American Freak: A Freak Follow up, Part Two

[falseyedee]

The fan droned in the warm room as Nathan, flipped thru a magazine waiting for his brother to show up. Nathan, a sophomore at UC Berkeley, was living at home to save money. He had promised his brother that he could accompany Nathan and Michael on a trip into the City to see if they could get a glimps of The Freaks.

Nathan had heard that The Freaks were going to announce a national competition to select the next man to enter the ranks of The Freaks. They were looking for an ?all American man? to transform using their secret formula into a huge, comic book hero muscle man. Nathan was going to enter the contest. He figured that with his skinny six foot frame, he had a chance.

His father just laughed when he?d said he was going to enter. ?A scrawny shit like you? No way. They?re going to pick a guy who already has some muscle. They?ll laugh you out of the theater! If I were 20 years younger, I?d enter.? At this his father bounced his sizable pecs then flexed his almost 19 inch biceps in front of his torso, showing off for his son. ?Shit, kid, I?m 45 and I?ve been able to beef up. What?s wrong with you? Aren?t you working out at all??

Nathan winced at the memory. What did his father think? Nathan had been going into the basement home gym every day for the past 9 months, and trained with Justin, his brother. He?d gained only 3 pounds. The school nurse said it was probably that he?d gotten his mother?s genetics. His mom?s family were all tall, lanky folk. The demeaning torment his father heaped on him was sometimes more than he could bear.

Nathan paged quickly thru the magazine, pausing briefly at the Ralph Lauren ad featuring ripped and tanned bodybuilders, posed wearing wire rimmed glasses and serious looks and cowboy hats while decked out in the newest line of body hugging lycra shirts. Nathan noticed that the sleeveless shirts were plaids this season. The headline read, ?The New American Standard?.

Nathan rolled his eyes and continued paging thru the magazine trying not to notice all the buff, muscular men. He paused again to skim the article about Cameron?s new movie. Elijah Wood had been cast as the leading man in the action adventure film. Nathan couldn?t believe how big Wood was now. He was still a good three inches shorter than the leading lady, but had to be 15 pounds heavier than in his last movie.

Wood was Nathan?s favorite actor. He had grown up watching Wood getting bigger and more muscular with every movie he made. The picture illustrating the article showed Elijah Wood walking the red carpet at the movie premier dressed in a pair of tight leather jeans and a shimmering white lycra tank top that stretched tightly over his rippling abs and huge, hairy pecs. He was caught smiling out at the camera, one beefy arm raised up to wave at the crowd. His biceps were as big as his head.

Where was his brother, damn it? They had to get going and pick up Michael before heading into the City. If they were late, Michael was going to be pissed off. Mike had already called twice to see where the hell they were. A door slammed somewhere downstairs and heavy footsteps bounded up the stair. Justin ran into the room.

?Sorry I?m late bro. I was working out and completely lost track of time. Gimme a couple of minutes to shower, okay??

Justin, 16, was three inches shorter than his brother and had, apparently, gotten all the big-muscle genes. At 185 pounds he already outweighed Nathan by 20 pounds. His naked torso had the lean, round musculature of a high school wrestler. Perspiration dripped down thru the deep crevices between each defined muscle.

?It was back and biceps day, bro. You missed a good workout.? He lifted up both arms in an impressive double biceps pose. His pumped up biceps jumped in response and formed baseball sized mounds of granite like muscle. Justin grinned like a fool and turned his back on Nathan. ?I think my lower lats are getting thicker. What do you think??

?I think you need to fucking take your shower, we?ve got to go. Michael?s already called twice.?

?Won?t be a minute, bro.?

Nathan watched as his brother hurried down the hall, stripping off his sweat pants as he did. Justin?s back looked really broad, the thick muscles engorged with blood. It did look like his lower lats were getting thicker. Nathan sighed.


?Okay, bro, I?m ready.?

?It?s about time,? Nathan said, looking up from his People magazine article about older actors who were trying to resurrect their careers by turning to the gym and steroids. Apparently, Rider Strong, the ?bad boy? from the family TV series Boy Meets World, had just been cast in a new TV series. There was a picture of him, snapped leaving a gym looking like he?d gained 20 pounds. His biceps were flexed impressively holding a cell phone to his ear.

Justin wore a pair of cargo shorts, riding low on his hips, and a too small, white ribbed t-shirt that hugged his torso so closely, Nathan could make out every brick of his younger brother?s 8-pack abs. Nathan wished he could have a body as good as Justin?s. Hell, if he got selected for this contest, he might just get a body at least as good, if not better.

Fifteen minutes later, the two brothers got into his old Honda Civic. They couldn?t have looked more different. Nathan 6 feet tall and a skinny 162 pounds, Justin 5?-9? tall and a beefy 185 pounds of perfectly proportioned muscle. But with their matching grey-green eyes and dusty blonde hair, there was no doubt they were brothers.

Two minutes later they had pulled up in front of Michael?s house. He was outside on the sidewalk waiting for them.

Michael was what people called an ?Obchest?, a person obsessed with his chest. Just one look at him told you why. Taller than Justin and shorter than Nathan, Michael was built like Nathan, slender and lanky in every respect except his chest.

Michael had started working out as a Junior in high school, three years ago when the Freaks had first hit the press in a big way. He discovered that most of his body just didn?t respond to training, he was a hard gainer. The only exception was that his chest muscles really did respond well.

As muscles gained in popularity, other kids started commenting on how good his chest looked. Michael kept training with special attention to his chest. The bigger his chest got, the more positive comments he got and the harder he trained. Now, three years later, Michael had a tight, lanky build with huge pecs and over developed triceps. Most people didn?t notice the triceps, his chest was so out of proportion to the rest of his body.

A lot of kids thought that the ?obchest?, and ?quadsessed? kids were weird. The ideal was a body with every muscle group completely overdeveloped. There weren?t any kids in the high school who had achieved that ideal, but there was one senior who was amateur bodybuilder big. He was literally the big man on campus, the physique against all others were judged. The only kids who were thought less of than the single muscle obsessed were the kids that didn?t have big or lean muscular development.

At the time Michael had encouraged Nathan to follow suit. ?Just pick a muscle and work it, Dude. Put all your focus, energy and attention on just that muscle and it?ll explode with mass. It is totally cool.? But Nathan at the time still thought that the muscle craze was going to pass into history. Time had proved him wrong.

Nathan hadn?t started training until the end of his freshman year of college. By then, Michael?s chest was huge. At first, Nathan had hoped that he?d develop like his younger brother, who at 15 when Nathan started training, already outweighed his bigger brother and had biceps 2-1/2 inches bigger.

He trained with his Dad for a while. But that didn?t work out. His father had become a dominant bully as his own muscles got bigger.

His dad had purchased all the equipment and set up a decent home gym in their basement when he saw the muscle potential of his younger son. Their father decided to work out with Justin to oversee his middle son?s development. To his surprise, his own body responded to the training and he started gaining muscle all most as fast as his middle son.

Their father got totally caught up in the muscle frenzy and pushed Justin in the gym and started taking supplements himself to boost his own development. In the three years Justin and his dad had worked out together, Justin had gained over 20 pounds and his father had gained 35 pounds. The bigger their dad got, the more important muscle and muscle growth became for him. He started mocking Nathan for his skinny build and weakness.

When Nathan tried training with his dad, it had been a disaster. His father believed that Nathan was weak and that the only way to motivate him was to belittle him and force him to train almost naked so he could see how pathetic his body was.

Nathan stopped training with his dad. His father responded by more or less disowning his scrawny older son. He focused all his attention and praise on his athletic middle son.

Nathan didn?t train for a while. Justin approached him and said that maybe they could train together. Justin said since his recovery period was shorter than their dad?s, so maybe Nathan could train with Justin on the days when Justin was training alone.

The two brothers had started training every other day for a couple of weeks, and later every day. Justin would act simply as a training partner on some days and actually work out with Nathan on other days. Justin told Nathan this new schedule was for Nathan?s benefit: if he worked out more, he?d show more progress. In reality, as much as he loved his brother, Nathan was so much weaker than Justin, Justin didn?t feel like he was getting a good workout when he trained with Nathan.

The training had been a source of tremendous frustration for Nathan. First, he was painfully aware of how weak he was. He did make some small progress working out with Justin, but Justin, his smaller, younger brother was so much stronger, it wasn?t even funny. Second, no matter how much he trained, what techniques he used, or how much he ate, his progress was slow to the point of being almost unnoticeable. At the same time, he could see that Justin and his dad were getting bigger and stronger while he seemed to stay put.

Michael too had continued to make progress in his training while Nathan struggled with his. Today it looked like Michael was making an effort to show off the fruits of all that labor. Even if he?d wanted to it was impossible for him to hide his chest development. But like most of the single muscle obsessed men, Michael was proud of his chest to the point of vanity.

Dressed in a pair of tight, lycra blend denim jeans and a deep cut string tank top that was cropped short, Michael was a sight. His pecs were firm even completely relaxed and bounced with every move that Michael made. His pecs had gotten so big that they were starting to push out sideways in front of his arms. When he reached out in front of him, his upper arm pushed the mass of his pecs inward making them look even bigger.

Nathan thought that Michael?s chest was phenomenally sexy. They had started dating in their senior year of high school. Michael?s chest had only measured 43 inches back then. With his narrow hips, 33 inch waist, lean abs, no ?v? taper and otherwise lanky build, that size chest was pretty impressive. Now his chest was right around 47 inches all other attributes were the same as before. Nathan?s greatest joy was fucking Michael?s chest.

??Bout fucking time, guys. Jeeze,? Michael said as he climbed into the back seat.

?Sorry, Mike, Justin lost track of time working out. We?ll still make it if traffic isn?t bad.?

?Dude, your pecs are stoked! I love the veins on your upper chest. I don?t even get vascularity like that when I?m pumped,? Justin said, turning in his seat to look at Michael. ?Man, I?d love to have a chest like yours. It?s totally freaky.?

?Just keep lifting, Justin. With your genetics you?ll get there soon enough. Right Nate??

?Yeah, just keep training, little bro. You got all the muscle genes in the family, so I?ve no doubt you?ll have a massive chest by the time you?re in college.?

?So, bro, Dad wants me to start taking supplements now: andro, creatine. He says it?s time to put me into over drive. He says I could gain 15 or 20 more pounds in a year.?

Nathan?s heart skipped a beat. His younger brother already outweighed him by 20 pounds. Shit, Justin could do standing military presses with what Nathan weighed. The thought of an even bigger and stronger little brother was depressing. He had to at least become a finalist in the contest.

Michael sensed Nathan?s momentary panic and spoke up, ?That would totally rock, Justin. Man, you could have a body builder?s build by the time you joined us at UC. Couldn?t he Nate??

The mental image of Justin bursting with muscle danced in Nathan?s panicked brain for a second before he could form a reply. ?Absolutely,? he said with little conviction, ?Dad would be proud of you.?

?You think so, bro? I hope so. I?d love to be a big ol? freak. Dad?s eager for me to start the supplements and is even thinking about getting Gary on them too.?

?What?? Nathan was shocked. Gary was his youngest brother, only 12 years old. Their father had started Gary training about three months after their father had started training Justin and seeing his own progress.

Gary had developed a surprisingly muscular physique in the almost 3 years of weight training. He hadn?t quite hit puberty yet and he already had the scaled down physique of a high school athlete. He was a cocky little guy, just like his father. He liked to wrestle and rough house and was almost lifting what Nathan was.

Gary had all the confidence that Nathan lacked. He had decided that he was going to be like Samson when he was 10, and hadn?t had a hair cut in the two years since. His light blonde hair was long and fine. Sometimes he had it pulled back in a pony tale, sometimes he let it fall in his face.

He was always challenging Nathan or Justin to wrestling matches or arm wrestling or push up contests. He always lost, but Nathan could tell that his youngest brother was getting really strong. It was getting harder and harder to beat Gary. Gary could tell that he was getting almost as strong as his oldest brother and was now challenging Nathan more often and with more confidence. Nathan found that he was trying to avoid Gary?s challenges out of fear he?d soon be losing.

If Gary started adding supplements to his training now, just as he was hitting puberty, there was no telling how big and strong he?d get. He was likely to be stronger than Nathan in the next six months or so without the supplements. With them, Nathan would be the weakest brother inside three months.

Nathan navigated the old Civic thru traffic on their way to the open call for the American Freak open casting call.

[arpeejay]

Great character development, as usual!

[Speaker]

Agreed, and you got me feeling so bad for Nathan.

Poor guy. Maybe his dreams really will come true =)