Raymond sat up on the weight bench, glowering at his younger sister as she danced around, mocking him for being weak. This is exactly what he was afraid of before they came here. Deep down, he had known that Clara was stronger than him…she was a good deal bigger than him, more active than him, and…well…she just looked stronger and more substantial. But he had been harboring some kind of desperate hope that maybe, just because he was a guy, that he would be able to lift more than her. Now that he saw that his hope was in vain, he felt a crushing sense of hopelessness as he sat there on the bench, his skinny little arms and legs looking pale white and pitiful under the glaring lights of the gym. He wanted to leave, to be anywhere but there.

Katherine was laughing a little. “Ok, come on Clara,” she chuckled, motioning for the young teenager to stop mocking her older brother. “That’s enough — this isn’t a competition, you know. Let’s try and be supportive of each other, ok?”

“Ok Katherine,” said Clara, shooting her brother a mischievous smile. Clara was going to do whatever Katherine said, since she looked up to her as an almost-goddess-like figure. And with Katherine’s full, womanly, muscular physique, coupled with her towering 6’4 height, it wasn’t difficult to see why.

Katherine turned to look at Raymond, who was sitting on the weight bench with his shoulders and neck hunched, his spine curved unhealthily, and his scrawny arms and legs poking out almost comically from his oversized gym clothes. She felt a wave of compassion for his wretched state, but she also felt something else…something like distaste, for how far he had let himself slide.  

‘Come on Raymond,’ Katherine thought as she looked at him. ‘Seriously? You’re seriously gonna just sit there and pout?’ She rallied and walked over to him, reaching out and putting her large hand on his shoulder. He shrank like a little animal from her touch — she couldn’t believe the effect her body had on him…how different they felt compared to one another. She could feel his little body shaking under her hand, which completely engulfed his shoulder, his entire left clavicle bone, and a good deal of his left-upper back. She could also feel the heat emanating from her much larger body onto his, dwarfing his body’s heat production. It made sense…she was so much bigger, so there was a lot more going on, and therefore a lot more heat being produced…the comparison was so unequal that it was difficult to comprehend.  

But Katherine shook it all off; she had come over to comfort and encourage him, after all.  

“Raymond,” she said quietly, looking into his eyes as she tried to access that confident young man she had once dated. “Come on, don’t worry about it! We’ve all gotta start somewhere in our training! Everyone’s different, you know. Don’t…don’t worry that she can lift more.”

“I hate this,” said Raymond quietly, looking away from Katherine as he continued to pout. “I hate everything about this. It just shows how weak I am and how…how even my younger freaking sister is stronger than me.”  

“Well, don’t view Clara as a low mark,” chuckled Katherine, as she watched the younger sister approach. “She’s pretty strong for her age, you know. She surprised me, actually!”

Raymond looked woefully up at Katherine with irritation in his face.  

“Really?” he complained. “You’re really gonna take that approach? Come on, Katherine, just admit it — I’m pathetic. My younger sister’s stronger than me…I’m five years older, and she can lift more than me.”  

Katherine looked down at Raymond’s hunched little form as Clara came up to them.  

“Ok Katherine!” she said brightly, “what’s next? What are we lifting next?” Katherine held her hand up for a moment, putting Clara on hold, as she continued to look down at Raymond. Should she lay into him here? In front of Clara? Part of her didn’t want to exacerbate the situation, and contribute to Clara teasing him more. But then, with a sudden flash of insight, everything became clear to her. Raymond was 19 years old! He was legally an adult now! Technically, he was even older than she was! And he was behaving like this! It was pathetic! Her mind suddenly darted to his father, Mr. Pierce…Charles…in that instant, Katherine felt a sudden attraction to the idea of Raymond’s and Clara’s father. He sure was handsome…and accomplished and mature and put-together and funny and confident…everything his oldest child was not. What would Charles want her to do here? She inwardly smiled at herself having these thoughts, and also at the idea of Charles reacting to this situation. He would tell his son to get over it! To “man up!” To get with it! She decided not to let Raymond off the hook.  

“Well, if you’re gonna just sit there with this attitude,” she said down to him, putting her hands on her hips as Clara stood watching, “then yeah — I’d have to say that you’re pretty pathetic, Raymond,” said Katherine quietly. Raymond looked up at her from his sitting position, as if he could not quite believe what she had just said. She kept it coming.

“I mean, come on Raymond, look at you,” she persisted. “You’re 19 years old, but you look like you’ve regressed back into someone Clara’s age. You’ve lost a lot of weight, you’re skinny as a rail, you don’t have any ambitions, and you’re just…listless…like, really low-energy. I’m worried about you, Raymond. That’s why I brought you out here today. To get you started on getting healthy…active…vigorous. I wanna help you, but I can’t do it for you. You’ve gotta have your heart in it.”  

Raymond made motions with his mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out. Katherine waited patiently for a few moments. Finally, he found his voice. “I…I’m fine! I just…I don’t think it’s fair that you’re comparing yourself to me. I mean…I’ve been…I’ve been doing ok! I just…just needed to take some time off to, uh, to meditate and think about my options for — ”

“Ok Raymond,” said Katherine shortly, cutting him off. She hadn’t brought him to the gym to entertain his delusions. She turned to Clara. “See those two bars over there?”

“Yes!” said Clara, excited to keep the workout going.  

“Ok, those are called “dip bars,”” said Katherine. “You’ve heard of “dips” before, right?”

“Yeah — it’s when you hold onto the bars and go up and down like this, right?” asked Clara, miming the dipping motion.

“Correct,” said Katherine, smiling. “Why don’t you go over there and try to do as many as you can in one go…I need to talk to your brother here alone for a moment.”

“But I want you to watch me!” said Clara.

“I’ll be watching, don’t worry,” said Katherine, laughing. “And remember, go slowly, and go all the way down until your arms are at a ninety-degree angle, like this, ok?”

“Ok!” said Clara, watching Katherine’s demonstration, and she skipped off toward the bars. Katherine turned back around to Raymond and squatted down. Even though Raymond was sitting down on the bench, just squatting like this enabled Katherine to look him straight in the face. He shied away from her eye contact, since her face was so close to his, so big and imposing. She suddenly spoke. Her voice was soft and deep, but edged with irritation.  

“Look at me, Raymond. Come on, look at me. Jesus, it feels incredible that I even dated you just over a year ago. I don’t know what’s happened to you, but it’s not ok. Yes, I know I’ve gotten a lot bigger, taller, and stronger, and yes, I know that in a lot of ways I’ve grown past you. I have my own place now, Raymond. I’m paying my own bills. I’m doing adult things. And yes, it is a little striking to come back home here and see you just…living with your parents, getting into fights with your 14-year-old sister about who’s stronger. But Raymond — I want you to get real. This isn’t about you compared to me. I’m not trying to turn you into me…I don’t think that’s possible. No — what I’m trying to do is help you get healthy, you know? Help you put some meat on your bones…help you develop some kind of routine that you can stick to…help you get out in front of whatever it is you’re dealing with.”

“I’m…I’m not dealing with anything!” Raymond protested.  

“That’s not what I see,” said Katherine, standing up. Raymond stood up too, even though he was uncomfortable with how his eyes only came up to the top of her boobs. He didn’t want to take her lectures sitting down anymore. Katherine folded her arms across her chest. So he wanted to try and stand up to her, huh? When she was trying to help him? She felt herself getting angrier. “I see a guy who used to be hot and who had promise…totally fizzled out. That’s what I see.” Her words were still calm, but she could immediately see that they had cut Raymond like a knife.  

“You…you don’t think I’m hot anymore?” he asked in a small voice.  

Katherine rolled her eyes at him as she sighed. Was he serious?! “Oh my god,” she said softly, and then spoke up louder. “No, Raymond. I don’t think you’re hot anymore.” She glanced over at Clara, who had just started doing dips. She smiled inwardly — Clara was the one she should be focusing on now. Just a few more seconds of this silly conversation, and she’d put an end to it.

“Why…why not?” he asked. Katherine looked down at him incredulously. She could hardly believe what was coming out of Raymond’s mouth. Did he actually think she still found him attractive? That anyone would find him attractive?? For some reason that she couldn’t quite understand, her mind flashed to his father again, and she took in a deep breath. She was tempted to treat him like a child, since he was acting like one, but she wouldn’t stand for it. Damn it, he was older than her — her really needed to get it together. And the only way for that to happen was to shatter this crazy world of delusions he lived in.  

“Why not?” she repeated, unable to stifle an ironic grin. “Come on, Raymond, don’t make me do this.” But she knew that he would, and he did.  

“I…I wanna know why not!” She looked closely at him, at his eyes staring up submissively at her from half a foot below. The fact that she outweighed him by over 60 pounds was all too apparent, especially as the conversation had proceeded along. She felt bigger than him in every way. She looked over at Clara banging out dips to make sure she was doing them right, and then turned back at him.  

“To be totally honest, Raymond,” she said calmly, “it’s not really attractive how skinny you’ve gotten. I mean, come on — just plain skinny is one thing, but…you look weak. And just…small. Do you really think that’s attractive to women?”

“Some women like small men!” said Raymond, sticking out his chin.

“Sure they do!” Katherine agreed, nodding her head. “But you’re not just small, Raymond. You look unhealthy…like, almost anorexic. You need to eat better. You need to be more active. I’ve said it before — it looks like you have a child’s body. You didn’t used to be like that.”  

Raymond opened his mouth to respond, but Katherine stopped him by putting her big hand up authoritatively. “I’m not trying to have an argument here, Raymond. But you asked me to tell you, and now I’m telling you. And by the way, I’m telling you all this so you’ll stop living in fantasy land and start getting with the program. So yeah, you don’t look hot any more. Your face looks drawn and bony, like you need better nutrition. Your skin is flaking because you’re not getting enough vitamins. You seem to have lost all your sense of self-confidence since you apparently feel insecure about Clara upstaging you, and you just generally have this sluggish, passive energy about you now. It makes me want to shake you, Raymond!”

And she suddenly reached down and wrapped her big hands around his shoulders and shook him, not too hard, but hard enough that his entire body wobbled back and forth like a rag doll.  

“Snap out of it, Raymond!” she said, with insistent energy. “Come on, get with it!” Seeing how much she could easily manipulate his little body, combined with the harsh but true facts that she had laid down for him moments before, actually made Katherine feel wet.  

‘There it is again,’ she thought, noticing once more how her mind and body seemed to have a sexual response to size comparisons with Raymond, and to feeing more adult than him, further along…even superior. She wasn’t quite keen on these feelings, especially the ones that seemed to convert humiliating and dominating Raymond into sexual pleasure, but she couldn’t really pretend that they weren’t there. Besides, she wasn’t saying all these things to him to turn herself on — she really did want him to snap out of his passive reverie and start embracing life! She would like nothing better than to see that! But still, the thoughts lingered darkly in her mind as her pussy lips lubricated themselves and her clit twitched between her thighs. She filed the feelings away again, to be consulted at another time.  

“Come on, Raymond!” she said, smiling down at him. “I only told you all those things because I care about you and want you to become who I know you are — and nothing I said, about your attractiveness or your body or anything else, is set in stone. It’s all reversible, Raymond! But you’ve gotta have the right attitude! You’ve gotta have the desire to turn it around. You think you can do that? Come on, let me help you!” She extended her hand down to him. Raymond looked at it, his head clearly spinning with all that he had just heard. He reached out timidly and put his much smaller hand in hers.  

“I’ll…I’ll try,” he said.  

She smiled warmly down on him and squeezed. “Good enough for a start!” she said brightly. “Now come on, let’s go do some dips and see how Clara’s doing!”

“I did 7!” Clara said brightly as they approached. “Is that good, Katherine?”  

“Very good!” said Katherine, applauding her. “But remember, it’s not how many you do that matters — what matters most is technique, and I was watching you, Clara. You had good form for the first few, but for the last few, your form started to suffer a little bit. That’s natural, you know — as you get tired, it becomes harder and harder to keep good form. But I want you to remember this, ok?”

“Ok!” said Clara eagerly.  

“If you can’t do a rep with good form,” said Katherine carefully, “then it’s better not to do that rep at all, ok? Doing reps with bad form can result in you getting hurt, and they don’t really work out the muscles in a good way. Does that makes sense?”  

“Totally!” said Clara.

“Good!” said Katherine. She walked in between the bars and wrapped her hands around them. Clara started bouncing up and down excitedly.  

“Oooo are you gonna do some?!” she asked animatedly.  

“Yes!” Katherine laughed. “I’m gonna show you how to maintain form, even as you get tired, ok?” She locked her arms and curled her legs back behind her so that she was holding her entire body up with her arms. Then she lowered herself down smoothly, until her arms were at a ninety-degree angle, and then seamlessly brought herself back up. She repeated this six times.  

“See how I’m going slowly?” she said as she lowered and raised herself. “You were doing good with that for the first few, Clara, but then you got tired and started rushing it. You’ve gotta be smooootthhh the whole time.” She banged out six more dips, and still, she didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. Clara’s eyes got wide, and Raymond himself couldn’t help but be impressed, even though his mind was still smarting with Katherine’s unflinching words.

“Wooowwww,” said Clara. “You’re so strongggg! How many can you do??”

“We’ll see,” chuckled Katherine, now on her 15th rep. Once she reached 20, she had started to breathe a little hard, and by 25, she was really pushing them out. Her face was getting red, and the sweat started to bead on her brow, but she kept on going, slowly and smoothly, up and down, until she had reached 28. Then she stopped.

“Ok!” she gasped, letting herself down as she labored through her breathing. “That’s…that’s enough for one set. See…see how I kept the form there, Clara?”

“Yeah,” said Clara, mesmerized by Katherine’s strength. Her shoulders, chest, and triceps were bulging out from the effort, swelling even bigger than they had been before.  

“Ok…” she breathed, putting her hands on her knees and then quickly standing up, placing her hands behind her head. “Ok, Raymond…you…you go. Do as…as many as you can.” He looked up at her, as if pleading with her not to make him follow her. She shook her head as she struggled to catch her breath.  

“Come on…Raymond — no…no worries, remember? Not…not comparing. We just need to get started on…on all this, ok? Come on…up you go!” He walked into between the bars, awkwardly raised and lowered himself down a few times, and then halted in the middle of his third rep, his arms shaking uncontrollably. His face turned a deep shade of red as he strained and strained, trying desperately to raise himself up a third time.  

“Ok…ok, stop, stop!” said Katherine. “That’s enough Raymond!” He let himself back down and stood there with slumped shoulders. Clara cackled out loud.  

“God you’re weak!” she laughed. “You only did two!?”

“Come on Clara,” said Katherine. “Remember what I said about being nice? If we’re gonna criticize, it’s gotta be constructive, ok?”

“Constructive?” asked Clara, puzzled.  

“Yeah,” said Katherine. “I mean, it has to be directed towards a good purpose. It’s not nice just to criticize someone just because.”

“But you said he was being pathetic,” said Clara.

“I said that it was pathetic to have a self-defeating attitude,” corrected Katherine. “I know that Raymond’s not really like that, are you Raymond?” He looked up at her and made a half-hearted motion of shaking his head.  

“Now here’s a constructive way to say what you just said,” said Katherine to Clara, smiling deviously. She stepped toward Raymond and leaned down towards him with her hands on her hips.  

“Come on dude!” she said forcefully, effecting the attitude of an enthusiastic personal trainer, “Don’t let that get you down! Two reps is small, but we all have to start somewhere! Now, are you gonna give up after just trying two reps, or are you gonna try and keep coming here and working at it until you get to three? Huh!? What’s it gonna be?”

“I’m…I’m gonna keep trying,” said Raymond quietly.  

“Hell yeah you are!” said Katherine, as Clara started to giggle at her display. “Are you gonna let your younger sister outmuscle you? Huh?!”

“N-no,” said Raymond.

“What was that!?” boomed Katherine, leaning down and cocking her head at him as she put her hand to her ear. “I didn’t quite hear you. I asked if you’re gonna let your 14-year-old sister get even stronger than you than she already is?!”  

“No!” said Raymond, a little louder.  

“Are you gonna let her get even bigger than you, so that she beats you every time you wrestle?! You gonna let that happen??”

“No!” he said, getting a little more into it as Katherine smiled down at him through her persona.  

“Are you gonna be a little twig man forever, or are you gonna get ripped like me?!”

“I’m…gonna get…r-ripped like you!” said Raymond.  

Clara laughed loudly. “Yeah right!” she said. “You’d have to change everything about yourself to get like her!"  

“You gonna take that, little guy?” continued Katherine in her persona, cracking another smile at Raymond. “You gonna roll over and take that from your little sister? Or are you gonna use it as motivation to get stronger? Better?”

“M-motivation,” said Raymond, and he couldn’t help but smile a little at Katherine’s theatrics.  

“Ok,” she laughed, descending back into her normal tone of voice. “Anyway, Clara, that’s what I mean. You gotta believe in him, ok? You gotta believe in each other…although…well, I can’t really hope to stop siblings from squabbling amongst themselves, can I? she asked, giving Raymond a wink.  

For the next 45 minutes or so they proceeded through several other upper-body exercises, with Katherine showing them both how to lift with proper technique. With every exercise, Clara lifted more than Raymond, to her utter joy. Katherine kept reminding her not to rub it in too hard, but she couldn’t help but be impressed by Clara’s natural strength…and she also couldn’t help but be amazed by how atrophied Raymond’s muscles seemed to have become. His weakness was astounding. But she had already said her piece to him about all that, and she kept trying to encourage him.  

By the time they left, Clara was flushed with energy and promise, and Raymond was eager to get back home. Katherine said goodbye to the two of them, promising to meet at the same time two days later, but as she watched the two siblings walk to their car, a sudden desire seized her. A crazy desire…something that felt almost reckless. But she was feeling extremely horny right now. Seeing Raymond’s weak little body compared to Clara’s, and let alone her own, had sparked some raunchy feelings in her that she could not ignore. She had to explore them some more. There was a party that she was going to later that night…a gathering of people from their old high school. And Raymond was going to go with her.  

“Hey Raymond!” she called, gesturing him to come back to her. He turned around and obeyed. “So there’s a party at Wes’s house tonight, you know,” she said after he came up to her.  

“Wes? Wes Larkin?” he asked.

 Katherine nodded her head, smiling. “A lot of old high school people are gonna be there. I was gonna drop by for a bit — wanna come?”  

“Uhhh…” said Raymond reluctantly. He had been planning to just sit at home and play video games. 

“Come on Raymond, it’ll be fun!” said Katherine with a lively smile. “Come with me! Get out of the house a little! This is what I’m talking about — live a little — have some fun with other people! There’s gonna be some drinks and we’ll all just have a good time! Whaddya say, huh?”

Raymond had perked up at the mention of drinks. “W-well,” he said. “I… guess I could come.”

“Yay! Great!” said Katherine. “I’ll pick you up at 8!”