Wrong Bodies

Part 8

  “Eerggh...” I moaned. My heart was pumping fast as I bent my both elbows—which were trembling and felt so sore—and lowered my body onto the floor. Yes, I was doing push-ups. For the record, it was 7 a.m. in a cold Saturday morning! I was supposed to be curling in bed right now. Thanks to Jayson for being obese; he dragged me forcefully to the gym with him. Spending time too much in front of TV playing video games had affected his physical condition, which was indicated by his fat belly and chubby cheeks. He had used to be a hot guy and this caused him to be distressed that he started raining shit down on everyone in the house by acting so darn annoying. However, he was too lazy to exercise (now whose fault that was?). Whenever he intended to jog or swim or whatever, he ended up licking an ice cream cone after TEN MINUTES. Yeah, my brother had an issue in commitment.

       Mom decided to put me into Jayson’s diet program so that he felt supported. Suddenly, everyone in the family became a vegan. She cooked greenish food which was more appropriate for rabbits for our meals. Moreover, she commanded me to supervise him in the gym, making sure that he did his daily exercise as had planned—mom was stingy, she wouldn’t waste money to hire a personal trainer. Despite my convincing compliment that he was perfectly shaped, Jayson got excited about losing weight and that meant extra works for me. The thing was, he would only did the exercise if and only if I did that too—it was just his tactics to make my life miserable. I couldn’t just sit and see him lifting weights. He insisted that we should do it together, and mom agreed with him. Mom was like, the queen in our little family kingdom. Her wish was our command. So I had no choice. This whole thing was just absurd.

       “This place sucks,” Jayson grunted. “Why the heck...hhgh...they separate the...uurgh... genders in different roomhh?”

       He panted, running on the treadmill. I was next to him, doing exactly the same thing. Behind us was Jessie, holding a handy cam and shooting our pictures. She was making some stupid documentary film. Well, actually mom ordered her to collect proofs that we really did exercise. I had tried to bribe her with candies, but what I got was a spank from mom. What a little brat! She always told on me.

       “So that you’re focusing on your calories instead of their boobs, dumbass,” I replied under my breath. Jayson laughed.

       “By the way, have you ever reached the second base with girls?” he asked, smirking. I frowned, giving a dumb look. What? Second base? We weren’t talking about baseball, were we?

       “Eh...what’s a second base?” I asked back. I totally had no clue. He raised his eyebrows and burst out laughing, causing him to lose balance and almost slipped.

       “I knew it. You’re lame. I can’t believe you don’t know,” he sneered. I shrugged, slowing my speed. He sighed in disappointment and started explaining,

      “First base, kissing. Second base, feeling her boobs. Third base, hands in her pants, and the last is home run. Well, you know what I mean.”

       And then he continued blabbing about her experience with girls in gory details which made me want to stuff my ears with cottons or whatever within my reach. It was awkward and very inconvenient to have this guy conversation. I felt like slapping him in the face for talking about girls like that. It got me wondering; did boys always see girls in a sexual way? That was condescending!

       “Guys, FYI, the microphone is ON,” Jessie announced, interrupting Jayson’s tale about his seventh girlfriend Odette. Jayson and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Damn. If she showed mom the video I would be doomed as well even though I just nodded on and on as my respond. We quickly stopped running and jumped off.