Prompt used: Starvation
Gordon walked into the kitchen, humming a tune under his breath, to find the whole of his family in there waiting for him.
He stopped still, the song dying on his lips, as they all turned to face him.
"Hey, Gords." Virgil was the first one to speak, and he offered Gordon a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Gordon knew it was a fake smile. The kind he gave victims on a rescue when he didn't want them to worry. The victims always believed it, but Gordon knew his brother too well.
"What's going on?" Gordon cast his eyes around the room.
Everyone was there. His dad, Grandma, his brothers. Even John had come down from space.
He clutched onto the towel that was in his hands as his heart raced. This couldn't be anything good. Did they know his secret? He thought he was doing well to hide it.
"We just want to talk, son. Why don't you take a seat?" His dad pulled out a chair at the dining table, but Gordon stayed frozen to his spot.
"What is there to talk about?" Gordon tested, trying to ease the reason they were all here out of them before he burst from anxiety. He tried to keep his voice steady and he was smiling. He hoped it was a more believable smile than what the rest of them were giving him.
"Gordon, we know." Scott tilted his head in sympathy.
He couldn't take all this sickly sweet concern. It was radiating off of all of them. They couldn't hide it, even though they tried to. He squirmed underneath it all.
"Know what?" He still tried to play innocent. Maybe this wasn't what he thought it was about. Maybe he could keep pretending like nothing was wrong, and they could go on like they had before.
"Please don't pretend," Scott said, and if Gordon didn't know any better, it sounded like his brother was going to cry. "We know that you haven't been eating properly."
Gordon's whole world shifted on its axis. Even though he knew, deep down, that that was what this was about, he had hoped differently.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about." He tried to stand tall, even though he continued to wring the towel through his hands and he could barely breathe. He continued to smile, but he could feel it cracking. It was getting painful to keep up.
"Kiddo, you don't need to hide it from us anymore. We want to help." It was now his Grandma's turn to offer comforting words. Out of everyone, Gordon found it hardest to make eye contact with her. He shifted and looked away.
"It's fine. Everything is fine," Gordon argued. He didn't understand why they were all trying so hard. They didn't need to do this, he had it under control. "It's all under control."
"That's the thing though, it isn't under control." Virgil stepped forward, and gestured to him. "Look at you."
Gordon squirmed. That was the problem. He didn't want anyone to look at him. He wanted to hide away. He didn't need his family all looking at him. He didn't need them to see how disgusting he was.
"I'm fine," he muttered.
"Gordon, please," Alan begged.
Gordon looked over to him. There were tears in his eyes. He couldn't do this anymore.
"You guys had no right to do this," he snapped, and started to back up to the patio door. "You can't just corner me and- and tell me what to do. Just leave me alone."
His hackles were raised. He was getting defensive, he knew that, but he just wanted them all to leave him alone. There was nothing wrong. He didn't need their help.
He needed to leave.
"Gordon-"
He stepped out of the way of the reached out hand of his brother, and hurried past them all so he didn't have to look at their stares anymore.
He gasped in the fresh air of the outdoors. He'd needed to get out of there before he suffocated on their sympathy.
He made his way down the steps towards the pool, which was his original plan when he had come downstairs that morning. He was determined to get his morning laps in and his family weren't going to stop him.
The sun beamed down on him. It was hot this morning, and bright. So extremely bright.
Gordon's vision swayed, and he blinked rapidly to bring it back into focus. Everything blurred into one, before it all went dark.
He woke up in someone's arms. Something was being said somewhere above his head, but it grew quiet when he groaned from the piercing pain in his skull.
"Hey, you're okay."
He fluttered his eyes open, and Virgil's face swam above his own.
He blinked sluggishly as he tried to remember what had led to him being in his brother's arms, on the floor outside.
The memories of what had happened that morning came back to him slowly, but as soon as he remembered how his family had tried to talk to him, the anger came back.
He sat up and pushed his brother away.
"Take it easy," Virgil warned, but Gordon brushed him off as he turned away.
He pulled his knees up to his chest and pinched the bridge of his nose as he waited for the world to stop spinning. He could feel the rest of his family's eyes boring into the back of his skull, but he didn't turn around. He wanted to forget they were there, and he wanted them to leave him alone for good.