The Dainessetchen Barnacle Tales

Season 2 Episode 4

Gretchen's Point of View

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful. Jesse was super excited about seeing his mom, but we all got super lazy after breakfast. I went into my room and decided to see if Peter wanted to talk at all. He hadn't been there when I woke up in the morning, so I hadn't seen him all day. I sat down on my bed and waiting quietly, my legs crossed. Other than the time with Jesse I had never tried to talk to him first. He had always come to me. It was a few minutes before I started getting anxious.

"Hello?" I asked the air. "Peter?" Nothing happened except a few papers rustled from the fan blowing against them.

"Funny," I said. "But seriously, if you have a minute..." I waited for another seven minutes at least. My heart beat a little faster. I stood up and searched my room.

"If you're trying to scare me, it worked. You can come out now." There was still no reply and I searched more frantically. I started throwing things around, completely losing control of myself. The more time that passed the louder I became. Pulling my drawers out, throwing my curtains open, pushing my dresser out from against the wall...these were just a few of the things I did as I called someone's name that would never answer again.

No. I thought we had so much time left. I thought that he would tell me when he was going to stop visiting. I thought we were somehow going to be together forever. Tears stung my eyes and my back pressed against the wall as I slid down it, practically ripping my hair out. My shoulders heaved with the kind of sobs that hurt just to watch.

A knocking on my door made me jump in surprise.

"Peeta?" I moaned.

"Gretchen! It's Jesse! What the hell are you doing in there?!" The knob turned as Jesse tried to fight his way in. I crawled across the floor and reached for my ADD medicine, a canister of about 20 pills. My hands shook, but I still managed to open the top.

"Go away!" I yelled when the knocking on the door got more insistent. "I'm going to be with Peter!"

"Don't you dare...Gerard! Dylan! Someone, help! Jesus, open the fucking door!" Jesse was begging as I heard Gerard and Dylan run up the stairs.

"I love you," I said quietly. Without a second thought, I poured the pills into my hand, tipped my head back, and emptied my hand into my mouth. As soon as I did so, the door burst open and Gerard fell onto the ground in front of it. He looked up and saw me on the other side of the room.

"Gretchen!" he yelled, crawling over to me. "What did you do? What are you doing?" Gerard grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. His face started to look blurry.

"I...I..." I started and lifted a frail arm to show him the empty medicine bottle. My head nodded back and forth until everything went black.

Jesse's Point of View

"Fuck!" Gerard yelled as Gretchen's eyes closed. I ran over and dropped onto the floor next to my best friend. Her face was white as snow and I brushed her bangs out of her face. Tears I hadn't realized had surfaced were falling down my cheeks. Dylan stood paralyzed at the door.

"Jesse, help me carry her to the bathroom," Gerard said, panicked and shocked. Before I could help him, however, he had swept his little sister up in his arms and was taking her to her bathroom. I could still smell some of her perfume in the air. I wanted to barf.

Gerard set Gretchen on the floor by the toilet and covered my mouth as he bent her over it, toilet seat up. He pried Gretchen's mouth open and I knew what he was about to do. I covered my face and started crying as I heard Gretchen gag.