"Sorry for the short notice. Julia can't make it, she's feeling feverish." I said to Roxanne, who came inside the gym wearing her usual gray overused and oversized sweater, which I know belonged to her dead dad. I'm sure it's the same with the old Nike gym bag she's holding. Either she can't let go of the memories of her dad, or she's too tight on money that she can't afford to buy her stuff.

"Yeah, she called me. I hope it's not Covid."

"She doesn't have a sore throat, colds or cough. But I'll have her swabbed test tomorrow to make sure."

"She fears the swab test, but she has to do it for everyone's safety." She turns, leaving me outside of the changing room.

When she comes out, her sweater is gone. She takes my breath away, seeing her in her gym outfit. She has this beautiful flawless skin and perfect body she hides under those sweaters.

She's naturally beautiful and so simple. It's like, what you see is what you get.

She always dresses up like a boy, not even a trace of makeup on her face. Definitely, she's not aiming for any guy's compliments, and yet, got all the attention of the men, especially in the gym. She's the type of girl who seems not aware of her beauty, or she knows, but doesn't give much thought about it.

I have known Roxanne for too long, she's like a younger sister to me. I know she would grow up a raving beauty, and break plenty of men's hearts. But she seems to go in the opposite direction. From what I know, she doesn't date much, so I assumed she's a tomboy. But she's absolutely not, because she had a boyfriend, that lucky dumbass scumbag, Archer West.

She really intrigues me. I want to know more about her. I want to know what's going on inside her pretty head. What she's thinking, what's her plan or her goals in life, what she likes and dislikes, what she did during her pastime aside from hanging out with my sister, what makes her tick, what makes her laugh or cry, and so much more.

Yeah, I have known her, almost half of my life, but she's still very mysterious to me. I know she has some weights on her shoulder, and I want to lift them off and carry them myself.

"Should we start?" She asks as we headed to the crew, who already set up the camera and lights at the corner of the gym. My sister Brooke is lying on the bench, pretending to be sleeping.

"Yeah... yeah. So, the two of us will be Brooke's personal trainer. We all know that she hates doing physical activities, especially exercising and going to the gym."

She chuckles, "She just wants to stay in her bedroom all day. It's her favorite place in the world."

"Exactly. We will force her to exercise and lift weights."

"Do you think that's possible? She won't listen to us."

"We'll just try." I assure her.

"Okay... but we have to take it easy. She's kinda sensitive and gets mad easily."

"Don't worry, I'll handle her."

"That's better. I'll just stay at the side. I don't want her to get mad at me. The last time was very scary. She threw a book on my face."

"Yeah, I remember that. You ate her Oreo cookie."

"Correction. Accidentally." She answers and we both laugh together.

Shooting with Brooke was tough at the beginning, she was very uncooperative. She contradicted everything that I said. She did not follow the exercises that I taught her, even the very simple ones.

"Ouch." I groan aloud when Brooke slaps my arm again. It's getting so red from the tons of slaps I got from her. "You're so abusive."

"That's what you get for forcing me into this. You know I hate to exercise!" Brooke screams at me.

"Don't worry, I'll delete that." Chance butts in.

"We have too much to delete in this video. I wonder if we have anything left anymore." Riggs let out a frustrated sigh."

I turned to Brooke again, encouraging her, "You need to exercise, not just for your body but also for your mental health."

"I don't give a damn, Gray."

"Come on, Brooke. Just try it."

"I don't want to. My bones ache and my muscles hurt. My head is hurting too."

"No pain, no glory."

"Pain! My ass. I hate being in pain. You know I have a very low tolerance for it. I'm going to kill you if tomorrow I won't be able to get up. I'm done, I don't want to do this anymore."

"Oh God, you're having tantrums again. Now I realized, this is a bad idea."

"I told you." Brooke pouts, hugging her arms together, sulking like a kid. "You'll just waste your time on me."

"It's never a waste of time being with you. You know I love you, and I want the best for you." I tap her head, "At least, we have our bonding. Come one, you can rest now. I won't force you into it anymore."

I turn to Chance and Riggs, "Pack up guys," then to Roxanne, who just continues to observe us. "Sorry for the inconvenience. I should have followed my intuition. I know this is going to happen."

She smiles and nods. "It's nothing, anything for the video."

"Thanks. I'll just go down and get us all a drink."

I bought energy drinks downstairs. It took me over five minutes to come back, because I waited for the cashier, an old man, to finish arranging his counter.

When I came back, Brooke was following Roxanne, lifting weights. She was laughing and seemed to enjoy herself. While Riggs and Chance were shooting the video.

I smile watching them. I appreciate Roxanne for taking over and getting Brooke's trust.

I walk towards them and continue observing them.

"Roxanne is a sweetheart, she never forces me." Brooke glares at me, then suddenly bursts into laughter. "She's helping me get a bigger ass, like hers."

"Here's another one." Roxanne shows another exercise and Brooke follows her. "Continue doing this as long as you can, until you feel the pain, then you know it's working."

"Seriously? Then I won't stop doing this." Brooke says, feeling motivated.

Roxanne stops exercising and takes the drink I offered her.

"Thank you, you're doing very well."

"She just needs a little motivation." She smiles and takes a gulp of the energy drink. A Gatorade blue.

"I hope you like the flavor I got you."

She looks at the drink, then shrugs a little. "Yeah, this is my favorite."

Yes! I said to myself.

She turns to Brooke, about to go, but I don't want her to leave yet. I like to continue talking to her.

"How's granny Mary?"

Her attention is on me again. I know that talking about her granny is one of her favorites.

"Giving me a hard time. She's asking about things she saw on the internet, like herbal supplements, sleeping candies, stress reliever sprays, healing candles and so much more. The problem is, it can order all from Asia. It will take too long to receive them now that it's pandemic."

I could not help laughing. Everything she said was funny, and really fascinates me. She kept on talking about granny Mary and I was enjoying every minute. We talked about random things, like college, people we met, professors, food we love to eat, restaurants we tried and so much more.

So crazy, I was so engrossed with her I forgot we were in the gym, and my crew were waiting for us.

"What's going on?" Brooke says, her eyes glaring at me and Roxanne. "I did all the exercises, and you weren't even looking at me. I'm done here, I want to go home!"

"Okay, okay. Let's pack up." I instruct, and that stops my conversation with Roxanne.

Later in the car, Brooke won't stop rattling about what she saw.

"I swear, Gray. You were flirting with her!"

"I did not. So stop talking about it."

"I'm not dumb. You like her and you're afraid to admit it." Brooke looks at me suspiciously. "I think you always like her, I caught you many times staring at her."

"That's not true. You love fairy tales, and you always imagine that someday, me and Roxanne will end up together and live happily ever after. You think that life is full of fairy tales. Well, sad to say sis, it's not."

"Let's see." Brooke giggles, "I think she likes you too. Do you even wonder why she doesn't have a boyfriend? She's waiting for you."

"Definitely not true," I chuckle, "She had a boyfriend before."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. There was Archer." Brooke takes a pause, then says, "It sucks right. Why of all guys, it has to be your half brother."