Friendly Changes

‘You coming over or what?’ Tim texted his friend. Greg had suddenly been a bit distant over last three days and he didn’t understand why. Something about some new kind of app that he really wanted to mess with but he wouldn’t go into any more detail than that. No matter how many times Tim said anything about it, Greg would shrug it off or ignore the question completely.

‘Now? But I’m with Zack now… =/’ Greg texted back.

‘What are you with him for!?’ Tim was far from friends with the jock. He was more of a bully than anything and often picked on them for being so small and weak. Tim hated how he’d ‘accidentally’ bump into him, or make fun of him for not being into girls. 

“What’s he doing…” a part of Tim was starting to feel a bit more anxious. Since they graduated, Greg seemed to be acting a bit more distant that usual and he was hoping that they wouldn’t really pull away, but if he was going to start hanging around with guys like Zack, Tim didn’t know how they could really keep their friendship going. But then Tim’s phone started ringing. “Hello?” 

“Hey…” it was Zack, out of breath. “Is this Tim?”

Tim felt his heart beating faster. Why did Zack have Greg’s phone? “It is…” he answered. 

“Hey man, just wanted to say sorry bout all that shit I did in high school.”

“What??” Tim dropped his phone in surprise and juggled it. He could hear Zack saying ‘Hello?’ because of the random silence and wind being picked up by the microphone. “I mean… You do?”

“I do,” Zack confirmed. “Been hanging out with Greg a bit more, and well, maybe I was a bit more of an ass than I should have been. Sorry.”

“Uhhh… It’s okay. Umm… Thanks,” Tim felt himself a bit flustered at the apology. Mostly because of how genuinely sorry the other guy sounded. 

In the distance he felt like he could hear Greg saying, ‘Good boy,’ to Zack. “Hey. So I finished a bit sooner than I thought I would. You still want me to come over?”

“I mean… If you’re hanging out with Zack, I don’t want to force you to…”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Tim could almost hear the smile in Greg’s voice as he said it. “I’ll be over in a minute.”

“Hey! Wait!” Tim said before Greg hung up. “You didn’t… You didn’t do something to make Zack say that. Right?”

“Moi?” Greg gave an overexaggerated french accent, but in a way that it only made him sound more guilty. “What could I have possibly done to do that?”

Tim gave it a second. “I don’t know… I just didn’t think he’d ever do something like that…”

“Well he did,” Gred said. “I’ll be over in a minute. Alright?”

“Alright…” Tim hung up his phone. He felt a bit awkward as he waited for Greg to come over. Mostly he was wondering why someone like Greg would be hanging out with someone like Zack. Neither one were anything like the jock and far more likely to be picked on than be friends.

The knock on his door brought him back out of his curiosity. Greg was outside with his sports car parked in the driveway. “Nice ride. Don’t you think?” he showed it off.

“I mean… You drive it nearly everywhere…” Tim said a bit unimpressed.

“Oh. Right,” Greg went stiff but then pulled out his fake smile again. “Still pretty nice right?”

“It is,” Tim said. 

“Aren’t you impressed?” Greg followed him inside. “How many guys our age have a car like that?”

“Not many,” Tim said.

“C’mon…” Greg sounded frustrated at how unimpressed Tim was. “Fine. What would impress you?”

Tim let out a snort of a laugh. “Impress me? What are you trying to do?”

Greg’s face soured. “Nothing! But… What would--” he paused trying to think of a way to say what he wanted to say. “What in your life would you want to change?”

“Besides having a boyfriend?”

“Hey!” Greg’s face lit up. “I can do that!” then mumbled something under his breath, ‘don’t even have to use the Chronivac…’

Again, Tim let out a snort of laughter. “I don’t know… You’re not really my type…”

“I… I…” Greg seemed to lose what he wanted to say for a second and then clutched his phone a bit tighter than usual. “Ok. But then… What is your type?”

“My type? I mostly like guys bigger than me but if you’re going for perfection it’d be one of those bodybuilders or actors in the superhero movies. I mean… They’re all sexy as fuck,” Tim said.

“Ok. I can do that,” Greg went to his phone and started typing away. “What about now? Do you want to date me now?”

“It’s only been like 3 seconds dude,” Tim laughed. He looked up and down Greg’s body that filled the small shirt that he was wearing. “I know you’ve been working out since last year and it’s doing wonders but I’m not really interested. Let’s just play some video games.”

Greg’s nose scrunched as his mouth twisted. “Fine…” but he went back to his phone and kept typing away. “What about now?”

“You can’t even wait a few seconds before asking?” Tim rolled his eyes, but they lingered a bit longer than they should have. Greg was wearing a medium shirt despite needing to start wearing a large. It clung to his expansive muscles and showed everything off. “It’s just…”

“Just what? Still not big enough?” Greg sounded a bit annoyed. 

“No! It’s not that!” Tim forced himself to look away. A bit of shame filled him as he didn’t want to admit to sexualizing his friend. He never thought that someone like Greg would fill out large shirts so well. Those two heavy pecs pushed fall out in front of him while his wide round shoulders just accentuated how small his waist was. The sleeves were stretching to the limits. It didn’t matter that it was a large, he needed to wear an XL.

A growl came from Greg’s throat. It was deep and guttural. “Then what?”

Tim felt himself take a step back. He’d not seen Greg this angry at him. They’d spent so much time in the gym together and he’d seen Greg work out so much, but at the same time didn’t know how to answer. It was supposed to just be a phase. Something they started in freshman year, but somehow Greg didn’t stop working out. And his testosterone only seemed to egg him on. Growing past what any of the teachers or coaches ever thought possible.

He’d gone from dork, to high school athlete, jock, pro athlete and just seemed to keep growing. Clothes had to be specially made for him by senior year. All the coaches were begging him to be on their teams. But for some reason he never stopped talking to Tim. At any point he could have gone to all the jocks and just hung out with them. Instead he still kept inviting him to the gym or hanging out with him on the weekends. 

When they went to the swimming pool, it was Tim’s favorite days. He could see each and every one of those sexy muscles dripping with water as he came out of the pool. And then dry himself off, sitting in the sun to get a tan. 

“Then what is it!?” Greg was getting even more irritable at the silence. His massive body dwarfed Tim by so much. Over a head taller and with arms larger than his head, there wasn’t anything for Tim to really to do if Greg truly got angry. Right now it was just frustration as he stomped his feet to the ground shaking the floor. 

“I DON’T WANT TO RUIN WHAT WE HAVE!” Tim shouted as loud as he could. His eyes closed and the belting of words hurt his lungs. He took a few deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down.

“You what..?” 

There was a bit of an awkward silence between them as Tim tried to figure out what he wanted to say. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship…” he muttered. His eyes were locked to the floor as he tried his best not to sexualize his friend. “It’s just of course you’re hot. I mean who at the school didn’t think so… But like… You were still my friend… And well, I guess I don’t want to screw that up.”

“Oh,” Greg said. He was a bit dumbfounded at the confession. 

“I know it’s dumb ok!” Tim’s face went red. “But you could have had anyone at school and then you were still hanging out with me. Zack wanted to lift with you all the fucking time but then you kept inviting me to go with you. I guess… I didn’t want it to stop.”

Greg let out a heavy laugh. His pecs shook with each one “Is that all?” Any anger Greg had was gone. And replaced with something else. His eyes lowered. He set his phone down. The first time he’d done so since he’d gotten there.

Tim felt himself take another step back. Seeing that handsome face looking at him in such a way made him feel all sorts of uncomfortable again. “Greg?”

Before Tim knew it his hands were grabbed and body pushed over. Greg’s massive body was on top of him, using his hands to hold him down. In the surprise, Tim didn’t struggle. Not that it would have mattered either way. Greg’s hand could easily fit around the thickest parts of his body. And Just feeling the weight of of the other man made it nearly impossible to do anything. 

“Gr-Greg?” Tim’s breathing went haggard. He couldn’t think about anything else as Greg slowly lowered himself closer to his face.

“Who says friends can’t have benefits?” Greg whispered.

The depth of Greg’s soft but commanding voice sent a shiver through Tim’s body. Feeling the bodybuilder’s warm breath hit his ear while he was pinned down was amazing. Words were lost on him. Tim could only make out a garbled mess of, “I don’t know,” combined with, “No one,” and “This is what I always wanted.”

Greg smirked at the way Tim couldn’t form his sentences. “Good to hear,” he put a finger under his friend’s chin. “I was worried I’d have to get even bigger.”

“I mean… Iwouldn’tmindthat,” Tim said quickly.

“Oh you wouldn’t…” Greg said. “Well then, how bout instead of video games you and I go get a workout in?” He got himself off of Tim and stood up to his full height. “Damn… I really am big…” it was under his breath. Greg couldn’t stop looking over his body. Seeing those thick hard muscles seemed to bring a joy to his face.

“But…”

“But what? Would you rather I work out with Zack?” Greg taunted.

“NO!” Tim shouted. He rushed towards Greg, grabbing at his arm. “I don’t know. I just feel weird in the gym sometimes…”

“Don’t worry. You got me to help you out,” Greg grabbed his phone. “If you want it, that is.”

“I do!”