Mike pulled into the parking lot of Vitacorp for his next session. He was concerned that this drug he was given was a weightloss thing. He noticed his weight was down, and he wasn't able to lift as much as he usually did.

“Okay okay, you got this.” Michelle said to herself from the passenger seat. She had secured an interview for an internship and got it scheduled for the same time her brother was due to come back anyways.

Mike thought it was weird seeing her all dressed up when she usually dressed like a bum.

“You brought gym clothes to change into right? I don't want to have to drive all the way back home.” Mike said as he got out of the car. He was following through with his promise to take her to the gym since he was already going to be out with her anyways.

“Yes yes, they're in the backseat. But shush, I need to focus.” She said as she walked off ahead of him to go check in for her interview.

Mike laughed at how nervous she was and slowly followed her inside. When he got there, he saw her being led off to another room.

He went to check in, and to his surprise, he was brought to the doctors room immediately. The nurse ran the same tests as before. She didn't read off any of her measurements, but Mike asked her what his weight was just to confirm how much weight he had lost.

“Holy shit, I've lost 30 pounds!” Mike exclaimed. The nurse didn't seem concerned, and just told him to mention it to the doctor when she came in.

Mike sat patiently waiting for the doctor, but it took about 45 minutes before she arrived.

“Sorry for the delay,” Dr. Greene said. “I was just interviewing your sister.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense. She decided to apply after I told her I was doing this study.” Mike said.

“She has pretty impressive grades. And living with one of our test subjects is certainly a bonus.” She said.

“Yeah I guess.” Mike said, not wanting to get stuck in a conversation about his sister. “But anyways, did you look at my numbers? I've lost 30 lbs in a week!”

The doctor turned to her computer and pulled up his charts and looked through them. “Yes I see. Have you noticed any other changes?”

“Well, I can't lift as much as I usually do at the gym. But I figure that's from the weight loss.” Mike said. “But that's it.”

It looked like Dr. Greene was about to say something but stopped herself and reconsidered before saying, “Do you have any loss of appetite?”

“Well now that you mention it, I have been eating a bit less than usual.” Mike said.

“See if you can eat as much as you usually do and we will check your weight next week.” The doctor went through the same routine as last time as she gave him another dosage. She then said her goodbyes and directed him out the door to the waiting room where his sister was.

Mike walked past his sister and headed towards the car, trusting her to know to follow him. As soon as they both got in the car she screeched in excitement, causing Mike to jump.

“I totally got it! They told me they would contact me in a day or two, but I know I totally got it! They were so impressed.” Michelle exclaimed.

“Jesus! You almost blew my eardrums with that screech.” Mike complained. Michelle ignored him as she whipped out her phone to text all her friends.

Mike rolled his eyes and started to drive to the gym.

~~~~

Mike sighed as he saw his sister walk out of the changing room in a bright pink sports bra that barely contained her tits, and matching skin tight shorts. He didn't say anything, as this was a pretty common outfit, but he wasn't exactly pleased.

“Put this on. You need to keep your body warm, especially when you're new so you don't cramp or pull something.” Mike said as he tossed her his sweatshirt.

She gave him a suspicious look, but wasn't about to challenge him on his knowledge of working out.

As she put it on, Mike noticed how tall she looked. She must be over 6 feet tall now, and quickly gaining on his own 6’5”. He started to wonder if he jinxed it by telling her she'd never be taller than him a while ago.

The first thing he had them do was stretch and warm up. After about 15 minutes of light warmups, he was ready to get to the workout.

“Alright, now that the warm up is over, let's hit the bench.” Mike said, leading Michelle to the bench. “Let's see how much you can do.”

After showing her the technique, he had her hit a few reps starting with the bar, and moving up in weight until she failed and had to have Mike help her re-rack the bar.

“Alright, looks like you failed at 95lbs. The bar weighs 45lbs, and there are 25 lbs on each side.” He said, explaining simple math to her. “That's not bad for a girl.”

“Better watch out for these guns” Michelle said with a laugh as she flexed her biceps.

Mike rolled his eyes. “Those biceps aren't even a muscle used when benching. Now move over and watch a pro.”

Mike loaded up 2 plates plus 10lbs on each side for a total of 245lbs. Something he could easily rep out. He got into position and took a deep breath before pushing off and starting his set.

But something went wrong. As soon as the bar touched his chest and he started to push the bar back up, it didn't move. He pushed as hard as he could, even going so far as to cheat and lift his butt off the bench. But still nothing. He began to panic as adrenaline rushed his system and his blood began to tingle. Even with the adrenaline rush, he still couldn't move the weight.

Michelle began to panic as she saw her brother couldn't lift the weight. She tried to help him by pulling the weight up, but she was already tired from her benching and the weight was much too heavy for her to even help. She quickly looked around and called over another guy to help.

Mike's blood was boiling as he struggled with the weight. The embarrassment of his sister having to help, plus the sense of dread at her failing to help him was making him feel close to heart failure. It wasn't until another guy came over and helped him re-rack the weight that he was able to let out the breath he had been holding.

He thanked the guy for the help and made up some lame excuse about shoulder pain to help cover his embarrassment. The heated emotions he had been feeling quickly turned to shame and it felt like his heart physically dropped in his chest as he contemplated the fact that he couldn't even 1 rep a weight he had easily hit just a week earlier.

“Are you okay?” Michelle asked, concerned.

“Yeah, it's just this drug trial. Its making me lose weight.” Mike said.

“Does losing weight make you weaker?” Michelle asked, confused.

“Kinda. There's a reason why powerlifters all look fat. You need mass to move mass.” Mike explained.

“Oh okay. Do you want to go home now?” She asked.

“No no, it's ok. Let's just hit the machines over there.” Mike said, pointing to the other side of the gym. Michelle nodded and started walking over there. Mike stood up to follow but froze as soon as he did.

Why did Michelle look taller than him?

~~~~~~

Mike made it through the rest of the workout without Michelle noticing his height. He was either sitting down or bent over pretending to pick something up anytime she stood near him.

He put on a calm exterior to hide that anything was wrong, but on the inside he was panicking. The stress of the situation was getting to him. He could almost swear that he saw her getting even bigger as they worked out.

When they got home, Mike had Michelle go in ahead of him, pretending like he had to grab things out of the trunk. When she was out of eyesight, he went inside and immediately went into his room.

Digging through his drawers, he pulled out a tape measure and quickly measured himself.

“Oh fuck no. This is impossible.” Mike said as he read the numbers.

“5 foot 9”