Gretchen P. Grundler

Gretchen smiled and nodded her understanding. “Well, I suppose there’s a first for everything. I’m learning that it’s okay to use your femininity and womanly charms to get what you want as long as you don’t abuse the power. But hey, cheers to you if you decide against it, it’s not like I’m in a place to judge.”

“Today’s definitely a pool kinda day.” Tod said and stretched out his arms. The twenty year old tossed his shirt over to where his towel was as well, before jumping into the water and looking back over at the other. “Are you gonna come in or just stand there watching?” 

Gretchen had just been about to walk in when the man beside her jumped into the water. She had watched shamelessly as he took his shirt off and threw it to the side. “Uh...well, I mean, I was just enjoying the view, but yeah. I did come here to swim,” she babbled. She nodded her head once and slid into the water without a splash, the cold water washing over her skin and making her shiver. “Haven’t seen you around before.”

Gretchen sat with her head in her hands after Flynn left her apartment. Her phone was on the table, looking thrown there haphazardly amongst all the other papers and books. She couldn’t even imagine how things got so messy. Sleeping with Flynn was literally the last thing she ever wanted to do, and she knew it was only a matter of time before everyone and their dog knew what happened. Spinelli was amazingly angry at her, she’d never seen her best friend this angry. 

Her question seemed to throw him off a little bit. He was used to be asked if he was happy to be here, but not so much if there was some place he would rather be. Thinking about it, he shrugged his shoulders a little bit before looking back to the girl. “In all honesty, I have no idea.” he told her. “Some people would want to go back home, but I don’t really. Although, I certainly don’t plan to stay here for the rest of my life.” 

Gretchen watched him with interest as he mulled over her question. She wondered if he had ever thought about what he would want to do, who he would want to be, where he wanted to go. She thought about it all the time. “So would you want to travel then? Go new places meet new people? Until you find where you wanna be, I mean.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that you guys had a plan for it. I couldn’t imagine if she really would have been throwing toasters at people.” He laughed, shaking his head a little bit. Taran shrugged his shoulders at her questions a little bit. “At this moment, I’m not sure. I mean, I will probably do my best to keep my promise to my grandfather and return home, but at that point in time I might want to stay here.” He smiled. “I think I will just have to play it by ear.”  

Gretchen smiled and nodded her head in agreement. She listened to his answers and made a soft thinking sound. “Do you want to stay here, though? Do you have a preference one way or another? I find it hard to believe anyone could be completely impartial until the last moment like that.”

“Well that seems like a good idea, but I’d be afraid they’d come back the next day and want something in return. Plus, I guess I’m too nice…not that I’m saying you’re not nice, of course.”

“If they do, you just slam the door in their face. Or you have it easy, just threaten to freeze their baby-makers and you’ll be perfectly in the clear.” Gretchen laughed and shook her head. “No, I know that's not what you meant, I’m not offended. Besides, I know I can have a strange outlook on people and the world. Not everyone agrees with me.”

Flynn couldn’t believe this was happening - slowly he started to try and pull himself together, washing his face in the kitchen sink and trying to keep calm. He had fucked it all up, he’d ruined his  … well, whatever he had going with Spinelli and now he was going to have to face this - and he knew it would not end well for him, or for anyone. Maybe she’d forgive Gretchen, but he didn’t really know much about how girls worked when it came to other girls. But he knew one thing for sure - he felt like crap.

When Gretchen came out he stared at her “Me? How is this on me? It takes two to tango and uhm . .. well … i think we tangoed” he groaned and ran his hands threw his hair “You’re telling me you don’t remember anything from last night? Because i remember you pulling me back here and that’s about it.” the smell of wine hit his nose as he sat on the couch “Oh, yeah, and that bottle” he grimaced “That’s my bad. Sorry” 

“Woah woah woah - the rest of them?” he took mild offence, but only mild because he knew in his heart of hearts that she was probably right. “Wait, who’s Theodore?”

Gretchen couldn’t help but make a face of disgust, and she nearly gagged at the thohught of sleeping with him. Of course she wouldn’t have been nearly as put off if he hadn’t been dating Spinelli. She’d been responsible for so many years now, and after a little too much wine, she was a goner and lost all of that responsibility. She was disgusted with herself too. 

“Please don’t ever say we ‘tangoed’ ever again. You’re the one who’s dating someone. Or whatever. I’m not, so I’m hardly at fault for this.” Of course she thought she was in the clear. Technically she didn’t do anything wrong. Except maybe in the world of girl code. Gretchen shook her head. “I remember you and me in the bar and heading back here and everything starts to get fuxxy after that. I remember some flashes, but that’s it.” She groaned and picked up her shirt to throw it into the hamper just inside her bedroom. 

“You must not be very graceful if you got that much wine on me,” she muttered before turning back to him. “Yes, just like the rest of them. Spinelli puts herself through pain and agony dating men like you, so I take it upon myself to see if they’re worthy of her time.” She paused a beat. “You failed,” she said with finality and moved into the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. “Do you want some breakfast? You should eat something before you go over there. Help soak up any remaining alcohol in your body.”

BLACKOUT

Flynn groaned as he started to wake up - face first in the couch. The only thing was - this wasn’t his couch, and the warm body next to his was not Spinelli’s. It was Gretchen. His eyes snapped open, his mouth went dry and for the first time in his life he was not pleased to be waking up next to a mostly-naked beautiful woman “GRETCHEN?!” he pushed himself up and fell of the couch, landing with a large and ungraceful thud on the floor, his butt already hurting “What the hell am i doing here?! What the hell are you doing here .  . . like that?!” he motioned to her body which wasn’t very clad “Where the hell am i?!” he looked around and summed up that this was Gretchen’s apartment and from the bottle of wine and the tossed-aside clothes he was starting to paint a very clear image in his mind. And Spinelli was going to kill both of them

“Gretch, tell me you remember last night” he said gravely after a moment

Gretchen had woken up before Flynn, but she was in no state to move yet. Her head ached something awful, her muscles were tense, her skin felt sticky, what had happened? She was trying to get her bearings on everything, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she was still in her apartment. Just then, she could feel the man beside her stir, and she sat up as he rolled off the couch. The expression on her face was nothing less than unimpressed as she looked down at him. As she woke up fully, she really just how much they fucked up and realization dawned on her face, a flash of panic in her eyes. “No. No I don’t. Did we..shit.. Spinelli is going to murder us.” Mostly her. Or him. No, mostly her. She’d done this before, but never to this degree. She was royally screwed, even if she did think she was in the right. Kinda. 

“Pull your shit together, Flynn, I’ll be right back, I feel disgusting.” She jumped up and ran into the bathroom to clean off whatever was on her skin and pulled a bathrobe around her. She clutched at her phone and thought for a minute. She needed to text Spinelli, so she did so quickly and went back into the living room. “If Spinelli kills me, this is on you. You’re just as bad as the rest of them.” She threw herself into the armchair as she spoke. “If only Theodore were here,” she muttered in frustration.

Spinelli: Maybe sorry for having to snog and possibly fucking the guy you are going on a date with? Sorry for doing this to every fucking guy you get with, especially when you REALLY like this one?

Spinelli: no wonder i have issues, always being in your fucking shadow.

Spinelli: YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO FIGURE THAT OUT! It was for me to see! and we arent even techinically together, so you just went and got with him when we aren't even official. congratu-fucking-lations. and don't you even dare bring him up, he fucked off just like the rest of you and he never even liked me. go. fuck. yourself. you. skank. i'm done

Gretchen: You are not in my shadow. Who out of the two of us has had relationships? Who makes friends easier? Not me. I scare everyone off with my stupid brain. At least people can relate to you. All I have going for me is my smarts.

Gretchen: Of course I brought him up. You're blind if you think your feelings are one sided. Seriously, Spin.

Gretchen: Spinelli answer me

Gretchen: God dammit quit being a brat

Spinelli: how the fuck could you do that to me gretchen!? you can't even say sorry, you can't even be fucking NORMAL about anything!

Spinelli: you are a fucking heartless nasty two timing betraying bitch, like you always were

Spinelli: i can NEVER be happy when you fucking show up! you have to do your stupid littl tests and fuck up everything! no wonder i can never keep a guy, you swan in and ruin everything. i hate you i fucking hate you so much just fuck off and never speak to me again okay?

Spinelli: if i see your face you'll be sewing up your own wounds for once

Gretchen: Sorry? If he just goes in for the kill with any girl willing to give it to him, you expect me to say sorry? At least I was able call him out on his bullshit before you two got serious.

Gretchen: Do you honestly think you could be happy with a guy just as bad as your other exes?