Chapter Text
Kenny was sitting in class as usual. Another fucking day at South Park High. The useless rambling about pop culture from Mr. Garrison was filtered out by him. All he could think about was the boy sitting in the desk in front of him. Eric Cartman. They had been friends since preschool, and they were always there for each other. Well, maybe Cartman wasn’t always there for him, but it was enough in his mind. But he had begun to have feelings he didn’t quite understand. He often found himself drooling over girls, but for the first time, he actually felt something for a guy. His best friend. He had been silently pining over Cartman for months now, desperately wanting to be noticed but too scared to actually say anything. After all, he knew how cruel the bastard could be. Not only was he cruel, he was unpredictable. Kenny had no idea how he might react if he confessed to him. He didn’t seem to hate Craig and Tweek, and never really made any comments towards their relationship, at least not for a long time. But still. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t! Kenny lay his head down on his desk with a frustrated groan. A few of the kids sitting around him exchanged glances, but nobody bothered to ask him if he was alright. Mr. Garrison droned on and on, now somehow connecting Paul McCartney to 9/11.
The meaningless words swirled around in his head and eventually he just pulled a notebook out of his backpack. The book was originally red, but it had faded over time. Not that it mattered, since half of the cover was ripped off, showing the pages inside littered with scribbled handwriting and crude drawings of women with large breasts. He couldn’t afford another one, however, so this would have to suffice. He tore out a small section of a blank page and began to scratch something down on it.
“Dear Cartman,I can’t hide it any longer. I like you. Please go out with me?”
Kenny stared down at the note until the letters started to morph into something foreign. This was stupid. He crumpled the paper up, discarding it on the floor with a huff. Cartman, who wasn’t paying attention to the class anyways and instead was surveying the classroom for his next victim, immediately locked onto the falling ball of paper. He snatched it up with a snicker before Kenny could even react.
“Poor boy is trying to pass a note to one of the girls? Who is it? Red? Bebe? Oh, maybe you’re trying to steal Wendy away from Stan!” He cackled.
Kenny was sweating bullets now. The room felt smaller as Cartman’s eyes were trained on him, a knowing smirk on his stupidly kissable face. Kenny shook the thought out of his head. He prayed to God and Satan alike that he wouldn’t open that note. But, as usual, his pleading fell short. Horror spread across his face as Cartman began to open the note, still laughing.
He paused after seeing his own name on the note.
“The fuck?” He turned to look at Kenny, who was currently tugging the strings of his parka hood as hard as he could to cover his burning face. He just wanted to die right now. But of course, if he did, he would just wake up in his bed again like always. And nobody would remember. But that was the funny thing; there was always one person who remembered. Not always, no, but sometimes. Cartman. It was honestly one of the reasons he had fallen for him in the first place. But now, here he was, reading the pathetic love letter he had written on dirty paper.
Due to the prolonged silence, most of the kids who had been paying attention to the exchange lost interest and instead returned to their own quiet conversations.
But perhaps God hadn’t given up on Kenny just yet, as the lunch bell rang, freeing him from his torment. He grabbed his backpack and dashed out of the classroom and into the boy’s washroom, leaving Cartman stunned. He still held the note in his hand, however, a bit too tightly.
Kenny slammed the stall door behind him with a loud bang, shaking the weak walls. He let his bag drop to the ground and sat down, his head in his hands. The mix of emotions surging in his mind were so strong he could feel them in his body, like someone was bashing his head into the pavement. After all, he knew how that felt. A familiar voice startled him out of his thoughts.
“Kinny, what the hell is going on?”
No answer.
The voice got closer. “I know you’re in there. Just talk to me, man.” He sounded… oddly sincere. But also unsure. Like even he didn’t know why he was being nice.
“Go away, Cartman.”
“I’m not gonna leave, Kinny.” He sighed wearily. “Just tell me why you wrote this.”
There was silence again, until the stall door swung open suddenly. Kenny closed the distance between them in an instant, pushing the other boy against the sink.
“You wanna know why? Fine! It’s because I love you, dammit!”
His face was flushed, eyebrows furrowed in frustration. Frustration at the fact that Cartman just didn’t get it. Kenny had pulled his hood down, revealing messy blond hair sticking in every direction and shining blue eyes. Without thinking, he kissed him. Hard. Months of repressed affection poured into one kiss.
Cartman seemed quite surprised, but oddly enough, he didn’t lean away. After a few seconds, Kenny pulled back, breathing like he had just ran a marathon. He couldn’t believe he had just done that. He braced himself for the imminent ridiculing that would likely follow him for the rest of his miserable life. But it never came.
“Dude, that was pretty fucking gay.” Cartman said with that same smug look. For a while, they just looked at each other like idiots until the bathroom door swung open. The two immediately scrambled to make it look like they were just standing next to each other instead of Kenny pinning Cartman against the sink.
“Oh, gee, hey fellas!” Came a high-pitched voice. Butters. Of all people who could’ve come in, it was Butters!? He walked past them with a soft “loo loo loo” and went to the urinal, pulling his pants down all the way. Seriously, who does that?
“What’re you guys doin’ in here? I think Stan and Kyle was wonderin’ where you were!” He turned to them. While using the urinal. Butters had no sense of what was socially acceptable or not, so he always did weird stuff like this.
“Butters, you are so going to die alone.” Cartman sighed.
“O-oh, alright then.” Butters sniffed, taking an annoyingly long time to wash his hands and dry them fully before finally leaving.
“Fuck, he pisses me off… But we should probably go to the cafeteria before Kahl starts sticking his Jew rat nose in here to look for us.”
Kenny nodded, pulling his orange hood back up. He held the door for Cartman as they left the washroom like nothing happened. However, there was still lingering tension between them.