Romeo pushed open the door to the gym with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. The air was hot, thick with the smell of sweat and metal. He hadn't been back in weeks, since his descent into discouragement and excess.
He expected surprised, even critical looks. But what he saw left him unmoved.

In one corner, Andreas was lying on a bench press. His arms, now thick, trembled slightly under the weights. Each repetition required enormous effort, and he groaned with every push, his cheeks reddened by the strain.
Next to him, Garry sat on a chest press machine, his face concentrated despite his shortness of breath. His shoulders and stomach were much larger than when they last met, and the slightest movement seemed to require a colossal effort. But he still wore that slightly naive smile, as if to convince himself that everything was fine.

Romeo stood in the doorway for a moment, hesitating. He felt his own body lighter than theirs—he had lost 18 pounds since his peak weight of 258lbs. His arms were more flexible, his breathing a little easier. But he realized that this gave him neither superiority nor pride: only a strange sense of relief.

Garry spotted him and raised his hand, panting.
“Hey, Romeo! Come lift some weights with us!”
“Um... I think I'll just watch,” he replied with a nervous smile.

Andreas burst out laughing between reps.
“Don't worry, man. Even if you were motivated, you wouldn't see much. This is some heavy stuff.”
“Heavy…” Romeo murmured, glancing at the dumbbells Andreas was trying to lift, barely above his shoulders.

He began to watch them work, almost fascinated. Garry was pushing the chest press machine with an almost comical seriousness: each movement seemed like an Olympic event, and yet he was only lifting 11 pounds.
Andreas, meanwhile, was panting and shaking, but he didn't give up on the bench press, the dumbbells swinging under his hands thickened with fat.

Romeo took a deep breath. Despite their clumsy and exhausted physical condition, he felt a kind of silent complicity pass between them. They had all changed, each in their own way, and yet there they were, together, in this room, struggling against their own bodies.

“You... you've gotten bigger, haven't you?” he asked softly.
“Yeah... but look on the bright side!” replied Garry, breathless, pressing down on the machine. “It adds volume!”
“Strategic volume,” murmured Andreas, dropping the dumbbells from his trembling hands.

Romeo burst out laughing, a laugh that was a little sad but liberating. He no longer needed to compare himself to others.
They were all a little awkward, a little lost, but together they shared this strange stage in their lives.

And under the neon lights of the gym, surrounded by weights and bars, the three friends felt ridiculous, exhausted... and strangely lighthearted. Because after all, they could still laugh at themselves.

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