Seeing results

 PART ONE   

Nathan did not like going out with his dad. Did not like it. He was almost six feet at 18 years old, and his dad was only about 5’10, but his father gave him constant directions on how to interact as if Nathan were 6 years old. Dad was a bit of an asshole. Maybe Nathan was autistic, or maybe he just never went outside unless forced to do so by some obligation that involved his parents (usually dad) going through the motions of being great parents trying to raise a star athlete, or for their own photo ops. Nathan's mother had died when he was 15 in a car accident; he had not much of a reaction to it, but he was appropriately sad, and internalized it like he did a lot in his life. She had encouraged Nathan in sports and life without being like his dad, but she had trouble communicating with him. She was gone now. Nathan was not going to be a star athlete, but he was healthy and could middle distance run pretty well. He was always in decent shape, but his slightness of frame and of personality, along with an old fashion overbite covered up most physical potential you might have otherwise seen.  

The guy at the store Nathan and his dad were on their way to had been selling “sports supplements” for a few years.. Store guy had received a box of free supplements earlier that day, which was not completely unusual as marketing, and was also appreciated. Stores like free shit too. The box was small and smartly sealed, and contained a 4-pack of what looked like a new “pre workout,” which of course is a supplement designed to get people too young to know better cracked out for their workouts. Upon using his large green pocket knife to open the box, store guy noticed a strong factory smell coming from the box, as if somebody had used “factory smell in a can” spray. Store guy pulled out one of the 4-pack, and looked neutrally at the container. The product was called “leviathan.” The container was actually pretty nice; it was a shiny reflective material over a thick plastic, and it appeared to change color a bit in the light. Also, for an added touch, there was a hologram face that was faintly noticeable when you twisted the container away from the light. Store guy figured it was another clown type apparition, which was really played out in the industry; everybody had a clown holding a knife to indicate how “effective” their product would be. Setting it down, he noticed a line of text on the container that said, “No more envy, because these are YOUR gains.” *Ding* Out of nowhere Nathan and his dad were right there on the good business side of the door in the store.  

“Hi guys, how are ya today?” Nathan’s dad took the lead in response to store guy, even though it was pretty obvious it was Nathan that was going to be the one getting products that day. Store guy was around 40, had kids, and figured the dynamic out pretty quick. “My son here needs to get bigger. I used to train a lot, and I know about this crap, but his buddies are taking pre workouts and I know he needs some protein. Show me where the protein is first.” Dad was not in great shape, but he seemed as though he lucked into some company and made some money. His son looked forced aware of this major achievement, and dad carried himself like he wanted everyone to know it. Store guy wanted to ask Nathan what he was looking for, and so he did. “Did you have any specific thing you were looking for in pre workouts?” Nathan did not look “down” at whoever he was talking to, but kind of at the middle.

“Well, I know a lot of people have been taking Zone FX, and Power Ax pre workout, so do you have anything like that?” Nathan’s dad had had enough of this extra-curricular nonsense, no matter how relevant and appropriate it was, and he was going to make sure nobody was taking advantage of his 6 foot tall son.

“You need to speak up Nathan. Make eye contact! Stand up straight! We can find what we are looking for anyway.” Store guy, who was decent enough, squinted and nodded at Nathan. Nathan was one again embarrassed by his father speaking for him, and also for generally not allowing him to have a conversation in his presence. It was an interesting dynamic. Nathan’s eyes grabbed on the container that was sitting in front of store guy, but of course he didn’t say anything; Nathan just awkwardly stared with his front teeth sticking out a little bit.  

“Nathan! Over here, what are you doing!?” Store guy really didn’t like Nathan’s dad or the way he talked in his store that much. The young man turned woodenly and walked like an upright pencil over to where his dad was standing. “Well you can try this one because it doesn’t have yada yada...” Dad attempted to sound like he knew what the hell he was talking about. Nathan stared forward, expressionless. Store guy had saw the interest glimmer in the hidden eyes for the shiny new product on the counter. So he checked the ingredients, which looked a little better than standard, with part of the ingredients being in a blend called “No more envy blend.” If you are familiar with some of these products, this is not out of the ordinary. Only the hologram face with the eyes was anything out of the ordinary, but being that this new product was competing with others that had knife wielding clowns on their labels, it was just a small step up. Store guy walked over and almost to spite takeover dad interjected the new product into their presence. Nathan grabbed it pretty quickly and began examining it, in his own way of showing “This is what I want.” The dad looked angry he didn’t pick it out himself, but underneath it all he still wanted Nathan to get what he wanted.   

“So what’s all in that? I haven’t even seen that before. Is it going to give him a heart attack or mess him up at the gym? I’ve never heard of that brand.” Dad said this knowing damn well he had only heard of two brands in the entire store out of 30. The decision was made when Nathan exerted his personal autonomy by not putting the product down, staring at it intently, and then speaking for the second time they arrived, “I think this looks pretty good.”   

To top off the absurdity that was Nathan’s dad treating him like an dimwit, Nathan paid for the product himself. Store guy indicated to Nathan that when he came back (just him) they could talk about some other products that could help him put on mass. Nathan liked store guy, and store guy liked him and valued the prospect of helping him out of his shell. Store guy was a man with good intentions.    

PART TWO  

 Nathan watched other guys at school who weren’t smarter or even stronger than he was, and he watched the girls gravitate towards them, and not towards him. He kind of watched the world go by from behind a wall; he knew he was pretty able to function in the world, but he wasn’t quite able to find a door or window to get through. He wanted working out and gaining muscle to build him a door to the world. The container he was holding felt warm, like it was sitting on a vent. Probably the shiny cover and something to do with light, he thought. For the first time he saw the hologram face in the background of the label. It looked to open its mouth and yell as you turned the label back and forth, and he thought that was pretty cool. He tore the plastic off the top and opened the container. The powder smelled sweet like strawberry candy that didn’t really smell like strawberry’s, but like strawberry candy, and when he opened it some of the contents from the container went up like a plume of dust intent on reaching his nose. He liked it; snorted like strawberry. Nathan mixed his scoop with some water and started packing his bag for the gym. He immediately felt stronger. He was going to get bigger, and he was going to get through the wall and live the life that he wanted. He could feel it. He felt a new energy pumping through his body.   

At the gym he could also feel the effects of what he had taken. It wasn’t “superman” levels of improvement, but he was definitely more aggressive in his sets, and had a bump in strength. He also wasn’t looking around in envy at the guys bigger than him, as he was focused on his own pump. Somebody else noticed the nerdy guys increased focus, and like the yellow sun-rises, a shit-bag antagonizes. Douche one-of-four in the group of young men not nearly big enough to be as aggressive as they were, decided it was time to point out the nerd to the nerd, and remind him of the score. “Watch this. See that autistic dork flexing in the mirror? I’m going to fuck with him. Douches two and three were down with the plan. Douche one walked over behind Nathan, who was in fact noticing his gains in a mirror, and coughed out a “fuckin nerd” in not perfectly clear, but clear enough language for Nathan to hear. Nathan felt his heart rate speed up, and he realized that his newfound aggressive state made him a little different than the Nathan that would have just accepted this as part of life because of how he, in fact, was. He liked whatever was in the workout supplement that made his blood boil more than before. When doucher boy came walking back by after getting a drink at the front counter, Nathan was ready. Nathan felt it coming.. *cough* “Fuckin dork.”   

“Go fuck your mother you loser,” said Nathan without a cough and clear enough for others in the close vicinity to make out.   

“What did you say to me dork?”  

“You heard me you piece of crap. Don’t you walk behind me and say something to me for nothing. I’m just trying to get a pump.”

The small group all laughed a little as the congregated as a tribe once again, and started looking around; maybe they were looking around to make sure nobody was looking, and maybe they were looking around to make sure somebody was looking. These are weird times. But Nathan could tell perpetrator douche was debating on whether to cold-cock him or not. He definitely made sure he had his little crew real close behind him. Nathan had taken harassment upon harassment in his life, and been envious of those who had the sand to stand up for themselves and earl their place in the pecking order; he was feeling the embodiment of his envy pulsing through veins, and maybe even his arteries, as a plan formed without him even having to think about it. *Lure him in Nathan, you can be relieved of punishment. Your days of envy have come to and. You will not be hurt anymore. You are in charge. Lure him. Hurt him.*   

Nathan stepped up to the would be bully and moved as close to him as he had ever moved to a person on his own volition. He spoke without really moving his mouth. “You wanna do something, do it. Don’t lose face in front of your boys you turd. Throw the punch or the biggest bit.._ **WHAM!** Doucher lashed out almost in frenzied fear of the unexpected situation near the squat racks, and landed what he thought was a pretty good right against the autistic looking, yet auspiciously brave Nathan. Nathan fell down on his side right next to a blue workout bench, one of the older ones there. His eyes, though blurry, focused immediately on a five lb. Dumbbell sitting on the bench, and he quickly grabbed it. **WHAM!** Nathan wind-milled the weight around as fast as he fell down and drilled Mr. Summer’s eve right in the side of the head; out cold. Rotten apple two and three were only two steps behind, but froze as if they were betrayed by the god of picking on autistic kids, and had lost the ability to react to the outside world. After brief eye contact with the thin, yet kind of muscular lad holding the weight, they immediately decided to become better people and checked on their twitching on the ground buddy. Nathan thought about lashing out, but decided against it, realizing he could not get away with going on the offensive in that manner. Stay out of trouble, only go as far as you can get away with, he told himself. He left the gym as people were walking to the back of the gym hurriedly to check on all day freshness, who was unfortunately in pretty bad shape on the ground.   

PART THREE  

Nathan was surprised he heard nothing from the police, or anybody regarding that incident. He was also surprised at the image of himself in the mirror. He had grown since he last stared at his body in the mirror. He was surprised at the results the last couple workouts had given him. He liked his new Pre-workout supplement; it was really doing the trick. He started taking it every day, and the feeling he got from it did not seem to change, and actually became enhanced. He started going to a different gym for a while, and amazingly had walked by the front desk without even having to buy a membership. The confidence he had gained from taking his new supplement was his pass. After everything that had happened, he got a phone call;  

*(312) 222-0411*  

Who the hell is this? Nathan thought before answering.  

“Hello?”  

“Hello is this Nathan?” A strong, friendly voice asked.  

“This is Nathan.”  

“Nathan this is Damian Levi, the CEO of Leviathan pre-workouts; how are you today?”  

“Fine. How did you get this num..” The masculine voice interrupted-  

“Nathan we keep tabs of who used our new supplements, via social media and other avenues, and we have noticed your results after purchasing Leviathan pre workout. It seems you are very satisfied with our product. Would that be safe to say?”  

“Yes. I’m getting great results, and I feel stronger than ever.”   

“Don’t have to be envious of other guys as much now, do you?”   

“No. Not really,” Nathan said.   

The voice on the other end laughed a little, then sat quiet for a moment. Then spoke, “Nathan we would like you to be a brand ambassador for us. You seem like the perfect candidate, and although you don’t have a big following now, we think your before and after's are exactly what we are looking for. We are willing to provide you with a salary, and I have arranged for a limo to pick you up today and fly you down for a meeting! Sorry about the short notice, but we did not want to miss this opportunity.” Nathan was stunned, but it was actually the opportunity he had been waiting for. Looking outside, Nathan saw a red limousine already waiting out front. Without responding to the man on the phone, Nathan stuck it in his pocket and ran downstairs. Dad was downstairs waiting for him.   

“I got a call earlier. Seems like a young man that you got into a fight with and did not tell me about died earlier today. I’m supposed to bring you to the police station to talk about what happened. You little shit, a few weeks ago you couldn’t look a person in the eye or speak up to save your life, and now you are killing people in fights? Those new muscles really have you thinking you’re somebody, don’t they?   

Nathan had never seen his dad look so small. Before he could respond, he heard the limo beep its horn for him to come.   

“Dad, we can talk about this later, but the supplement company for what we got at the store, they want me to be a representative for them. They sent a limo for me and..” **SLAP!** Nathan’s dad had not slapped him in a couple years, but when he was young, he did it kind of often.   

“There ain’t no fucking limo you retard!! You are coming to the police station with me, and I’ll do the talking and you will shut up like you were born to do! I poured that shit down the sink you were taking; I don’t care if it is giving you muscles, you’ll always be a..” **WHAM!** The five lb. Dumbbell had appeared in Nathan’s hand, or maybe he grabbed it out of the front of his sweater, he did not care, but he bashed Dad over the head with it as hard as he could. Seeing his possessed son standing over him, while dizzy with impending unconsciousness, Dad said quietly to himself, “This is all my fault.” Nathan hit Dad about ten more times right in what used to be his intact skull after he fell; one for every hundred times he had treated Nathan like an idiot in public. The horn of the limo honked again, only now he saw his own front door as the door to the limousine, and it was the door he had been waiting for. He opened it, and allowed the hot red light to engulf him, and for a moment, he had never felt stronger.   

PART FOUR  

It was a slow day. Store guy had been there for two hours without any customers. It looked like one was coming, but with moderate disappointment it turned out to just be a delivery. It was a small, familiar looking box. After exchanging short pleasantries with the delivery girl, he cut open the box to find a few more free samples of the new Leviathan pre-workout. The only thing he thought was interesting was the hologram, which he immediately looked for. He saw it, and he saw it. This one looked a little different, and the screaming face looked familiar. It looked like.. *Ding* The door opened and a skinny red-head and his much larger Dad walked through the door.