There was good news and bad news! Good news was that I finally turned eighteen years old. I was dreaming about this day for ages - finally being considered an adult. I was filled with a sense of personal freedom that made me feel like I could do anything. Well... almost anything.
The bad news was that at my ripe age of eighteen, I was still a virgin. I was always a mess when it came to girls - I barely made it past kissing. Then something always went wrong - I couldn't put my finger on it, but something always changed later in time. The girls suddenly stopped being interested. Was it my fault? Was it my behavior? Did I do something wrong?
I was asking myself these questions before I finally cracked the code. Of course! Girls today are surrounded by this idea of a perfect looking guy - lean, big and with nice muscles all over his body. I was... pretty far from that. I wasn't too obese or too slender - I was just right in the middle. Not a bad looking body, at least from my perspective, but what chance did I have against the actors in movies and ads? I knew I had to up my game. I had to join the gym.
The problem was that I was still a student - broke as hell. I didn't have a lot of money to pay for a membership at one of those fancy fitness centers, let alone hire a trainer. Luckily, I knew about a pretty secluded place near my house. It was a very small gym, and from the outside, it looked pretty simple. I was sure that had to be the cheap option, not like those huge fitness centers where you pay millions just for a sign-up.
One day, I finally pushed myself to do it. I packed up some of my workout clothes - which were pretty much just gathering dust up until that point - and I set off to the gym. At first, I had trouble even finding it - it was a really well hidden two-story place. I got a little bit nervous as I was opening the front door - what kind of place could this be? Was it even safe for a scrawny guy like me?
Luckily, I soon found out, that for a secluded place, the gym looked really nice. Sure, it probably wasn't the most modern one, but it had nice atmosphere, upbeat music and the equipment looked okay - well, at least as far as I could tell. There weren't many people there, but it wasn't deserted either. Nevertheless, I was sure that everybody was staring at me as soon as I opened the door, but I let that slide. I was sure it was just my imagination messing with me.
I approached the front desk, where a guy was just counting money from the cashier. Now, this guy was intimidating. His shoulders were as broad as a door frame and his arms were showing muscles that I didn't even know existed. I knew, because he was wearing a tight, red tank-top showing off his pecs as well. That, together with the shaved head, piercing blue eyes and a five o'clock shadow made for a pretty intense sight.
I immediately felt inadequate as I first laid my eyes on the man. I mean what kind of chance did I have with girls with guys like that around? Sure, he was probably in his 40s, or late 30s, but he just oozed masculinity. I felt like this is the kind of guy any girl would go for. I couldn't take my eyes off of his muscles, I just felt so much... respect for him.
Eventually, his eyes looked up and he noticed me there staring at him. At first, I was afraid he was going to give me shit, but he just smirked.
"What's the matter, kid?" he spoke, his voice deep, but gentle, "Don't worry. No one is gonna bite you here."
"Eh... s-sorry," I realized how weird I must have looked just standing and staring, my face going red immediately. I stepped up to the front desk. The guy was so much taller than me - I had to look up to meet his eyes. He was still looking at me with that piercing gaze and that slight smile on his face. Was he mocking me? It didn't feel like mocking, but it also didn't feel like any kind of look I've gotten before.
"I'd like to go in, please. You offer the student discount, right?"
"You know we do, bro," he answered, "But I'm gonna have to see some identification for that."
My hand slid into my pocket and fished out my student ID. I presented it to the guy and he reached for it. I noticed his calloused fingers were twice as big as mine and noted another hit in my ego internally.
"Ronnie, huh?" he said, as he was reading the card, "Just turned eighteen? Happy birthday, buddy!"
"Thanks," I smiled back, "Um... that doesn't matter, right? I can still use the discount since I'm still in school."
"For sure, kid," he nodded, and reached for the keys under the counter. Meanwhile, his eyes were analyzing me - as if he was trying to remember where he knew me from or something. I was one hundred percent sure this was the first we met, though. "I take it this is your first time at the gym, right?"
"Yeah... I'm afraid so," I said, feeling bad that my inexperience was so apparent.
"Hey," he said to me, as he was handing me the key, "We were all beginners one time. Good luck, kid. And if you need any tips, I'll be right here."
He gave me another smile and a wink after that. I thanked him and - feeling a little light-headed for some reason - and went to the locker rooms. Fortunately, they were empty - I certainly didn't need another strike into my ego by seeing a guy like the one behind the bar around me naked. I was able to change into my workout clothes in absolute privacy and was finally ready to start working out.
Needless to say - it was a disaster. At first, I tried to go for the dumbbells. But it didn't take me a while to find out that I don't really know what to do with them, aside from some basic moves. I tried copying some of the guys around me - most of which were ripped as hell - but the sharp pain in my muscles was suggesting I wasn't doing something right. So I decided to try the machines instead. That was even worse though... The first one I didn't know how to use and on the second one I had to spend all the time adjusting weights, because I wasn't nearly as strong as I thought I was. The whole time, I'm sure that the whole gym was staring at me. Nobody said anything and nobody laughed, but I just felt that everybody knew how much I sucked at this.
Finally, I gave up after about thirty minutes. I was sweaty, but I didn't feel like I did anything. My body was killing me - I was pretty sure I pulled a couple of muscles. I felt like crap and I almost wanted to cry. How much more desperate could I be? Promising myself that this was the first and last time I ever came here, I fled back to the locker room and changed. No shower needed. The sweat was probably going to seep into my street clothes, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get out of there.
The guy was still there, behind the counter, when I went to give back the key and pay the entrance. At least with the discount I didn't have to spend a lot of money for this shitshow. But I still had to look into the guy's eyes. I'm sure he saw at least a little of my "performance" back there. I wasn't sure if I was ready for his reaction.
"Kinda fast," he commented, as he took the key from me, "How did it go?"
"Eh..." I shrugged my shoulders, having trouble looking into his eyes, so I pinned them to the floor instead. He wasn't condescending, but still - it wasn't easy saying it. "Terrible. Mostly terrible. I... I had no idea what I was doing."
"Yeah, I kinda noticed your struggles," he said, putting his elbows on the table, "What did I say, kid? I was here the whole time, you could have asked. No need to be shy."
"I know... I appreciate that. But I didn't want to bother you, you know. I know next to nothing about this stuff and I would just be wasting your-"
"Nonsense," he interrupted me, "Hey. Do you still want to give this a shot? I could help you out a little bit."
I finally forced myself to look into his eyes. It looked kind, and a little excited for some reason.
"You mean like... like a personal training?" I asked, "I don't really have a lot of money."