Chapter 32 - Protecting Stan

Tw: Mentions of shootings/blood & violence.

(timeskip back to prom)

Wendy's Pov:

My heart dropped when I suddenly heard Bebe screeching, and so did everyone else's. I don't even know how she noticed what was going on, but when I saw, I immediately knew who it was. I felt a swirl of nausea and fear overtake my stomach and she grabbed my hand and began running towards the altercation. We watched as the masked guy punched Clyde around with no mercy as a group of people formed yelling, making it impossible to make it through and stop what ever was going on. Except, I didn't want to stop it. I found myself smiling watching him cry out in pain only to be met with more pain. I slammed my hand against my mouth pretending I was shocked and horrified, knowing deep down I had the hugest grin. I held Bebe back knowing how he was, when he's pissed and punching, if you try to step in you'll become on of his targets. Still, it felt disgusting hearing my best friend in so much pain from watching the boy shes loved her whole life being treated like some rag doll. As we tried to peer over we heard a loud thud, and a glimpse of Clyde flying into a table as people started screaming and cheering louder, which only made her start trying to push more as I yelled at her to stop. Once we got really close, thats when it happened. I saw the masked guy pull out a fucking gun. My heart sank to my feet as everyone began screaming and trying to back away. I grabbed Bebe's wrist as I heard her scream "NOOOO" before a shot was fired off, and screams of Clyde overruled the screams of the hundreds of kids running out of the building. I tried to run with them but Bebe freed herself from my grip and ran over to her boyfriend. "CLYDE? CLYDE?!!" she screamed as he cried out in pain. I looked around for the gunman, but he was already gone. Please please please.. don't let him get caught. Bebe all of a sudden got god strength, because she picked up the 210 6ft foot kid up with no hesitation, "WE NEED TO TAKE HIM TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL." she screamed at me with tears in her eyes. I nodded and grabbed the rest of our stuff, her car keys from the table, and we ran outside. Once we started running I noticed all the teachers were outside trying to do damage control or fleeing to their own cars, no wonder no one fucking stopped the fight, these teachers don't fucking care about us. I unlocked the doors and helped shove Clyde into the back, where Bebe sat as well with his head in her lap, as he cried she held his hand and rubbed his head trying to sing to him. I had never seen her this broken, this panicked, I just wish she'd known what he did to me, then she'd just wish he'd burn in hell. I couldn't tell her now, then she'd definitely know who the person who shot him was, I just drove as fast as I could, knowing deep down I wish he'd just die right there.

After a night of sitting in the emergency room waiting area, and Bebe falling asleep on my shoulder, I found myself not being able to sleep at all. Wondering where the fuck Stan was, wondering if anyone else knew it was him, wondering.. why the fuck would he do that.. for me. I get that he's extremely overprotective, and always used to say how he'd kill for me, but usually when guy's say that it's just a metaphor for how much you mean to them, not an actual reality. My thoughts raced as my head span from the lack of sleep, I found myself eventually slowly passing out, until; "Ms Stevens." I jumped up, and shook Bebe's shoulder, until she finally woke up and sat up straight. "Is he okay?" Bebe said looking up at the nurse standing in front of us. She looked around, and signaled to follow her, so we did. We followed her until we made it to a corner of the office where people could not hear. "I'm so sorry to inform you guys that your friend is in critical condition. We're not sure if he'll make it out of this considering he lost a lot of blood." Bebe began crying again as I hugged her tightly. "I know sweetie.. we're doing everything we can to bring him back to stability. If he does eventually reach what we're trying to do, he might not be the same. A vital vein was hit in the fire, which means he will possibly be paralyzed from the waist down. I just had to inform you girls so you didn't have to wonder." Bebe cried into her hands at the news, making me wonder why we had to be woken up for this. "I'm just here to let you girls know, that based off this situation police will be coming soon to question you guys about what happened here tonight, along with a lot of people from the dance. So don't be startled, you're not in trouble, they just want to help you guys find who did this." The nurse put her hand on Bebe's shoulder. "It's going to be okay dear.", then she walked away. Me and Bebe went and sat back down as she cried onto my shoulder, I felt so horrible seeing her like this, yet, I didn't feel shame for anything that happened at all. Within 2 hours, around 6 in the morning, the police arrived just like she had said to pick us up.

(10:30 at Kyle's house)

Kyle's pov:

As the alarm clock I forgot to disable blared loudly, both me and Stan let out a groan at the same time. I sat up to turn it off and felt my head spinning, along with a pounding headache. "Fuck. I have a hangover." I said throwing my head into my hands. "Aw you drank too much didn- ughhhh fuck me too." He said as he got up, only to throw his head into his hands too. We laughed at bit at our condition, before heading into the kitchen where my mom was cooking breakfast. She smiled seeing us and both me and Stan walked over to give her a hug, before plopping down at the dining table. "Mom, can you make us something for a hangover." She looked back at me eyes wide, "Ooo you boys did too much for prom didn't you." she said laughing as I rolled my eyes knowing I didn't even go. A few minutes later she brought us some concoction, I smelled it wondering what the fuck it was, while Stan chugged his like it was a beer. I tried to do the same but gagged out loud at the taste, my mom looked back laughing. "Its gonna taste bad, but you have to drink it." she said smiling and returning to the food. I closed my eyes and chugged, slamming the mug then my head on the table. Stan got up and changed the channel to the news, turning it up so it was louder than the sizzling coming from the kitchen. After a few minutes of random talk, the topic switched to more surprising news.

"Hi Brian, I'm here at South Park High where last night a shooting was reported after an altercation broke out between a student and a masked gunmen. Police are still investigating what happened here tonight, and taking in eye-witnesses to try to figure out who could've been the shooter. More about this story in 5." Then it cut to commercial.

I stare at the TV in disbelief, as I look over to Stan who's face is as pale as a piece of paper. "Dude, what the fuck happened?" I whispered across the table, knowing that thats the reason he probably showed up last night. He didn't make eye contact with me, he just starred into space with a worried look on his face. I couldnt tell if he knew something, or was having some kind of flashbacks to the night, but I could tell something was extremely wrong. As mom sat down and served us breakfast while on the phone with her friend or something I listened in closely to the TV as it returned back to the story, while Stan stared at his food.

"Back to our previous story about the South Park High shooting, the victim now identified as Clyde Donavan, a beloved student at the school was wounded by the gunmen but survived, and is currently in critical condition at the Hells Pass Hospital. Police have no records of who might've fired the shots as the gunman was fully masked the whole time. If you have any tips as who could've done this please call the police's anonymous tip line. Back to you Brian."

I felt my heart beating out of my chest. He didn't. He couldn't have. I looked up at Stan in shock upon hearing the name. He had a cold gaze, then he suddenly jumped up from the table and speed walked to the bathroom. I jumped up following him as he closed the door and locked it. I began banging on the door. "Stan? Stan dude fucking open it." I said banging quietly to not let my mom hear but loud enough to show him it was urgent. He stayed quiet as I kept banging. "Please no dude. Please don't tell me it was you." He quickly opened the door and pulled me by my shirt into it with him, locking the door behind us. He held my face close to his as he stared at me with eyes filled with tears and fear. He yanked me in for a hug as he gripped his fingers into my back, "I'm sorry. I don't know why.. I don't know what's wrong with me.." he said as he laid his head in my shoulder. I didn't hug back. I couldn't pretend like this was all okay. I pushed him back and stared him in the eyes as tears quietly streamed down his face. "Stan. Why the fuck would you even think of doing that." "I don't fucking know Kyle?! I'm fucking sorry I wasn't thinking!" he said talking with his hands while aggressively wiping away his tears. "Dude don't be fucking sorry to me?! Be sorry to yourself! You could fucking ruin your whole life over this shit dude what the fuck? I can't even fucking believe what I just heard dude.." I said throwing my face into my hands and pacing. "They wont know. No one even remembers me." he said as he slowly slid down the wall into fetal position. "Dude, they will fucking soon. Whoever Wendy told about what happened will put the pieces together and... think it was one of us. They'll fucking think it was one of us." I said realizing that this was a way worse situation than I imagined. My mind started spiraling out of control as my body became overwhelmed. I started struggling to breathe and panicking, fuck.. why now. I felt myself fall back onto my ass as I hugged my knees trying to catch my breath, but it felt as if a 1200 car was sitting right on top of me. "Kyle..? Are you okay?!" I heard Stan saying getting progressively worried. I couldn't respond, if I did I wouldn't be able to breathe and I'd pass out. I felt my heart beating outside of my chest again and my throat closing up. Stan fastly crawled over to me, holding me against him as I continued the struggle. "It's okay Kyle.. I'm so sorry. Just breathe please. Slow breaths." I felt myself trying as he said, my breaths getting slower but still desperate, as I gripped onto Stan's arm with my nails, probably hurting him but not being able to stop. "It'll all be okay. I'll make sure no one ever hurts you. I'll go turn myself in dude." I suddenly snapped out of my trance. "What?! You're not going to fucking turn yourself in!" I said backing away from Stan looking at him pissed off. "Kyle." he said grabbing my hand. "No dude what the fuck? I'm not fucking losing you again. I don't fucking care Stan." I said looking into his eyes. "Kyle.. It's not worth it. You have such a great future ahead of you dude. I don't want it getting ruined over something so fucking stupid." "I don't fucking care Stan! I'm not letting you ruin your life over something that might not even be fucking traced back to you." I said grabbing his face and turning him to me. "What I know will never leave my mouth. Whatever you did, whatever happened that night, will never leave your mouth." I said looking at him with the most serious face I ever have. It felt fucking horrible knowing that Stan could actually be as reckless as that to actually shoot someone, but I knew I had a job now whether I liked it or not; protecting Stan until we got out of this mess. We sat in the bathroom for a bit more before we left to finish our breakfast, then stayed in my room playing video games in silence the rest of the day. Once it turned night we went up to the roof to smoke some weed again. Although I wasn't uncomfortable, it felt so weird knowing I knew something no one else did. My best friend.. or.. boyfriend.. I guess.. actually shot someone. I knew that if he got caught, there was nothing else left for him. I found myself laying on his shoulder, trying to soak up my possible last moments with him as much as I could. For all I know, the police could come knocking on the door any day now.

The whole next week of school was cancelled, which meant only one week of school left after that until we reached summer break. I had been so excited to spend the summer with Stan back, but now it just feels like its going to be mostly about us trying to dodge anything that could tie us to what happened. Regardless, Stan tried to keep a good mood for the whole week. We acted as if nothing had happened, and even felt like we had forgot about the situation in total for a while, until Wednesday, when I got a call from an unmarked number.

"Hello?" I answered confused while Stan climbed up the bed beside me to be nosey.

"Kyle. I need to talk to you and Stan, now." the voice returned in a quiet but urgent manner.

"Uh okay.. what is it?" I said asking, looking at Stan with a weirded out face.

"In person. Meet me at the skatepark now." the voice hung up. Me and Stan looked at each other, then quickly jumped up and hopped in my truck, not even bothering to put in any music. In about 5 minutes we arrived at the skatepark. Since the sun was already about to be fully down over the horizon it was hard to see anything in the darkly lit area. Me and Stan started slowly walking deeper into the park, until we were met by a dark figure with long hair, Wendy. I got startled as she quickly pulled us to a corner of the park, even though no one else was around. "Wendy, what do you need." I said already annoyed with her.

"Clyde's fucking dead."