At Sarah’s house (Part 2)

Warm up consisted of easy exercises like rotating the neck, the arms, lifting the knees, that sort of stuff. First new thing I finally noticed was how flexible my body was now. I could lift my knees quite high, and I saw that thanks to the mirror we were in front of.

Bless that mirror, by the way. I could look at Sarah doing her warm up under the pretense of observing how to do the exercises the correct way. But I think Sarah knew well the real reason I was looking at her, and made no effort to hide herself. In fact, her eyes were as much on me as mine were on hers.

We finished our initial exercises with neither of us breaking a sweat. Not a surprise coming from Sarah, but for me? A light jog used to be enough to kill me.

“By the way,” Sarah started. “I’m not planning for us to have a full workout session here. I don’t want to spend the rest of the day tired, after all.”

I nodded. “Then?”

“Thing is, I’m really curious about you. Grace said you got fit over summer and only do basic workout at home.”

“A-Ah. Well… Yes.” Dammit. Was I going to get caught? Sure, I’d like to know why on earth I suddenly woke up with this new body, but it’s not like I could tell people it happened literally overnight. No one would believe me and they’d think I was hiding something. But even if I lied, my story would be full of holes! See why I hate lying!? It was better to stay away from the topic if possible, but…

“You’re no bodybuilder, but you still have amazing muscles. Have you bench pressed?”

I shook my head.

“Let’s see how much you can lift, then.” With an eager smile, Sarah led me to the training bench. I laid down while she put weights on the bar.

“Considering you’ve lifted Mila and Grace, you can’t be a weakling. Let’s start you with 40kg.”

…So she knew that, huh? Grace wasn’t lying. I had no secrets while being with them. Not that it was anything I’d try to hide from them.

I got in position and Sarah stood behind me to observe and help if necessary. She showed me how to correctly hold the bar and I lifted it from the safety rack. I did a single rep of 10 with zero difficulties, incredibly enough. Sarah added 20kg for the next rep, and 20 more for the third one. It took 80 kilograms for me to finally start having trouble getting the reps done.

80 fucking kilograms.

“Holy shit, Oliver,” Sarah exclaimed, clearly surprised. “How much do you weigh?”

I set the bar back on the safety rack and sat up, feeling some slight pressure in my arms. “Um… Around 60 kilos, I think? I don’t remember.”

“You’re lifting well above the average for your weight, then. And I mean the average of people who train. At your weight class, pros lift around 120 to 135 kilos. Lifting a person uses more muscles than just those around your arms, obviously, but still, you’re pretty damn strong for your looks.” Sarah held her chin, getting more and more absorbed in her thoughts. “Did you do some serious dieting while working out over summer? I didn’t know you until a week ago, so I don’t know how you were built before, but if you bulked up too quickly thanks to an **** diet, you should be careful.”

I started getting worried. “W-Why’s that?”

“You could experience a rebound if you go from a strict diet to a more leisured one. For example, let’s say someone wants to lose weight, and so they cut on meats, ****, carbs and/or sugars. They may very well lose weight in a short amount of time, but if they go back to eating like they used to, they can gain double the weight they had before, AND it’ll be even harder to lose it because their metabolism slows down.”

…Okay, so I hadn’t done any of that. I had no idea how this had happened in the first place. It was a little worrisome, but even so, I found myself smiling. “You know a lot about this.”

Sarah flinched and slapped her forehead strongly enough to make a loud sound and leave a red print.

“S-Sarah!?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she grunted. “I said I was curious, but I didn’t mean to go off on an entire lecture.”

“It’s fine,” I told her. “This is really useful to know, and you seem to really enjoy the topic.”

“It’s not that I enjoy it that much.” Sarah sighed. “Wanna go for a jog?” she asked me, pointing back to the two treadmills side by side.

She taught me how to handle the console, we set the machines for a light jog, and started jogging side by side. As we did, Sarah continued talking with little issue.

“My whole family is into health in some way or another, be that physical or mental health. And I do mean all of them. Like I said, dad’s a psychiatrist, mom’s a chiropractor, one of my uncles is a surgeon, one of my aunts is a nutritionist, things like that. They all work out or play sports, too. I basically grew up with people drilling this stuff into my head, so it’s not so much that I like it more than it’s a habit.”

I nodded, but since Sarah was looking forward and couldn’t see me, I had to speak. “I see. But you don’t hate it.”

“Yeah. Do you hate brushing your teeth three times a day?”

“Oh.”

“Yep. It’s like that. I used to be way lazier, but I’ve felt a lot better since I started exercising. Mainly mentally, but it helps to keep the body in shape, too, so that’s a big plus.”

“It is,” I said, which caused Sarah to start laughing loudly and made me realize what I had implied. “I-I mean, yes, but w-what I meant was…”

“You like my body that much, huh?” she teased, glancing at me with a smirk.

“…” You know what? “Y-You like mine, too.”

“That I do. You’re pretty sexy and your face is really cute.”

Urgh. My heart. I lost the teasing battle before it even began. “And you can just say that stuff?”

“Sure, why not? It’s the truth.”

“…I never know when it’s appropriate to say stuff like that.”

“People rarely hate a good compliment on their appearance. Do you hate it when I call you sexy?”

Hate it? No. I felt like a fraud, but at least it was good to know she was attracted to me. “It’s a little embarrassing, but no.”

“Still, you do need to be careful of what you say, who you say it to and where you are. If you told me now that I have a nice ass, I’d like it, but that’s because we’ve done things to warrant that level of trust and we’re alone. Say it in front of my parents and it’s different. You also wouldn’t tell a teacher she has a nice ass, right?”

Don’t think of porn videos. Don’t think of porn videos. “Right. I think I understand that much.”

“See?” Sarah then pursed her lips, like she was stopping herself from saying something again.

“What is it?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I was… going to say something about your social anxiety, but I haven’t known you long enough for me to go throwing theories at you.”

“I don’t mind, Sarah.”

“Nah. If I say something, you’ll probably believe it. Might end up doing more harm than good.”

Ah. I understood.

Jogging and talking was starting to get a little uncomfortable, so we kept quiet for the rest of the 15 minutes and stopped.

“How are you doing?” Sarah asked, coming off of the treadmill.

My breathing was a little deeper and I was sweating a bit, but I was otherwise fine. “I’m good.”

“Yeah, you don’t look tired at all.” Sarah looked much the same. She probably did much longer, harder runs on the daily. “This may have been a bad idea. We can’t talk much if we’re exercising.”

“I’m fine doing whatever.” I looked at Sarah, and a stray thought passed through my head. Should I say it? Should I do it? My sixth sense made me believe it would be okay, and Sarah just said it was okay for me to say things to her. I stepped closer to her, put a hand on the side of her head to touch her hair and another on her bare waist. “I really like how you look in this outfit, though.”

Sarah chuckled. “Finally! He admits it!”

“I was way too obvious, wasn’t I?”

“Yep. That stare could burn a hole through me.” Sarah then wrapped her arms around my own waist. “Certainly was enough to get me all hot.”

Those eager eyes staring back at me told me everything. “Whatever you’re gonna do, do it and don’t half-ass it,” they were telling me. And how could I not start things off with a kiss? It had only been a week and I was addicted to them already.

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