Page 57 of Gym Bros
“I haven’t gotten a chance to know many people here,” I tell him. “The group at the gym is pretty established. I’m still the new guy. They’re all older.”
“Old like me?”
“Some are even older than you,” I say.
“You’re the baby,” he teases.
“And you’re my babysitter.”
His mouth drops open. “Ouch. No, sir, I am not. I’m your hamstring’s new BFF. And your tight little tailbone’s tutor.”
“Youare drunk.”
“Iam buzzed. What are you?”
Horny.Fuck.“Flirting with you?” I say, testing the waters.
“Oh!” He blinks several times while he seems to work through what to say to that. “You shouldn’t. I’m bad news. I’m also—and I know this might come as a surprise—a boy.”
“Oh, I know,” I tell him. “A very pretty, very mean boy.”
“Now my feelings are getting hurt.”
“Because I called you pretty? You don’t like that, do you?”
He rolls his eyes, and I move my hands to his lower back. He’s so thin. He’s strong, but he’s also delicate. It drives me crazy. More warmth gathers in my groin. I try to figure out how I’m going to keep a hold on him when my erection inevitably emerges without him knowing about it.
“Look, I think you’re great. It’s me. I’m the problem. I’m awful and miserable, and no one should be around me, really,” he says.
“Why are you miserable?”
“Because I hate my life. I hate the way I look and the way people look at me. I hate my stupid job, and I hate myself for not being able to enjoy it anymore. That’s why.”
“Did something specific happen?” I ask.
“No. Well, yes. But no…it wasn’t any different than anything else, I just had this moment.”
“You wanna tell me about it?”
“I’m basically screaming.”
It’s true. We’re having to shout over the music, but we’ve managed to somehow read lips, too. I’m not talking as loudly as I was when we first came out here, and neither is he.
“Rachel says you grew up too fast.”
“I told you that, too,” he says.
“You did. I was listening.”
“But what does that mean anyway?” he asks. “Like what did I miss? Prom? High school bullies? Cafeteria food?”
“Movies with friends, mini golf, making out in the backseat of a car?”
“Oh, I’ve done that plenty.”
I laugh.
“And what’s so great about mini golf?” he asks.
