Trigger warnings: Overdose/suicide attempt.

Edited by Commanderlexatrash (go read her stuff).

Eddie

Eddie carefully packed away his notes after another successful DND session. He was going to have to put more thought into these games—he was making it too easy. But, if he was being honest, he had a lot on his mind lately, and DND was on his mental back burner.

"What do you call a sleeping bull?" Dustin asked, giddy from defeating one of the main villains from the newest campaign.

"I don't know; what?" Chrissy asked, genuinely stumped.

"A bulldozer!" Dustin exclaimed, laughing hysterically while the others groaned. Chrissy's giggle seemed to float on air.

Chrissy.

The last two months had been nothing short of mind-blowing. Eddie knew Chrissy was probably only fooling around with him to get back at Jason "Mega Douche" Carver, but he didn't care—he would take any chance to be with Chrissy.

The only person missing from this great group of friends was Nat. It had been weeks since she made it to a session. He honestly couldn't remember a time when she wasn't around since she moved to town 3-years-ago. He had taken her under his wing on her first day of school and they had been inseparable ever since. Until now, it seemed like.

"Dustin, didn't you invite Nat tonight?" Eddie asked while packing up his dice.

"I did. She said she would try to make it," Dustin replied sadly.

Eddie grimaced, guilt gnawing at his gut. He and Nat used to be very close—passing notes in the hallway between classes and spending nearly every night together while she hid from her step-dad—but when Chrissy entered the picture, everything started to change. Soon, she stopped visiting his trailer, the notes became less frequent, and instead, they barely made eye contact in the hallways. Eddie didn't think he was that absorbed with Chrissy, but maybe his tunnel vision was worse than he thought.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," Eddie said, more so to himself than to anyone else. He knew he had been a shit friend lately, but he was determined to fix it.

And then, suddenly, Chrissy said, looking up at him with her big doe eyes, "Eddie, are we going back to your place?"

Just like that, Eddie's guilt vanished. He couldn't say no to Chrissy.

"Anywhere you want, princess."

Eddie and Chrissy stumbled into his trailer, leaving a trail of clothes to Eddie's room.

"We can hardly even get through the door," Chrissy teased, breathless. Eddie chuckled while planting kisses on her neck.

"You could help by not being so gorgeous." Eddie pushed Chrissy against his bedroom door, reaching behind her to grab the handle and open the door.

"I could say the same to–woah!" Chrissy let you a yelp of surprise as she slipped on something on the floor and fell backward, pulling Eddie down with her. The pair erupted with laughter.

"Sorry," Eddie wheezed, "The maid took the day off."

Chrissy laughed so hard she could barely catch her breath. Eddie reached down to grab what they had tripped on and stopped in his tracks.

"What the–" He picked up his lunchbox, now a bit dented, and saw its illegal contents strewn on the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone's been in my room," Eddie replied, scanning the room for anything else out of place. His most prized possession, his guitar, was safely hanging above his dresser, but his dresser drawers were pulled open, and every item tossed around.

"Someone broke in to steal your stash?" Chrissy asked.

"Well, they didn't take anything… Everything is still here," Eddie said, picking up baggies off the floor. "Even the money. Everything's here… hmm, except…"

"Except…"

"I definitely unlocked the door, right? Eddie made his way to the front door, scooping up his Hellfire shirt and tugging it over his head.

"Yes. You had trouble getting the key into the lock, remember?"

Eddie opened the door and looked down at the flower pot next to the front step. The pot had definitely been moved, which meant someone knew that's where the spare key was.

That's when it dawned on him: Nat was the only one who knew where that key was. Before Chrissy, she practically lived at Eddie's to hide from her creepy step-dad. Anxiety bubbled inside Eddie; Nat wouldn't break into his trailer to steal a bunch of pills, would she?

He needed to know—now. Eddie ran over to the phone and dialed Nat's number from memory.

Ring, ring, ring…

"Parents are probably passed the fuck out," Eddie mumbled to himself and dialed again.

Ring, ring, ring…

Eddie clenched his teeth. He dialed Dustin's number—maybe he would know what was going on.

"Henderson residence, Master Dustin speaking," Dustin's bright and cheery voice answered.

"Have you heard from Nat since you got home?" Eddie asked quickly, worry seeping into every word.

"I haven't; everything okay?"

"I don't know. Can you see if anyone else has heard from her and meet me over at her place?" he said urgently.

"Yeah, sure, man. Are you okay?"

"Thanks." Eddie put the phone back down on the receiver, a bit harder than he intended.

"You don't mind going for a ride, right?" Eddie asked Chrissy, who had been patiently waiting for him.

"No, let's go." Chrissy nodded and followed Eddie.

Eddie was thankful it was dark out so Chrissy couldn't see him white-knuckling the steering wheel. Maybe he was being paranoid. After all, Natalie wasn't even big on drugs. Sure, they had smoked weed together, but she wouldn't touch the stronger stuff. Maybe someone got lucky and found the key on their own.

Someone who also knew exactly where he hid his stash?

Eddie got to Nat's house in record time. The lights were still on in the lower windows, the glow of the TV flickering behind the curtains. Eddie saw that Dustin had beaten them there and was already banging on the front door.

"Pretty sure Creeper Craig is awake. He's probably just too stoned to figure out how to get up and open the door," Dustin quipped when he saw Eddie and Chrissy approach.

After another round of angry thumping on the front door, it finally opened.

"It's about fucking time," Eddie pushed his way inside, guiding Chrissy in behind him. To Craig, he asked, "Where's Natalie?"

Craig stared at the trio for a long moment, like he was processing Eddie's words. "I guess she's up in her room," he slurred. His eyes found Chrissy and lingered too long on the hemline of her skirt. He licked his lips. "You boys can go up there while this lady and I introduce ourselves."

"No, thanks," Eddie and Dustin said in unison.

They made their way up the stairs in front of them, keeping Chrissy closely wedged between them. The hair on the back of Eddie's neck stood up. He could count the number of times he had been in this house on only one hand, even after all their years of friendship. And the few times he had been there, he knew he made the right call in practically having Nat live with him for the past couple of years to get away from Craig. She hated him. Eddie didn't think he had actually done anything, but the comments Craig had made to Nat made his skin crawl. Her mother, of course, didn't believe any of it and allowed the creep to stay.

Once the group reached the landing, they walked to the end of the hall and knocked on the door at the end of it.

"Nat?" Eddie pressed his ear to the door, trying to listen for any noise on the other side. When he didn't get an answer, he turned the doorknob. The room was dark, but Nat's record player was on, the needle scratching on a record that needed to be turned over.

"Eddie." Dustin pointed to the light glowing from under Nat's bathroom door.

Eddie gave a couple of gentle knocks. "Nat? Are you in there? It's me and Dustin…"

When he got no response, Eddie gave the door knob a light twist. His heart began to race when he realized it was unlocked.

When he opened the door, it was like the air vanished from his lungs. Eddie thought his brain had stopped working. There was no way he was actually seeing what he was seeing.

"Nat!" Dustin rushed past him, kneeling on the cold tile. He shook the girl who sat slouched on the floor, unmoving. "Oh my god. Nat! Eddie, I think she's dead!" Dustin sobbed, his voice cracking, still shaking Nat, as her head rolled from side to side.

This wasn't happening. Eddie's brain buzzed with nothingness.

Eddie kneeled down and pressed two fingers to Nat's neck. He found a weak pulse—thank god. He needed to wake her up. Eddie grabbed Nat from under her armpits and dragged her to the shower behind them and turned the cold water on. The water sprayed him and Nat mercilessly, but he didn't care—it was like he couldn't feel the temperature.

"Dustin, go call 911." Eddie instructed. He felt surprisingly calm as he continued to shake Nat. She would wake up, he kept telling himself. She had to wake up.

Chrissy stood in the doorway, frozen, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, my god," she said over and over.

"Time to wake up!" Eddie splashed cold water on Nat's face. He swatted her gently, but she was stubborn. "Come on Nat, you need to wake up."

Eddie wrenched her mouth open. He didn't think twice about sticking two fingers down her throat to get her to vomit. That did the trick.

"That's it," Eddie encouraged, not even sure if Nat could hear him when she wretched and gagged. "See, you're okay. You're okay."

"They're on their way." Dustin ran back into the room to see Nat stirring. "She's alive?"

"For now," Chrissy answered quietly.

"She's going to be fine," Eddie snapped. "She just needs to get this shit out of her stomach, and she is going to be fine."

Eddie could hear the sirens in the distance. Dustin ran downstairs to meet the ambulance in the driveway and led the EMTs to Eddie and Nat. They very nearly had to pry Nat out of his grip to get her on the stretcher.

"What did she take?" One of the EMTs barked.

"Oxy...Oxycodone." Eddie cursed himself for having it. His supplier wanted to see how the stuff would sell, but Eddie wasn't crazy about pushing it.

"Do you know how much she took?"

"I–uh–I'm not sure," Dustin stammered.

Eddie struggled to remember how many pills he had left. "I don't know."

The trio wordlessly watched as the EMTs worked on Nat. Creeper Craig and Nat's mom were nowhere to be seen. The group followed the EMTs out of the house and watched in silence as they loaded her in the back of the ambulance and sped away, sirens blaring.