A Rest Day

1) The Name

"I always feel bad for anyone that's buying rice cakes." What?

"There's like a million different variations of that food you would rather be eating but you're eating this because you cant have those other ones" He had finally turned his head towards the stranger that he found to be looming a little too closely to his shoulder. This guy had a face, he wasn't used to noticing that.

A pause settled. Furrowing his eyebrows and sneering his nose, he had hoped this would be an obvious sign that this conversation was over; it wasn't.

"I mean your like jacked or whatever so maybe that's why, I don't know?" He was worth looking at a second time he decided. The guy awkwardly rocked on his heels cradling two boxes of cheerios that had nail indentions where the guy clutched them. He was still speaking, for some reason. It was nonsense but the guy hadn't stopped smiling, he wasn't used to noticing that either.

He was also pretty sure this guy was a queer.

He had way too many bracelet things or whatever, his face was like a girl, and he smelled like vanilla cinnamon or some shit like that. It was making him nauseous, the talking, the vanilla, the forced conversion. He had been on a cut so that he could be lean by the summer, and he found himself to be more and more agitated lately even shopping for this dumb fucking ric-

"Are you single?" What the fuck? What made this kid think he was some faggot? The expression that began to form on his face spoke before he did. The smile that had stubbornly latched onto every word remained in place however.

"Listen dude or .... I'm not single but I'm also not into-" giving a faint hand gesture "What even are you?" He ended with a sneer. Hopefully he would take the hint because honestly, he was fine with whatever this guy wanted to be but what made him think that he was into that? Does he look gay? He immediately became conscious of the body he inhabited. He's put on 30+ pounds of muscle during bulking season and he's tracked every calorie he put into his body for the past 2 years. He knew he should have worn his pump cover into the store, but it was hot, and this was supposed to be a 2-minute thing.

"What do you want me to be?" The guy was a lot more still now, looking up at him from behind his cereal boxes. The coy smile that remained on his face pacified him somehow, clearly there was no desire to escalate this conversation from his end. All that was left was his dumb question, and the rice cakes and cereal boxes between them. Disarmed by its genuine tone, he took a pause exhaling from his nose at the humor of it all.

"I mean, I'm assuming you're a dude; even though you kind of look like a girl and you're wearing like bracelets and shit." This is stupid. What is he saying? What is he doing? Why is he even entertaining this conversation? Why is he still waiting on a fucking answer when he could have just walked away by now? Why hasn't this guy still not answered? Why is he laughing all of a sudden?

"I-" more tiny fits of laughter "bracelets and shit?" the laughing didn't make him feel ostracized as much as it relieved the tension that loomed over what would be an argument that could get your shit kicked in. Why had he not been offended when that's all he was trying to do to get rid of him? "American education system huh."

He wasn't stupid, what the fuck did he mean- there's no way this conversation he was having was real. This was the longest he had gone being completely annoyed and not actually feeling it. He heard the conversation heading towards the end and instead of rushing in anticipation he dragged his feet a bit. Questioning the nuance of a response and not listening to the answer when it was spoken because he was distracted by the inevitable:

He had to ring up his rice cakes...

There's no way he would have given him his socials without beating the shit out of him for asking in the first place, but then again, he was a fitness influencer and he needed whatever foot traffic he could get. That's right, this guy or girl or whatever they are will probably thirst over him and get him a bigger following.