Pink.

  That was the first thing Jen noticed when he opened his eyes. He slowly started to gather his bearings as his brain came back online. He was on top of a really comfortable bed, but it wasn’t their normal bed. How did this bed get into their apartment? Fshes of memories pyed behind Jen’s eyes.

  Scenes of a dinner with Gym Bro, scenes of pying video games, and a scene of crawling into a bed. Things were starting to make sense now; he must still be at Gym Bro’s house. Jen sat up and stretched out his arms. He wasn’t certain about why he would have stayed at Gym Bro’s house overnight instead of going home.

  Jen swung his legs out of bed and started walking around the room. He quite enjoyed the aesthetic of the pce. It was a decently sized room with pink walls, a variety of plush toys on the floor, a comfortable-looking pink hammock chair, and plenty of space. Jen vaguely felt a thought cross his mind that it was weird that the rge room had such a small bed.

  That thought was quickly swallowed up by a fsh of a memory of drinking st night. Things clicked into pce. Josh must have gotten too drunk st night to be able to drive home, and Gym Bro was such a good friend that he allowed them to sleep it off. Jen looked around for his phone and found it on the nightstand. Ten o’clock in the morning. His phone was barely at thirty percent. He would need to find a charger before leaving.

  Jen strutted outside and went towards the kitchen. He found Gym Bro sitting at the table dressed in a fantastic suit and tie. On the table was an epic breakfast spread with toast, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage patties, some cut up fruit, orange juice, and a few boxes of cereal. Gym Bro looked up and hit them with a captivating smile.

  “Good morning sleepyhead,” he said. Jen felt his heart skip a beat. A part of him seemed to be screaming that having such a reaction to Gym Bro was wrong, but Jen was having trouble caring much about what that part wanted. Jen replied, “Good morning,” with a big smile. He took a seat at the kitchen table. “Did you make all this stuff for me?” he asked.

  “Of course. I know how important a good breakfast is for starting your day off right.” Gym Bro looked at his phone and stood up from the table. “In fact, I’ve got to get going. I’ve waited long enough to leave for work. Sorry, but since you slept in so long I won’t have time to drop you off at the gym today.”

  Jen said, “Oh yeah, sorry. I can call a taxi or something. I just need to charge-“ Gym Bro interrupted, “No worries about all that. I know money is tight for you. You can rex here for today. Watch some movies, py some games, eat some food; do whatever you need to do to rex.” Jen felt that wonderful floating feeling again. Gym Bro was quickly turning out to be the most wonderful person in their life right now.

  Jen asked, “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a burden on you.” Gym Bro shook his head and started walking towards the front door. “Don’t worry about it.” This still didn’t sit right with Jen. There had to be something he could do to help. “Please?” he said, “I really do want to make it up to you.” Gym Bro shrugged. “I mean, you can wash the towels if it’s that important to you. The basket is sitting in the undry room; wash them on hot and bulk load. When they’re done drying, fold them up and put them in the closet in the guest bathroom.”

  Gym Bro checked his phone again. “I’ve really got to go. I’ll see you tonight.” He rushed out the front door. Jen heard it lock. A part of him felt like he’d lost something with Gym Bro being out of the house. Crap, that’s right. He forgot to ask about a phone charger. It’s fine. He was going to be in the house all day anyways, so he could always ask when Gym Bro returned.

  Jen took his time eating his fill of the delicious breakfast Gym Bro made for him. When he was done, he found the undry room and followed Gym Bro’s instructions for washing the towels. To pass the time, Jen had the urge to get some more practice on Freak Speed 3 in case Gym Bro felt like getting revenge for them stomping him in Mortal Kombat the previous night.

  When he got up to move the towels into the dryer, a part of Jen started feeling weird about the clothes he was wearing. He knew that the cute bodysuit was very comfortable and did a wonderful job stretching around his curves, but he also seemed to know that he didn’t want to be wearing it. Which didn’t make any sense. How could he want two opposing things?

  In any case, Jen decided it would be best to put his original clothes back on. The only problem was finding them. He didn’t see any evidence of the undry Gym Bro said he did st night. Then he remembered that Gym Bro had washed his own clothes with Josh’s. The obvious answer was that Gym Bro quickly dumped the undry in his bedroom.

  Jen checked both of the other doors in the house, but they were both locked. He returned to the pink room. For some odd reason, Jen felt himself recoil a little at the sight of the room this time. He scrunched his face at his own thoughts. They definitely liked the color pink, and the room was definitely adorable. So why did he feel so repulsed?

  Jen opened up the closet and saw a bunch of small clothes hung up. There were some frilly dresses, some crop tops, and a few school uniforms. Jen grabbed one of the hanging dresses and held it in front of him. As if the room’s decor wasn’t enough, this overly frilly outfit made it perfectly clear that Gym Bro’s Ex was a hyper-feminine type of girl. Jen noted the length of the dress. Gym Bro’s Ex was obviously also a bit of a show-off.

  Jen estimated that the dress would barely cover his butt cheeks if he put it on. A scene fshed in his mind. He was waiting in the kitchen when Gym Bro got home from work. Gym Bro came in, tired from a long day at the office, and saw them standing there in the frilly dress. Jen would pretend to drop something on the ground so that he had to bend over to grab it. His ass would be fully exposed because of the extremely short length. Gym Bro would walk up behind the bent over Jen and…

  Josh threw the dress back into the closet and smmed the door. Suddenly, wearing the bodysuit didn’t seem like a big deal anymore.

  Passing time while waiting for Gym Bro wasn’t difficult for Josh. He got rid of a few hours by watching a movie. He microwaved some of the breakfast food and watched some videos on his phone. He found some containers to store the rest of the food in and felt quite proud of himself for tidying the pce up a little without Gym Bro needing to tell him to do so.

  He folded the towels once they were dry and pyed some more games in the living room. At one point, Josh got so bored with staring at screens that he went back into the girly room and found a hairbrush. He felt this strange urge telling him to waste some time brushing his hair and couldn’t find a good reason to ignore it. He had to admit that taking care of their hair was quite pleasurable and soothing. Something about the slow, repetitive motions helped him feel at peace.

  Next thing Josh knew, he heard the front door open. He rushed out to the main area just in time to see Gym Bro carrying in a bag of some sort of takeout. Josh said, “Hey man!” in a squeaky voice before coughing to get his voice to return to normal. “I mean, hey man,” he repeated.

  “What’s up? You have a good day?” Gym Bro asked as he locked the front door behind him and walked into the kitchen to put the take out bag on the table. “Great,” Gym Bro said, “you cleaned up the table. I totally forgot to ask you to do that. Thanks.” Josh felt his body warming up. “No big deal,” he said, “I had a lot of time, you know?”

  Internally, Josh wondered when he had cleaned up the table. He was the only person in the house all day, but he couldn’t remember cleaning much. Which made him think about the towels. He must have washed the towels before being able to fold them, but he couldn’t remember doing that either. He only had vague feelings that he had successfully completed the tasks Gym Bro assigned him that morning.

  Josh went to sit down at the table. “Wait,” Gym Bro said. Josh froze in pce. “What? What’s wrong?” Gym Bro smirked and tsked at Josh. “Let me guess. You’ve been wearing the same clothes all day.” Josh felt himself blushing. “I mean, yeah. I couldn’t find my other clothes.”

  “It’s fine. You can wear anything you want in the bedroom. Go change so we can eat dinner. Sleepwear is fine since it’s so te.” Josh felt himself immediately walk back to the girly room and look inside the dresser. There were a few more bodysuits, a couple of shorts, and some tops. Josh picked up a few items, but they all seemed like they were way too small for his body.

  He heard a voice in his head say, “We’re wasting time. Pick something so we can go eat.”

  Jen grabbed a pair of the shorts and one of the tops and slid them onto his body. The end of the shorts only fell a few inches down Jen’s legs, but they were snug enough that he didn’t think he had to worry about their dick falling out. He considered putting on a pair of panties, but a part of him felt like doing so would make them some sort of pervert who liked wearing women’s clothes even when they didn’t have to.

  The top hung just below Jen’s breasts and didn’t cover his torso at all. He wished that he had a bra to make sure he didn’t accidentally fsh Gym Bro, but this would have to do for now. He walked back into the kitchen and presented himself to Gym Bro. “Is this okay?” he asked. “Looks great,” Gym Bro said with a smile. Jen lit up with joy at the compliment even as other parts of him were terrified with embarrassment and shame.

  Jen sat at the table and dug into the delicious Chinese food Gym Bro brought home with him. “How was work?” he asked. “Nothing special,” Gym Bro replied.

  “What is your job? I realize I never asked.”

  “I work in finance. I help people make money in stocks and investments.” That was super impressive to Josh. He’d heard of people pying the stock market before, but he’d never fully understood how it all worked. “That’s so cool,” he said, “I guess it pays pretty well.”

  “I get by. Honestly, I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. Most of the job is making rich douchebags even richer. I wish I could do something important.” Josh nodded along. He said, “I really appreciate all you’ve done for me if that helps. I still have a lot of things to figure out, but you’ve definitely been a huge help.”

  “Thanks, that means a lot. I like helping other people.”

  “Yeah, totally. And I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I charge my phone up.” Gym Bro looked sad. “Oh,” he said. Josh said, “What? Did I say something wrong?” Gym Bro shook his head. “No, it’s nothing.” He got really quiet. Josh felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Sweat started dripping from his armpits.

  Josh said, “If it’s about the money, I’ll make it a priority paying you back. Like I said, I can get by without paying rent this month, so I’ll sell a few things and get you back for the undry, the food, all of it.” Gym Bro slowly shook his head. “That’s not it,” he said, “You don’t need to worry about the money or anything. I was enjoying hanging out with you and I thought you felt the same.”

  Josh replied, “Of course I enjoy hanging out with you.” Gym Bro shrugged. “Doesn’t feel like it. You keep bringing up how badly you want to leave.” Josh put his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Dude, no way. I love being here. Your house is so freaking cool, and you’re freaking cool. Pying with you st night was the most fun I’ve had all month. And-and,” Josh struggled to keep speaking but it seemed like Gym Bro still wasn’t convinced.

  “And I’m actually just worried about my pills,” Josh blurted out. Gym Bro cocked his head. “Pills? Like some bullshit medication the doctor gave you? I’ve got news for you, pills won’t make your boob situation better.”

  “No, nothing like that. Remember the pills my Ex got me to try? They help regute mood or something. The problem is you have to wean off them if you want to stop taking them otherwise your brain gets all funky.” The more Josh talked the more confident he felt about what he was saying.

  “I need to get my pills so I can wean off them and be done with it.” Gym Bro smirked. “What are they called?” he asked. “Dom…purina..don?” Josh faltered. Why could he never remember the name of this stuff?

  A voice in Josh’s head said, “Domperidone.”

  Josh blurted out, “Domperidone! That’s the name.” Gym Bro pulled out his phone and typed away. Josh waited with baited breath as he watched Gym Bro scroll and read through something on his phone.

  Without warning, Gym Bro simply put his phone away and resumed eating. He said, “Okay, yeah, I see what you’re talking about. I don’t think you’ll have any problems not taking it right now, but I can swoop by your pce tomorrow and grab it for you.” That was an unexpected resolution, but Josh could go with it. “Okay, yeah, thanks,” he said. Gym Bro continued, “I can also grab you some more clothes. We could just hang out through the weekend if that’s really what you want to do.”

  Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Yeah, that sounds awesome.” A thought blinked across Josh’s mind. He said, “That is, if you don’t care about me completely wrecking you in Mortal Kombat every day.” Finally, Gym Bro smiled again. “Fair enough. You’re really good even when you’re drunk.” Josh beamed. Gym Bro continued, “Maybe tonight we watch a movie instead. You like Transformers?”

  “The Michael Bay one?”

  “Obviously.”

  “Hell yeah I like it!”

  “Settled then. I’ll pop some popcorn and we can watch it right now. Go ahead, I’ll toss everything left in the fridge for tomorrow. Get the movie loaded up” Josh quickly got out of the chair and bounded over to the living room. He found a Blu-Ray copy of Transformers and loaded it onto the TV.

  He settled into his spot on the couch as he heard a microwave timer finish. Gym Bro plopped a bucket of popcorn and a six pack of beer on the table in front of the couch. “Oh,” he said, “I’ve got one more thing to make this really fun.” Josh watched Gym Bro go into one of the locked bedrooms.

  Gym Bro returned to the couch and held out a closed fist in front of Josh. “Open your hand,” he said. Josh extended his fingers, and Gym Bro dropped a small white pill onto his palm. Josh looked the pill over. It didn’t look like the domperidone or like any other pill he’d ever taken. “What’s this?” he asked.

  Gym Bro sat down next to Josh on the couch and cracked open a beer. He said, “Delta nine. Basically weed but without all the smoke. It makes watching movies so much more fun.” Josh said, “I thought this was illegal.” Gym Bro took a swig of beer. “Yeah, why do you think I keep my stash in a locked room? Go ahead and take yours, it takes like ten minutes to kick in.”

  Josh was no stranger to marijuana; he’d smoked a few times at frat parties in college and it was the only reason he’d ever hung out with his loser co-worker, Dan. He popped the pill into his mouth and washed it down with some beer. He grabbed a handful of popcorn as Gym Bro pressed py on the movie.

  Maybe it was the beer, the drugs, or the comfortable atmosphere, but the movie seemed much better than Josh remembered. The action scenes were more awesome, the military guys looked even more ripped and bad-ass, and the robots looked sick as hell. He and Gym Bro were talking and making jokes the entire film.

  At some point, Josh felt himself feeling a little sleepy, but Gym Bro was kind enough to let Josh lean over and rest against him. Gym Bro adjusted his arm to let Josh really nuzzle into Gym Bro’s embrace. Josh felt so at peace in Gym Bro’s arms. He chuckled to himself. The drugs were definitely affecting him because he knew that being comfortable so close to a guy was supposed to be wrong.

  Sure, feeling Gym Bro’s hands rubbing against his skin felt amazing and made him happy, but two guys weren’t supposed to be close like that. Sure, the wet feeling against his neck made him want to squeal and moan, but that had nothing to do with Gym Bro. Or, no, it had something to do with Gym Bro, but it was wrong. But he was letting it happen. Because they were. What were they doing?

  It definitely felt like Gym Bro was giving Josh a chest massage that felt absolutely wonderful. Gym Bro was nice like that. But Josh had the feeling they’d been doing something else not too long ago. And the massage didn’t expin how he’d ended up naked. Drugs. Yeah, he was thinking about drugs because he felt fucking amazing and it had to be the drugs. In fact, he was probably imagining everything happening right now.

  In his fantasy, Josh managed to take hold of Gym Bros face and look him dead in the eyes. He said, “I see you,” and broke into a fit of giggles. Gym Bro had a devilish grin on his face. God, he was so fucking attractive. Josh bit his lip as he stared intently at Gym Bro’s face. He let his gaze drop downwards and saw that Gym Bro’s hands had ended up cupping Josh’s breasts. Now he knew this was the effect of the drugs because he would be freaking out if this was happening in real life.

  ———————————

  Josh’s eyes blinked open. He was in bed in the super girly room once more. The memories of st night failed to filter into his brain as he woke up. He rolled out of bed in auto-pilot mode and went to the dresser to put on some new clothes. He managed to find a pair of pajama shorts that were a little looser than the ones he wore st night and a tank top that managed to cover his belly button if he hunched a little.

  He walked into the kitchen and was happy to see Gym Bro had another wonderful breakfast spread prepared. Gym Bro looked at Josh and said, “Good morning sleepyhead. You have a good rest?” Josh yawned and stretched his arms into the air. “Definitely. Some of the best sleep I’ve had in a long time. Sorry for making you carry me to bed again.”

  Gym Bro replied, “No worries about that. I’m sorry for getting a little touchy-feely during the movie. That happens when I get high sometimes.” Things started to slide into pce in Josh’s mind. He could vaguely remember feeling like someone was touching him. Gym Bro must have given him a massage during the movie. Josh said, “No need to apologize at all. It felt awesome.”

  “Good to know.”

  Josh sat down and started piling food onto his pte. Gym Bro seemed to already be finished eating. A part of Josh wondered what time it was and realized that he still hadn’t charged his phone. He said, “Hey, I was wondering if you had a phone charger?” Gym Bro replied, “Of course.” He got up and went into one of the locked rooms. He returned and dumped a wall adapter and multi-pronged cable next to Josh’s pte.

  “Oh, take this too,” Gym Bro said. He handed Josh a credit card. Josh asked, “What am I supposed to do with this?” Gym Bro returned to his chair on the other side of the table. “Use it to buy dinner from Fnigan’s. I’ll stop by on the way home around nine thirty. Get me some ribs and order whatever you’d like.”

  Josh was astounded at Gym Bro’s faith in him. He had to make sure to buy something reasonably priced. “No problem,” he said, “and thanks again for going to get some stuff from my pce.” A thought ran through Josh’s mind. “Oh, I need to give you my keys.” Gym Bro ughed. “You already did. Last night, remember?” Josh felt a little embarrassed because all he could remember from st night was the first part of the movie, getting a massage, and some strange nonsensical fantasy about Gym Bro’s lips.

  Josh said, “Oh, yeah, totally. My brain is still a little foggy.” Gym Bro nodded his head. “No worries. You can take a nap and rex while I’m out working today. I’ll set an arm so you don’t forget to order dinner.” Gym Bro immediately stood up to grab a small arm clock from his room and put it on the kitchen table. “Okay,” he said, “see you ter tonight.”

  Josh’s day was uneventful. He did end up taking a short nap on the couch while watching another movie and charging his phone. The arm went off at six, so Josh whipped out his phone and pced the order for Fnigan’s. Then he wasted more time pacing around the room, watching videos on his phone, and brushing his hair.

  Josh couldn’t be more excited when Gym Bro finally got home. He felt like his brain had been in power-saving mode all day. Gym Bro told Josh to set the table for dinner and heat up the food while he grabbed the box with Josh’s things and brought it inside. Josh took his job very seriously as he was, once again, in Gym Bro’s debt. Josh stood ready by the table when Gym Bro finally came in to sit down. “Let’s eat,” Gym Bro announced. Josh sat down and started digging into his small sandwich while Gym Bro stripped the meat from his rack of ribs.

  After dinner, Gym Bro spread out some pill bottles on the table. “Okay,” Gym Bro said, “first of all, take five of these.” He passed a bottle to Josh. Inside were the familiar domperidone pills he’d been taking. “You sure?” Josh said, “I usually only take two at a time, twice a day.”

  “I had some time at work and did some research. I think I figured out a regimen to help you get the body changes you need. To start with, you need to up your dose to five pills of domperidone a day. It’s going to really boost your mood and give you the energy you need to stay focused. You’ll also want to continue taking these.”

  Gym Bro handed Josh some more pill bottles with some familiar looking items inside. It seemed to be the pio-whatever, the MSMBC, and the nice hair pills. He really needed to figure out the names of this stuff. Josh said, “Why would I keep taking these though? Aren’t they what caused the problem?”

  Gym Bro replied, “I thought so, but it turns out these things might have been all that kept you from getting worse. Those saline infusions you did to yourself really fucked your body up, but these pills were helping keep you healthy.”

  “Oh wow, I guess I got really lucky,” Josh said, “thanks for doing all of this research and grabbing things from my pce.” Gym Bro replied, “No problem. Your closet was basically empty, so finding you a few outfits to wear was easy. Although, the rest of your apartment was pretty nasty. Dirty clothes, leftover food sprawled everywhere. The whole pce stunk like hell.”

  Josh felt himself shrinking. He said, “Yeah, sorry about that, I’m normally really clean and stuff. It’s just, you know, the break up, and then I was sick. Then I had to try and figure things out with money and that took up a lot of time, so I couldn’t waste time on cleaning. And-”

  Gym Bro cut Josh off. “It’s fine. I figured you had been spiraling or something. I was a total mess when my Ex ghosted me.” This new piece of information intrigued Josh. He said, “Wait, your Ex disappeared on you too? That sucks dude.” Gym Bro replied, “Well, I’m sure I’ll tell you the whole story when I’m drunk one night. We’ll have plenty of time for that when you move in.”

  Josh’s brain skipped a beat. Did he hear that correctly? “Move in?” he said. Gym Bro said, “Yeah, move in. After seeing your pce and knowing your whole situation. I decided it wouldn’t be fair to let you return to that chaos.” Gym Bro scooted his chair closer to Josh and leaned in. “I like having you here,” he said, “and I know you enjoy hanging out with me.”

  “Yeah.” Josh felt his breathing speeding up.

  “So why put an end to a good thing? I’m sure you noticed I grabbed way more stuff from your pce than you would need for a chill weekend.”

  “But, the rent, my lease. I can’t just move out. And there’s no way I can afford to pay you rent in this pce. I don’t have a job, I’ve got no money, and I have all these bills to figure out.”

  Gym Bro pced his hand on Josh’s thigh and squeezed. He said, “Don’t worry; I’ve got it all figured out. I’ll talk to your ndlord and get the lease sorted. In the meantime, we’ll grab all your stuff and bring it here tomorrow. You can stay in the same bedroom you’ve been using, and I’ll even let you stay rent-free.”

  “Wait, seriously?” Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Gym Bro continued, “Well, for six months. Plenty of time to find a job and get your health in order. And I expect you to pull your weight when it comes to chores in the house.”

  “Of course! Anything dude. This is the best thing that’s ever happened for me.” Josh’s body felt light and warm. Gym Bro was basically saving his life right now. He wouldn’t be alone. He wouldn’t need to worry about finding a pce to stay. He would be able to save up money to pay off his debt. His debt.

  Josh’s mood started to sink. “Wait,” he said, “I still have a bunch of bills to pay. Living with you is going to be awesome, but I really need to put all my energy into making money to pay everything off.” Gym Bro smirked. “I told you I figured everything out.” He leaned back in his chair and continued, “You’ve got some nice things in your apartment, but there’s nothing that you have that I don’t also have. Game systems, bedding, furniture, you name it. Once you live with me, you can sell all that stuff and get cash super fast. Use that to pay the bills. You can even sell your car for a few thousand.”

  Josh said, “How am I supposed to get around without a car?”

  “I’ll let you drive my truck anytime you need it. I have my sports car I can take to work, so let me know in advance if you need to drive somewhere. When you start working, you can tell me your schedule so I know when you need it.” Josh’s brain went over the information. Everything Gym Bro presented seemed to make perfect sense.

  Josh locked eyes with Gym Bro. “Let’s do it.”

  ————————

  The next two days were a blur. Gym Bro and Josh worked like a perfect team packing up and cleaning Josh’s apartment. Gym Bro was a speed-demon when it came to sorting Josh’s things into boxes to be sold and boxes to be donated. He assigned Josh the very manly position of handling the trash and collecting all the important things like his birth certificate and social security card.

  Thankfully, Josh was able to find some of the more embarrassing items and tuck them away in a different box before Gym Bro could see them.

  On the second day, Gym Bro helped negotiate Josh a 12,000 check for selling his car. When Josh saw the figure he couldn’t object to Gym Bro’s pn of borrowing his car whenever Josh needed to go somewhere. It’s not like Josh would need to go many pces anyways until he found a job, and the cash from selling his car would more than cover his credit cards and whatever the hospital bill turned out to be.

  Josh initially considered using the rest of the car money and the money he would get from selling his other possessions to fund the breast removal surgery the doctor mentioned until Gym Bro hit him with some more excellent advice.

  He pointed out that the doctors still had no real clue what had caused Josh to develop gynecomastia in the first pce, so a breast reduction might help now, but there could be an underlying health condition.

  Gym Bro suggested Josh give him his left over cash to invest. “This is what I do,” he said, “I’ll take your money and turn it into forty thousand by the end of six months. During that time, you can focus on getting your body healthy before rushing into something dangerous like surgery. Think of it this way: either you wind up with even more money and get surgery or you end up getting your body looking great without needing to spend anything and still have a bunch of money. It’s a win-win.”

  By the end of everything, Josh crashed onto the pink bed properly exhausted and completely fulfilled. He curled into the covers and pillows and reflected over the whirlwind of a journey he’d been on. For months, he’d been scared of Gym Bro all because of some weird stupid feelings inside of him that were obviously mistakes. Gym Bro was the absolute best. He’d taken Josh’s terrible life and turned it into something amazing.

  As he drifted into sleep, Josh knew he was a really lucky guy.