Evening workouts were paced with laughs, trying new things and encouraging one another. You’d even become friendly with a couple of other patrons who seemed to show up at the same time as you.

Morning workouts were just you, your AirPods and people who had apparently decided you didn’t belong there with them. It was clear in the way you could always feel eyes watching you move between cardio and weights and finishing with the treadmill.

You weren’t fat per se but you weren’t someone who was built to ever be skinny. You had a soft stomach, thick thighs and a plump ass, all of which you rocked but you also took the time to take care of yourself in the gym because you liked to eat and weren’t ashamed of it.

At least you weren’t until you started morning workouts and men who looked like they drank their energy drinks with steroids in them and women who looked like they had never ate a carb before started watching you. It also smelled way worse in the mornings, like half of them had forgotten deodorant before their workouts (or thought the natural stuff was better for their body.)

The man who watched you the most didn’t fall into any of those characterizations. He clearly had a decade or so on you in life, was thick and strong, (not ripped liked you’d expect for someone like him) and he was agile, moving with almost a predators ease. (Yes, you may have watched more than once as he lifted his shirt to wipe sweat off his face and had seen the sheer bulk of him.) His short, dark hair was always a little unkempt from sweat and you’d yet to see an expression other than intense focus on his face.

He also didn’t seem to be there to make friends. Usually ending up with a group of guys watching him lift but never talking with them, never smiling as they patted his back over the weights he lifted with ease and he never basked in the attention the girls would try to give as he passed them by.

You’d watched him pick up some of the biggest weights in the gym day in and day out but the only cardio he ever did was twenty minutes on the treadmill to end his workout and for some reason it was always on the one next to you as you were wrapping up yours.

You’d had it timed pretty well now. He’d always finish with several reps of a light weight, wipe down the equipment he’d used and then head to the treadmill that seemed to be open next to you every time he wanted one.

You prepared as soon as you saw him begin to wipe the equipment down by taking a long drink of your water bottle, pulling your tank top up slightly to wipe the sweat off your face and then slowing the speed of your treadmill down just a little so you weren’t breathing as hard as before.

You picked up these habits quickly once he started walking next to you. If your breathing wasn’t a steady, even pace he would turn and watch you as you walked and it made you even more self conscious than you already were being there alone.

That’s where you’re currently at, lowering your speed as he headed towards the treadmills. His head turned to look at you as he passed and you almost tripped, he’d never been that direct in watching you before, you felt like an animal being stalked for lunch.

He once again took the treadmill next to you but unlike other mornings he was watching you immediately, not even trying to hide his stare. It was embarrassing how fast you could feel your cheeks turning a deeper red, not from your workout.

Glancing down at your outfit of black workout pants, black and pink striped tank top and matching black Nikes you tried figuring out what made him look at you today. Your boobs weren’t bouncing an inappropriate amount and your ponytail was still swaying the normal way it always did, you’d brushed your teeth before leaving the apartment and even sprayed a little extra perfume on your wrists, nothing out of the ordinary to explain the way he watched you now.

For the first time, you turn and look back at him which surprises him by the way his eyebrow raises a small fraction of an inch. Pulling your AirPods out you take a deep breath.

“I’m allowed to be here too” the other eyebrow raises now.

“Wha” you interrupt him as you stop your treadmill.

“Just because I don’t look like all the other girls here doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be here too.”

“Well aware of that” His lips pressed into a thin line with that one.

“You don’t have to stare at me just so I stop showing up on a machine next to you for twenty minutes.”

“That’s”

“This isn’t your personal gym.”

“No, you’re” His jaw tightens as you interrupt him again.

“I’m allowed to be here too” with that you turn and walk off, your workout apparently done for the day.

You take a shaky breath as you flee, feeling his eyes still on you as you do, not knowing that they were following the slight jiggle of your ass as you moved or that Brendon Park had never been talked to, much less left speechless like that before.