The Truth About Gym Rats (Danny)

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There were many types of people that came through the gym, most of them didn't hang around. Either chasing after that beach body or attempting yet another New Year's resolution, it didn't really matter every small boom eventually died off. The ones that stuck around during and after these booms were the kind of people you saw who just moved around the gym with surety and familiarity.

Devyn had gotten into going to the gym around sixteen, before that he'd been restricted to what he could do in the room and laps around the school. The city gym just didn't really like the idea of letting him near weights that young, and he'd still needed parental permission when he came back a year later.


 Once all the liability problems had been figured out it had become a regular habit. Mostly he came on off days, or early in the morning, he didn't like it when too many were people were there he got distracted too easily.

 
He had become pretty familiar with the people that came to the gym, at least the ones that were there when he was and he'd even formed a rather unlikely friendship with a guy named Danny.

Danny was an odd guy, but Devyn actually rather liked him, though he knew if anyone he asked he wouldn't exactly be able to explain the appeal. There was just something nice about conversations with him, there wasn't a lot of pressure he guessed.


It didn't matter Devyn thought he was a pretty cool guy, and he spotted him when he lifted weights.

Well, they spotted each other.


Devyn had sat on a bench one foot on, one off as he messaged back his parents asking what he'd made on a recent test. Luckily he was able to report a good grade despite it being English. He was mostly hanging around to see if Danny showed up, he'd finished his cardio circuit early and was wondering if he'd have someone to help him out with the weights that day.

He was also kind of interested to see what kind of facts came out of the man's mouth today.

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Danny had gotten into the habit of going to the gym when he was still in the middle school at Hammel. He'd enrolled at the institution when he was eleven, and it took only a year later for him to commit to the practice. Partially because it was slightly difficult to make new friends and so her needed something to sped his time with. Partially because, due to his lack of a concrete social circle that didn't involve his head in a toilet, Danny would otherwise be spending his time locked in his room studying.  He knew this by itself wasn't healthy for him, therefore he started up the practice for health reasons.  Several years later, Danny had yet to give up the practice.  He would tell people that it was for general wellness, though the tone in his arms told a different story. He was more competitive than he’d ever admit.

Consequence of going to the gym for so many years, however, it was a matter of fact that Danny would become a part of the community.  He was friendly to the regulars, provided a smile to them when they said 'hello' as well as a short greeting of his own; there were a handful of people he could dare to even call his 'friends', even though their only connection was through the gym. They were superficial relationships, though certainly closer than those which he had with his customers.   

On a slightly unrelated note, Danny had tried several times to get his roommate and best friend Zeke to come to the gym with him, and while he’d come on a few occasions, Zeke was one of those who stopped after the third or fourth visit.

Danny came to the local gym when he had time off work and didn’t have any other obligations. While there were a few days of the week that he kept to a strict exercise schedule, most of it was whenever he could. Having odd hours in his jobs made his free time sporadic. Today, however, he had time and thus showed up looking to spend the next hour or so in the weight room. He didn’t know yet if he’d do any cardio. Danny stepped into the weight room, a towel flung over his shoulder, and headed to one of the weight machines. He smiled when he saw Devyn sitting on a bench near one of the machines. “Hi, Devyn,” he greeted smoothly. “It’s good to see you.” That was how he usually greeted the other boy whenever they met. The same phrase every time. It was automatic by this point.

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Devyn didn't often keep his phone on him when he went to workout, only responding to texts during downtime and forwarding calls to voicemail until he left. Gym time was important to him, it was the only time he allowed himself to actually forget about the responsibilities he'd assigned himself or been assigned by other people. The routine of going to work out was what helped him restabilize his thoughts a lot of times, he didn't have to think about much and it burnt off a lot of his anxious energies.

Routine, in general, was a nice refresher for Devyn, it made things much less hectic to think about when he knew what to expect. He didn't have to do anything different than what he always did. That's why it was always a bit nice to hear Danny's automatic greeting, repeated so many times he was sure he could recall the exact sound of it perfectly.

"Good to see you too Danny," he said with a small smile as he stood, and shoved his phone back into his workout bag, having responded to any messages that had been waiting before devoting himself to another hour or so in the gym.

"Need a spotter for weights today?" Devyn asked, as he always did, sometimes the routine shifted and he wasn't needed -which never bothered him- and he said goodbye and went home. He hung around by his bag as he waited for an answer.

At the beginnings of their pseudo-relationship, it had been a bit tense or awkward for him to decide what to do. Their conversations didn't flow like it did with everyone else, and he couldn't rely as easily on his experience of floating through social interactions.
He'd learned to appreciate the other man for his odd quirks, even preferred speaking to him over others he'd met in the past.

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Danny offered Devyn a light smile. “I think so,” he replied. “I’m increasing the weights for the bench press today,” he explained. It was something Danny liked to do on occasion. He’d up the weights from where he normally had them every so often, and then more frequently after until he could to it more easily. Though sometimes, if he wanted a simple and light workout, he wouldn’t bother with so many weights at all, and might even go down some from normal. That was especially true when he had a particularly hard work-week, or was expecting one soon.

“How have you been?” he asked the other male as he began his routine stretching. It was small talk, and Danny found it tedious, but he found that it made most people more comfortable than simply diving into a heavy topic. And Zeke explained that it made people feel like you cared about their wellbeing. Of course Danny cared, so he figured it was important enough to let them know that. “Has anything of interest occurred since we last met that you would like to divulge?” Danny would listen to whatever his gym friend had to tell him first, then offer his own anecdotes. That was how the flow of conversation worked. Danny had a particularly good mention of a program he recently saw on television the other day. However, it was polite practice to always ask about another person before offering about yourself.

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Devyn nodded at the other's answer, he'd done this before, so Devyn was pretty used the man upping his weights every now and then. Personally, Devyn usually increased his reps before he increased weight but that was because he main focus was on building up endurance so that his fatigue was lessened when he used his ability.

Which nowadays he didn't use very often, except such occasions where he was being a show-off.
"I've been pretty good actually," he answered, he had picked up somewhat on Danny's conversational patterns after the first four or five times he'd spoken to him. It had grown from odd to amusing to welcome rather quickly.

"Nothing really that interesting, just more schoolwork and basketball. I had to get a tutor for writing, which sucks, but it was better than failing it." He went through the familiar movements of adding weight to the bar, matching what the man put on the other side before stepping behind the bench.

"What about you? 'Anything of interest' in your life?"

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Danny was careful to not overdo it as much as possible when it came to his weight lifting. He did remember such a thing happened once before, and ended up coming home with a strain in his shoulder, which Zeke, his roommate, so kindly kneaded out for him every night for a week. Danny didn’t know what he’d do without that boy.

Danny listened with polite interest at what his gym partner had to say about himself. “That’s unfortunate. I do hope you found a good tutor to help.” He smiled at Devyn. “I wish I had more time, otherwise I would gladly have helped you in your studies.” Academics came easy to Danny, of course. He simply didn’t have the time to invest in them as he would like. That was also very unfortunate.

Danny smiled as he sat upon the bench. “There was an interesting program I saw on television the other day regarding the behavior of ants and ant colonies,” he mentioned. “I found it very fascinating that mankind can determine such things through simple observation.” It wasn’t exactly the most engaging topic to bring up in conversation, though Danny did like to talk about the things he learned through watching such programs. Idle conversation was a convenient outlet for that. “Also, my roommate was late for work because he stayed up late into the night playing Minecraft.” Danny settled back on the bench and reached up to grab the weighted bar. “I honestly don’t understand the appeal of doing such things,” he said with genuine curiosity.

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Devyn shrugged once more, "Yeah, I'm less worried about it now, it would have been cool to hang out with you more, but I don't think our schedules line up well enough for that," he smiled at the other man. He placed his hands on the bar as he waited for Danny to get situated.

It was rare that either needed help lifting at any point than the initial lift off the rack but because he increased his weights every now and then Devyn did keep a close eye for if the man needed any help. "You want me to help lift off?" he asked, referring to moving the bar off the rack, sometimes people liked the help so they could conserve their energy for the reps.
"I feel like he's a pretty decent tutor, best I could get last minute I guess," he chuckled a bit, not bringing up the fact that he was doing the other's math homework in exchange.

Devyn grinned when he brought up ants, this was the kind of stuff that really kept him engaged with the man. The random topics, his opinions and observations about them, it was all the kind of stuff he didn't really hear anywhere else.

"I think their colonies are really cool, like how they look. It's kind of amazing how long they are when you total up every tunnel." He wasn't exactly an ant expert, but he did find facts about the little insects rather fascinating. Devyn chuckled, he'd never really gotten really into video games, sure he'd played a few in the past but it wasn't something he devoted a lot of time, though.

"I really couldn't tell you," he laughed again, thinking about the comparison of ants and Minecraft, "it's just something he enjoys I'm sure. Like that ant program for you, I guess. Except it doesn't have a time limit on it so it's hard to decide when to stop."

He wasn't the best at describing why people did things, a lot of it didn't make sense to him either, but he still did his best to try.

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“Yes, this is true, our schedules do not match up well at all.” After all, Devyn was a student still at Hammel, while Danny worked three jobs throughout the week and weekends, two of which had erratic scheduling based on the season. Devyn was fortunate that those were things he didn’t have to think about yet for a couple more years. “Even if not for tutoring, I think I would enjoy spending time with you outside of the gym.”

Danny nodded his head when Devyn gave the offer. Yes, he would like and appreciate help on the lift off, if only because it was safer to do that rather than be prideful and risk himself an undesirable situation should things not go as planned. Because something could always go wrong, no matter how prepared one was.

“It’s good that he was available to help you out at such short notice.” There weren’t a lot of people who were willing to give up their time in the first place, so already Danny thought that the unknown person was quite admirable.

Danny liked that there was someone like Devyn who was willing to listen to his rambling. Zeke would listen as well, but he wasn’t always interested either and often got confused by the subjects, hardly understanding a thing about why Danny was so fascinated with it. Ants were one sort of example. “Yes, their tunneling create such intricate designs. I find it amazing that such small creatures can produce such architecture. It’s all about the teamwork, of course. But can you imagine how much humanity could accomplish if they practiced half as much teamwork as ants did?” Quite a bit, in his opinion. If only humanity could learn from their example.

“I suppose that’s true, but if it’s really a matter of time, then I don’t understand why he doesn’t just set an alarm to remind him of when to stop.” That’s what Danny did for…a lot of things, even if he was just sitting in the living room and dazing out. If it weren’t for his timepieces, then Danny would likely be late for everything. Danny pushed up on the bar above him once Devyn was in a position to spot him, then lowered it down over his chest and pushed it back up. He’d do exactly 15 reps of this exercise before putting the bar back on the handles to allow himself a rest.

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Devyn nodded along, "It kind of bites that it is that way," the two weren't terribly far apart in age and Devyn was starting to get more active in his friendships. It was something that had been frowned upon in his life so much that he had a bit of a late start when it came to starting and maintaining friendships. But he was picking it up along the way and he was a pretty fast learner.

"Yeah," he grinned, not really able to help the slight excitement in his voice. Despite the very obvious notion that Danny probably wouldn't be all that exciting of a person to be around, Devyn still thought him to be rather fun. He'd be cool guy to take to a museum or something and just listen to him talk, reciting everything he'd learned and his thoughts on it.

"I don't even have your number do I?" They'd never really bothered to exchange numbers, it didn't really fit into their routine. It had always been more of a well if he's there, then cool, and if he's not I can work with that too.

Devyn pulled up as Danny pushed, not leaving the brunt of the work on either him nor himself. He kept his hands resting slightly on the bar as he began his workout, he already had a sense about how Danny felt during his workouts and could easily spot if he was having problems and needed help.

"Well, I told him I'd help with math and the teacher didn't give him too much of a choice. Pretty sure she thought I was a lost cause. It just doesn't come easily to me, art, music, writing, any of that kind of stuff. I can learn everything else easily, but the creative stuff.... I just can't seem to figure out, never have been. I've always respected the kind of people who can make things, entirely new and unique things."

He considered his words for a moment before speaking, "Yeah, it would be nice for everything to work like that, probably a little boring, though." Devyn chuckled to himself, almost not saying what came to his mind before deciding if he was going to tell anyone his weird thoughts it might as well be Danny. "I almost wonder-- you know, if they ever make their tunnels are a certain way because they like the way it looks."

It was kind of dumb and he knew that, but he was honestly curious. Ant tunnels always looked so different and independent from each other, and if weren't some ulterior meaning wouldn't they look more similar?

Devyn shrugged, he was pretty good at time management himself. Great at it actually, but only because he was a little neurotic about staying on top of things. "Poor self-control more than likely. If he set an alarm he'd probably just tell himself that he could get a few more minutes in. A never-ending cycle."

He kept himself alert and focused on the up and downs of Danny's movements even as he spoke, wanting to make sure everything was going smoothly.

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Devyn wasn’t inaccurate in his impression that Danny wasn’t terribly entertaining by himself. To those friends he did have, they were used to his peculiarities by now. To new acquaintances, they were friendly with him just long enough to realize there was something peculiar about him, and often ceased contact right then. It was easier to maintain contacts with people when Danny was serving a role, such as when he worked as a bartender.

Danny paused as he retrieved that information. “No, you don’t. Nor do I yours,” he offered. Then he followed up with a plain smile. “Perhaps we should do that once we’re done here?” Danny found that he preferred the idea of having Devyn’s phone number to contact him over not having it at all, leaving their only contact to be when they were at the gym.

As Devyn spoke about his tutoring encounter, Danny continued to grunt through his reps, keeping a keen ear on his friend’s words. “I…understand,” he said. “That does not come easily to me either…” Though Danny’s case was more of an extreme than Devyn’s for certain. He pushed up on the bar, having finished this set, and rested it on the holds. “It is more likely to come easier if you work at it often.” It was just like exercising, only for your brain. Certain thoughts and creative synapses came easier the more one used them.

Danny took a short break, sitting up on the bench to continue their conversation. “I suppose it depends. I myself enjoy repetitiveness, though I understand other prefer a more stimulated environment.” Everyone worked differently. When Devyn mentioned his wonder of ant tunnels, Danny smiled a slight bit wider. “That would be very interesting if they did. However, I doubt that is that case.” It probably had more to do with functionality than anything else.

Poor self control…that was very probable, of course. “Then he needs to exercise better self-control,” he said, lying down across the bench to continue with another set. “Like with your writing, if he does it more and continuously, then it will not seem so hard to accomplish in the future.” Danny pushed against the bar, and counted silently.

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"Yeah," Devyn returned the smile, he'd never really cared much about if someone was peculiar or difficult to talk to (which Devyn didn't feel that Danny was all that hard to engage). It would be much easier to get in contact after they exchanged numbers, he thought, maybe they would be able to actually spend time together outside of the gym if they were able to get in contact. That would certainly be nice, Devyn didn't give himself much free time, but if he was able to spend time with the older boy he certainly would like to. He imagined it would be very easy and relaxing to be around him.

Devyn helped him ease the bar back onto its hooks, leaning against it slightly as he listened. "Yeah..." he grimaced a bit, "It's just a bit frustrating to work on sometimes, and I always get marked off on the same things." He shrugged, "But I guess I have to keep working at it till I graduate at least."

He stepped around the bench, making it easier to talk to him when he sat up. Devyn thought for a moment, "I like spontaneity sometimes. I mean I like knowing what I'm going to be doing, but a break in routine isn't always so bad." His expression turned a bit sheepish when Danny acknowledged his odd thought, "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

When Danny laid back down Devyn returned to his spot behind the bar, "Ready for another set?" He helped with lift off again and grinned down a bit at his comment, "You planning on putting your roommate through self-control training Danny?"

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Danny too didn’t have much free time, but if he could find some at the same time as Devyn, then he would love to do more than simply spotting each other at the gym. He smiled and nodded when Devyn agreed to his suggestion, and then moved on to the next subject.

“If it’s always the same things,” he started, “Then it should be a matter easily fixed if you were just a little more mindful on your work.” Danny wiped his forehead of the sweat he’d accumulated from that last round of lifting, then continued. “Have you considered keeping a checklist of your most common mistakes to refer to whenever you have those assignments? Also, having someone else look over your work might be beneficial as well.” Because as he understood it, getting critiques on one’s writing was another way to improve, as there was another set of eyes available to watch out for those mistakes that the writer commonly overlooked. If Danny was any good at anything other than technical syntaxes, then he would offer to do it himself.

“You are more likely than not to get better by graduation, as long as you are diligent.” And that was the closest Danny game to encouragement as well. He wasn’t about to make irresponsible remarks such as, ‘you’re going to to better’, because that would be under the presumption that Danny knew what was going to happen when he didn’t. Basically, lying.

He nodded again up at his companion. “I honestly do not see the appeal.” To Danny, it was unnerving to not know what was going to happen. When he did know, then he knew how to respond to it. When he didn’t know, he had little frame of reference of how to react, forcing himself to think more creatively and draw upon experiences that were only marginally related, if that. Even Danny’s ‘breaks’ were routine to some degree, and he got unsettled when he was disallowed them.

“I am,” he said to Devyn when he laid back down across the bench. “I will finish this one and then we can switch if you’d like?” Danny grasped the bar and hefted it over the hooks, grunting slightly as he lowered it down to his chest and back up. “That…might be a good idea,” he replied. “It would be in his best interest to exercise it more.” It concerned Danny that Zeke had such bad habits. Danny may not always be around to help correct him, so Zeke really needed to learn how to do it for himself.