Worn Out chapter 6 (Worn renamed)
'None of us talked about that night. We didn't understand it and it was important to keep what we did in secrecy. That wasn't to say we wouldn't do something like it again.'
"Pietro! Get up! Breakfast!"
"Eh?" the white haired mutant said drowsily. He woke up fully when Benji pushed him off his bed. "What the hell..." he grumbled a little before getting up. "It's cold!"
"Come one! Breakfast!" Benji said impatiently.
"You know I stopped eating...ever since Lyle..."
"Yeah but look at yourself! You're so skinny so eat something will you!" Pietro looked away.
Benji dragged him down to the cafeteria with the others. Hyram, Konnor, Pietro and Benji sat together.
"Why are you sitting with us, Hyram?" Benji asked.
"Why not?"
"You're a bastard!"
"I know, isn't it wonderful?"
"No! You piss me off!" Konnor and Pietro watched them fight until Konnor said something to Pietro.
"Why aren't you eating?"
"I just haven't been hungry...What about you?"
"I'm afraid of diseases foods that I would get if I ate. Sometimes they give me special meals." Pietro didn't quiet understand but just nodded his head.
"That why you always throw up?"
"I worry about it too much and it makes me nauseous." they turned back to the two still fighting. Hyram was provoking Benji and Benji looked like he was about to hit someone; namely Hyram.
Pietro started to think about a time he and Wanda fought. She was throwing things at him as he hid behind the couch.
"Stupid bastard, coward! You're not my brother!"
Benji threw a crumpled up napkin at his forehead. "Pietro, will you wake up?" Pietro blinked; back in the cafeteria.
"Pietro doesn't eat cause he's an i-d-i-o-t." Hyram sang taunting him. Benji finally punched him but luckily the staff didn't see. "Hey, no need to get violent. Everything is fine!"
"Shut up, Hyram!" Konnor yelled.
"Lyle couldn't take it, that's why he killed himself! This world!"
"Shut up! Shut up!"
"Hyram! What are you doing?" Nurse Annett asked from behind him. She had come over due to the noise.
"Nothin. They just can't handle it." the nurse grabbed his arm and led him away.
"And off he goes to Dr. Merten's office."
"I think I'm gunna throw up..." Konnor said.
Benji helped him get to a nurse who brought him to the bathroom. Benji then returned and sat next to Pietro.
"What do they write down in sessions?"
"Stuff about you and what they think is wrong with you."
"Where do they keep them?"
"Office. Your's are probably with that guy, what's his name." Pietro nodded then laid his head on the table. "What's wrong?"
"Tired."
"You really should--" he couldn't hear him.
"Wah?" Benji hit the table, making a loud noise that made Pietro shoot up.
"You were falling asleep."
"Sorry. What were you saying?"
"You should eat something." there was a pause.
"I know."
"Time to go." a nurse called. They all got up and walked over to the staff. Pietro stood up but got a wave of dizziness and decided to sit on the floor. He held his head while everything became warped and distorted. Benji came over to him.
"You ok?" Pietro started to see strange patches of lights in his eyes. In a minute it had passed but the dizziness wouldn't shake off.
A nurse had come over to help and stood by him. Benji now helped him up. "This is what happens when you don't eat." Benji mumbled so only Pietro could hear. "You're shaking."
The rest of the time they were silent. Pietro was taken to his room to rest when Nurse Annett came back, she came into Benji's and Pietro's room to see Pietro. Benji had gone out to one of the other room's, Konnor's, since Konnor no longer had a roommate.
The nurse picked up his arm and pressed her fingers to his wrist and looked at her watch. She soon put down his arm.
"Any headachs?"
"Dizziness."
"Stand up quickly?"
"I guess."
"Eat anything today?"
"...no."
"Why not?"
"Not hungry."
"If you don't eat anything, we'll have to give you an I.V. or needle."
"Why?"
"Look how skinny you've become in one week. At this rate you'll starve yourself to death. We can give you nutrition with an I.V. " Pietro didn't respond. "You're here so you can't kill or hurt yourself so we make sure of that." Annett walked out of the room to get something.
'Have you ever played a video game and screw up so bad that you kill yourself in order to start over? When you feel there is no way out, you want it to end. Why am I not allowed to die?' Pietro thought.
Annett re-entered the room holding something; a syringe with something in it. "What is that?" Pietro asked.
"It has vitamins and something that will make you hungry."
"Why not a pill?"
"Wouldn't work fast enough. Would you take it if I gave it to you?" Pietro stayed silent. Annett picked up his arm and put the needle under his skin. She took it out after injecting it then taped gauze over it.
-Hour later-
Pietro rolled around on his bed. He was starving but every time he thought about eating, he thought about the last image he had of Lyle.
One of the nurses had brought in a tray of food which he had not yet touched. Benji sat on his own bed reading but looked up every so often to see if Pietro ate anything. He frowned when he saw that he didn't.
"White hair! White hair!" a kid taunted Pietro and pushed him down. The orphanage, even though for children with no home, was not pleasant to him. other kids stole his food so sometimes he would go days without eating. They teased him and sometimes would get beaten.
"Pietro, eat something." Benji said, getting him out of another flashback.
"I-I can't. The horrible scene..."
"What scene?" Pietro shook his head. "Lyle?"
The hunger kept him awake the rest of the night but he never touched the food that was given to him.