"So, what was up with Bree?" Lynette asked, looking at Renee. She, Renee, Susan and Gaby were sipping their early morning coffees the day after the whole ordeal with Bree.
"If I knew, I'd respect her privacy and probably not tell you guys, but I honestly do not know." Renee said, sighing. But Susan could see in her eyes that there was something she was keeping from them.
"Renee." She said, bluntly.
"What?!" Renee replied.
"You may not know exactly what happened but you do know something." Susan said. After that comment, all 3 of the girls turned to face Renee, waiting for an answer. Renee looked back and forth between the three of them.
"Fine, yes. There is something, I think it was, or is, a by-product of whatever it is that's been going on. Which, to be clear, I don't know. I couldn't get it out of her."
"Just tell us, Renee!" Gaby said quickly.
"Geez, okay! When she switched that glass of water I got from one hand to the other, I noticed some marks on her wrist, and then once she'd put the glass down, I attempted to pull up her sleeves… She yanked it away and tucked it in closely to her chest. So judging by what I saw, and her haste to pull her arm away, and then by her words confirming my suspicions… She'd done something to herself. I'm guessing she'd cut them, that's what it looked like, but I didn't get a close enough look to be sure." There was a brief period of silence whilst the information sunk in.
"Oh my god." Lynette said sadly. Everyone turned to look up at her. "How- how did we not see this? How did we not see she was suffering that much that she'd resort to…"
"Oh I know, sweetie." Gaby said, stroking Lynette's arm. "We all missed it. She's our best friend, and we didn't see how much she was suffering underneath her seemingly perfect exterior."
"It's the second time we've missed it." Susan said. Everyone turned to face her looking for an explanation. "Just 3 months ago, she tried to kill herself, and she began drinking again, and we missed it." Lynette turned to face Renee.
"Okay, it's not my fault I didn't know that Bree was an alcoholic when I took her out drinking, but I was the one who stopped her from killing herself, so I don't get all the blame." Renee said, defending her actions.
"Wait, you stopped her from killing herself?" Gaby asked Renee.
"Yeah… Why?" Renee replied.
"It's just, we didn't know that. She'd said to us that night we set up an intervention that she'd checked herself into a motel room with nothing but a bottle of something and a gun… That's all she told us." There was yet another brief moment of silence.
"What happened, exactly, that night, Renee?" Susan asked.
"Well…" Renee started. "I, I thought Ben was cheating on me with her, so when I saw her get into her car, I followed her. When she arrived at that motel and checked herself in, I just automatically assumed she was meeting Ben there. So, I went up to her room, and knocked on the door, demanding she let me in. She said that it wasn't a good time so that just made me more sure that Ben was there, so… So I kicked down the door and started looking all around for him. And then I noticed that there was a gun on the table." Renee paused for a second. "So, I asked her why she had a gun, she didn't give me an answer so I turned around and picked up a note from the table, she asked me not to read it, but of course I did, and just by reading the words she wrote, I knew that it was a suicide note and I put two and two together and realised what it was she was just about to do. I then asked her if she was really gonna, you know, and she broke down crying."
"How did we miss that…" Susan wondered out loud.
As the girls were discussing Bree's whole ordeal the day before, Bree had just finished eating her late breakfast. She took her plate into her kitchen and placed it by the side of the the sink. She began filling up the sink as she noticed something out of her window. She noticed that the other girls were all on Gaby's porch. She guessed that they must be talking about her, and about what happened yesterday. She drew her curtains above the sink shut and proceeded on with the dishes. She rolled up her left sleeve first, revealing the still red cuts on her arm from the previous morning, but then she rolled up her right sleeve only to see the remnants of the damage she had inflicted on herself last night. There were more than what was on her left arm and deeper. She shook her head and proceeded on with the dishes.
It was just gone lunch when Bree suddenly started to feel the overwhelming urge to cut once again. She busied herself by cleaning. She did the dishes from lunch, then she cleaned the fridge, all the kitchen surfaces, cleaned out and sorted the cupboards, and swept the kitchen floor. That had killed 2 hours. Only 2 hours? Bree thought to herself. She still wanted so badly to go and cut, but to distract herself, she turned to the living room and cleaned the whole room. It got to dinner time, and Bree went to the drawer to get her chopping knife to prepare dinner, all she could think of was how she wanted to use that on herself. She she had a glass of water and continued with her cleaning. The bedrooms, then the bathrooms, the closets and the hallways.
It was now 11:30 PM and Bree was still cleaning. She was so exhausted and hungry, but the knives in the kitchen made her want to cut and if she went to sleep, she'd be bombarded with horrifying nightmare after nightmare about what happened out in the woods that night and what could happen. On the outside, no one knew anything was up inside - before yesterday - but Bree had shielded herself from the tremendous guilt about what she'd done that even she hadn't noticed quite what it was doing to her life. She was on her hands and knees in the upstairs hallway trying to get rid of a 6 year old stain from something or other when she heard a knock on the door. She reluctantly walked downstairs to see who it was. She was still in her pyjamas and her hair was all over the place, but she didn't really notice, or care. She opened the door to see Susan and Gaby on her doorstep.
"It's almost 12 o'clock guys." Bree said first. "Can I help you both with something?" The pair looked at their neighbour and noticed how tired she looked.
"We," Gaby started, "We stayed up late drinking, and we noticed that all your lights were still on and we wanted to know if you were okay."
"Is this because of yesterday?" Bree asked. Susan and Gaby looked at each other.
"Kinda…" Susan admitted. "Renee told us what happened, and we just got worried, that's all."
"What exactly did Renee tell you?" Bree asked, getting annoyed that Renee would share one of her darkest moments with other people.
"She, she said that she saw some marks on your arm and-" Gaby started, but was cut off.
"And you two thought I'd be here, this late, mutilating myself?" Bree asked, bluntly. Susan and Gaby both looked uncomfortable and nodded in agreement. "Well, sorry to disappoint you both, but I was just doing some cleaning." She said, holding up her soapy sponge she had in her hand from upstairs.
"At this hour?" Gaby asked.
"Am I not allowed to clean now?" Bree asked, getting really annoyed.
"Bree, it's midnight. Your cleaning can wait until the morning. You should go to bed." Susan said.
"I can't." Bree snapped. "Now both of you, please leave me alone."
"Bree-" Gaby tried.
"Now!" Bree yelled, slamming her door in their faces. She immediately broke down into tears after doing that and fell to the floor. Susan and Gaby could hear the heart wrenching sobs as they turned to leave. They both stopped and turned to face the house. They both so greatly wanted to go and comfort their best friend, but they weren't sure if they'd make matters better or worse by staying. In the end, they both decided that it would be best if they just left her be for the night, they'd try again in the morning.
The next morning, Lynette was walking down the lane back to her house after walking Penny to the bus stop when she heard the sound of what seemed to be glass smashing against what she guessed was the floor through an open window in Bree's kitchen. After the events of two days previous, she thought it would be a good idea to go and investigate. She walked up the cobblestone path and knocked on the white door. No one came to the door.
"Bree?" Lynette called out. Still no answer. "Bree, if you don't come and open this door I'm gonna walk right in!" Despite Lynette's 'threat', Bree still didn't answer. Lynette drew in a deep breath. "Okay, I warned you. I'm coming in!" Lynette opened the door and took a look around. She heard the sound of a brush against a wooden floor coming from the kitchen and headed towards it. She walked in and immediately noticed Bree on her hands and knees frantically attempting to sweep up thousands of shards of glass from the floor. She seemed to be in some kind of manic state.
"Bree? Honey, are you okay?" Lynette asked, concerned. Bree jumped as she heard Lynette's voice and turned around abruptly. Lynette waited a few seconds for an answer but Bree looked confused. "Did you hear what I just said?" Lynette asked. Bree looked around the room and then back at Lynette.
"I, uh, I don't…" She said, her voice was rushed and barely audible. Lynette knelt down in front of her and looked her right in the eyes. She noticed the dark circles under her eyes, and the redness of them. She then noticed how pale she looked.
"Are you okay?" Lynette asked, extremely concerned.
"I'm fine!" Bree said quickly and rather high pitched.
"Because sweetie, you don't seem it." Lynette said, and then paused for a moment. "Did you get any sleep last night?" Bree tried to return to her sweeping. "Bree, look at me!" Lynette said firmly, grabbing her friends wrists. "No. I didn't." Bree said barely whispering.
"What about food? When was the last time you ate something?" Lynette asked, still holding Bree's wrists so she couldn't return to her cleaning. Bree tried to free herself or Lynette's grasp but had no luck in doing so. "Bree!?" Lynette said, getting seriously concerned.
"Uh…" Bree got out. She looked as if she was concentrating on something on the floor behind Lynette. Lynette turned around but couldn't see anything to suggest Bree's peculiar fixation on whatever it was.
"What is it that you're looking at?" She asked.
"There… There's a uh stain on the corner of that floorboard." Bree said, still fixating on the spot. Lynette released Bree's wrists and she moved to a space next to where she was blocking Bree's view of the insanely small stain on the floor. Bree then looked up at Lynette, right into her eyes. Lynette looked right back into hers and for the first time, she noticed the fear in her eyes. Bree gripped gently onto each wrist with her opposite hand to prevent Lynette from grabbing them again. Lynette noticed this and thought she'd hurt her.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?!" She asked frantically hoping to death that she hadn't. Bree looked down and whispered her answer,
"No, you just uh… It's um…"
"Oh my god, I'm sorry! It's uh, your… cuts… isn't it?" Lynette realised. Bree sadly nodded, not looking up. "Um… How long were you uh…" Lynette asked. Bree went back to her sweeping to avoid answering. Lynette knew she wasn't going to get very far. She had a million and one things to do back at home, but she was afraid to leave Bree alone in her fatigued and famished state. "Okay, Bree, we're having some food." Lynette announced, preparing herself to get up from her kneeling position on the floor.
"I'm, I'm not hungry." Bree said quietly.
"Bree, you look hauntingly pale, you're shaking slightly and I could hear your stomach making noises which tells me you haven't eaten for a while. And also you ignored my earlier question about whether you'd eaten anything or not." Lynette paused. "And besides, I'm hungry and I'm not eating alone." Bree continued to slowly sweep up the remaining shards. "Bree, I'm worried about you. Somethings not right." Lynette said, hoping to provoke a response. Still Bree said nothing, so Lynette decided to change her approach. "Get up." She demanded, rising to her feet. Bree looked up at her. "Now." Feeling rather intimidated by Lynette's sudden change of tone, Bree placed her dustpan and brush down on the floor and stood up.
"Lynette…" Bree began.
"Nope. We're having breakfast now." Bree's eyes widened She really didn't feel like eating or preparing.
"Please…" Bree said quietly.
"You have to eat, Bree." Lynette said. "Now, you're an amazing and devout cook, so I'm guessing I'm gonna find the supplies I need in this kitchen to whip up a few pancakes." Bree went to say something, but was cut off. "Nope, go sit at the dining table, or in the living room, whichever you'd prefer, whilst I make a few." Bree had to admit that she was getting extremely hungry, so she silently walked into the dining room and sat in her normal chair as Lynette set to work making some pancakes.
About 15 minutes later, the two of them were sat in the dining room with a stack of 6 small pancakes in front of them. They'd stayed silent through their meal. Bree had slowly eaten one pancake and had another one on her plate in front of her. She cut it up into 7 smaller pieces but couldn't bring herself to eat them, so she just started moving them around her plate. Lynette - who had just finished her second pancake - noticed Bree's unusual behaviour.
"Bree, honey, you have to eat a bit more than just one pancake." Lynette said, gently. Bree just continued moving her food around her plate and didn't even notice the doorbell ring. Lynette heard it, and looked to Bree. Seeing as it was Bree's house, and Bree's manners, Lynette waited a few seconds to see if Bree was going to get up and answer the door. Then the bell rang again and there were a few knocks on her door. Bree didn't flinch, or seem to notice what was going on at all, so Lynette got up and went to answer the door.
"You wouldn't talk to us last night so we're back and we want to know why you were up at gone midnight. We went to get Lynette also but she wasn't home so you're stuck with- Lynette?" Gaby stopped what she was saying when she noticed it wasn't Bree who had opened the door.
"Keep it down, would you?" Lynette whispered harshly.
"Is she asleep?" Susan asked.
"No." Lynette replied.
"Wait, why are you here?" Gaby asked.
"I came round earlier when I heard something- oh that doesn't matter. Are you two coming in or what?" Lynette asked. The two other women made their way inside. Lynette walked back to the dining room and Susan and Gaby followed her like two puppies following their mother. "We're having pancakes!" Lynette explained as the three of them walked into the dining room. "There's two left if either of you would like one?"
"Yes please." Susan said.
"Yeah me too." Gaby added. "I'll go get two plates." Bree still hadn't looked up from moving the now half destroyed pieces of pancake around her plate.
"Bree, Susan and Gaby are here!" Lynette said, setting back down in her seat and looking at her friend. Gaby had just walked back in and placed the plates down on the table. She and Susan look questioningly at Lynette, wondering why they had no response from Bree. Lynette stretched out her left arm and placed it on Bree's. Bree jumped and her fork crashed down on her plate. Susan and Gaby shared a concerned look.
"Lynette?!" Bree said, half out of question and half out of fear.
"It's okay." Lynette said. "Gaby and Susan are here." Bree turned around to face her new guests.
"How long… How did you both… Why are you…" Bree asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"After last night, we decided we were going to come around this morning and try and talk to you then, hoping you'd be in a more… talkative mood." Susan said.
"Last night? What happened last night?" Bree queried.
"You don't remember?" Gaby asked.
"I, uh…" Bree said.
"We've had a little trouble staying focused this morning." Lynette told the other girls.
"You were up at midnight still cleaning your house…" Gaby said, answering Bree's earlier question.
"Did you get any sleep in the end, Bree?" Susan asked. Bree went back to moving her food around her plate with her fork.
"No, she said earlier that she didn't." Lynette said. The three women shared a look of concern and confusion for a brief moment before they heard the clash of stainless steel hitting china. All three of them turned to face Bree, which is where the sound came from. Bree placed both her hands over her eyes and shook her head wildly. Susan knelt down beside her chair.
"Sweetie, just calm down." She said soothingly.
"I can't!" Bree yelled, jumping up from her seat. "I can't!" She repeated again. She then grabbed the plate which she had just been eating from and threw it at the wall. This shocked the other three. "I can't calm down! This just won't stop!" She yelled, this time throwing her knife and fork at the wall. "It will never stop!" She yelled as she threw Lynette's plate at the wall also. Susan and Lynette moved to restrain her from throwing anything else but Bree fought it. Gaby then helped also, pulling Bree away from whatever else she could throw whilst Susan and Lynette restrained her arms. After a few moments of fighting their embrace, Bree gave in and her legs gave way as she began sobbing loudly as all the anger made it's way out of her system. The girls lowered her down to the floor gently so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself and Lynette held her closely whilst she released all of the built up emotion inside.
