A Walking Disaster

Alex closed the door behind him as soon as he got to his bedroom; he kicked off his shoes and socks, grabbed a plain white shirt, a pair of sweatpants and threw them on before he sat cross-legged in the middle of his king-sized bed and turned his laptop on, instantly logging onto Tumblr as he did every other day.

Half an hour had passed and he was still looking through his feed, liking and rebloging pictures and gifs of his favourite band members and vintage pictures. The doorbell rang, he knew it was the pizza guy; his family and him had pizza every Friday night, but he decided that it was time for a major change. His parents didn't seem to notice, but he was growing bigger and bigger every day. He knew that he wasn't overweight or anywhere near that, but he didn't like what he looked like when he stood in front of the mirror; he thought his hips were way too big and he was growing a chubby belly by the second. “It's not a big deal” He thought to himself, but eating junk food every day wouldn't help either, so he gathered all the willpower he had left and told his parents that he wanted to start having a healthy lifestyle.

When he went downstairs for dinner after his mum shouted for him to come down for the billionth time, he found his parents at the small round red table in the kitchen, slicing the pizzas they had ordered while watching tv, his dad, more focused on what the tv was saying than focusing where the knife went when slicing the pizzas.

Alex sat in silence and explained to his parents what he was thinking of doing with his meals and lifestyle in general. Isobel covered her pizza-filled mouth with the palm of her hand before speaking.

“Alex, you don't need to deprive yourself from the foods you like to stay fit. You already are a handsome boy, if you want to eat healthily then go ahead, but going out a little more or going to the gym a few days a week would do the job aswell”

Mrs. Gaskarth was a nutritionist who worked at a clinic in town, so Alex knew that her mum would help him if he needed anything or had any question about the topic.

“Yeah, I know, but I still want to fill my body will good nutrients and not junk food all the time”

“Well, alright. I always say this to my clients; the first step is to go shopping”

That being said, Alex prepared himself a nice salad following his mum's instructions on adding carbs, protein and healthy fats to it.

He had to admit that going to the gym almost every day was becoming a nightmare. His last year of college was coming to its start and he wanted nothing but to be free in the morning to work out, not have to go to school for six hours a day and go to the gym in the evening after an exhausting day.

Never the less, he had grown to slightly like walking the short way to the local gym, stretch and observe people as he and them worked out on their own. When he got there the first day, he couldn't go on the stair-machine for more than fifteen minutes; his asthma always kicked in as soon as he started making any hard effort, and he just could not carry on. By the third week of going to the gym three times a week, he had adapted his heart rate to the stair machine and would go on for half an hour or more.

Alex couldn't believe how many people went to the gym. The rooms were jam-packed no matter the time and what surprised him the most is that most of the people there were old people and really young people who were making a fool of themselves by pretending what they were doing when they were really just taking pictures of their friends lifting a twenty kg weight.

Luckily enough, Alex hadn't touched any junk food all through those three weeks and he was feeling better than ever.

It was finally Saturday, and Alex wanted nothing but to stay at home and have a “me day” after all the school planning, book storing and room cleaning he had done through the week but he was also in the mood of hanging out with his friends, something he hadn't done in a very long time. He called his best friend Zack and told him to meet him at his house.

Half an hour later, Zack appeared through the door and greeted Mrs. Gaskarth like the polite guy he is before going upstairs into Alex's room.

“Hey mate” He said as he opened the door.

“Hey. You're kinda late. Why's that?”

“Sorry, I couldn't find my keys and Lucy was over so I'd had to take her home”

“Who's Lucy?”

“My girlfriend?”

“I didn't know you had a girlfriend! When did this happen?”

“Dude, we haven't talked in weeks, many things have happened since the last time we saw each other other than in school. We met at the aquarium when I was taking care of my little cousin. She works there and was giving a speech about sharks. My cousin was curious and wanted to ask her why almost all the sharks were gray so he made me talk to her because he is too shy”

“Woah, that's sweet! I must meet her. Was she like, over? As in, over?” He raised his eyebrows repeatedly, making it obvious that he meant it in a sexual way.

“No” He rolled his eyes and sat in the other corner of Alex's bed. “To be honest, I don't know why. She wants to, she's told me that she wants to, but I don't. I don't exactly know why; I guess I'm just not ready” he confessed.

“Well, it seems that she's a keeper if she's willing to wait for you to be ready, huh?” Alex nudged his friend's shoulder.

“Yeah. I really like her”

After a few silent minutes, Zack started wondering what was going on in Alex's life since he hadn't seen him in what felt like forever.

“So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you have a girlfriend, or?”

“Zack, really? A girlfriend?”

The both burst out laughing at the evident joke as the room filled with dead noises and heavy breathing.

“A boyfriend then? Seriously, have you been this absent because you've found someone special?”

“Are you calling them special because they are gay or because they are more than a friend to me?”

Zack's eyes widened as his eyebrows rose. He didn't expect to hear anything like that. He was only joking and although Alex was quite a nice guy, he'd never had thought that he would find someone special at such a young age. He laughed at the joke after a few seconds.

“So there's a “them”..” He said with a smirk on his face. Alex rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Man, there's no “them”, “she” or “him”. There's nothing and I'm okay with that” He admitted although deep down in his chest, he knew that he wanted to be in a relationship. Even more now that he knew Zack was in a relationship and had been for a while.

“Are you sure?”

“Are you kidding?”

Alex got up from his bed and started collecting the things he needed to go to the gym. He was going to bring Zack today. He knew Zack had always wanted big guns, but didn't have the willpower to actually go to the gym or workout at home, so he was about to help him out with that to get the subject off his mind. “I'm perfectly fine without anyone. I don't need them for now, mate.

"Come on, I'm taking you to the gym”