𝑩𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌 { PREQUEL}

Two

By the end of sixth grade, my brother had gained fifty pounds.

I remember when he couldn't fit his clothes anymore and the look of embarrassment on his face when he had to get a new wardrobe. My mom was livid. His closet had been filled with current clothes only a few months prior. She wasn't too thrilled about him outgrowing them so fast.

"We're spending so much money, Aiden. I swear. I can't keep getting you new stuff every few months. Do you think money grows on trees?" My mother asked. She was in the driver seat, speeding through the streets as I sat in the back with my brother. His hand was interlaced with mine and I squeezed it, feeling angry.

It wasn't fun when my mom got like this. Since Aiden's growth spurt, she became frustrated quite frequently. She always complained about the budget and how he was eating too much of the food: "It wasn't fair that she was spending most of her paycheck on his growing appetite."

She always became frustrated when he couldn't quite keep up with us anymore during family activities: "Why was it that he was taking so much longer on our hikes?"

Her complaints were never ending.

In this moment, we were on our way to the mall. At first, only him and my mom were going to go. But when my mom mentioned the errand, spewing, "Now I have to waste more money on clothes because you can't stop gaining weight," Aiden's face turned beet-red and tears began welling up in his chocolate brown eyes. There was no way I would let him go alone, especially after seeing the humiliation on his face, so I immediately tagged along.

Sometimes, mom could be unintentionally cruel, especially when it came to my brothers weight.

For the rest of the car ride, we anxiously listened to her rant. Once we got to Aiden's favorite clothing store, she helped him pick out everything that he liked.

The day only managed to get worse when we waited for him in the dressing room. Mom nearly had a heart attack when she found out the size that Aiden needed.

"Don't tell me you've gotten this big?" She gasped, staring down at my brother who was shuffling his feet uneasily. A few people glanced over at us, noisily trying to listen to our conversation. "I can't deal with this right now." She muttered, before storming out of the dressing room. I saw a few tears streaming down her cheeks; she was wiping them away furiously as she walked out of sight.

I turned back to Aiden. He stared after her, jaw slack and silent tears streaming down his face. It was hard to witness him cry like this. At school, I kind of expected it. Sixth graders were cruel. But seeing him this broken due to our own mother wasn't anything that I ever predicted.

"Don't listen to her, A." I managed to say. My voice was shaky; I could hear the anxiety in it.

"Yeah, yeah." His gaze casted down and he turned around, walking back into the changing room. His shoulders were slumped, hands fidgeting with his clothes nervously. He always did that when his weight was the center of attention.

"She's just being a loser. I think you look great!" I called, trying to feign enthusiasm.

But my brother didn't answer, simply shutting the door to his changing room. The rest of the shopping trip was silent. When we parked in our driveway, Aiden stormed straight inside the house. That was the first time he spent the rest of the day inside his room. He blasted music loud enough to shake my bedside table, and his door remained closed. If only I had found out sooner what he began doing behind those four walls...