RUSH

Ch. 21: Attaboy

I'd care too much, probably.

"Really?"

"You're such a pain," I grumbled under my breath, rolling my eyes when Eric complained about me speaking up if I was going to bitch about him. Was he just trying to get a rise out of me? Or did he actually have something helpful in mind?

And why did Eric keep acting as if I actually had a say in learning about his so-called plan, which already seemed to be inevitably underway? There was no way I wouldn't get dragged into whatever he'd conjured up one way or another, so—

"Ugh, you really are an idiot," I complained, openly glaring at him.

"What the hell did I do now?" Eric questioned, more amused than anything.

"You know what you did."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Eric furrowed his eyebrows, huffing under his breath before gripping onto the bar with both hands and ducking his head under it, allowing the center to rest on his upper back and shoulders. "Not the neck," I heard him mutter to himself, and the corner of my mouth quirked up.

Well, at least he'd actually paid attention.

"You're slightly off-center. Look at the notches on the bar," I advised Eric while moving to stand behind him, nodding my head when he checked his hand placement and shifted a bit further right to ensure he was centered with the bar. "Alright, good job."

"See? I'm a natural," Eric boasted before taking a deep breath and lifting the bar off the squat rack, hopefully remembering to contract his core muscles. "Bro, this isn't very heavy."

I chuckled in response, keeping my distance as he waddled away from the hooks and slowly adjusted his feet placement. "We'll see how your thighs feel after a few sets," I replied while inching forward, hovering behind him, and following his movements as he squatted down.

---

And sure enough, he found out.

"That was... kind of homoerotic, huh?" Eric suggested in jest once he was done with the fourth set and had, once again, languidly placed the barbell back on the rack without any incident. He looked worn-out already, but that never stopped him from running his mouth.

I burst out laughing, shoving Eric away from me when he tried to stand behind me for emphasis; alright, so spotting was a bit intimate at times... so what?

Still, I was a bit astonished when he stumbled forward, nearly falling over before leaning against the side of one of the nearby, unoccupied machines. Eric chuckled even as he sluggishly flipped me off.

He hadn't even asked to add more weight after the first set, too busy catching his breath; thankfully, he finally understood why I'd been stubborn about the starting weight. Even if it did not look like a lot of weight on the barbell, sets typically added up pretty quickly, taking a toll entirely through sheer repetition.

"You can slowly add more weight later on, once you feel like you can handle it," I instructed him, wondering if he'd actually tag along tomorrow as well; Eric's schedule was typically a lot more packed than mine due to him being a computer engineer major. It was definitely easing up now that we were in our final year, but he was almost always still inundated with projects and exams regardless.