Operation: KYLE

19

"It's okay, I don't need it." He showed me a teething smile. I study his face until I eventually gave up, and stuff the money back in to my pocket. "Here's your share." He then proceeds to give me fifteen tokens, while he has ten tokens. "Don't you want more?" I asked. He silently gives me a shrug with an enthusiastic smile on his face. It's almost annoying, like he's mocking me. I quickly change the topic with a question. "What do you wanna play first?" He puts his finger on his chin, looking around at the bustling machines.

"How about a game of Guitar Hero?" He urged, pointing at the game. I raise a brow. "Don't you already have it at home?" He shrugs again. "C'mon, just for old time's sake." I cringe, it's obvious I made it visible, because I could feel my face twisting in to a weird expression, and I could see Stan looking at me, deadpanned. "What?" He asks. "We can just play it at your house." He gnaws on his lip. "Yeah, but, won't it be more exciting with people here? Think of them cheering, for us!" "I doubt that'll ever happen."

He sighs while rolling his eyes dramatically, then pouts. I cross my arms together, and also sighed. I started walking towards the game with Stan's eyes following me as I set Butters' gift on the floor gently, and picked up a guitar. "What are you doing? You gonna just stand there, or what?" He then proceeds to show me one of his most heart-warming smiles I've seen from him in while, that I forgot what it used to look like. It's almost too bright, that I had to squint my eyes.

He rushes over here, drops his plastic bag, and picks up a guitar as well. "I'm so gonna beat you." He grins cockily. I bark out a chuckle. "Okay, but don't be surprised if I lost my touch." I took a deep breath, then inserted three of our coins in to the machine. The song started out slow, but it gradually got faster later on as soon as we get used to the beat. I try to focus on lining my fingers with the guitar with the colored, neon lights flashing at my eyes.

I miss a few notes because of it, godamnit. I don't know why I'm getting competitive, it's just a lousy, stupid game we used to play as nine year olds, yet, I'm having so much fun. After realizing I was grinning ear to ear, like a loser, I get taken back by my merriment, that I miss a lot of notes, and those lost notes costed me to get in second place, while Stan gets in first. "Fuck yeah!" He shouts, shooting his arms high up in the air. Before we knew it, people were surrounding us as they clapped, while their faces were stirred with excitement.

"That was impressive, you two!"
"Amazing! Wooo!"
"You guys rock!
"Does that mean you two are gay now?"

My eyebrows twitched at the last part. I ignore the last comment as I try my best not to blush at the compliments. Gosh, how embarrassing... We both picked up our plastic bags, and shyly thanked the audience when we get down from the stage, ignoring the 'gay' comments. When we got out of the crowd, I snort out a giggle. I don't know why I'm giggling like a girl, but I just am. Stan stares at me like I'm a maniac, before chuckling himself. I try to calm myself down, my laughter quietly fading away as I finally realized what the hell I'm doing. "Ha... that... was seriously one of the best times I had in a while..." I said, flapping my hand towards my face, attempting to calm myself down.

"You said it." He exhaled lowly, while grinning toothingly. I stop walking. "Like, I can't even believe they were cheering! For us! I mean, how crazy is that? There's no way this is a coincidence when you said that people'll be cheering for us. Did you hire them, or something? I bet you did." I babbled on.

I then realized I was talking too much, and that I should quickly shut the fuck up. I glance at Stan to get a look of his face to see if he was quietly making fun of me, or not, but he's just... staring? At me? ... It almost feels uncomfortable under his gaze.

Has he been doing that the entire time I was talking? Shit, I hope not, I don't want him to see me as a loud chatterbox... "What?" I breathed out, laughing out of discomfort. His smile becomes even more wider, if that's possible. "It's nothing." "Bullshit. Now what is it?" He snorts heavily. "N-no, it's nothing, really." "Shut up, you're smiling, and you lie when you smile." His hand drifted over his mouth, covering his grin.