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Dennis Whitaker had never done drugs. Any kind. And while he wasn’t so much against the harmless ones, he had seen what drugs could do to people, and he stayed away from them.
Marijuana, or Kush as Trinity fondly called it, was one of the drugs he was not so against. In fact, when Dennis saw Trinity smoking it for the first time, he had only been curious.
She had offered him a hit, which he politely declined, and that had been that. Or so he thought.
It was some holiday, one of the unimportant ones that everyone always forgot about, and Trinity insisted they go to this house party that was being hosted by a friend of Garcia’s. While he wasn’t much one for being social, he couldn’t say no when his best friend looked so damn excited about being invited.
“Garcia invited me. Me! Can you believe that? That means she’s been thinking about me. That means she cares.” She had said in excitement. “We have to go.”
Which is how Dennis ended up in the yard of some rich guys home, nursing a beer and being a little too tipsy for his own good. The grass was shifting in the wind underneath his feet, and he stared at it a little too intently, until he smelled something almost sweet wafting through the air. He knew that smell. That’s the smell that always clung to Trinity after she came out of the bathroom after a steamy ‘shower’.
Now, Dennis was not one to approach a group of strangers, but as it’s been established, he was far from sober at this current moment. The liquor in his veins gave him just enough gumption to go up to the group of people and squeeze his way into the circle.
“Hey guys.” He said, trying to find his voice.
The circle went quiet as they all sized him up, until a girl with bright blue hair and a chain across the bridge of her nose smiled at him.
“Hey. You looking for some of this?” She held up what looked like a cigarette, but it was different. A joint, his mind supplied. This was a joint.
“I’ve uh, I’ve never smoked before.” He admitted slowly. “You do it often?”
“Well we’re all certified stoners here.” She laughs. “We can babysit you, if you wanna try it. None of us mind.” She says kindly.
“Oh, I don’t need a babysitter. I’ll be fine.” Dennis insists.
“If you say so.” The girl says. She hands the joint to a person with shoulder length black hair and an eyebrow piercing. They take a drag off the joint, inhaling deeply and exhaling the smoke into the girl's face, who laughs, and hands it to him.
“Just hit it like a cig.” she tells him.
He listens, and hits it how he hits those few cigarettes he’s had on the particularly stressful days at the Pitt. He inhales and holds it, how he saw the person with dark hair do, and then exhales into the sky.
Immediately, he chokes. He can’t get air into his lungs, coughing and coughing as his face turns red and his eyes shed tears he can’t control. Oh god, he’s drooling now, from the force of the hacking coming from his body, but no one laughs at him.
“You’re good, just breathe. That was a fucking huge hit, my friend. Cough it out.” She chuckles as she pats his back. “There you go.”
As soon as he’s done coughing, he straightens himself and looks at everyone, then promptly bursts into laughter at his own display. It seems to lighten the mood as the group realizes he doesn’t mind being laughed at and they join in on the humor.
“It happens to us all our first time, man. Don’t worry.” The person with dark hair says to him. “Now you get to go along for the ride.”
Dennis just nods, and smiles at them all. Before he can say anything else, though, Trinity grabs his arm from behind, making him jump hard.
“Hey, Den. I’m gonna go to the other room to smoke with Yolanda and some others. Wanna come?”
Dennis looks at his group of newfound friends with an apology on his face. The girl steps forward to give him a clap on the shoulder.
“Go on. It was super nice meeting you.”
“You as well. Thanks for… everything. See you around.” He says, smiling.
“You too!”
As they walk away, Trinity smirks at him. “Can’t believe you were hanging out with Finnigan Grey and her posse.” She says with a laugh.
“Who?”
“That girl with the bright blue hair. That’s Finn. I’ve never officially met her, but people talk, you know? She’s a good one, just… has some shit luck.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah. But that bums me out, lets go do drugs.” She says with a joking tone, knowing it will set Dennis off.
“We are not doing drugs, Trinity, you’re smoking weed. It’s not the same.” He laughs.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, Fuckleberry.” She grabs his arm and leads him upstairs, where Garcia and a few other people are sitting around a glass… jar, lounging and talking happily.
“What’s that?” Dennis asks Trinity under his breath.
“What’s what?” She looks to where Dennis is pointing and laughs at him. “You don’t know what a bong is? Jesus, Huckleberry. You’re even worse than I thought.”
They join the circle and Dennis sits straight with his hands in his lap. He still feels pretty normal, aside from being drunk, and as they pass around the bong he watches how to do it. When it gets to him, he pauses, looks at Trinity, and looks back down to the bong.
“I uh… I don’t really know how to do this right.” He chuckles as he admits it to them.
Trinity laughs and takes it out of his hands. “You’re gonna smoke?”
“Yeah, you think it’s a bad idea?” He asks, not thinking to bring up the previous smoking he had done that night with his newfound friends.
“Not at all. I’ll help you light it.” She says.
He nods and lets her light and get it ready for him, only moving into action when she says, “Go, put your mouth on it and inhale.”
He does so, and Oh shit, that’s a lot. He repeats the same coughing fit he had earlier, but this time he at least keeps all his saliva in his mouth.
“Oh God almighty.” He manages between wheezes. Trinity laughs at him, not meanly, just as a sister does when a sibling gets hurt.
“Ok, maybe I gave you a big hit. That’s on me, sorry.” She says. “But you’ll have a good time with that.”
What neither of them knew, though, was that the hit Dennis had taken with Finn before had been well enough to get him high, and this last hit had sealed his fate.
Since Dennis had never smoked before, his tolerance was at a ground zero. And while he wasn’t petite by any means, he didn’t stand much taller than Trinity. That being said, he was well on his way to a high he’d never forget.
The first thing Dennis noticed was a buzzing behind his eyes. A pressure, like fluid on the brain, pushing against his eyes, making it hard to think.
Then, he started forgetting. Forgetting what he was saying in the middle of his sentence, forgetting what other people were saying in the middle of their sentences.
“But we don’t have to– Dennis?” Trinity cuts herself off from the conversation she’s having with Garcia, turning to face the man beside her who was taking long, slow breaths, staring at nothing while the girl to his left talks his ear off.
“Hey, Den? Huckleberry?” She looks back to Garcia and says, “Somethings wrong.”
“Dennis?” Garcia says. “You ok?”
Dennis looks up and his face is white. He smiles uneasily. “I’m ok,” He says, not wanting to ruin the fun for everyone else.
Dennis is far from ok. The pressure in his eyes just keeps building, and he can’t seem to hold on to any thought he has for more than a few seconds. On top of all this, he can’t seem to clear his vision of the colorful shapes moving around in it.
“This is being high?” He asks shakily.
“Do you wanna go to the other room for some quiet?” Trinity asks him.
“I um…” He chuckles, but he sounds scared. “I don’t know if I can make it there?”
Trinity curses under her breath and whispers to Garcia. “He’s definitely greening out. I’m gonna take him for some quiet in the other room.”
Garcia nods and squeezes Trinity’s hand in reassurance. “Call me if you need me.” She says. Trinity nods.
“Let’s go, Denny. Up you get.” Trinity says, hoisting Dennis up onto wobbly legs and helping him walk to a room adjacent to the one they were in previously.
This room had a comfy bed, twinkle lights strung up and lit all around the room, and a tv. Dennis was trying his hardest to keep it together as his body betrayed him. He collapsed into the bed, and closed his eyes.
⌖ ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ ⌖
Trinity watched her friend as he laid on the bed, unmoving.
She should’ve known this was a bad idea. Her fucking Huckleberry couldn’t handle weed, what was she thinking? Of course this would happen to him.
She sits on the bed next to him, tapping his face lightly. Nothing. No movement. She rests her head on his chest, checking his heart rate and– holy shit.
He’s extremely tachy, heart beating like a race horse's hooves, and she goes to sit up before she realizes– no breath sounds. None.
Dennis Whitaker isn’t breathing.
She rubs her knuckles hard on his sternum, saying, “Dennis. I need you to wake up. Now.”
She rubs harder, talking to him, making sure he still has a pulse (and he does, even if his heart is going so fast she fears it may burst).
Dennis suddenly gasps for air like it’s the first breath he’s ever taken, and shoots upright, almost hitting Trinity in the face with his head.
“Woah! What the fuck!” Trinity exclaims.
Dennis grabs her face in both of his shaking hands and gasps for air. “I got lost.”
“What? No you didn’t. You were laying right here, Denny.”
“No, I got lost.” He insists, then lays back, closing his eyes again.
Before Trinity can insist he stays awake, he shoots upright again, saying, “Can’t close my eyes. I get lost when I close my eyes.”
“Ok, ok.” Trinity says calmly. “Don’t close your eyes then.”
Dennis grabs her face once again and squishes her cheeks, like he’s trying to make sure she’s real.
“Don’t leave me. Need you here.” He insists. “Please.”
“I’m not leaving, Denny, I’m right here. I’m here.”
“I saw God. He’s real. I can see him.”
“Dennis, you’re greening out. You’re gonna be ok, alright? Just breathe. You’ll come down soon.”
“Don’t leave me.” He says again, like he didn’t even hear her.
“I’m not leaving you.” Trinity says patiently. “I’m right here.”
Dennis tries to take a deep breath and suddenly bursts into tears. “Where am I?”
“You’re at a party. Remember?”
Dennis shakes his head no, that he doesn’t remember, and continues to sob. “I can’t– I don’t know where I am. Keep telling me, please, keep telling me where I am.”
“Ok, ok, you’re in a room, at a party. You’re with me, I’m Trinity Santos, your roommate. I’m here with you, ok?”
“I can’t– I can’t remember what my mom looks like. What does my mom look like? Oh my god what does my mom look like?” he cries, sobs wracking his body as he clings onto trinity.
Thats when the shaking starts.
It starts in his legs. Uncontrollable shaking, that gets bigger as it continues. Then, his arms.
He tips over on the bed as the tremors overtake his whole body, muscles contracting and loosening rapidly and he convulses on the bed.
Trinity gasps and turns him on his side to clear his airway. “Just breathe, Dennis, you’re ok. Just breathe. It’s almost over.”
And it was. As soon as it started, it came to a stop. He lays there, panting, and eyes stare up at the ceiling. “What– what happened?” He asks, but the tremors are starting again, taking over his body.
They repeat this process several times before he finally comes down from the seizure-like activity.
“The world is a kaleidoscope.” Dennis whispers, and it was to him. Swirling shapes and colors filled his vision, and wouldn’t go away.
Then he says, “Please god, don’t let them get me.”
Trinity tilts her head, just glad that the shaking stopped. “Who, Denny? Who will get you?”
“Them.” He says simply.
“Ok… no one is gonna get you, alright?”
Dennis just looks at her suspiciously, like he didn’t believe her. He curls up in the corner of the bed and tucks pillows and blankets all over himself. He stays like that for a little while.
Eventually, Dennis starts coming down. Thank the gods, too, because Trinity didn’t know how much more of this her heart could take. He slowly goes from terrified to just scared and confused. She’s never seen her roommate like this.
“Can we watch Frozen?” Dennis’s small voice comes from the bed.
“Of course.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Just let me put it on, ok?” She says quietly. She’s never seen her roommate like this.
“...’m sorry.” He says as he scoots to the edge of the bed to grab her hand.
“It’s ok. Not your fault. Nothing to be sorry for.”
Dennis just shakes his head. “I ruined your night.” He insists.
“No, no you didn’t. It was a bad party anyways. Nothin to do.”
“I took your time away from Garcia.”
She just shrugs. “Rather be with you.”
Dennis sniffles and lays down, looking exhausted.
Trinity smiles at him. “You ready to go home?” She asks him.
“Yes.”