonna go grab a hotdog," Bebe said slowly, as if she wasn't fully sure it was what she wanted. She looked to Wendy. "They had good veggie dogs last year, right?"

"Yeah, really good," Wendy confirmed with a nod. "If you're going to grab one, can you get me one too, please?"

"Sure," she hummed, heading off in the direction of her intended food stall.

"What're you guys going to get?" Wendy asked, looking between the two remaining boys.

Just as Kenny was about to explain again that he didn't have any money to spare at the moment, and that he'd scrounge up something at home (stale bread and salt, his favourite!), Craig stood, gaining the attention of both him and Wendy.

"I'm gonna get smoothies. What flavour do you like?" he asked, looking at Kenny.

"Don't worry about me, dude."

"I'm not worried. I'm going to get smoothies. What flavour?"

"Look, dude, I appreciate it, but I don't need you buying me lunch," Kenny said, unable to hold back the defensive edge in his tone.

"I don't pay for fuck all around here," Craig scoffed. "Clyde's at the smoothie stand today, so we get ours for free."

Well, that detail changed everything! He'd rather lay himself out on the pavement of the interstate than have someone pay for his lunch, but getting it for free because it was free anyway was fine.

"In that case, I'll take anything sour," he said with a wide, faux-innocent grin.

"You got it," Craig said, then turned to leave.

Now alone together, Kenny wasn't entirely surprised when Wendy turned her body toward him, resting her right cheek in the palm of her hand as she gave him a look that he could only describe as cat-like. A look full of mischief and curiosity.

"Have you been having a good time today, Kenny?" she practically purred. The question sounded like it had a double-meaning, but he couldn't think of what else she could have possibly meant.

"Yeah, it's been really fun," he said after pondering possible answers for a few seconds, almost feeling like Craig with his overly delayed conversational cadence. He really didn't know what else she was asking him, so he figured that the honest answer would have to suffice…of course, having grown up in semi-close proximity to Wendy and her insatiable brain, he knew that it wasn't likely. Being the smartest person in the room at nearly all times demanded a certain level of complexity to what would otherwise be straight-forward questions and answers. "Can't go wrong with the lazy river. We went down those two big slides, too. The red and black ones. I think I almost died, but it was cool. How was surfing?"

"I didn't even make it two minutes on that thing," she said with a laugh, brushing her long, silky hair away as it fell forward in her face, and again, he was struck by how genuinely gorgeous she was. Christ, Stan dropped the fuckin' ball with her. Smart and beautiful were a rare pair—at least, to the degree that Wendy held both. If Stan were to ever become a full-fledged alcoholic like his dad, losing Wendy Testaburger would be one of the first reasons why. "And of course Craig took you to the lazy river; that's where we always find him if he isn't with us."

"Yeah, he was telling me earlier that he liked it. I made a joke, but he ignored it."

"So, how is it spending your time with Craig?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" He knew what she meant. This is what she had been teasing him about earlier, her strange double-question.

"I dunno," she hummed, feigning innocence, though her eyes couldn't hide a thing. Maybe she wasn't trying to hide anything at all. "You two just seem to click easily. Craig's hard to click with—I don't think he said more than three words to Heidi when she first started hanging out with us, yet he's perfectly at ease with you."

"Is he?" Kenny asked, genuinely surprised by her words. Craig didn't seem overly comfortable with him…hell, the guy could hardly string together a sentence, let alone a full conversation.

"I've been hanging out with him and the others since Clyde and Bebe started dating in freshman year, Kenny. Trust me, this is Craig being comfortable with you."

"Oh," he said softly. He didn't know what to say to that. What could he say to that? Craig was comfortable with him—okay? What of it? What else? Most importantly, why? He and Craig had hardly spoken to each other at all for years, then all of a sudden, he was inviting him to hang out with his friends and was allegedly comfortable with him? Was he missing something?

"So, do you like spending time with him, Kenny?" Wendy pressed.

"Uh, yeah, I guess? He's different from how I remember him, or maybe he's just different from the image I made up of him in my head? I don't know. But he's cool," Kenny said slowly, trying to sort out his thoughts into something halfway cohesive. Really, he had no idea who the real Craig was in his memory, whether he was genuinely an asshole of a kid who chilled out in his teens or if he was always chill and he and his friends just antagonized him. Maybe he was something in-between? It was confusing, but he knew that the guy he'd been hanging out with today wasn't bad by any means, just awkward and aloof. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," she said with a shrug, but again, there was something more in her eyes. She was looking at him like she knew something that he didn't. It made him feel a little dumb, honestly, that he didn't understand whatever she was laying out in front of him.

"I'll figure you out one day, Wendy," he said with a soft smile, feeling strangely nostalgic as he looked at her, only now fully realizing that she'd be gone in a few months, no longer the little know-it-all girl with a pink beret.

"Just text me when you think you have the answer."

The conversation naturally ended there, which Kenny was thankful for because less than a minute later, Bebe returned with hers and Wendy's veggie dogs, then Token and Heidi with their subs. Finally, Craig came back with two large Styrofoam cups in hand.

"Got you Lemon Twist," he said, handing Kenny his cup. The name 'Lemon Twist' was scrawled messily on the lid with a black marker.

"Thanks, dude. What's the twist?" Kenny asked, taking a large gulp that he immediately regretted because natural consequences hit him like a freight train. Fucking brain freeze. Beyond that, the smoothie was delicious.

"Uh," Craig started, drawing out the 'U' sound. He squeezed his eyes shut, probably trying to remember what was listed on the menu. "Lemon, pineapple, strawberry, cranberry, and I think pomegranate."

"What'd you get?" Heidi asked, nibbling at some of the toppings that had fallen out of her sub and into the container it came in.

"I think it was called Berry Blast or something," he said, taking a small sip of his.

When he didn't elaborate, Wendy gave Kenny a told you so look and he held back a laugh, hiding it behind his hand as he faked a cough. Choosing to spare Heidi the pain of asking Craig further questions, he spoke up.

"What's in it?"

"Blueberry, pomegranate, blackberry, cranberry, and banana."

"Sounds good," Kenny mused, nodding.

Then, to Kenny's surprise, Craig responded by extending his arm, holding his cup out to him. "Want a sip?" he asked, holding Kenny's gaze and ignoring the slightly shocked looks that the others were giving them.

Without breaking his stare, Kenny nodded, taking Craig's cup and offering his own, which he took in return. Together, they sipped each other's drinks, and Kenny couldn't help but think of something that playground kids used to whisper about…

An indirect kiss.

After eating, the group (sans Bebe, who refused to waste a moment of sunlight) went to one of the large pools and spent the rest of the day swimming, water-wrestling, playing chicken, and other such games together. Did Kenny end up sitting on Craig's shoulders during one of the games of chicken? Why yes, yes, he did. Did that launch his consciousness into orbit? Also, yes. Did they win the round? No, not even close. He forgot how to act like a human and Wendy, who he found out is incredibly competitive, pretty much went Super Saiyan and rocked him off Craig's shoulders with everything she had.

Eventually, the sun began to set, painting the entire park in hues of gold and orange, and they knew it was time to go. Besides, Clyde's shift was due to end by the time the park closed anyway.

By the time everyone was mostly dry and had changed (Bebe very graciously let Kenny borrow her towel since she didn't actually need to dry off), they were one of the last groups left meandering in the park. Not wanting to bring attention to themselves, they decided to gather their things and wait for Clyde by the cars.

"Want us to drop you off at Stan's again, Kenny?" Token asked him as they waited for Clyde.

As much as Bebe had wanted to wait to say goodbye to Clyde, Heidi's parents apparently had a pretty strict curfew, which forced the girls to leave early. In a way, Heidi kind of reminded him of Butters, though her parents just seemed genuinely strict, whereas Butters' parents were straight up abusive. Still, he could sense her unease every time it was suggested she bend the rules, even if it was just a little. He wondered if the girls ever got in trouble like he and his friends had; the trouble they got into as kids led to Mr. and Mrs. Stotch tightening their already-restrictive leash on Butters, so it wasn't entirely outlandish to assume something similar happened with the girls.

"Sure, I can walk home from there."

"Home?" Craig asked from a few feet away, where he was standing and smoking a cigarette. It took all of Kenny's willpower to not ask for a drag, but he'd promised he wouldn't ask for another one again after their time together on his roof.

"Uh, yeah? The only house across the train tracks?"

The taller boy seemed to think about that for a few seconds, and Kenny was half-temped to ask if Craig had somehow forgotten where he lived despite having practically invited himself over a few weeks prior. Just when he was convinced that the conversation was ending there, Craig spoke again.

"You can come over to my house." Normally, that would be a question, an offer, but in true Craig Tucker fashion, it came out like a statement. Something that was already decided.

"It's okay, du—"

"Dude, does your house even have AC?"

"No," he said softly, knowing that any argument he made was now completely null and void.

"Okay, you're coming over."

Well, that was that, he supposed. He was going to Craig's house.

In the back of his mind, he wondered what Wendy would think of that. Would she have something witty to say about it? Would she just smile? What would her eyes say?