“Morning,” I greeted my mom as I walked into the kitchen, heading directly to the fridge to pour myself some milk.

“I made scrambled eggs for you,” she went on. “Is that alright?” I nodded, already taking a sip from the glass. She cocked her head at me and gave a slight smile. “Is that shirt getting small on you?”

I looked down at my white T-shirt and boxers. I hadn’t really noticed, but now that she had brought it up, it did seem a little tight around my chest and shoulders. I smiled inwardly, knowing that I had gained a few pounds.

“It must be all that working out you and JP have been doing this summer,” she concluded.

Duh, I said to myself. It was the beginning of July and with school having been out for almost three weeks, JP and I were hitting the weights hard. Actually, while I was just hitting the weights, JP was attacking the weights like an animal, pushing himself through his workouts with such ferocity, it sometimes scared me. He had even shaved his hair really short, making him look even more intimidating. And remarkably, he was going through yet another growth spurt…and a massive one at that. He seemed to get bigger and stronger with every workout. I couldn’t wait to see how much stronger he had gotten overnight.

I quickly gobbled up my breakfast – my mom repeatedly commenting on my growing appetite – and after getting dressed into my workout clothes, grabbed my gym bag and headed out the door and into the warm summer air. This was basically how every day started for me that summer, the best summer of my life. I would wake up at eight o’clock in the morning, eat a big breakfast and drive over to JP’s house. Once I had arrived, I would stretch out – JP having already stretched and warmed up, opting for the heavier routine – and begin an amazing two-hour workout session with him. We would push each other to our limits, encouraging each other to go just a little further than we thought we could.

As I stepped out of my car and walked up to JP’s front door, I closed my eyes, letting the warm sun soak through my skin. I wanted to remember these moments for the rest of my life, knowing how happy I was, how nothing could be better than this.

Erin, JP’s little sister, greeted me at the door with a blushing grin. She had more of a crush on me than ever. “Hi, Matt,” she said, a little out of breath. I imagined she ran to open the door, knowing that I’d be coming.

“Good morning, Erin,” I smiled at her. She bit her lip, looking me over. At 13, she was going into eighth grade next year and was obviously starting to notice boys. She, herself, was beginning to grow up, entering into a growth spurt of her own. Her face looked more mature, she had gained a couple inches in height and her slender chest hinted the first graceful curves of breasts. Leaving the girl somewhat in a daze, I walked past her toward the basement door. As I did, I saw Mrs. Maloney standing in front of the sink, cleaning breakfast dishes. She smiled and waved at me, motioning me to head downstairs. With my stomach in knots as it always was when I was about to see my boyfriend, I did.

I entered the gym and immediately popped a boner in my shorts. JP was hanging shirtless from the chin-up bar, performing a perfect set of pull-ups, every single muscle in his back sharply defined. The fibers in his shoulders popped profusely and his thick lats exploded out from under his armpits like wings. His gym shorts hung precariously on his still-narrow hips, unclothing the upper cleft off his bubble butt, the top of his buttcrack peeking out. I practically began drooling, my eyes peeled to his massive body as he effortlessly heaved it up and down. With the last few reps, he let out a series of soft grunts before dropping down to the ground. This was a warm-up; it was nothing to him.

Finally, he turned toward me and smiled, his piercing blue eyes completely penetrating me. I leaned against the wall for support. In only one month, JP had added almost another 10 pounds onto his frame. At nearly 6 feet – now taller than I – and a luscious 174 pounds of pure muscle, JP was a walking orgasm. His thick neck and traps arched past his sculpted cheekbones, ending at round, bulbous shoulders that were lined with tough fibers of sinew. His dense arms were packed with muscle, his bulging biceps and triceps literally exploding out of his skin. A pair of wide lats forced his arms to hang loosely at his sides, creating an impressive V-shape down to his ridiculously narrow 27 and a half inch waist. His forearms rippled menacingly, a roadmap of veins snaking around their thick girth. Two gorgeously carved pecs dominated his beefy chest, deeply split by a tight chasm leading to a flawless set of six-pack abs. Directly below, his mouth-watering obliques swept seductively down toward his crotch where a noticeable bulge protruded out from underneath his shorts. His shredded thighs pushed at the fabric, covered in layer upon layer of menacing muscle, topping a pair of equally-ripped calves, bulging exquisitely from behind his shins. This was my boyfriend and the sight of him never failed to take my breath away.

“Good morning, Matt,” he boomed, his voice vibrating through my body. It had gotten incredibly deep and just the sound of his whisper hopelessly aroused me.

“God, you’re so fuckin’ hot,” I sighed. Just when I thought he couldn’t possibly get any sexier, he would go and prove me wrong. JP was massive, but gorgeous. His short hair, faded to a dirty blond from the sun, shone in the light, his bright blue eyes radiating their bright beauty. His thin, red lips offered strong, heavenly kisses and his powerful tongue made them even better. When he smiled, his perfect white teeth glistened, dimples appeared on his smooth doll-like cheeks and his eyes sparkled with such merriment, you’d swear you were looking at an angel. The hours that he spent jogging outside gave him a beautiful golden tan, allowing the sweat to glisten even more when he worked out.

He glided his immaculate body toward me and, wrapping me in his muscular arms, gave me my morning kiss. This was also part of our routine – one of my favorite parts. I would run my fingers over the thick ridges of his back, feeling the power that they gave off, a power that seemed to grow as he got bigger. That was all the inspiration I needed. Now, I was ready to train.

We had an intense weekly schedule that we strictly followed. Each day was reserved for a specific muscle group. Today was Monday, which meant that it was chest day. We did six sets of six different exercises – bench presses, incline dumbbell presses, decline dumbbell presses, dumbbell pullovers, parallel bar dips with weights, and dumbbell flyes. At the end of those 36 sets, my chest felt big and pumped, but JP’s chest was so pumped and shredded it was unbelievable. His pecs were just throbbing, covered with veins that surged with blood.

Tuesday was always back day. We did six sets of five different exercises – pull-ups with weights attached to our waist, dumbbell rows, cable rows, deadlifts for our lower back and shoulder shrugs for our traps. Though my back was pretty strong, my neck and traps were a weak area. But JP was supportive of me and I started to see some gains after only a short while. JP’s traps, however, really popped out on either side of his neck after he finished his six sets and his wrestler’s neck was getting incredibly thick. I had no more hope of trying to get my fingers around it at all.

Wednesday was shoulders day. We did six sets of five different exercises – barbell presses, dumbbell presses, upright rows, lateral raises and pulley raises. At the end of his shoulder workout, JP’s delts were just bursting out of his skin. They looked like cannonballs sitting on his shoulders, shredded with fibers and covered with veins, totally exhausted. He would force them to work beyond the pain barrier, to work harder than they had ever worked in their life…every day. And I knew those muscles were going to respond by growing even bigger and stronger for their workout the next week.

Thursday was arms day. We did three exercises for biceps, three exercises for triceps and two for forearms – six sets of each exercise. We did barbell curls, dumbbell curls and preacher curls. JP just blasted those biceps when he worked them. Then, we did triceps pressdowns on the pulley machine, French presses, where you hold a dumbbell behind your back and press it up over your head, and dumbbell extensions, where you bend over and press up a dumbbell with your triceps. For our forearms, we did wrist curls and reverse grip curls. With each exercise, JP would force his muscles past their limit, it seemed, willing them to get stronger and stronger every day.

Friday was leg day, and being a rower, it was my favorite day. Of course, JP would out-do me on every exercise, but he would always encourage me to keep up. Man, those exercises were brutal. I devastated my legs so much, after my workouts I could hardly walk. We did squats, leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls and calf raises – six sets of each one. In squats, I was able to top 300 pounds – not bad for a skinny guy like me – but JP blew me away with 475. His legs were still stronger than mine and there was no way I was going to catch up.

And we would end every workout with abs. We did hundreds of crunches and hundreds of hanging leg lifts. I hated doing them, but JP made sure I didn’t skimp, saying that this was the only way I was going to keep from losing my six-pack. I could only obey and push my way through them, knowing that he was right.

“You did awesome today,” JP beamed after the workout, slipping the Packer shirt over his enormously pumped, red chest. Jesus, it was starting to get tight on him already. “You’ll break 200 in no time.”

My pecs were burning, but they felt incredibly pumped and I knew that meant they were getting stronger. While I was struggling to break the 200-pound barrier on the bench press, to JP, 335 – the weight that smashed Ryan’s personal best only a month earlier– was now a piece of cake. Hell, the kid was on his way to breaking 400 after having just blasted 350 pounds above his chest.

“That’s nothing compared to you,” I breathed, starting towards him and cupping my hands over his round pecs. They felt so warm and powerful, the heat emanating so strongly off of those huge slabs of muscle, it was like my fingers were melting into them. “Wow,” I gasped in sheer admiration.

“Matt,” he whispered, sending surges of desire through my body. I looked up into his eyes, two soft, deep pools of passion, and almost starting tearing up. My boyfriend smiled slightly. “Your eyes are so beautiful,” he said.

I didn’t know what to say. Here he was, the most gorgeous guy on the face of the planet, and he was telling me how beautiful my eyes were. I responded the only way I knew how. I reached up and kissed him, pushing my body into his. Instantly, every part of me relaxed as I was surrounded by the fortress of muscle that was my boyfriend. When our lips finally parted, I felt like I was flying in mid-air, my eyes closed.

“I think lunch is ready,” I heard JP say, his voice reaching me through a fog. I opened my eyelids as he began pulling me toward the stairs.

Each day, by the time we had completed all of our training, I was in dire need of food. Mrs. Maloney would have lunch ready for us when we got upstairs. It was always high in protein of course…and there was tons of it. JP’s appetite grew along with the rest of him and there just never seemed to be an end to how much he could put away.

“You boys are going to Burke Lake to run today, right?” Mrs. Maloney asked us as we finished up the huge lunch.

“Yeah,” I answered, JP’s mouth still full of food.

Every afternoon after lunch, the two of us would head to a nearby park and run one of the myriad courses JP had plotted, taking advantage of nearly every hill and slope of the area’s terrain. Being in far better shape than I, JP would keep running long after I petered out, sometimes going for as many as 10 or 15 miles. He just never seemed to get tired.

As JP’s mom began clearing the plates, the door to the garage opened and Mr. Maloney walked in. Since he was a workaholic, I hardly ever saw him, but I knew enough about him to know that he was a very demanding father. Despite being well into his fifties, you could tell that, like both JP and Ryan, he had been in fantastic shape when he was younger and was an excellent athlete. And he expected nothing less than the same out of his sons. If they weren’t top athletes, they were not living up to his standards. I sometimes despised how he treated JP when he wasn’t completely successful at an athletic endeavor, but I knew that JP wouldn’t have been the person he was if he hadn’t been pushed so hard.

“Good afternoon, Paul,” Mrs. Maloney greeted him lovingly.

“Afternoon, Maureen,” his deep, resonate voice bellowed. He quickly pecked his wife on the cheek and headed to the fridge to grab a beer. Then, turning his attention to us, he said, “Looks like you two have been working out.”

JP nodded proudly. “Yeah,” he boasted. “I benched 350 today and Matt here is about to break 200!”

Mr. Maloney smiled. “Good,” he remarked roughly. “You’ll be strong enough to actually win Districts next season.” JP grinned awkwardly, while I bit my lip. JP’s dad never forgot his son’s loss and was constantly reminding him of it. “And then, States.” He said it like it was an order, rather than a hopeful goal.

Before the ensuing silence got too uncomfortable, the burly man looked back at Mrs. Maloney. “By the way,” he asked, frowning slightly, “have you heard from Ryan yet?” JP’s mom shook her head gravely. Mr. Maloney grunted and walked out of the room.

Ryan had gone on a summer road trip with a couple football buddies and the Maloneys had not heard from him in almost a month. I could only imagine what kind of trouble he was getting himself into. His parents were not happy, but as long as he made it to college in time for football camp, his father was ok with it. That’s all that mattered to him.

Minutes later, JP and I were out the door and on our way to Burke Lake Park, a large recreation area not far from his house. The main trail that went around the lake was 4 and a half miles long, but we would frequently veer off onto the smaller paths through the woods. The place was beautiful and it was definitely better than the flat high school track that I used to run on my freshman year.

It was hot that day and we immediately stripped our shirts once we got out of the car, instantly drawing looks from other people. Hell, if I had a dime for every time someone commented to JP about his physique…teenage girls, little kids, mothers pushing baby strollers – one girl almost ran into a tree, she was so distracted by my boyfriend’s miraculous body. I mean, who wouldn’t be. If you saw that gorgeous hunk of a boy, 174 pounds of solid muscle, his pecs bouncing up and down with each step, sweat pouring from every crevice, wouldn’t you have trouble keeping your eyes off of him?

That day, I was only able to do about two laps around the lake – more than eight miles, but JP showed no signs of slowing. In fact, he kept going for another two hours. While I waited, I lay out on the grass, trying to work on my tan. I cursed my northern European heritage that made it easier for me to burn, but at least when I finally got a tan it lasted a while – thanks to my dad’s Sicilian roots.

At last, I turned my head to see JP coming back to the car. His body was covered in sweat, his muscles shimmering gloriously in the sunlight that filtered through the trees. It almost seemed like he was an angel who had just come down from heaven. He was walking with two blond bikini-clad girls who looked like they were in their late teens. I jumped up and cautiously headed in their direction.

“There’s no way you’re only 16,” one of the girls shook her head. “I’ve never seen a kid with your body.”

“Well, there aren’t many,” JP returned, trying not to sound too cocky. I don’t think it would’ve mattered how cocky he was, the girls were totally taken by him.

“How much did you say you can lift?” the other girl asked.

JP blushed and gave up the information. “350,” he said, flexing his body in a most muscular pose. I shifted awkwardly to keep the erection in my shorts from becoming too obvious. Instantly, the women felt their hands all over his chest and arms, feeling their incredible hardness. They were all over him, giggling and sighing. I could tell they wanted so badly to get into his pants.

“Hey, JP!” I called to my boyfriend, attempting to appear as jockish as possible. I don’t know if I succeeded. “Share some of the wealth, will ya!”

Both girls immediately looked at me, one of them biting her lip and looking down at my crotch. Shit, she had noticed my erection. My heart started pounding nervously as she started toward me.

“Is that a branch in your shorts, or are you just happy to see me?” she suggested, reaching down for my dick and squeezing it firmly. She probably thought it was hard from looking at her. Thank God! “You’re almost as hot as your brother over there,” she remarked.

I looked over at JP, the other girl’s arms still wrapped around his shoulders. He seemed highly amused. I was nowhere near as used to this kind of attention as he was. Thankfully, he decided to save me. “Sorry to break this up, girls,” JP piped up, “but Matt and I have to leave.”

Cries of disappointed escaped their mouths as the women frowned and pursed their lips. “Aww, we were just starting to have fun,” JP’s chick whined, her tongue so close to his ear, she was almost licking it.

JP placed his hand on her butt and looked straight into her eyes, practically causing her to swoon on the spot. “We have to go work out and get bigger and stronger for the next time we see you,” he promised emptily. The girl turned red and her eyes glazed over, her hand mindlessly fondling his chiseled abs.

“Ok,” she giggled.

Eventually, JP and I managed to slither out of the girls’ grasps and strut back to the car, keeping up the act of two high school jocks.

As soon as we had exited the parking lot, the two of us burst into hysterical laughter. “Share some of the wealth?” JP snorted. “Dude, you gotta work on your opening lines.”

“Shut up,” I punched him in the shoulder, feeling nothing but rock-hard muscle of course. “I can’t believe they thought we were brothers.”

JP looked out the window and smirked. I knew what he was thinking. Once again, he proved he was better than his older brother. Ryan would have fucked both of those girls in the park bathroom or something, even if he was dating someone else. I looked over at my boyfriend just as he looked at me and we gave each other assuring smiles. I knew that JP would never cheat on me – with a girl or another guy.

“Wait ‘til your brother sees you when he comes back,” I grinned in anticipation. “He’s going to totally be blown away.”

“I’m not done growing yet,” he returned, peering at me. •