InsaneJournal

Kenny twists the heel of his hand, spinning the knob on his ColecoVision controller. Flicking one finger out to hit the Hyper Space button, he raises his burger with his other hand and takes a messy bite.

“How the hell do you that?” Kyle asks. He grabs a fry without looking, eyes locked on the action on-screen. “I can’t play this game with both hands.”

Kenny taps the buttons with his fingertips and shrugs. A few sharp knocks sound at the door, and when Kenny doesn’t react, Kyle shouts, “Go away, Cartman!”

“Cartman was here?”

“Hey Stan,” Kenny and Kyle say in unison, and the ship onscreen explodes. “Damnit,” Kenny grunts as he quickly stretches his fingers. “Close the door and don’t distract me again.”

Stan shuffles over to them and flops down next to Kyle. Scooping up a handful of fries, he says, “You jerks got burgers without me?”

“You went to the movies without us jerks?” Kenny says absently.

“Hey, why aren’t you at the movies?” Kyle asks as he steals a fry from Stan’s hands. “Kia’s going to kill you if you forgot about her again.”

Stan responds by shrugging and jamming more fries in his mouth, and Kyle drums his fingertips on his knee expectantly.

“We broke up,” Stan finally manages. He reaches for Kyle’s burger and is rewarded with a smack to his hand.

“Don’t steal my dinner. What happened this time?”

“I haven’t had dinner either!”

“Tell me what happened and maybe I’ll share.”

Stan looks askance at Kenny and Kyle can’t stop his eyebrow from quirking up. “Tell you later?” Stan asks in a half-whisper. Kyle nods, sighs, and gestures towards the half of his burger that’s left.

“I’m done with it anyway.”

“Thanks, dude.” He polishes it off in a matter of minutes, and when he leans back to rest on his elbows, Kenny turns off the game and scoots to sit facing them both.

“Stan,” Kenny says, and his tone is so calm that it unnerves Kyle. “I was wondering if I could ask you about something.”

“Shoot.”

“You remember your birthday party?” Kyle chokes on nothing. Stan slaps his back as he coughs, and Kenny just talks louder. “Where the satellite crashed into your room?”

“Like I’d forget that.”

“Anyway, I... it’s been bothering me. I can’t remember what happened that night.”

“You were pretty wasted, dude,” Stan snorts, but Kenny just shakes his head.

“I remember that part. I remember letting everyone in while you were getting ready upstairs, and I remember making out with Mercedes in your mom and dad’s room.”

“Sick!”

“But I don’t remember the end of the party. The satellite crashed, and we ran towards your room, but then... nothing.”

Kyle scrambles towards the kitchen, hollering hoarsely that he needs water. There’s a thump as he flings open the cabinet, plastic cups clattering together, and it’s not until the faucet squeaks on that Stan gives Kenny a weak smile and offers, “You were really wasted?”

Kenny crawls into Kyle’s vacated spot, leans in close, and says quietly enough that Kyle can’t hear, “What do you remember happening?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Stan says, staring at the entrance to the kitchen.

“I have a blank spot in my memory between running to your room and waking up at home the next morning. Think about where we live. I’d believe pretty much anything.”

“What do you remember, Stan?” Kyle asks as he reenters with a full glass of water.

“What about you?”

“I asked first.”

Stan winces. “Everything.”

“Oh.” Kyle slumps to sit right in the kitchen doorway. “Me too.”

“Great, then both of you can explain this to me,” Kenny says, crossing his legs and grabbing his ankles like an attentive little student.

“No way,” Kyle snaps, and he bumps the back of his head on the wall. “We weren’t even supposed to remember this stuff.”

Stan shifts to face Kenny, runs a hand through his hair, and slowly begins. “You remember that picture you had of green things sucking on each other’s shoulders, and how it felt like we were in a rerun, and Cartman’s weird dreams?”

“You guys never talked about it, so I figured you still didn’t remember. I’ve been remembering bits and pieces about that stuff more and more lately.”

“Yeah. Visitors, Kenny.”

“Stan,” Kyle interrupts with a hitch in his voice, but Kenny waves him off.

“So the satellite was an alien satellite? Why’d it crash into your room?”

Kyle tries to say something again, and Stan cuts him off with a short, “Malfunction.”

“Huh.”

“That’s what they said, at least.”

“In the satellite or something else?” Kenny says with a smirk. “There’s something alien in Cartman’s ass, right? Bet that pulled it down.”

“If it didn’t, the gravitational pull might have,” Kyle chuckles.

Stan cracks a smile. “Speaking of fatass, he was over here earlier?”

“Don’t change the subject. I want to know what happened.”

“They took us all up to their ship while they repaired stuff. That’s all I know, Kenny, honest.”

Kenny looks at Kyle carefully, gauging his reaction to Stan’s words. “Okay,” he says after a pause, but all three of them can feel the distrust lacing his voice.

“Cartman was just being himself,” Kyle says, forcing his voice to be neutral.

“Planning to destroy you?”

“No, me this time,” Kenny says, and just like that, the tension in the air releases. He reaches for a cigarette, ignoring Stan exaggeratedly pulling his jacket up over his nose. “He got into Community College and wanted to rub my nose in it.”

“Sorry.”

With a shrug, Kenny lights up. “Forget it. I’m not jealous of you having to do homework for another four years.”

“Stan’s not going either,” Kyle points out. Kenny laughs hard, his cigarette falling out of his mouth.

“You told me first? I’m so honored.”

“Thanks for ruining the surprise,” Stan grumbles as he yanks his jacket down off his face, and Kyle looks at him, mouth hanging open.

“Stan?”

“I was going to wait until you got your housing forms, and then offer to be your roomie,” Stan sighs, elbowing Kenny in the side. “But shithead here had to spoil it.”

“You,” Kyle starts, pushing himself up to his feet. “You got in? How?”

“Thanks,” Stan says with mock anger. “I quit my job a few months back so I could study more.”

“Oh, that’s why you told me not to tell Kyle about that.”

Stan shoots Kenny an exasperated look.

“So, wait, let me get this straight.” Kyle walks over and drops to his knees across from them. “You quit work so you could pull up your grades and get into Community College? And you really did it?”

“Don’t hit me for not telling you,” Stan says, raising his hands up defensively. Instead, Kyle grabs him in a hug and laughs out loud.

“Dude! I can’t believe you fooled me for this long!”

Stan laughs back nervously. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad?” Letting go of him, Kyle sits back on his heels. He’s flushed and grinning so big it looks painful. “I get to hang out with my best friend at college! How can I be mad?”

“Touching,” Kenny coughs. Kyle’s mouth screws up and he looks at him thoughtfully.

“But this is good for you too, Kenny.” Kenny casts him an annoyed glance, but Kyle pushes on. “Since you’re already friends with my roommate, you can visit all the time. You could come over like every day if you wanted.”

Stan adds, “It’ll be like it is now, but with no parents.”

“And no Cartman, because we’ll shut him out.”

“Yeah, and no Cartman, because we’ll shut him out.”

Kenny lifts his eyebrows, and with his cigarette perched on his lower lip mumbles, “That does sound like a good deal.”

“See?” Kyle nods as he talks. “This going to be great.”

Through the window, the last remnants of daylight slide in. They sit, three silhouettes in the wash of fading red light, still and quiet as the room goes dark. Kenny breaks the spell first, turning his ColecoVision back on and offering the controller to Stan. He takes it and starts playing. Kyle looks up at the popcorn ceiling, hearing only beeps and digital crashes as Stan and Kenny take turns and his own breathing. He can’t find the Pacman ghost cluster in the low light. He wonders if it’d still look like that to him anyway.

After a while, Stan says he needs to get home and do some studying for the quiz in two days. Both Kyle and Kenny tease him mercilessly for it, but eventually Kyle repents and admits he needs to do the same, and they set out together, chattering about possible majors and class schedules.

Kenny watches their forms shrink towards the horizon and pieces together everything he’s been told today. By the time he realizes it, they’ve both crossed the railroad tracks and can’t hear his shouts for Kyle to come back and finish his story right now.

Stan slept with someone at the party. No reason to doubt Kyle’s words there. When Lexus came to get Kyle, Stan was upset about not following Chef’s advice. When the satellite crashed and brought an early end to the night, Kyle was in Stan’s room with him.

In retrospect, Kenny thinks he should’ve seen this one coming.