Moving Up

CH 7- True Friends

  When Kyle stormed back into his dorm room he was enraged. Stan sat in his desk chair, waiting, prepared for his friend's outburst. So Stan's calm exterior only made Kyle even more angry.

"What the actual fuck Stan!?" Kyle shouted at the boy, his hands balling into fists, "How could you know about that and not tell me?"

"Because we knew you would react like this," Stan simply stated, trying to keep his calm so as to not add to Kyle's anger.

"We?!" Kyle scoffed at the boy, "Who is we?"

"Wendy and I knew you would react like this, y/n wanted Wendy to tell me to not bring you because she didn't want you to see her like that. Quite frankly I'm surprised she even opened the door to you," Stan answered honestly, he felt bad to see his friend like this.

"Unbelievable!" Kyle angrily shouted, "You'll at least tell me who did it right?"

Stan was silent and stared down at the floor to avoid his friend's burning gaze. He didn't want to lie but he knew he couldn't tell Kyle.

"Right?" Kyle asked again through gritted teeth. 

To Stan's rescue the boys heard a knock on the door. But his relief soon turned to horror as it was their room door not the common room door, and there was a 50/50 chance of who was behind that door. Stan swiftly moved past Kyle to get the door and only opened the door a few inches.

"Hiya Stan, is everything okay in there? I heard some yelling," Butters stood on the other side of the door, eyeing the room behind Stan in concern.

"We're fine Butters, just a small disagreement," Stan said to the boy as he heard Kyle let out a dry laugh behind him.

"Oh, uh, okay," The boy said timidly playing with his shirt, "Have you seen Eric-"

"Sorry Butters but this is important," Stan said quickly interrupting the boy, "So can we go back?"

"Oh y-yeah, sorry fellers," Butters said before Stan quickly closed the door. San gave a sigh of relief before turning to face his friend again.

"I bet you're not gonna tell me why you were acting so skittish either," Kyle grumbled. Stan sighed again.

"Look dude, I'm going to get dinner with Wendy and you are to leave y/n alone," Stan said with much annoyance and conviction, "I don't care if you stay here and brood or decide to run your anger off, just don't hurt anyone or yourself. Or you'll never know." And before Kyle could even respond to Stan he was grabbing his wallet and out the door.

Kyle was left there standing stunned to silence. He felt ashamed. Ashamed that his anger got the better of him. Ashamed that he couldn't do anything to help the girl he liked. Ashamed he took out his frustration on the one person that has stood by his side through everything.

Kyle knew that Stan understood, that's why Stan had to be so stern. Stan would forgive him and they could talk about it when everyone had calmed down. But even knowing that his super best friend would forgive him, Kyle had to sit and come to forgive himself.

—

You sat at your desk, almost finished copying Kyle's notes. Wendy had just left to get dinner with Stan but she promised to check up on you too often. While yes, sometimes Wendy's constant worrying was constricting, it was nice to know how much she cared and she really did mean well. Wendy had offered to bring you back some dinner but you declined, not wanting her evening with her boyfriend to revolve around bringing you food.

You were still processing everything that had transpired, but more recently, how Kyle had reacted when you got the door. While the night of you didn't want him seeing you look so bad, you had imagined somehow someone would tell him what happened. But you could see the shock so plainly written on his scarlet face.

But a knock on the quad door pulled you from your thoughts. Nichole was out with Tolkien and Bebe had started courting Clyde so you were the only one there to peek out the door. You slowly got up from your chair and moved out of your room and into the common room .Suddly you were hyper aware that you were alone and anyone could be behind that door. But right as you reached the door they knocked again, so they had to know they were at the right dorm. Slowly you opened the door and peaked out.

"You look like shit."

"Craig! B-be nice," Jimmy chastised the black haired boy.

You felt your heart rate slow back down as Jimmy, Criag and Tweek stood in the doorframe. With a sigh of relief at the sight of your friends you opened the door wider and stepped off to the side to let them in.

"Nice to see you too," you joked as the three shuffled into the small common area.

"We heard you weren't feeling great, so we brought you some dinner," Tweek said, holding out a bag to you, "And we brought our food to keep you company."

"Thank you," you said, taking a bag of food from his hand, "There is more space in my room if you don't mind the three of us eating on the floor."

"Dibs o-on the desk," Jimmy said, leading the group into you and Wendy's room.

You, Criag and Tweek plopped down on the floor, unpacking all your food while Jimmy set up his station on your desk.

"Are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?" Craig asked, breaking the silence.

"Seriously dude," Jimmy groaned and Tweak swatted his arms. You couldn't help but laugh at the boys' antics which caught them off guard. 

"I assumed that's why you guys were here, and I kinda left you hanging the other day. Sorry Jim," you said, taking a bite out of your food. Jimmy's cheeks flared red in embarrassment.

"You know better than anyone I like fact checking rumors, and there are quite a few surrounding you right now," Jimmy said, bashfully taking a bite out of his own food.

"Well I'd tell you the whole story but most of its girls talk," you breathed a laugh and boys gave you a funny look.

"Girl talk to a black eye, how does that correlate?" Tweak asked. You felt your cheeks heat up at the question.

"It kinda has to do with a crush," you blurted out, "But I'll only tell you the whole thing if you promise not to make fun of me."

"W-we promise," Jimmy quickly said, giving you a soft smile.

"Spill it sis," Craig said, sarcastically flipping his wrist. But his face showed a form of sincerity. As cold as he tried to seem on the outside, you knew he was just as understanding as you found Jimmy.

You took a deep breath and began to tell them the story. From your disgruntled first meeting with Kyle and his friends to the now more recent developments. Ending in a bang you told them about the miscommunication and rumor spreading of Cartman and your subsequent fight.

The boys ate their food and listened intently, the only noise from them being Tweaks quiet tics. All of them were a little taken aback by the escalation of the whole story, but they felt bad for their friend. They wished she would've asked for help sooner, but then again this whole week was happening so fast.

"Cartmans a dick but I thought being in university he would be more tactful with his anger," Tweak said.

"I probably should've walked away after the slap, but I just saw red you know," you said, taking a big bite out of your food.

"I think it's about time someone rocked his shit," Craig said, a smile creeping on his face, "I can't wait to see what Kyle does to him."

"I don't want any of my friends defending me on behalf," you sighed, "I just wanna put this behind me and move on,"

And that the conversation about Cartman died down and the group moved on to lighter topics to enjoy their dinner too. Jimmy was quiet for the rest of the evening, only chiming in if there was room for a quick remark. He still needed to process everything you had said. Hearing the first week of school from your perspective, and listening to the side of Cartman everyone knew all too well. Most of all he had to mourn the admission that his crush was in love with someone else.