Growing Pains - Sample Chapter

“ARGH! MONO SUCKS!!!”

“Well, you like taking it easy - aren’t you glad you have me to take care of you? You can just stay in your room, and I’ll bring your books and food to your door and take care of it all. Plus, now you have an excuse to cram for your tests!”

Part of Nataly was actually a bit giddy about it, not only because there was some schadenfreude of watching the feisty Ale having to chill and study… but also… she got quite a kick from taking care of her. She got to get her studying materials, cook meals, she wasn’t sure what it was, but it just got her all excited. The only downside was, she would have to hit the gym alone for the next month.

And what a month it was! Without Alexandre around, Nataly delved deeper into her workouts than ever before. She had just started one month before, but now it was like she got in a trance. She used the earbuds Ale had given her as a gift, and it was like she wasn’t even human anymore - just a machine to crank out reps. And since there was no one to suggest the load, she just kept pushing harder and harder. And she got addicted to that burn. She needed it, more and more. She sought it, and couldn’t rest until she pushed herself to her absolute limit.

Not only was she cranking out more exercise while she was there since she had zero distractions, but without Ale to slow her down in the mornings, she started waking up an hour earlier, and staying an extra 90 minutes at the gym for each session. And all that studying she did really paid off, as she had been tweaking and improving her routine.

Her eating habits had started to change dramatically as well. While she mostly made soup and sandwiches for Ale, she started getting slightly (yeah, right) obsessed with her own diet. She went hardcore into the world of macros, prepared meals and counting every bit of each type of nutrient going into her body - all of which, she quickly found out, started increasing in amount very fast.

Somehow, those weeks passed by in a blur. Ale grumbled all the way through, feeling pretty shitty due to the mononucleosis. Stuck in her room, she occasionally joked about Nataly “better not overtaking her at the gym,” as well as fantasizing about the dishes that she would have her cook when she was feeling better. That, and the fact that if she had to read one more book, she would commit an act of terrorism. She would rarely leave the room, mostly to use the bathroom, and other than meal prep time, Nataly would mostly study in her own room as well to diminish the risk of contagion.

But there was one day, in the very middle of the night, that Ale woke up from a bad nightmare, still woozy. She was probably at the tail end of the sickness, but she really needed to go to the bathroom. And so she got up, still feeling dizzy, and walked out of her room and down the corridor to the bathroom.

As she came back, she saw a figure in the kitchen. It was a massive person, making something in the dark of the kitchen. Her vision was a bit fuzzy and it was pretty dark, but it didn’t seem like an intruder. Mostly likely, she figured, Nataly had hooked up with some bodybuilder from the gym. Well, Ale couldn’t really blame her… though she felt a pang of regret and jealousy. Still, she didn’t want to bother her roommate, so she went back to her room.

When she woke up the next day, she was actually feeling much better. Maybe the worst was behind her! So she jumped out of bed, put some skimpy underwear on, and slammed her door open with her foot.

“GOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, VIETNAAAAAAAAM!!!” She enjoyed a little bit of drama every now and then, and she had kept it bottled up for waaaaaay too long. And as she looked, she saw Nataly, wearing an oversized (even for her) T-shirt.

“So, you got lucky last night, huh? Wink wink, nudge nudge!” she said, as she elbowed her roommate. Wow, really solid. Alexandre knew she had lost a ton of muscle while sick, but still…

“What?” Nataly seemed absolutely confused.

“I saw the fucking bodybuilder you brought home yesterday. Hey, it’s okay, I don’t judge. I like ‘em big, boys and girls alike. No shame!”

Nataly was beyond befuddled. She put a hand on Ale’s forehead, concerned she had a high fever and was hallucinating. “Are you sure you should be up? I think you might be as good as you think…”

“Are you shitting me? I need to hit that gym, PRONTO! I can’t let my guns melt into oblivion!” And as she said that, she flexed her arms into a double-biceps pose, still showing somewhat respectable biceps, perhaps a bit smaller than when they met again, but she gained some decent mass in that month they trained together… all gone now, though, and then a bit.

“Cool!” Nataly said, and instinctively did the same. Alexandre, however, was not quite ready for what she witnessed: two HUMONGOUS SLABS OF MEAT, stretching the oversize tee to breaking limit, as shoulders like boulders lifted the entire piece of fabric up, enough to easily pass for a guy who was very serious about developing muscle.

Ale audibly gasped, blinking rapidly as she could not even get a single word out. She just pointed, confused, at her roommate, who looked like someone who’d been training for years and ready to sweep a bikini contest with ease.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WHILE I WAS SICK?!?” Ale screamed, her hands flying like guided missiles to Nat’s guns, her hands barely able to wrap around the mountains of muscle that materialized in front of her.

“Oh, yeah,” Nat blushed, “I hope you don’t mind, I’ve been tweaking your routine, I think I’m progressing quite nicely, don’t you think?”

Ale pulled her hands away, squeezing her hands open and closed repeatedly, jaw still partially down. She pinched herself, but no, that was no dream. That was reality. Her hot roommate had become a fucking Greek statue while she was sick. How was that even possible?

“I’ve made some of the high-protein pancakes, I know you don’t love those, but I have some blueberries and syrup you can add, I’m sure they’ll be great. I’m glad you seem to be feeling more energetic.” 

Ale put her hands together in front of her mouth, doing something she rarely did: she thought long and hard for the right words to say next.

“You motherfucker. You are some kind of genetic bodybuilding freak.”

Nataly felt horrible at that comment, and her face made that clear.

“No, no, that’s not a bad thing, Nat! That is like fucking winning the freaking lottery. And you got the Super Mega Mother of All Jackpots. If this is where we got you…”

“Well, you helped a lot, but I feel like lately it’s been mostly me…”, Nataly interjected, shyly.

“... now, I can’t even IMAGINE where we’ll get you in the next 10 months. Holy shit!!!”

Nataly let out a smile, finally being able to feel proud of herself. She had gotten so lost into working towards the next goal that she never stopped to take stock of what she had accomplished. She pulled her shirt off, and Ale literally fell down backwards on the sofa.

Nataly had morphed into a muscle goddess, her body filling up from the gangly teen into a powerful looking woman, every inch of muscle giving her a very feminine figure… perhaps except for the powerful yet extremely lean chest.

“I don’t care if it kills me, we are hitting that gym tomorrow, I need to see these muscles in action with my own eyes.”

“Shouldn’t you take it slow and recover properly…” she couldn’t finish the thought.

“SHHHHH! I’ve spent far too long in that room. And you fucking held out on me all these weeks, have you no shame?!?”