8:47PM
Penny's residence
Patrick grabbed the silver handle of the refrigerator and grabbed an icy-cold can of soda. Grape flavor, to be exact.
He would be buying another case of beer, grabbing the toxic beverages and heading down to his favorite red-velvet recliner, watching tonight's game show.
However, in fear that he'll become an alcoholic, he's gone cold-turkey and cut back on drinking 45's. He finds soda to be the same texture of malt liquor, and grape flavor seems more appealing than a sour aftertaste of beer.
He wants to become a better father figure for his family, so he see the forbidden beverage to be a hindrance towards his goals.
He walks out of the kitchen and towards the living room. From there, he sees the comfortable recliner and sits on it.
He opens the cool purple soda can and takes small sip before putting it in the black metal cup holder that is attached to armrest.
What appears on the box television is a dog standing on it's own two legs. By the way he is dressed; being that he's wearing a black coat and a red button up underneath, tells Patrick that he is the host.
That, and he's holding the microphone. A skinny one, almost the same length as a mechanical pencil.
He doesn't have time to reach the lever of the chair and see what's today's challenge is for the contestants, for his time to sit back was disrupted by his daughter screaming for his name.
"DAD! DAD!"
He puts both of his hands on the armrest and pushes himself out of the recliner. Nearly pushing the soda can of the cup holder, as it violently rocks back and forth with the momentum of the chair. He rushes upstairs with his hands on the stairs handrail. He the looks to see his daughter in the middle of the hallway, with the bathroom door on and the lights clearly left on.
"Penny?! What's the matter?!"
Behind him, was his wife opening the door that leads to the masters bedroom. Her eyes were wide open as her mouth slight open. Worry is written on her face.
Penny has a slight puddle of tears forming in her eyes, but they don't leave. Instead they're hanging above from her eyelids, as they reflect the light that comes from the ceiling light.
"DAD! I need you to take me to Gumball's house right now! Please! He just sent me a text message! I think he's going to hurt himself!"
When the name of Gumball came out of Penny's mouth, Patrick slightly lost interested. No way he's taking his daughter to the home of her ex-boyfriend. Especially this late on a school night. For all he knew, Gumball was lying, and he's trying to get his daughter attention.
"First he's going to make my daughter cry in school, and now he's trying to scare her to death." Patrick thought about it for a second, before rejecting.
"Penny, no. You know how that kid can be. He's just lonely and wants the attention. For all we know, he's could be ly-
Ms. Fitzgerald grabs the passenger seat belt as her husband puts the keys in the ignition and starts the car up.
Long story short, the moment Ms. Fitzgerald heard the word "no", she went behind Patrick and smacked him across the face, yelling at him how he can think a child with signs of depression would be lying about his planned suicide.
Patrick argued that Gumball nothing but a troublemaker, yet his wife kept implying that there's a chance that he couldn't be, and that they need to make sure everything okay with the Watterson. If by the chance Gumball is lying, she promised Patrick that he can yell and scream at Gumball as much as he wants. As long as he doesn't murder him.
Richard takes a left turn, driving over the speed-limit. Lucky for him, the Doughnut Cop loves to take naps often, so many Elmore citizens can get away with minor offenses, such as speed.
Penny is in the back of the car, with her fingers hitting the phone screen.
"GUMBALL. STOP IT."
Sent.
"PLEASE DON'T KILL YOURSELF"
Sent.
"BABY PLEASE, I LOVE YOU. DON'T HURT YOURSELF"
Sent.
Her parents can hear their daughter aggressive tapping and rapid clicks. Ms. Fitzgerald turns to face her daughter and see the shine of the phone exposing the tears streaming down, and her teeth showing as they are pressing against each other.
Flashbacks of Penny slapping Gumball across the face keeps re-emerging. The pain of knowing that you've done an action and/or said the wrong words to someone, knowing that you can never take back any of that and apologizing is without a doubt, the worst pain anyone can go through with.
Penny cries harder as that thought begins to appear in her mind. What if Gumball really did leave this world? To know the chances of them ever making-up and apologizing.
Gone.
The chances, the hope, gone.
If he was just joking about it and see Gumball standing in the doorway standing and breathing, she wouldn't even be mad. She'll run up to him and hug him tight. She'll apologize a hundred times and kiss him everywhere on his face.
She needs to know if this is all a joke. If she lost Gumball…
She can't stop crying, she's hyperventilating. Her mother notices this and carrasses her daughter left knee.
Her mother wants to tell her to not worry. She would do anything to reassure her daughter that everything is okay.
But that's a damn lie. She can't just fucking tell her to not worry. The love of her life is threatening to kill himself, and her daughter is probably at the stage of blaming herself.
What can she do?
Nothing. All she can do is not say anything and pray to god that the Watterson's are home.
The sight of the Watterson house came to view. He pulls into a stop near the sidewalk, opposite of the Watterson's Residence.
Patrick takes a look through the car door's window and see the the family van missing. He took notice of the houses current condition. He sees two police officers wrapping up their yellow tape that was placed around the premises, with two more officers in the side of the house with flashlights on, obviously in search for evidence.
Now Patrick no longer feels annoyance. He's now on the same emotinal level with his wife: Fear.
Suddenly, the noise of a car door opening broke the silence. Patrick immediately turned around to see that his wife is still in the car. However, Penny was in view of the rear window outside, running towards the Watterson house.
Patrick took off his seatbelt and opened the car door in a very violent manner. His head was the first to come out.
"PENNY!"
Suddenly, headlights came into view and the infuriating sound of tires burning into the blacktop caught the families attention. Penny froze in the middle of the street. The van hault into a complete stop in the middle of the street.
Penny was now looking at the van with beaming headlights shining upon her. The light were too bright for her to observed, nearly blinding her. It blocks her view of making a mental note of seeing what the car looked like. As if that matter, she was nearly ran over and had no time to get out of the way of the oncoming car. Thank god the person behind the wheel hit the brakes faster before anyone realized a car was coming into Penny's way.
She suddenly felt two arms wrapping around her shoulders and a sudden tug pulling her left. Her father came and took her away from the van, but before they can get of the van's way the headlights turned off.
A yellow van that looks no older than a 1990s station wagon. A Ford Fairmont Squire. Each side of the doors have a wood-grain body trim through each door. The license plate is all white, with it being ODH 22.
Wattersons….
The passenger door open to reveal Nicole Watterson in her usual attire. Yet her eyes say everything shes feeling.
Bloodshots, the same kind of eyes her son had before he left this world.
Penny escape from her father arms stand up to face Nicole. Patrick didn't even tried to bother to regain his control, the look on Nicole faces broke him.
Penny walked towards Nicole. The rest of the family looked through their windows to see the two standing face to face, yet no one wants to get out and join in.
Penny was now in clear view of Nicole.
"Nicole…is Gumball okay? Please tell me he's okay..."
Silence.
Only the tears that escape from Nicole eyes did the talking.
Penny stare at Nicole for a few seconds, then, she broke down and went to hug Nicole. She buried her tears into her white shirt and muffled her cries with them. Nicole kneel on the blacktop and cried into Penny's shoulder.
"My baby... I'm so sorry Penny... I'm sorry..."
Two police officers stopped their searched and take a good look at the two. Pains them to see a mother mourning for the loss of her son. And another child to be in the same condition.
Penny screams Gumball's name into Nicole shirt. Nobody heard Penny's cries besides Nicole and Patrick. Nicole heard this and cried harder till the point she screamed.
10:42AM
Thursday, 9 days after the passing
9:42PM
Tuesday. The time and day Gumball passed.
The day everyone will remember as an anniversary. To remember Gumball's life. This day will never be an average day for anyone who was close to Gumball.
The funeral happened three days ago. So many people came and showed their respect for Gumball. It made so damn happy. I read my brother's suicide note. It pains me to read how he interpreted himself as some monster everyone tried avoid. Yet everyone he knew and loved attended and nobody looked at his casket with pure hatred in their eyes, only sadness. I want to say all of Elmore visited, because when it was time for the pallbearer to drop the casket, I looked back and saw… thousands… thousands of people behind me.
Mr. and Mrs. Robinson attended that day. He showed his respect to Gumball and apologized to me about how he treated him. I forgave him. Gumball would've also.
All of his classmates came too. Tobias was the worse out of everyone. He didn't want to leave Gumball and cried for him to wake up. I got up and tried to pull him back, but he wouldn't let go of the coffin. His mom, Simian, and I all came to pull him back. When he let go, I hugged him.
He cried hugging me, but I didn't. I cried so damn much the day before the funeral.
Penny and her family were the first to come. Penny was with my mom and her family the whole time. She later came to me, telling me that I was a special person to Gumball. I said thank you, and that Gumball would've been so happy that you were the first person to come.
Nothing was the same ever since my brother passed away. Ms. Mom wants to divorce from Mr. Dad, and take full custody of Anais and me. She blames Mr. Dad for everything that happened to Gumball, and that "he influence us to stop caring about Gumball." We're planning to move out of the house by Sunday.
I haven't been to school lately, since Principle Brown came to talk to us in person at our house and said he understands if we're not ready to return to school, also stating that all classwork and homework are exempt for Anais and me.
I still text my friends. I asked Idaho how school was like with me not being there, and he said "the happiness that everyone felt is now gone." He also said he didn't see Penny either.
I don't think Principle Brown gave Penny permission to ditch school.
I tried to ask Teri if she knew why Penny didn't came to school, however she just as clueless as me. She began to freak out, saying that maybe Penny is moving away and she didn't want to say anything about it.
I decided to give Penny's dad a call. But to my disbelief, no one answered. I began to worry. I tried to call Penny's number, her Elmore Plus, and I even tried to face-time her.
Nothing…
I went downstairs and call for Mr. Dad to give me ride at Penny's. He was busy making a sandwich, yet he immediately stopped and grabbed the car keys to his car. Ms. Mom must've heard me, because she came down and see what was happening. Only for her to be ignored as we both rushed to the door and into our seatbelts.
The ride was only thirteen minutes long, but it felt like hours. I was constantly calling Penny's phone and the house phone, all of which only ends in recorded voicemails.
"Hey this is Penn-"
"Hello, you've reached the Fitz-"
Over, and over, and over again… Until we've reached the house.
Mr. Dad and I both walked together hand in hand while we walked across the street. Once we've reached the Fitzgerald's house we tried knocking the door.
No answer.
We tried again, but this time we just grabbed the knob and turned it clockwise. To my surprise, the door was left unlocked. Is this consider breaking and entering? I don't know, nor do I care. I just left myself in and let Dad come in.
The sounds of cries came from upstairs. Another voice was heard. I heard Penny's mom, sounding distraught as shes sounds like she on the phone with someone.
"Please, what can I do, she's not waking up… She's not responding whe-"
I ran upstairs and sprinted towards the sounds of cries coming from hallway. From there, the third door down to the left was wide open. Ms. Fitzgerald came into view, having the home phone placed on her left ear and her right hand on the doorframe.
She dropped the phone and tried grabbing me away from the view of the room. I wasn't thinking straight, all I could think of was what happening in front of the door frame. I tried to escape from her grasp, but every time I put my footing in to pull myself out of her she only responded by gripping harder and yelling at me.
"STOP! STOP IT DARWIN!"
Mr. Dad came upstairs and saw her trying to restrain me. He went between us, and tried pull me off of her. She let go, probably thinking that he'll pull me away and leave. What she didn't knew was once I off of her, he'd let me go and went after her.
I ran towards the door, as I heard the screams of Ms. Fitzgerald's disapproving voice as Mr. Dad pushed her down and away from me.
From view, I saw Mr. Fitzgerald on his knees as he is on the left side of the bed. A queen-size bed from the looks of it, with the blankets being purple and the bed frame being all wooden. Next the bed was a nightstand that matches the same color as the bed frame, with the only items being on top of it was a green lava lamp, and a white empty bottle of what appears to be sleeping pills.
Sleeping pills.
I slowly turned towards the bed and now came to view of Patrick having his arms on the back of his daughter as he cries into her chest. Her body archers back as her arms hangs side to side and her head dipping back into the pillow.
That was the day when I found out Penny Fitzgerald committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills.
Darwin Watterson
I just wanted to say that I'm so happy about how much love and praise this story got. From reviews, to pm's. Honestly, thank you. I hope to see you guys again in different story again. I really am enjoying writing. Once again, please review my work. I want to improve so much, and the better I am, the better the story. Thank you all.
