Play Pretend | South Park Style

Part 2

After a few minutes Stan lets out a frustrated sigh, "Dammit, I'm stuck on this problem." He says, holding up his paper for me to see.

I stood up from my chair and walked over to the bed Stan sat on. Once I made myself somewhat comfortable I gently took the paper from Stan his hands. "Oh, I just finished that one. What do you not understand about it?"

Stan watches me as I take the paper from his hands, his cheeks seemed a bit more pinkish than usual. "Oh, uh, nothing. I think I just need to focus more." He looks back down at the paper, clearly trying to ignore the weird vibe hanging in the air.

I immediately raise my eyebrow, what is his problem? "Erm, so... Do you need my help with that or not?" I ask. Stan looks up from his work, his cheeks still slightly pink. "Well... If you wouldn't mind helping me." He says quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"No, I don't mind. Can you just tell me specifically what you do not understand about it?" I asked him, slightly wondering what was up with him. Deep down I knew that he was just embarrassed.

Stan hesitates for a moment, before pointing to the part he did not understand. "Well, it's this part here. I don't understand how you get that answer." He says, his voice still soft and slightly nervous.

Since I had finished that exercise a couple of minutes ago, I directly started explaining what Stan had to do, it didn't take me long to explain either. "Do you get it now?"

Stan nods, his cheeks still slightly pink. "Yeah, thanks, Kyle. You're a lifesaver." He says with a small smile, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Smiling happily and content I stood up and sat back down on my chair at my desk. I continued to do my homework and Stan goes back to working on his. "Okay, I got it now. Thanks again." He says quietly, keeping his eyes on his work.

"No problem," I say, also keeping my eyes on my work.

__________________

After a few more minutes of silent work, Stan finally finished his assignment. "Alright, I'm done. How about you?"

"Same here! Just had to write my name on the papers quickly." I responded, putting the papers and my pencil case back into my bag.

Stan stood up from my bed and nodded, "Cool. Well, thank you for the help. I probably wouldn't have gotten it without you." He says sincerely, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Are you leaving already?" I asked, looking at Stan curiously.

Stan hesitates for a moment before nodding once again, "Yeah, I should probably head home now. Thanks again!" He starts to walk towards the door. I saw on his face that suddenly he was feeling much less stressed about the homework.

"Hey, hold on. Didn't you need to talk about something?" I quickly added.

Stan stops and turns around, a look of surprise on his face. "Oh, right. Well, it can wait. I don't want to bother you anymore." He says quickly, not wanting to bring up the topic he had in mind earlier.

"No, it's fine really. You can stay a little longer or even sleep over if you want. You know my mom wouldn't mind dude." I spoke, standing up and walking towards Stan.

Looking at me, his expression softens slightly "Are you sure? That's kind of you, but-..."

"...But what?" I ask, raising an eyebrow while still looking at the shorter boy.

"Well, I don't want to impose or anything. Besides, I'm sure you want some alone time. And I can always talk about my problems with you another time." He says, swaying back and forth nervously.

"What problems?" I don't think I've ever looked more confused in my entire life than now. 

"Uh...Never mind. It's not important." Stan says quickly, trying to backtrack. I saw on his face that he didn't want to bring up the topic he had in mind earlier. Especially now because of how confused I looked.

"Okay, can you just tell me what's up? You seriously are making me nervous. What's on your mind?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

Stan sighed deeply before speaking, "Fine, I guess I can tell you. It's just...Kind of embarrassing." He mutters, his face reddening again.

"Just tell me..." I sighed impatiently.

Taking a deep breath, Stan finally looks me in the eyes "Well, remember when we were little and we used to...Um...Experiment with each other?" He stutters out. His face was now a deep shade of red.

I genuinely felt like I was just hit by a huge overwhelming heat wave. I could feel my face slowly turning red as well. "Uhm...No, I'm not sure what you are talking about," I said, playing dumb.

I knew VERY well what he was talking about. When we were 14 we tried to kiss each other and see if we'd get a ... Well, some sort of reaction.

"C'mon, you know what I'm talking about. We used to...Kiss each other." He whispers, his eyes darting around nervously.

"Right, Stan. It was probably a stupid dream of yours...You should go home." I bit my lip nervously.

I saw Stan his facial expression turn into a mix of sadness and frustration "It wasn't a dream, Kyle. It happened. We used to...Do stuff together. I know it sounds weird, but..." He trails off, looking down at the ground.

"Stan." I stopped him before he could say anything else. I looked him in the eyes with a serious look on my face.

Stan looked up to meet my serious gaze. "What?"

"Go home," I said, looking away from the boy in front of me.

Feeling dismissed and confused, Stan nods slowly "Okay...I'm sorry I brought it up." He turns and starts walking towards the door, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Once he left my room I let out a huge sigh of relief. I never thought he'd bring this up again, we are eighteen now...How did he even remember such a foolish thing?