Call It What You Want To - Style

02. Act Gay

At school on Monday, Stan has gotten through the day without thinking about the dare even once. That moment of bliss is cut short when, at lunch, Eric slams his sloppy joe adorned tray onto the table. "Hey, Stan," he says.

Stan looks up from his own meal. "What, Cartman?" he deadpans.

"Didn't you say you had something to tell us?" he says through a mouthful of food. An evil glint shines in his eyes. Shit, Stan thinks.

The other boys at the table turn to him and their eyes bore straight through Stan's skin and into his soul. He's practically sweating under the heat.

"Wh – What is it," Jimmy says, "Stan?"

Stan turns to Kyle, who is painfully oblivious as he's completely engrossed in some logic puzzle game on his phone. Jesus. "Um," he says. A wheel of any possible excuses he can think of ranging from 'I think someone's calling me' to 'My grandma died' spins in his head and he ends up at: "I have to piss." Definitely not very believable but it works. He gets out of his seat and speed-walks towards the restrooms.

Once he's locked himself in the furthest stall from the bathroom door, he realizes that he doesn't have his phone with him, so he is stuck with nothing but his own thoughts. He has no idea what to do. Dating, even fake dating, Kyle is embarrassing. He barely liked the public attention he had when he was with Wendy, and oh, God, don't get him started on the PDA.

"Hey, dickhead!" Stan didn't even notice Eric enter. The boy slams his fists on the stall door. "Come out, coward!"

For a second, Stan thinks that Eric was intentionally making a gay joke, but then he remembers that Eric is not that smart. He unlocks the door and lets it swing open.

"What the hell was that?" Eric says.

"I had to pee," Stan says. "Besides, no one's going to believe it if I just come right out and say it." He crosses Eric to go wash his hands, even though he didn't actually go to the bathroom. "We have to – I don't know, show it."

Eric giggles shrilly. "If you want to act gay more than you already have to, go for it, homo."

"Fuck you, Cartman," Stan says as Eric exits.

Stan looks up at the mirror, leaning against the sink, and just looks at himself for a second. He doesn't know why he's still friends with Eric, but he can't imagine the friend group without him. It's always been them, Kyle and Kenny; Stan doesn't expect that to change anytime soon.

When he gets back to the lunch table after gathering his thoughts, he sees that Eric has moved from where he was sitting next to Kyle to where Stan was sitting. Their trays are switched and all. "Yeah, Cartman stole your seat," Tolkien says as Stan sits between him and Kyle.

Stan nods. He sneaks a look at Kyle out of the corner of his eye. The boy's in the exact same position, playing the exact same game. This time, however, he looks up when Stan's eyes fall on him. Stan flickers his gaze to Eric and back to try to signal to him, but for the smartest kid he knows, Kyle is incredibly dumb sometimes, meeting Stan with eyes that say "I'm still thinking about my Solitaire game you interrupted." Stan picks up his phone. Kyle's contact is already pinned in his messages, so it's easy enough to click on it quickly, and he punches in a short message.

Stan Marsh: We have to act gay.

Kyle's phone buzzes against the table. He glances at it, then at Stan with a raised eyebrow. All that hair is blocking the boy's brain, Stan thinks.

Stan Marsh: The truth or dare game.

A flash of recognition glazes over Kyle's eyes as he nods and his mouth forms a silent 'o' shape. Stan turns away from him and faces straight ahead, looking at nothing. He tries his hardest to ignore the topsy turvy feeling in his stomach as his hand creeps to the side. He slides his pinky in between Kyle's pinky and ring finger. Kyle's finger curls against his and the two sit there, fingers interlocked, without saying a word. Stan has to eat his lunch with his non-dominant hand but he doesn't pay too much mind to it. Kyle's left handed, so he doesn't say anything.

Lunch ends, and the rest of the boys get up and leave. Stan tries to do the same but he's pulled down by Kyle grasping his wrist. The boy doesn't say anything, he just looks at Stan expectantly.

Stan knows what Kyle wants. "I told Cartman that we have to act gay instead of just saying it."

Kyle stumbles over his words, face almost the shade of his hair. Finally coherent, he says, "Why would you say that?"

"He backed me into a corner, okay!" Stan says defensively. "Look, would you rather us be able to get by with some hand holding and stuff or straight out tell everyone we're madly in love with each other or whatever?" His arms stretch out to demonstrate his point.

Rolling his eyes, Kyle stands. "Fine." He holds out his hand towards Stan. Stan takes it.

Hand-in-hand, they walk to their lockers.

Stan walks with Kyle to his English class, even though Stan has physics on the other side of the building. Eric passes on their way. "You have to be gayer, idiots," he says. "You're not even holding hands!"

"Fuck off, Cartman," Kyle says, flipping him off, though he still grabs Stan's hand with his own free hand.

Their hands settle together quite nicely. Stan doesn't even mind that they're showing public displays of affection, because it doesn't feel like it. It feels like it's just the two of them, for whatever reason.

They stop outside the classroom door. Stan opens his mouth to speak but the late bell rings over the beginning of his sentence. "Shit, I have to get to class," he says. As he's hurrying away, he holds up his phone and points at it. I'll text you, he mouths.

"Hey, sorry. I'm here," he says upon entering the physics lab. The teacher looks at him with a sort of disappointed face, but he doesn't care all that much. He takes his seat by Kenny, who, too, gives him a look. Stan can't discern exactly what it means and he knows Kenny won't say if he asks, so he shrugs it off. He pulls his phone under his desk as discreetly as possible and punches in a message.

Stan Marsh: We need to talk after school.

"Stanley Marsh!" The teacher, and now the rest of the class, is staring at him. "Phone up." Embarrassment sears against his flushing cheeks and he shoves his phone in his back pocket. He can feel the vibration of Kyle responding beat against the chair but he doesn't try to look. He'll have to check it later.

The teacher hands out worksheets, and while Stan is trying to calculate kinetic energy, Kenny says, "You're not being gay enough."

Stan slams his pencil on the desk. "What the hell does that even mean? Cartman said the same fucking thing."

With a muffled sound that seems to be a slurred "I don't know", Kenny shrugs. "Maybe you need to go on dates," he says and turns back to his work, leaving the idea to stew in Stan's mind.

Dates?