Hittin' the gym (open)

[Nadeen Desjardins]

Cl-lank, cl-ank, cl-ank, echoed the sound of metal hitting metal in the near empty gym.

Beads of sweat pooled on a black hair line, some daring to drip down the now pink face. Breathe while you work out, instructors always cautioned.
Was it normal Nadi seemed to forget something so natural? She would argue it was NOT natural tugging on a metal bar to hoist up metal planks, not by any means. Perhaps the weight she was lifting was just beyond her range... no matter. She’d rather push herself a little further than fall back.

The catchy pop tunes pumping through her mp3 into her ear buds often stole away her focus. Whether it be forgetting to count her reps, hold in her stomach or…breathe in through the nose and out the mouth.

Holding her breathe, Nadi pulled down the bar, extending out a musical note in her head. In her mind there was a full scale concert in production. With every tug of her arms and musical note, she could sync up the entire show.

With a final cl-ank, Nadeen dropped the bar, exhaling a haggard “Ohhshit.”
It was a chore to lift her arm and wipe her brow free of the pooling sweat.
 Smoothing back the wisps of hair that had escaped her pony tail was disgustingly easy, thanks to the sticky liquid. For most people doing reps on this piece of equipment was a breeze. Nothing. Nothing with arm work was easy for Nadi, lately that is. If you frequented the gym often, one would hardly ever see her putting effort into working out her arms.

Nadeen liked to run, do squats, crunches, jump rope, medicine ball routines, and more. Just never anything primiarly focusing on arm work. However, with fear of getting batflaps she decided to change up her workout routine.

Grunting Nadeen laid back on the black bench, a fleeting hope that previous users had wiped down the bench after they used it, crossed her mind.

In the world of music she couldn’t hear the thumping of people’s feet on the treadmills. Nor the boisterous laughter of sports players as they went on about last night’s game. It was nice honestly– breaking away from studying, from work, hell even getting out of her room!

She tapped her Adidas—black with red threads and accents. Which matched her black capri yoga pants and red tank top. No, you didn’t have to look good working out, but it helped.
 So she was a little conceited, enjoying being able to work out, look over her shoulder into a mirror and see a babe looking back at her. She’d worked hard for this body! Damn well she was going to enjoy it. Anyone else who did, was an added bonus.

“Cheese and crackers…I can’t move.” Nadi complained, straightening her legs out, toes barely extending past the bench. Tugging on the white headphone cords, she freed her ears of the musical solitude, now alert to the musky gym. Her nose twitched with a little sniff, was that her that smelled? She hoped not but didn't dwell on the thought, she'd be showering after this anyhow.
The burning on her cheeks, from overheating began to fade. The numbness in her arms however remained; she shouldn’t have done weight lifts prior to this.

Temptation began to tickle at her eyes, all she had to do was keep them closed and take a little cat nap. The gym wasn’t too full, who would notice? It was in the evening and all the cool cats and kittens where out and about. The whoosh of the air conditioning, the hums and clunks of equipment were oddly soothing. Nadi wouldn’t even be bothered by her phone; it and her keys were tucked away in her hoodie in a cubby by the front desk attendant. Which was surprising, really. Any of her friends could tell you if you text Nadeen give her a few minutes and she’d text you back (with the exception of dinner).

I want a soda…A cheesecake…
Nothing like a good work out to give the body a just reward, right?

Truthfully, Nadeen was usually working out with a buddy. Someone to motivate her and to keep her from giving the pain a simple shrug and walking away to indulge in the finer things in life—like Doritos from the vending machine, which happened to be conveniently placed just outside the door to the gym.

[Phoenix Green]

A while ago, meaning three or four years, while she was still in school in New York working out was not a big deal to her. She was lazy and sat around all day playing video games, and eating junk food and she never gained weight, at least then. Sure she used to swim with her brother, and she rode horses when she was at home but she never did major physical activity, now however everything had changed for her. She wanted to look good, and that meant hitting the gym when she had time where she wasn’t working or at school. Maybe that was because the people she was with in the past hadn’t said the nicest things about her, called her names when they left, and took everything with them, but when she started college she lost a lot of her self-confidence.

No matter the reason, she was going to the gym every once and a while when she wasn’t busy and felt like getting out of bed and not playing video games. It was easy to get tempted but she was motivated regardless. After work, which was a pain in the ass sometimes, she decided to get changed and go to the gym. She left her brother alone in the apartment after she changed and headed out, she figured after the gym she would pick up some groceries, they needed dog food anyway. So she stripped out of her uniform, and noted that she would also have to do laundry when she got home.

Living on your own was difficult because there was no one to do these things for you, and she never thought it was those things she was going to miss. She thought she would miss her parents and the chaos of her house and her little siblings running around painting the walls and getting their grubby hands on her clean sheets, and breaking the dishes. She thought she would miss her dad’s voice as he told her to do something other than make video games for a living, but she never thought she would miss having someone go grocery shopping for her, or doing laundry, or feeding the dog.

She pulled on a sports bra and a shirt and some shorts, she didn’t own a pair of athletic shoes so she just wore her converse like always, and grabbed her keys on the way out the door, reminding her brother that she would be back later. When she got there she immediately inhaled the scent of musk, and sweat. That was attractive, but once she had her headphone in and music playing in her ears, she was able to block it out. She started with a slow jog on the treadmill until she was sweating and she probably smelled the same as the rest of them. Why did sweat have to smell so gross?

Eventually she stepped off, and leaned over, trying hard to catch her breath, panting, and inhaling large breaths of air into her lungs that felt like they were on fire. When she could breathe again she was about to try it again, when she saw a girl on a weight bench who looked like she was asleep. Weird… Generally she didn’t interfere with this type of thing, but her mind went back to the afternoon that a woman had saved her brother. If that lady hadn’t been there to save her then he might not be at home now. So she decided to go and see if she was ok. She pulled her bandanna off and fixed it so that her bangs were out of her face, but didn’t bother with all the other strings of hair hanging out of her messy pony tail.

“Hey,” she said to the girl. “Are you alright?” she asked with a concerned tone to her voice.

[Nadeen Desjardins]

‘Are you alright?’ Nadeed heard a voice ask, initially thinking to ignore it. She was relaxed and at peace, needing no concern. What did make her peak her eyes open however, was morbid curiosity. Was someone hurt and needing help, could she help any? Not that she could help lift anyone, if situation called for it.

Opening her eyes, Nadi blinked a few times allowing her contacts to adjusting back into place—dark brown today. Looking down at her, oddly enough, stood a girl catching her own breathe. It had been asked towards her after all, whoops.

“Oh,” Nadeen felt herself fumble as she pulled herself up, using her core opposed to her deadweight arms. “Yeahyeah, cher. Just—“ Nadi smiled nervously. Who napped in a gym?

“—stretching,” She finished with a simple shrug, eyes bright with a twinkle of an obvious white lie. It was not that Nadeen always lied in such situations, she was just easily flustered. This was a girl who aspired to be perfect, was nowhere near it, and despised moments of shame that made that fact blatantly obvious.

Nadi rubbed her palm on her leg, subconsciously ridding herself of any extra sweat before looking back to Phoenix. She hadn’t seen her around often, different schedules perhaps? “Thanks for asking though, never know right?” Nadi flitted her hand in the air with a simple shrug as she stood to her feet offering her hand out, to give a firm shake (as any good business woman should).

“Nadi.”

[Phoenix Green]

“Nadi,” Phoenix nodded. “Phoenix,” she said. “I guess I’m not the only one with an odd name,” she shook her hand. “I haven’t seen you around though, it’s nice to meet you,” she said. “Sorry I’m all sweaty,” she referred to the handshake. “I guess this isn’t a great first impression hm?” She wasn’t sure that she really wanted to meet someone when she was sweaty and gross. She wasn’t sure she wanted to meet this girl in general; she just wanted to make sure she was ok even though it was kind of odd.

She just wanted to check on her, and she hadn’t planned on having an entire conversation with her. She really didn’t know what to say anymore, but she was beginning to realize just how tired she really was. That was what she got for not getting enough sleep and then drinking a bunch of energy drinks to get through the day. Sometimes she had moments where she was so tired she was giddy, and maybe she had the idea to go to the gym at one of those moments. She yawned and looked back over at the girl she had been talking to. She really didn’t believe her stretching story at all but she wasn’t going to say that.

“What’s your major?” She had been using her major to introduce herself recently, and it was just for formalness. “Mine’s game design,” she said with a grin. It was nice to meet new people she told herself, even though she really thought it was super weird.

[Nadeen Desjardins]

Nadeen flicked her head to the side, pony tail falling from her slick back and bouncing from side to side. Weird name? She hardly thought to. Just popular in different areas, she reasoned. “I’ve known a few people with the name Phoenix.” Still Nadi smiled shaking her head, not at all phased by the sweat and grim. They were in a gym after all; if you weren’t sweaty something was wrong.

“Not at all sugar and trust me I’m here all the time, sweat don’t bother me none.” From time to time, Nadeen unknowingly switched up her syntax. One doesn’t really ‘think’ how to speak, so it just slipped out occasionally. Especially when around others with an accent.

Sensing some tension Nadi looked towards the bench press, well shit, she’d come this far might as well go the whole nine yards. Hearing Phoenix yawn, Nadeen perked up an eyebrow, hoping the other girl was just tired and not feeling obligated to talk, as she pressed on.

“Business management and entrepreneurship” Nadeen spoke in a grunt, removing some of the heavier weights, which had been left on by an inconsiderate person. “Game design?” She repeated, looking over her shoulder, now her interest was piqued.

With both weights put back in their proper place, Nadeen rested her ipod on the black bench marking her spot. First she had to clean and wipe down the previous equipment.

“What sorta games you lookin’ to design?” The girl asked before doing a quick jog to the counter in front retrieving the cleaner spray and cloth. She didn’t look it, but Nadi had a weakness for video games. Growing up in a lonely home, when no friends were around, video games were magnificent for eating time and capturing your attention completely.

[Phoenix Green]

She noticed Nadi’s accent as she talked. Even though Phoenix spoke with one it wasn’t always that noticeable because she had spent a long time living away from people who spoke like that, since she hadn’t gone to high school at home either. When people talked with that accent it was definitely something that made her more comfortable with them. When she was around people who spoke normally, she wanted to hide her speech patterns, and speak normally like them. It was hard to keep it quiet and she really had to pay attention to what she was saying so sometimes things slipped out.

Her’s however, didn’t seem to be as heavy as this Nadi girl’s accent was. Whoa business design and entrepreneurship she was a smart cookie. She didn’t say that though even though it was the first thing that came to her mind. She knew that she personally couldn’t major in something useful like that, really all the useful subjects were things that were boring. To her anyway. She shrugged in response to the question. “Like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto,” she shrugged again. Games where you got to shoot at things were always the best because it was easy to take anger out on a fictional character. “I like shooting things,” she said, but laughed at the end to let her know that it was a joke.

She didn’t want to weird people out when they first met them, like she tended to do a lot. It was easy to say things that other people thought were weird and that was another thing that she would have to keep working on because she really did not want everyone thinking she was a murder or something.  

[Nadeen Desjardins]

Nadeen laughed, the games she couldn’t play. Well Grand Theft Auto, she had played some but it belonged to an ex-boyfriend who had done most of the playing while she watched.
 “You excel where I fail, cher.” She mused, wiping clean the previous equipment. “Some reason I can’t focus no—“ Nadi stopped herself, from saying none. Twice in less than a minute? Hell No. She had to keep herself in check.

“I can’t aim properly with gun games, like Halo?” She shook her head, nonono. Nadi would lose at those games in a heartbeat. Then feel guilty she set her team back, the same went for games like Left for Dead.

“…What about Resident Evil? Now that’s a gun game I can play.” Tank controls or not, Nadi found it much easier to run and aim. Hah, sometimes to poor controls made the game even scarier.

Still those games were not her favorites by any means. If you were talking the Final Fantasys or Tekkens now that could really get this girl going (or any RPG really). It was a shame, her freshman year prohibited her from playing as many as she liked. This year, she didn’t assume it would get any better, now having officially declared herself a double major.

Setting the cleaning supplies to the side, Nadeen straddled the black bench. Sure the bar had no weights on it, but trust me—it was heavy enough on its own. The girl didn’t lay back however, instead kept her hands in her lap listening to Phoenix talk. She figured she’d wait, because once this bar got in her hands, she wouldn’t be breathing.