You had some time to kill now before dinner so you decided to head upstairs and see what your little brother was up to. You knocked on his door and he yelled out, "Come in!"
You walked in and found him sitting impatiently at his desk, his pencil tapping on the desk repeatedly. He smiled and said, "Is it ready? Is it ready?"
You laughed and said, "Sorry squirt but you're going to have to wait awhile. I just put it into the oven."
Kyle groaned and rubbed his belly. "But I'm hungry now!"
You put your hands on your hips and looked somewhat stern. "Now Kyle...you said you could wait until the lasagna was done. Remember? If you wanted something quicker you should have said so."
He sighed and said, "Sorry...I'll wait..."
He had a melancholy air as he did his homework. You took pity on the little guy, and his weirdly large appetite as of late, and went back downstairs. You made up another sandwich, with some chips on the side, as well as a Pepsi and took the whole plate upstairs. When Kyle saw what you had in your hands his whole face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and said, "Wow! Thanks big bro! I can't believe it! Mom would never let me have this!"
You patted him on the head and said, "Well Mom doesn't need to know. This is our two weeks together so let's make them fun!"
"Yeah!" he eagerly agreed, messily eating the sandwich. The chips disappeared just as quick, the can of Pepsi emptied out into his stomach after that. He let out a loud belch and then quickly covered his mouth. "Excuse me." he said politely.
"Don't worry about it Kyle. I'm not going to yell." You gathered up his plate and the empty can, carrying it out of his room. "Hey...big bro?"
You stopped and turned to face Kyle, his face holding an expression of guilt. "What is it?"
"Can...Can I have some more? Please?" The puppy dog eyes again...this time you were firm. "Nope! Sorry squirt but you have to have an appetite for dinner. This was just a little snack to tide you over."
Kyle's stomach growled audibly. It almost seemed like an ominous sign. "Okay..."
You went back downstairs and rinsed off the plate. You'd do the dishes properly after dinner. The lasagna was starting to smell really good. You had some time before dinner would be done so you went into the living room and opened a book. You had to have this thing finished by next Friday and you'd been slacking off. If you wanted to get through it, you'd have to start now. No more procrastination. The minutes ticked by and you read the somewhat dry book, ears pricked for the sound of the oven alarm. Once it went off, you were going to put in the garlic bread and then reset the timer for about seven minutes. That would be enough time for the garlic bread to cook and the lasagna to finish cooking as well. As you turned the page you suddenly heard footsteps upstairs. It sounded like Kyle was pacing around up there. He had been acting very strangely all day...what was going on with him? He seemed much more interested in food and eating than he had ever been before. Was this some weird stage of growing up that you just don't remember? Or was something wrong with him? He had looked perfectly fine, and the fact that he was eating so much kind of proved he wasn't sick. So what was it? You shook it off. It was obvious you were just being paranoid.
About ten minutes later you heard a loud *ding!* sound. You put a bookmark in place and stood up, moving over to the oven. You popped it open, the delicious scent of cooking pasta and cheese and meat sauce wafting out as you stuck the garlic bread in. Your stomach was starting to rumble and it smelled so good. You wound the oven timer after closing the oven door. Just seven more minutes...
You went back to your book though it was getting hard to concentrate. Kyle was pacing even more frantically and it was starting to become annoying. He had never been so jittery before. You were less worried about this and more annoyed at the fact that he was so active today. He was usually such a quiet kid, doing his homework, then reading or playing video games, all in almost perfect silence. It was a godsend when the timer went off again. Finally, Now he could settle down. You pulled the lasagna out and cut it into squares, putting two squares on your own plate and one on Kyle's. You hesitated then put another square on his plate. He usually only had one or one and a half squares, but with how he had been eating lately, this probably wouldn't be enough. You put two pieces of garlic bread on his plate as well, leaving two for your plate. You went to the foot of the stairs and shouted, "Kyle! It's ready!"
The door to his room was instantly flung open and Kyle came barreling down the stairs like a mad man. He quickly sat down, picked up his fork and started eating. You stared in disbelief as the two squares of lasagna disappeared within a few minutes, the garlic bread following suit. Kyle wiped his mouth and said, "More!"
You put two more squares on his plate and just watched as he gobbled those down just as fast. He burped and said again, "More!"
Almost in a daze you put four squares on his plate this time. Kyle's eyes shined as he dug in, taking longer than before but swiftly finishing off this food as well. He moaned, clutching his stomach in pain. At first you thought he had simply eaten too much but this was proven false by a loud growling sound that filled the air. He was still starving! He looked up at you and shouted, "MORE!"
You set the pan of lasagna down in front of him, a total of sixteen squares left. His fork was a blur as he ate and ate and ate, the pasta slowly but steadily disappearing, Kyle barely chewing as he ate. He was like a machine, never stopping, never tiring, just eating and eating and eating. Soon, the pan was empty. Kyle wiped his mouth yet again and pushed the plate aside grabbing yours as well. Without a second thought he gobbled up the two squares and two slices of garlic bread and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his stomach worriedly. "Big bro...I'm still hungry!"
You sat down in disbelief. No way...how could he possibly still be hungry? "Hey...are you listening? I said I'm still hungry!"
You stood up mechanically and went to the fridge. "W-what do you want Kyle?"
Kyle's belly, round and tight on his lean frame, growled fiercely and he moaned. "Anything! Just feed me!"
You pulled out an assortment of food items, pickles, lunch meat, bread, leftover dinners of pork, chicken, beef, leftover desserts of pies and cakes, all set out before your little brother. As each food item was placed before him he quickly ate it, leaving no trace behind. The fridge being empty of any decent food, you moved to the cupboards and started pulling out chips and other snack items, all of which Kyle ate up. Finally, halfway through a bag of Doritos, he suddenly stopped and said, "Ugh...I'm full now."
He got up, his shirt riding up his potbelly as he sleepily headed for the stairs. You ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Kyle...what the heck is going on?"
Kyle just smiled and said, "I'm just a growing boy I guess. I need a lot of food." He suddenly grabbed a few bags of chips and a few cans of soda. "I'd better take these with me for snacks. I don't want to have to wait and get really hungry again."
You watched him as he headed for the stairs noticing something disturbing. His shirt, while riding up due to his engorged belly, was also looking a few sizes too small. You looked lower and saw that his pants were riding up as well, looking more like Capri pants than anything, his socks bulging as though the feet that were inside them were too big for them to contain. It was impossible but...your brother had grown! Quite a bit! Did this have something to do with the food? You sat down again, not even hungry anymore. This was all too weird. You jumped up and started doing dishes. You needed to do something rational, something you always did, anything to take your mind off this impossible situation.