Love Grows ♡ Kenjorine

Chapter 3 ♡

Marjorine's point of view ♡ 

My first ever lecture went really smoothly! We're studying Dracula this semester. I watched Henrietta roll her eyes from across the lecture hall after that was announced. I don't think she recognised me, thankfully. I reminisce on the days where I was so desperate to not be grounded anymore I tried to become some sort of vampire, and how she hated the 'vamp kids.' I always thought the goth kids were kind of admirable, and it's no surprise that Henrietta is sitting English with how baleful and mournful she seems to be. 

Another wave of sadness for who I used to be washes over me. I can't believe I was pining so hard to be treated correctly by my parents I pretended to be a vampire. The freedom I have claimed upon moving out has been so sweet, but it's hard to shake the feelings of insecurity I felt my entire childhood and adolescence. This reminded me - where are Heidi and Wendy? I thought they'd come and meet me at the canteen, I feel a bit lonely by myself.

"Marjorine! You'll never guess what!" Heidi squeals, followed by the click - clattering of Wendy's boots. I let out a sigh of relief. How I love the pair of them.

"We are cordially invited to our first ever college party!" She explains with a grin stretching from ear to ear as she and Wendy take a seat across from me.

"What? Really?" I gasp excitedly. "By who?"

"Kyle Broflovski, you remember him right? Stan's going to be there, I assume Craig's gang - even Kenny! I think it's some sort of reunion do."

"Kenny?" I exclaim, forgetting I should hide my excitement before Wendy or Heidi torment me. 

"Yes!" Heidi grins. "Wendy's even going to try and talk to Stan!"

"I am not," she scoffs. "I am going to be mature and civilised, but there's no way I'm putting myself through all of that again."

"Yeah right," Heidi giggles. "You'll get a bottle of wine down you and you'll start blabbering."

"I am straight edge, remember?" Wendy crosses her arms neatly. "Even so - I reckon we scurry home sharpish after our lectures so we can look and feel our best. I said it this morning, let's show everyone we used to know whose boss, right?"

The three of us smile in girlish unison. Everything is happening so fast. 

It's hard to concentrate on the remainder of my lectures. I think Dracula and the history of gothic literature and all that are really cool but it's hard to focus knowing that I might actually get to meet Kenny as my true self after all. I peer over at his sister, Karen. I can't believe she is in my course, considering she's a little bit younger, she must've positively buried herself in her studies. She sits by herself and seems rather sullen. I know the McCormick's didn't have the greatest upbringing. I hope her education has something really great in store for her. I hope she's okay.

Wendy, Heidi and I immediately gather in the bathroom upon returning home. We are all wearing similar body-con dresses in our signature colours - a pastel green for myself and a darker green for Heidi, and of course a lilac dress for Wendy. I tighten my favourite Hello Kitty ring around my finger as I watch Heidi adjust a maroon necklace and Wendy a baby pink one.

"Do I look alright?" Wendy asks sheepishly, checking herself out in the mirror. "If I must talk to Stan I at least want to piss him off with how much better I'm doing." 

Heidi sighs. "Why are you so caught up on him, Wend?" she asks. "You are always so bothered about seeing him, hell, you don't even want to talk to Kyle. He made you incredibly unhappy, why do you still care about what he has to think?"

"I'm sorry that getting over ten years of mind games is difficult for me," Wendy snaps. We all know she still has a lot of love in her heart for him that she will never admit to. I remember at the very beginning of Elementary they were almost inseparable and he would go to great lengths to impress her. Though Wendy tries to be stoic, she has a very soft core and watching Stan's attention navigate elsewhere throughout the years broke her down slowly. We all knew he could be pretty insensitive towards her, but it is believed he even cheated on her a couple of times.

"You look beautiful, Wendy," I smile, consciously avoiding anything that could dampen the mood. "So, Heidi, Kyle said he'd buy you a drink?"

"Well, yeah," she gushes softly, adjusting her mousy brown hair. "I don't know. The fact he is in such close proximity to Eric kind of scares me but it's nice to know he wants to be friends again. You girls know how sweet he was to me, I can't believe I let Cartman fuck it up. It's nice to have another chance."

She pauses, and begins to giggle, evidently not wanting to sour the mood either.

"But what I'm even happier about is that tonight would be a great chance to smoke up again with Craig's gang and Kenny! We used to have so much fun getting high behind the bleachers in our final year of High School. You should've been there, Marj!"

Wendy rolls her eyes at Heidi's 'all natural' vice.

"Are you happy that Kenny's coming, Marj?" Wendy asks. 

"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been thinking about it all day, fellas," I laugh.

I wonder what he looks like now. I haven't seen him in a while. I wonder if he's still as quiet as he once was, I wonder if he'd still defend me like he used to. But he doesn't know me, does he? He only knew Butters. I remember drawing him a photo of us when he fell really ill in Elementary. I remember being awfully worried, how I'd stay up crying. I guess I always yearned for somebody like Kenny who always saw the good in me and came to my defence, to fill the hole my parents left.

I have had too much going on in my life as of recent years to really, truly develop a crush on anybody. I mean, I know when I was much younger there was that Canadian girl named Charlotte, but when I really think about it - the only person I have ever seriously thought of in that way is Kenny. Oh, I remember High School, before I dropped out, scribbling his initials in little hearts all over my copybooks. I even went through a phase of figuring which classes he had at what time to increase my chances of seeing him in the hallway. 

"You seem to be thinking of it very intently right now, Marjorine," Wendy says. 

I smile back at her, and me and my two musketeers burst into a fit of giggles. Oh, how I can't wait to see Kenny tonight.