Love is a Flower

Chapter 15

Eli's pov

I stare at my shirtless body in the mirror and frown. If I lose weight I'll be more attractive and might have a better chance with Noah and his partners.

Knocks at the door has me dropping my shirt. Fuck is that Alex? I grab my phone and see he planned on picking me up fifteen minutes ago. I also have a few texts from him and a missed call. I rush to the door and open it.

"Oh my god, Alex. I'm so sorry I was distracted and must have had my volume down."

"It's okay I just wanted to make sure you were okay." He says rubbing his neck. He's dressed in a tank top and short workout shorts. Like really short shorts, I don't think I've ever seen a guy wear shorts that short. I can see a lot of his thigh and can't help the heat that pools in my cheeks.

"Um, okay, uh, I'm fine. We should probably go." I grab my stuff and we walk downstairs and into Noah's car.

The car ride is for the most part silent, but not awkward. The radio softly plays a song I haven't heard of before and I find myself nodding my head along with it.

We get to the gym and Alex shows his gym membership card to the secretary. We walk down a hallway and it opens up to a workout area.

"Okay, so we can start by warming up. I usually stretch and then run a half mile on the treadmill."

"A half mile? Wow okay." For a warm up?

"We can just walk a quarter mile and jog another quarter if that would be easier."

"Um, Yeah. I haven't ran since like highschool PE." Alex shows me a few warm up stretches and then leads me over to the thread mill. Walking was easy but when we started jogging I was almost immediately out of breath.

When we finish running I sit down and grab my water bottle.

"Uh, you shouldn't really sit after working out. If you want you can lean against a wall or something."

"Oh okay." I stand up and my legs almost feel like jello.

Once I feel better we grab workout mats and he shows me workouts that I can do at home that don't require weights. My arms and abs ache after but I don't say anything to him.

"Do you want me to show you how to lift? Or do you already know." I look over at the bar bell rack nervously.

"No, I don't. But I-I don't know, it looks kinda scary."

"It's not scary I promise. We don't have to if you don't want to though." I look at him and he's smiling at me.

"Um, okay. I guess." We walk over to to the bar bell and he rests his hand on it.

"Okay we can start you off with just the bar until you learn proper form. The back squat is the easiest one. I'll show it to you." We ducks under the bar and grabs it with both hands. He stands up and the bar rests on his shoulders. He takes a few steps back and widens his stance.

"This lift is meant to workout your lower body since you're squatting. My feet are shoulder width apart and I squat down tell my hips are as low as my knees." He squats one and stands up then does it again. When he squats his shorts rise up showing even more of his muscular thighs. God he's so hot. He puts the bar back and looks at me. "Got it?"

"Um, yeah I think." I back up to the bar and pick it up like Alex did.

"Okay now make sure your legs are shoulder width apart." I move my feet apart and look at him.

"Like that?"

"Yeah, now just squat. Try to keep you chest straight and the weight on your heels. You don't have to go as low as I did just as low as your comfortable doing. Oh, also it's okay to let your knees move out while you're squatting." I nod and slowly move down to a squat.

The bar isn't as heavy as I thought it would be and it's not nearly as hard to squat with it as I thought it would be. I squat a few more times before putting the bar back.

"How was that?" I ask hesitantly.

"That was great! Do you want to try it with weights or do you want me to show you bench press?"

"Um, I guess bench press." We leads me to the bench press and instructs me to lay down. My head is level with the bar and Alex stands next to me.

"Okay, this might be a bit awkward but I have to straddle your head." His cheeks turn pink and I feel mine heat up. "It's so if you drop the bar I can catch it. Just focus on the bar and you won't even notice." He walks behind me and then walks forward until his hips are above my face and his thighs almost touching the side of my head.

I redirect my eyes and hope he doesn't see my burning cheeks. God I'm such a perv. Not only am I interested in two guys who are dating I also have the hots for their boyfriend! Thank god I don't have the hots for Gabe, that would be so weird. Knowing me if I hang out with Gabe enough I'll end up liking him as well.

I'll just avoid Gabe and I'll be fine. As for Alex I'm not sure, I guess I could just keep telling myself he just wants to be friends tell these feeling go away. Besides friends can find each other attractive without wanting to date.

"Okay, grab the bar, here and here and lift up." I grab the bar and do as he says. Like squatting with the barbell the bench press is not as scary or hard as I thought it would be. Without weights the bar cant be more than fifty pounds. He shows me proper form and before I know it we're cooling down and walking back to Noah's car.

"Next time, we could add weights and do more reps. If that's okay I mean. No pressure, we don't have to do this again if you didn't have enjoy it."

"No, it's okay I'd like that. I had fun today"

He pulls out of the parking lot and smiles at me. "Great, that's good. I'm really excited to show you more workouts. If you want you could workout at home with the exercises I showed you. Running or riding a bike is easy cardio that you could do, just make sure to drink plenty of water. Also-fuck!"

Alex swerves and then the car violently jerks. The airbag shoots out and hits me in the face. The sound of glass shattering and cars honking can be heard clearly.