Here's a nice little heart to heart between Ben and Lucas. Enjoy and don't forget to donate at https://donate.nifty.org/

 

Chapter 6

 

\\\ Ben ///

Lucas suddenly started to expand in all directions, filling out his vest until it was stretched tight across his massively, ripped torso. His trackies did a good job of hiding the definition in his legs but you could see the undeniable increase in mass under there. He stood in front of me, not flexing or posing...just standing, looking massive and formidable. I swallowed involuntarily as I took in the sight before me. I'd only seen Lucas get big once before but that was when there was no skin showing so it just looked like someone had inflated his clothes. Sure I'd seen his dads beef up, especially when they were joking around with my dad and uncle, but to see someone my own age suddenly outclass any bodybuilder on the planet was slightly surreal and intimidating.

"I knew it! You're scared of me now aren't you?" He asked, looking like he was about to cry, which would have made things even weirder.

"No of course not." I lied slightly. "It's just, I dunno...weird." I probably could have used a better word but...well...what else could I say?

"Oh great, so you think I'm a freak?" He turned away so I couldn't see the tears welling up in his eyes, which would've worked great if it weren't for the wall of mirrors in front of him.

"No it's just..."

"What?!?!" He bellowed turning back to me. His face was bright red with tears streaming down it as his body was tensed up with angry veins bursting through the skin. If he hadn't been trying to intimidate me he had a poor way of showing it.

"Fine, I'm jealous ok? Is that what you wanted to hear?" I yelled back.

"You're jealous of me? Are you serious?" He asked, like it was the weirdest thing in the world. Sure, why wouldn't I be jealous of someone who could literally hulk out whenever he wanted? Why wouldn't I be jealous of someone who could lift cars, tear trees out of the ground or crush boulders in his bare hands?

"Well...yeah...I mean, look at you." I looked at his face as his confusion changed to amusement, and then he just burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" He shrank back down to his usual size as he started to regain his composure.

"Seriously, what have I got that you could possibly be jealous of?"

"Oh gee I dunno, maybe the ability to grow massive muscles? Super strength? You're pretty much a god damn super hero."

"Wow is that what you really think? Ok, so I can do those things, so what? It's not like I can shout it from the rooftops is it? The only people who know are our families and I have to keep it hidden from the rest of the world."

"Ok, but it must be great sometimes though, right?"

"Well yeah of course it's cool to beef up and check yourself out."

"That explains all the mirrors then." I smiled, pointing over to the dance studio area.

"Nah they're strictly for dance practice." He replied, but I could see by his body language that he'd definitely used them for posing. "I did catch my dad in here once checking himself out, but I bet he's done it loads of times when I've been at school." That didn't surprise me at all; Alex had always been vainer than Josh, possibly because the abilities were newer to him, even though he'd been able to beef up since he was our age.

"What about the strength? That must be pretty cool."

"It's definitely useful, especially on the farm, I mean, have you ever tried to shoe a horse?"

For some reason the most inappropriate answer sprung into my mind. "No, but I told a donkey to fuck off once." That totally caught Lucas off-guard and he burst out laughing.

"For fuck's sake, you're as bad as my dad." He flashed that infectious smile I'd kinda missed over the years. "Anyway, it's much easier to put a horse shoe on when you can just push the nails in with your thumb rather than using a hammer, so I guess that's one advantage, but it's a pain in the arse sometimes. I've had to train so hard to reign it in and not break things over the years, and when we were growing up our dads kept us out of school in case we hurt people or accidentally let it slip, so that was kinda lonely." It quickly dawned on me how isolating it must have been for both he and Sammie growing up; I started to feel guilty that I'd stayed away as they probably could've used a friend around at the time.

"I never realised, I guess I should've tried to be more of a friend to you, but it just kinda freaked me out when I was younger."

"I can see why I suppose, but to be honest I was always kinda jealous of you too."

"What? Why?" I was stunned; I couldn't see anything I had that he'd want.

"Ok, take your shirt off and face the mirror." He could see my sceptical look as I had no idea where he was going with this but I complied. I had to admit I had a pretty decent build; all the training that we did pretty much gave us all bodies like gymnasts, although maybe not quite as big. Lucas came up next to me and removed his vest, and then he increased his size until he was even with me. "Right, now look at how easily I could get to your size and think about this. What did I achieve there? Should I be proud that I can look like this? Or what about this?" He suddenly grew to look like an absolute muscle god, I mean; he could've won any teen bodybuilding contest hands down and even blown the adult competitors out of the water. He started to hit a few poses, which he'd clearly practiced in front of the mirrors no doubt, and finished with an incredible double bicep pose with arms that were bigger than my head.

"I don't think I could ever look like that." I stated, trying not to feel intimidated by the sheer power of the being next to me but failing miserably. He stopped posing and turned to face me again, still the same height as me but with a solid wall of muscle between our faces.

"Why not? If you worked for it you could make your own body look awesome. Then you could show it off on stage, win awards for it, get endorsement deals and become famous, you could be the envy of men and boys all over the world, become a sex symbol..."

"Ok, ok I get it, but what does that have to do with you being jealous?" I tried to imagine myself being as big as Lucas now was but it just seemed so insane; the amount of training and eating right that would go into looking even half as big as he was now would be beyond me.

"It means I can look like this any time I want but what can I do with it? I could win any bodybuilding contest hands down with no effort, but is that fair? And I'd have people wanting to know what my training regime is, what I eat, how to get a body like mine and I'd just feel like total fraud. But you can do any of this, you can do whatever you want and feel proud of your achievements. Not only that but I've seen you guys training and I could never do what you do, I tried vaulting over a railing in the park once and crushed it in my hand."

"I knew that was you!!" I said with a huge smile as his face flushed red. I remembered back to one day when I was out with the Fleeks and I saw a barrier that separated the outdoor gym area from the park had a weird pattern in it, like someone had crushed it and tried to squash it back into shape before giving up. I had a suspicion it was Lucas but I could never work out why he did it.

"Yeah I pretty much gave up on the whole parkour thing after that."

"So what about at school though, why did you decide to be skinny and so...gay?" Ok so that sounded wrong, even as it came out of my mouth but I couldn't think of another way to describe it. And now it was my turn to turn red. He shrank back down again to the size he always was at school and I almost felt like I should put my shirt back on so as not to intimidate him with my own body.

"Well I'm gay anyway so that's real enough but when I first started at school I was built like you are now, only I hid it under my clothes, but as the first day wore on and you stayed away from me I decided I didn't want to hide who I was. Obviously I couldn't just burst out of my clothes in school and show off all that stuff, but I could show off my personality a bit more, so I decided to out myself on the second day. I turned myself into a skinny twink, changed my mannerisms and embraced my gay side fully. As soon as I did that Amber and the other girls noticed me and we just bonded straight away."

"But they don't know the real you though do they? I mean, you're just regular Lucas right now; you're not being camp, you're talking in your regular voice and you're not bothered about how you look in front of me."

"Oh thanks." He said, tidying up his hair in the mirror.

"You know what I mean; it's just not an effort to be you right now. At school you seem to be acting all the time but what happens after school?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean are you going to carry on through life, playing this role all the time? And what if you find a boyfriend? Are they going to fall for flamboyant, uber-gay Lucas or will they be introduced to the real, muscle morphing, super strong guy you really are?" Lucas suddenly became very quiet. It seemed to be dawning on him that he'd been playing a character all through school so far but hadn't even thought about how he would carry on in life. "You need to look at who you are, who you want people to see and how you want to live. Don't settle for being what you think people expect you to be, just be you, if they don't like the real you then let them go." Lucas started to look a little deflated, like he didn't realise the mess he'd created for himself.

"I can't show off the real me though can I?" He whined as he sat down on the ground, cradling his head in his hands. I knelt down in front of him and put my hand on his shoulder for comfort.

"Of course you can, I mean ok you'll have to hide the strength and muscle thing, but that's not all of who you are. You've got your dad's sense of humour and DJ's soft but strong side, you're still gay as well, that'll never change, but you don't have to be so...in your face with it. And don't forget about the dancing as well, I've seen you perform and you're fantastic. That doesn't come from your abilities, if anything it comes from the control you've gained over them." He looked up again and I could see him flush red with an embarrassed pride. "You asked about what you achieved by getting big but think about what you could achieve by becoming a great dancer. You can train and win awards for that and be proud of those accomplishments because they'll have nothing to do with your strength."

"What about my friends? What if they ditch me?" He asked.

"Then they're not really your friends, but you can always come and hang out with me and my friends."

"I thought we weren't friends though." That one actually hurt but I quickly realised that we really hadn't been, at least until now.

"Do you honestly think I'd be staying here, saying all this if I wasn't your friend?" That seemed to perk him up straight away and he jumped to his feet, wrapping me up in a crushing hug. "I take it back, I hate you." I wheezed as he crushed the air out of me. Finally he let me go and looked me in the eye again with that joyful smile of his.

"Too late, you said we're friends now and you're not getting out of it that easily." I couldn't help but smile back as I finally felt like I was bonding with Lucas. We both grabbed our tops and put them back on and Lucas started to walk across the studio towards the stairs. "So now all we've got to do is get you and Sammie together." He called over his shoulder.

"Whoa, wait, what?" I said chasing after him as he reached the top of the stairs and flopped down onto one of the couches with a huge smile on his face.

"She's crazy about you dumbass, always has been." I started to blush a little when he said that, even though I kinda knew she had feelings for me.

"Wha...what makes you think I'm interested in her?" I stammered as I sank down into the other couch.

"Come on, I've seen the way you practically melt when she just smiles at you in school so don't tell me there's nothing there."

"Well...ok, maybe, but I...wouldn't feel right going out with her."

"Why? Is it cos our families are so close? Or are you worried I wouldn't approve? If that's the case then don't worry, I won't stand in your way." Shit! There went my last excuse.

"No it's just..." I paused, trying to think of a valid reason that wouldn't sound stupid.

"What?" He asked, looking more confused, but then he had an idea. "It's this whole muscle thing isn't it?"

"Yeah, I think it is." I quietly replied, feeling more ashamed by the second.

"I don't get it, you seemed ok with me a minute ago so what's the problem?" I paused for a minute, trying to think of the best way to describe it.

"Ok, how would you feel if your girlfriend was stronger than you?" I asked and Lucas immediately burst out laughing.

"I can think of two reasons why that wouldn't happen." He chuckled.

"Ok bad example." I started to think for a second and then came up with a better idea. "Ok, so let's say you were in a relationship with Superman. You're obviously not going to have much of an issue with his strength but what about his other powers? How would you feel knowing he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, or the way he can just float free of Earth's gravity without any effort? You'd constantly spend your whole life in awe and feeling inferior wouldn't you?"

"So that's what you think? That you'll be in awe of her all the time? Ok, so what about me?" He stood up to face me. "Do I fill you with a sense of awe when you look at me?"

"Well no, not looking like that, you just look...normal." I felt a bit mean saying that but he just looked like a regular fifteen-year-old with his baggy clothes hanging off his skinny body.

"But yet you know what I can do, so how about this..." He bulked back up to his massively muscular size and now his clothes looked like they were painted on again. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I looked at the incredible being in front of me. "So you're only in awe of me when I'm big? Even though I can still crush a tank whatever size I am?"

"Well wouldn't you be in awe of someone who looks like that at our age?" I asked, pointing at his body.

"Of course, why do you think I have so many mirrors downstairs?" He winked at me with a corny smile.

"I thought you said they were strictly for dance practice." I smiled back as he just stood there with his face turning red and his mouth hanging open as he knew he'd just been caught in a lie.

"Shit!" He started to dwindle again as he sat back on the couch.

"It's different when you're smaller though, it's not as obvious so I don't really think about it then."

"So, what, you think Sammie's gonna be massive all the time when she's around you? You think she's gonna tuck you under her arm all the time like a handbag? Or do you think she's going to constantly humiliate you with her strength whenever you're around? Cos if that's what you think then you couldn't be further from the truth."

"No I don't think that at all, it's just...being around someone who can do things you can't kinda makes me feel...I dunno...a bit inferior." I still couldn't really express what the problem was.

"Ok, so should people feel inferior to you all the time then?" That one caught me completely by surprise, the very thought of someone feeling inferior to me was ridiculous.

"Huh? Why would they think that?"

"Think about it, I've seen you do flips and tricks that most people would find impossible. I've seen you be so quick witted that you've hit people with put downs and wicked jokes before they even realise they've left themselves open. You're able to talk to people so easily and make them like you, whereas some people are too shy to even speak to strangers. And what about your friends? I've seen them pull off tricks that even you've struggled with, especially that little one, what's his name...Danny? Is he superior to you?"

"Well...no but..."

"Do you feel inferior to my dad, not because of all this muscle shit but because he can draw brilliantly, or DJ because he can sculpt pretty much anything he can think of with his hands? Or what about your favourite bands? Do you stare on slack jawed at the singer who can belt out notes you can never dream of or do you just enjoy the music? See everyone has things they can do that other people can only dream of but you can't always be jealous of them for their talents or abilities, it's just ours are a little more unique, but we're still just regular people underneath."

"Ok, point taken." I finally started to feel better about things. "When did you become so wise anyway?"

"That's pretty much the same thing DJ told me a few days before I started at school. I was so worried about being different but he just pointed out that everyone is unique in their own ways, maybe not as extreme as us but still different to everyone else."

"Hey Ben, I'm heading home now, are you ready to go?" I heard Uncle Luke call from below.

"Nah, I'm gonna stay here and get Lucas ready for school tomorrow, he needs a makeover." I called over the bannister then turned back to look towards Lucas to see the confused look on his face. Tomorrow was definitely going to be a new experience for him.