Song: Soap by Melanie Martinez
Butters was dressed in only his usual clothes as he headed up to the bus with a slight limp. He tried to hide it as much as he could, but it was difficult. Stephen had kicked his knee pretty hard, so it was in a lot of pain. But, hey, he could just say that he fell down on his knees.
As usual, he ended up sitting alone. He was used to this, though, in a way. He didn't like it, of course, but nobody else ever wanted to sit with him. Butters could never quite figure out why, but was slowly starting to accept it.
It was only when Butters was getting off of the bus that Kenny noticed him. He noticed his limp, and became a little concerned. He knew that this usually came with bruises and bandages, and he was right. That's exactly what Butters was covered in.
As he got off the bus, Kenny started to walk with him, which confused the hell out of Kyle, Cartman and Stan, who were a little bit behind.
"Hey Butters."
The blond looked over at the boy in the orange parka. "Oh, hey there Kenny!" He said with a small smile. He tried not to smile too much, though, as he had a split lip.
"Everything going okay? You're limping." Kenny pointed out.
"Oh, uh, everything's okay!" Butters smiled, trying to hide his pain. "I just fell down and hurt my knees is all."
"And did you get all those new bruises on your face from that fall?"
Butters fell silent.
"And the bandages you need? And the split lip, too?"
Butters looked down and started to tear up. He didn't have the heart to talk about this. It was just too difficult for him, he couldn't. After all, he was the only one who truly knew what was going on at home. He just tried to stutter out another lie.
"I-I uh, I..."
Kenny sighed. "Is it your parents doing this to you?" He asked slowly. He was able to at least put these pieces together. He wasn't that stupid. When Butters was silent, he knew in his heart and mind that this was a yes.
"This isn't okay... You need to call someone and talk about this-"
"It's fine, it's fine, you don't have to tell no one!" Butters said, now panicked.
As they got in the building, the bell for first period rang. Butters felt a bit relieved by this, as he could make a reasonable escape.
"Well bye Ken, I'll see ya later!" Butters rushed off to class.
Kenny had been asking about his injuries a lot lately, and was relieved that he finally knew about this. But, now that he did, what could he do with that information? He couldn't directly go to to Linda and Stephen, but then again, also didn't think going to the principal or a teacher would help. After all, they all saw these injures every day, but never questioned it.
Kyle walked up to Kenny and asked, "Why have you been so nice to Butters lately?"
"No reason." Kenny shrugged. He wasn't planning on telling any of his friends about it. That would just make Butters feel worse. So, for right now, he was the only one who could know about it. He hoped that by then, it wouldn't be too late.
Soon enough, a few periods passed by, and lunch time rolled around. Butters didn't particularly have an appetite today, so he just stayed in the hallway, sitting alone. He didn't really ask to hang around anybody today, which was very unusual for him. Kenny had quickly noticed this, as he was sitting in the hallway as well, and began to get concerned.
Kenny stood up and pulled down the orange hood on his parka. He walked over to Butters, running his pale hand through his golden blond hair. He glanced down at the boy and muttered, "Hey there."
Butters quickly looked up at him, flinching a bit. "O-oh, hey Ken! How ya doin?" He tried to avoid the topic they started to discuss this morning.
"I'm fine. How about you?" Kenny sat down next to him and looked at him fully.
"I'm good...!"
"Good... So, about this morning... You know what your parents are doing is illegal, right...?"
Butters didn't say anything again.
"This isn't right... How do you even feel about all of this? All you ever look to be is happy... This has to depress you somehow..."
"Yeah, I get sad that my parents hurt me like that... But what else can I do? I don't think they'd like if I asked 'em to stop... But I know they're just doing it out of love!" Butters smiled, but was broken behind this fake facial expression.
This made Kenny feel more uneasy about the situation. Butters seemed to be pulled in so deep by his parents' abuse that he was blinded by love and optimism. It was... Scary.
"Your parents are abusive. No part of that is love..."
"But they tell me that it is!"
Kenny sighed and looked down. "Butters..." He wanted so badly to get him to understand that this was wrong, but what could he say? He'd always believe his parents, no matter how bad the abuse got. But he didn't know how to get him to understand. The only thing Kenny felt he could do at this point was tell someone. So, he planned to do so later in the day.
For the rest of the period, Kenny just stayed with Butters and talked with him. He didn't really care if Stan or Cartman or Kyle were helplessly confused by this; he wanted to make sure Butters would be okay.
