Working Out Issues

"Adam!" I moaned.

Adam poked his head out from the kitchen, where he was cooking up one of his insane meal prep dishes. He'd been in there for the past hour -- whatever he was cooking had to last him the week, and for a super muscular guy like Adam, that meant a lot of food.

"What's up?" he asked. He smiled cheerily, licking a drop of sauce off his thumb. Jeez, even his thumbs were shredded.

I sighed and pointed. I had dropped my PS3 controller under the futon while I was trying to reach my Doritos, and now I couldn't reach it. Adam laughed, came over, and easily lifted up the end of the futon so I could grab my controller from underneath.

"Thanks," I mumbled. I felt pathetic.

See, my roommate Adam might be shredded, but I was about as far away from that as you can get. I was a fat guy. As in, obese. I've started a thousand fad diets and exercise regimes, but at the end of the day I would look at myself in the mirror and see the same fat lump I always saw. And when you've been working hard to try and improve yourself, and all you have to come home to is THAT? It just killed my motivation. Every. Single. Time.

I started to sit down and keep playing, but realised Adam was still holding up the futon. He was looking at me thoughtfully. Great. I hadn't seen Adam much in the two weeks we'd been living together, but it seemed like he was just another gym jock who was going to laugh at me for being pathetic.

"Hey Mel, don't take this the wrong way," he began. I braced for impact, "But you've got great hair."

What? I thought.

"What?" I said.

"Yeah brah," said Adam, "Do you use a special shampoo, or... I dunno, is it just natty?"

I laughed, despite myself. I'd always had really thick, kinda naturally shiny hair. The hairdresser always mentioned it when I was a kid. But it had been a while since anyone had complimented it.

"I dunno... brah," I said, "I guess, ya know, I just kinda let myself go since my last, uh, failed diet," the words tumbled out before I could stop em, "So, I guess it grew out and... yeah, I dunno."

Adam perked up at the mention of my failed diet. Great! Now I was really gonna get it, I thought. But instead he smiled.

"Hey, that's really cool that you were trying to control your eating habits! Sorry it didn't work out, but that's so dope you tried."

I really wasn't used to being complimented like this. I felt my cheeks redden.

"Yeah, well. I guess I didn't work out either."

He actually laughed at my lame joke. For a gym bro, this guy was actually pretty cool.

"Hey, it happens to all of us. Actually... would it help if I made up a meal plan for you? Finding eating habits that work for you is really important for health and fitness, and it would be sick to have a new gym buddy."

"Uh," I laughed nervously, "I mean, I don't wanna make you... I dunno.... I tried Atkins and keto and it just made me sweaty all the... sorry, that's gross... I'm not..."

Adam waved away my babbling, "Dude, it's literally no sweat. I love this kinda thing. If you hated Atkins and keto, I'm thinking maybe we go plant-based, soy protein, maybe shakes. Brah, I'm hype about this. I am gonna help you get so shredded dude!"

He punched the air and ran back to the kitchen. I laughed at his insane energy as I heard him already hunting around in the pantry for ingredients. Where the heck did he get the energy?

As I sat down on the futon to play, I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in the TV screen. I was blushing furiously. I mean, we had just had a whole conversation about how friggen fat I am. But also... I'd never really had another person so interested in my wellbeing. My parents had always been distant, and I hadn't had a girlfriend since, like, fourth grade. Well, Adam would probably get tired of this project once he realised just how lazy and weak I was, but... it felt nice to ride off his energy.

I went to unpause the game, but then stopped. I looked at my reflection again.

I really did have nice hair.