From Gym Badass to Beach Bimbo

When did I first go to the gym? Seriously? Kid, I was going there back when you were still crawling under the table, and your mom…

— Terry, cool it, — muttered Ray, my bench-press partner, seeing my face and kinda reading my thoughts.

I just snorted and went back to the dumbbells. Honestly, this whole generation of “iPhone champions” pissed me off. They stand there snapping selfies in the mirror like the muscles will grow by themselves from that. I lifted a 55-pound dumbbell, without extra show, just to let the boys see what real work looks like.

— Hey, Chris! — I yelled to that skinny newbie. — Watch how it’s done. Not like you, spinning around the rack thinking the muscles will crawl to you on their own one day, — I barked as I finished the lift. The metal clanged, I set the dumbbell on the floor and wiped my palm on my shirt. — Watch closely, Chris, this is how you lift when you’re not scared of work.

He mumbled something and looked away, and that actually amused me. I grinned. That’s how it should be. Let him be scared.

Noise rose in the gym — Morgan was arguing with the coach again. Those two clash every day like it’s gonna change the world. I walked past them, slapping my own shoulder, and caught my reflection in the mirror: thick neck, wide shoulders, a statue-like build. All earned fair and square, no whining.

And then something hit me weirdly, like a bar loaded with heavy plates shot right through me. Right in front of my eyes, above the rack, the air itself seemed to tear sideways. My chest tightened, like someone flipped me inside out. I tried to grab the bar, but my hand and fingers suddenly felt weaker… or smaller? The world twisted, filling everything around with white, bright, blinding flash.

When my vision came back, I realized I wasn’t in the gym anymore. It was like I’d been pinned on my back to something both hard and… oh God, like what the hell is this?! What the… what’s even going on?

— OMG! AAAAA! — I screamed like some freaked-out girl… girl? No, it was like the scream of some dumb bitch! Like, I’m not usually like that, right? It… it came out by itself, and at that same moment I flung my arms around because the whole body was… not the body. Like, not mine!

I jerked, and two soft round shapes bounced on my chest so much that I forgot how to breathe for a second.

— What… whaaaat??! — burst out of me as I shot up on my elbows.

And then everything around slammed into me at once.

Such hot, hot sun. Such white, white sand. A narrow lounge chair under my back. And my legs — like, God, they were so thin it felt like if a little breeze blew they’d just fly off into the ocean! I even sobbed a bit, looking at those long, tanned little sticks that were now my legs, and those feet sunk into the soft sand like I’d always been lying here, some kind of beach princess.

— Oh my gooood… like… what did they do to me?! — I breathed out, feeling my stomach pull in all by itself, so flat it felt like they dried me out completely.

I wiggled that neat, tiny foot and a shiver ran over my skin. Everything was just too… fragile. I lifted my arm, so thin-thin, light-light and small-small, like it wasn’t even mine, even though it was. And when I looked down again at that tiny bikini that barely held my new “curves”, I almost whimpered:

— This is like… totally crazy… like… what is this Deluxe Barbie body?..

Damn, why the hell am I even talking like this too?! But I didn’t have time to think about it, because from the right I heard a little giggle.

— Bibi, girl, what are you mumbling over there?

I jerked so sharply the lounge chair under me even creaked. I turned my head and instantly saw her: a girl in a huge straw hat, with shiny legs, a thin chain with a heart resting on them, and suuuper long nails. She was chewing on her lemonade straw, looking at me like I was doing something cute and silly.

— Uhh… me?.. — I squeaked, feeling something unpleasant click in my stomach. — Like… I’m not Bibi at all! I’m Terry! I… I’m a man!

She blinked once, twice. Then burst out laughing so hard her sunglasses almost slid off.

— Oh-my-gooood, baby, you’re like ultra today! — she slapped my thigh and I gasped, because even that light touch kinda hurt me. — Terry! Sure! And who am I then? Brad Pitt?

Her friend on the left giggled too and adjusted the bright orange towel she was lying on.

— Bibi, honey, if you keep joking like that people will actually think we’re crazy, — she said. — Or they already did… not sure.

I swallowed, looking at both of them. They were so… relaxed, so “in their vibe”, like the whole beach was their personal TikTok stage. And me… I was sitting in a body that felt made of thin tubes and soft curves, a body that wouldn’t survive even an empty dumbbell.

— Girls… — I squeezed my eyes shut. — I’m not joking! I like… woke up… not here! I was at the gym! I was pressing iron! Like really pressing-pressing! And then bam, and now I’m here, and my arms are so skinny, and my legs are like, damn… twigs!

I lifted those little arms up and tried to clench my fists, but immediately let out a loud gasp because my long nails didn’t even let me make a fist at all. At that moment the redhead burst out laughing.

The redhead burst out laughing so loudly that even the seagulls above shot up into the air:

— Twigs! Oh my God, girls, did you hear that? She called her little arms “twigs”! That is simply iconic!

The blonde in the hat almost dropped her lemonade, choking on laughter:

— Jesus, Bibi, you totally made our morning! What do you mean “pressed iron”? The only thing you ever lift is a coconut, and even then with both hands so you don’t spill it!

— I don’t lift coconuts! — I squealed… well, squealed… it came out way too high and way too girly. — I lift a barbell with plates! I’m Terry! Strong! Massive! Muscles! A mountain! A monster! I—

I tried to show a “flexed biceps”, like I’d done a hundred times in the locker room, and bent my arm automatically, but there… there was just nothing to bend. A thin-thin little arm curved so delicately, and only a cute shadow shifted a bit over the skin. No muscle. No volume. Just smooth golden skin and a tiny wrist.

— A-a-a-a!!! — I squealed again, shaking that fragile arm. — Where’s my biceps?! Where is it?! It should be right here! It used to be huge! Like a watermelon! Like two watermelons!!

The redhead, gasping for air from laughing, poked my arm with her finger:

— Baby, if even one watermelon were on that arm, it would fall right off.

— No! No-no-no. Like no, I’m like not your baby, I… oh my god, what is this?! I’m like even talking like… like…

I bit my lip, because my brain itself was trying to choose the word, and it was so horrible I was scared to even whisper it.

The blonde in the hat snorted:

— Like who, Bibi? Like you? You always talk like that. You’re literally the walking “cute dumb girl” vibe. That’s your thing, honey.

— NO! — I shook my hands, and my new “curves” bounced again, making me squeak. — I’m not a cute dumb girl! I… I…

I don’t know how it even happened, I like didn’t understand a thing, but they… those stupid tears tore out on their own, without asking, like just to show everyone around what I’d become — a fragile, hysterical, trembling Bibi — and it was the most humiliating thing ever!

The tears just poured out like a river. I even sobbed out loud, and that sound… like… if Terry ever heard that from anyone, he’d say: “Don’t be a wimp, slug.” And now it just burst out of me.

The blonde and the redhead froze.

— Oh-oh-oh, honey, — the blonde rushed to me right away and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. — Don’t cry! Please don’t cry, you’ll smudge your sunscreen!

The redhead panicked too, leaning forward:

— Bibi, honey… hey… what’s wrong?.. We were just joking… Please don’t cry…

And I covered my face with my palms, these tiny, tiny little palms, and sobbed into them, feeling how the little bikini stretched over my Breasts, how my stomach trembled with every breath.

— I… I… don’t want… to be… this!! — I blurted through the sobs. — I don’t want to be skinny! I don’t want this sand! And this bikini! And this name!! And this… this… emptiness instead of muscles! I’m Terry!.. I… I…

But in that moment someone nearby kinda shouted that he wasn’t himself too, and then another did, and I… I stood there like a scared little girl in another girl’s arms and felt the ground slipping out from under my feet.