South Park: Dragging Me Down

Star-Crossed

"So... things went tits up and they basically killed themselves, right?"

Pip nodded at Kenny who was sitting across from him. He was slouched in the sofa chair with a worn copy of Romeo and Juliet splashed across his lap. Kenny snorted in response to Pip's answer, "Well that fuckin' failed."

"Indeed." Pip replied in a small voice, turning over the page in his English book. "I have the final character notes here for you to copy if you'd like."

"Thanks buddy." Kenny plucked the book out of Pip's hands and dumped it on his lap. He started writing them down. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how neat your handwriting was." he noted, taking in Pip's elegant script.

Pip gave a small smile at the unexpected compliment. "Um, thank you. It's nothing special."

"And I'm not poor." Kenny scribbled down the notes in his own workbook. "It's better than mine, anyway. Have you seen this shit?" he flopped his book over the table, pushing it towards Pip with his fingertip. Kenny's scrawly handwriting was barely legible.

"It's... something." Pip put in, hoping Kenny wouldn't yell at him for telling the truth. It was strange, but for some reason Kenny was being nicer to him than usual. He had the sense to suspect that Mysterion had checked on him on Pip's behalf and this was Kenny's way of possibly thanking him?

But I told Mysterion not to mention me!

"Oi britbox, you there?"

Pip zoned back in to find the phlegmatic Kenny staring at him while casually sipping from his apple juice box. He felt his face heat up and pushed Kenny's book back across the table with his fingertips. "Sorry."

"I told you to quit saying that. It's annoying as fuck." Kenny glared at him, sipping his juice loudly.

"Sorry!" he squeaked again, avoiding Kenny's eyes.

"Dumbass."

Pip bowed his head and reached for his workbook, his sleeve rolling up. Kenny's eyes darted towards Pip's bandaged wrists and felt himself sigh, scrunching up his juice box. Pip didn't notice his classmate's stern observations as he grabbed his book. "Um, so... I hope this helped? I'm not very good at this kind of thing so I hope-"

"Why do you have cigarette burns on your arms?"

Pip froze. His body stiffened and his eyes darkened, pen trembling in hand. "W-What did you say?"

"Cigarette burns. On your wrists. I saw them the other day."

Pip felt his breathing escalate.

"Off the record, my home life is pretty shit so I know what a cigarette burn looks like." Kenny continued, deadly serious. "And you definitely had those."

Pip became so tense he actually stopped breathing. It was only after his chest started to struggle that he released the large breath he'd been holding in. "O-Oh! T-That's not... it..." he stammered, words refusing to form.

"So... do you wanna talk about it?" he tried, knowing Pip would clam up but it was worth a shot anyway.

"N-N-" he struggled, averting his eyes away from the parka wearing teen. Pip's mind had gone blank. He never thought - never expected anyone to ask him a question like that, especially at school where nobody liked him. He had no idea how Kenny had found out about his injuries so naturally blamed himself for being so careless. He went to stand up but found he couldn't move. His body was frozen to the spot. He tried desperately hard not to panic.

Kenny could see Pip's predicament and decided to try and smoothen things over. "Of course, you don't have to tell me shit if you don't want to. We are strangers, after all." he shrugged. "For real though, if you ever need to talk about home shit - well I know I'm probably the last person you'd want to talk to, but... I understand, y'know? I'm here if you need me."

Pip gave him a frightened glance. Kenny was really scaring him. He was suddenly being so open and nice and prying into his life despite not actually caring about him and it was freaking him out. He didn't want Kenny knowing about his scars but he somehow knew now and that meant he'd tell his friends and give his tormenters more of a reason to laugh at him and they'd probably try and replicate the injuries. He couldn't go through that. He couldn't go through that again!

"Calm down. Pipsqueak, calm down. You're panicking."

"I-I can't I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me, p-please don't say anything they're not important honestly they're just normal don't tell anyone please!" his panicked pleas spilled out, surprising Kenny.

Kenny leant across the table and grabbed onto Pip's shoulders. "I'm not going to say anything. I know you already go through hell at school and I don't really want to add to that, even though I probably should." he remained as flippant as he could, trying not to seem too overly concerned. "So calm down."

Kenny released Pip. The two were quiet for a few moments, one stunned, the other jarred.

"Oh! I didn't know you'd gotten yourself another study partner Kenny." a new voice sliced through the tension.

Both boys turned to look at the newcomer, who was hugging her books to her chest. Wendy smiled kindly. "Hi!"

Kenny slackened and kicked his legs back up onto the table, almost taking Pip out. "Hey Wends."

Pip nodded his head in greeting, suddenly getting the urge to run away.

"What you guys up to? You're not hurting him, are you Kenny?"

"No! He's teaching me English."

"Isn't that... my job?" she asked. She couldn't help but feel a little envious.

"He was in the area at the time." Kenny snarked back.

"I-I should go." the timid teen shot to his feet.

"Wait! Y-You don't have to leave if you don't want to." Wendy spurted out, not meaning to make Pip feel unwanted.

Pip looked uncomfortable. "Um, no, i-it's okay. I have to go anyway."

"No! Stay! Um, that is, if you want to?" Kenny rubbed the back of his head, pulling a forced grin.

Pip looked at him with wide eyes and stepped back. "N-No it's okay, I've already overstayed my welcome." he swiftly replied, gathering his books up.

"What? No you haven't! The library's a free place for students to hang out. You don't have to leave!"

"I'm fine thank you. Sorry to have caused any trouble." he went to leave but Wendy reached out for him.

"Honestly, you don't have to leave. It's good that you're spending more time with people. I'd love for you to spend more time with him... or me, if you wanted to?" she smiled, trying not to come across as creepy.

"Please let me go." was his scared answer. He could barely handle Kenny being nice to him but Wendy? What would she get out of it? He didn't trust her. He couldn't. She knew too many people who could hurt him.

Wendy submitted and let go of his arm, allowing him to leave the room. She sighed and pulled up a chair alongside Kenny, sitting next to him. "I'm sorry about that, I shouldn't have come. I totally blew it."

"No, no, it's okay! It's my fault for not telling you about it. I've been getting him to tutor me as a way of stopping him getting into so much trouble."

"Oh, I see... Well that's great!" Wendy smiled. "But I guess you don't need me to tutor you now then." she stood up, but Kenny pulled her back down and she accidently fell into his lap. She blushed and immediately dove back to her own seat.

"Woah, I'm sorry about that! Didn't mean to pull you down that hard." he laughed nervously, fighting back his own blush, "B-But you don't have to leave either. I'm still a dumb fuck so need lots of help to get back on track. I don't mind having two tutors."

Wendy shook off her feelings, "I-It's okay, um, sure! If you'd like that!"

He looked at her sincerely. "I would."

She cleared her throat and opened her book across her lap. "Okay then. Let's get started."