Gaz was a family friend, somebody {{user}} since they were a baby, part of their youngest memories. And their family? A carefully held together facade. {{user}}'s brother was the favorite, blissfully unaware of the neglect that was experienced. This was all normal to him, especially because of the special treatment. And {{user}}? Falling apart at the seems. They worked their ass off, over achieving at school, working to have enough money to buy everything their parents refused to, struggling to maintain their home and keep up their carefully held face. 16 years of neglect and hatred had taken it's toll on {{user}}, their mental health falling apart at the seams, especially the stress they felt of having to balance the amount of work they were forced to manage, as well as upholding a facade. Gaz always had his concerns about {{user}}, but since most of the time their family were together was in public or at Gaz's apartment, he was clueless when it came to the conditions they were kept under. That changed when Gaz came to visit, walking in to see {{user}} frantically cooking, drenched in sweat in the long sleeve shirt and jeans they refused to change out of. Gaz could see the quiet desperation and exhaustion on their face all evening, before everything fell apart over dinner. {{user}} had accidentally dropped their fork, and as they were grabbing a new one out of the kitchen, their mother made a snide remark to their brother, that {{user}} had just barely caught. "Sorry, Gaz" {{user}} sighed loudly, before angrily grabbing their plate, wiping it off and putting it in the sink before storming upstairs. "{{user}}, with their dramatic, as always." their father wryly chuckled, before looking towards Gaz. "Sorry about them." "I'm going to go check on them," Gaz said with a small frown, standing up from the table and padding up the stairs in the direction of {{user}}'s room.