Gabriel (Rewritten Version) - LGBT, manXman

13

He looked up for a moment and saw the bigger boy's eyes were burning, watching him intently.

"Tell me if you want me to stop."

*

Hearing Gabe and Bailey go up the ladder to the room in the attic, Jordan decided it was safe to go down to the kitchen for some dinner.

He knew what they were doing up there... and he hated it.

He rummaged in the freezer for a moment, and finally withdrew the remains of a cottage pie Gabe had made a while back.

He sat down at the kitchen table and waited for the microwave to 'ping', before fetching a knife and fork and digging into the pie.

He listened to Rose and Liam arguing in the living room over which DVD they would watch before bedtime for about a minute before losing patience and shouting through to them to just shut up and pick one.

Phoebe waltzed into the kitchen, made herself a cup of tea and danced back out, acting as though she hadn't seen him at all.

She'd been acting a little strangely recently, Jordan thought. He wondered if she had a crush on a boy, and that was making her act oddly.

Putting his empty plate in the sink with a sigh, Jordan rummaged around in one of the cupboards for a moment, and retrieved a packet of chocolate and peanut cookies, his favourites, from the very back of the topmost cupboard.

He went through to the living room and watched the end of the DVD with the twins, before gently shooing them off to bed, turning down the volume so that they could go to sleep, and flipping through the channels.

He finally settled on a re-run of an American crime show and settled back on the sofa, vaguely following the storyline but mostly concentrating on working his way through the entire packet of biscuits.

Almost an hour later, he heard Gabe and Bailey come back downstairs.

They stood by the front door, talking quietly for a few minutes, before Bailey leant across to kiss Gabe gently, and departed.

*

Gabe kissed Bailey goodnight and went through to the living room.

He double-checked on the twins, who were curled up beneath the blankets, fast asleep. The gigantic teddy bear Bailey had won at the fair was nestled between them.

Eyeing Jordan sprawled out on the sofa for a moment, Gabe instead flopped into the armchair with a sigh.

Jordan didn't even acknowledge that he'd entered the room.

"How was football practice?" Gabe asked tentatively, after a few minutes silence.

"Mm," Jordan mumbled.

Biting back a growl of impatience, Gabe tried again.

"Did you make the school team?"

"No," Jordan grunted.

Rolling his eyes, Gabriel gave up.

A few minutes later, Phoebe looked in and said she was going to bed.

Jordan stayed until the programme he was watching had finished, before hauling himself to his feet and muttering a goodnight.

As he walked past, Gabe grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Jordan... Please talk to me."

Jordan looked back down at him.

When did he become taller than me? Gabe wondered.

He turned the TV off, and turned back to his brother.

"Have I done something to make you mad? Did I forget to sign an important permission slip for school or something?"

Jordan looked at him for a moment, before shaking his head and turning away.

Gabe followed him and pulled him back again.

"Then, what?" He demanded. "Please, tell me what I've done so I can fix it!"

"You've not done anything," Jordan snapped. "Leave me alone."

"But-"

"Just leave it, Gabe!" Jordan snarled, pushing him back against the wall so hard that Gabe's teeth snapped closed.

Gabriel stared at him for a moment, before he released Jordan's wrist and let him go. He stood against the wall a moment longer, breathing hard, shocked to find himself trembling.

For the first time, Jordan had scared him.