The next morning I woke up to the sound of clattering coming from the kitchen area. I got up, put on an old hoodie to fight the slight cold and made my way towards the source of the noise. When I reached the kitchen I was greeted by a wide awake Tegan still dressed in her sleep clothes, a black sleeveless shirt and plaid pyjama pants, smiling and looking proudly at the made up table with all sorts of breakfast food. I couldn't help the smile creeping on my face. "What's this about?" I questioned while gesturing at the table.
"I thought I'd do something nice for my little sister. You know, I'm kind of amazing like that." She laughed and walked over to me. "Now come on, it's time to test my extremely advanced cooking skills!" With that she gave me a soft push towards the table and pulled the chair out for me. My heart skipped a beat at the thoughtful action and I sat down to take a better look at the contents on the table. A small laugh escaped me, because while I was sure Tegan did absolutely her best, the food she had prepared was far from challenging. But the gesture was nonetheless adorable, so I gave her an appreciative smile and dug in. The rest of breakfast went by rather uneventful, some comfortable small talk was exchanged and to my slight dismay Tegan informed me that she would pick up Lindsey in the afternoon. After we were both finished with eating we shared the task of cleaning up the mess Tegan had left behind when preparing the food in her typically enthusiastic but unfortunately not very careful manner.
"So what do you plan on doing now?" She asked me from across the room where she put the last remains of our breakfast into the garbage. I checked the time on my phone. "Oh I'm meeting up with Shannon in like an hour, you know catching up and such, now that I happen to be back in the wonderful city of Vancouver." Tegan gave a small scoff at the sarcasm in my statement. "Ok. Well, I think I'm gonna go for a small run. You'll probably already be gone when I come back, so… try to have some fun, yeah?"
She tried to hide it, but I could see the concern behind her words. I knew that I haven't been the most sociable person the past few months. I pretended to blame it on my last failed relationship, if I can call it that. It was one of the reasons why Tegan had invited me to stay with her in Vancouver for a bit. She called it sisterly bonding time, but it was obvious she wanted to keep an eye on me and make sure that I was ok. And honestly I didn't mind it that much as it meant being near her and having her attention.
I gave her a nod and a little smile when I noticed her expectant expression. She grinned happily "Great, I'm gonna go change real quick and then I'm gone!" With that she left me alone.
Tegan had talked about being a lot more physically active the last few months. She had taken up jogging every morning and apparently also some weird workout program that seemed pretty much like torture to me. But I could see the effect that it had on her already. She had calmed down a little bit, seemed more relaxed in her general outlook and demeanor. And I could definitely see the effect that it had on her physique. Tegan had always been the stronger one of the two of us, but now she was really fit and there were muscles and definition clearly visible. I remembered when she had picked me up at the airport and taken my bags from me. I had immediately noticed the new muscles in her arms, the way her biceps was bulging when she was carrying my heavy luggage with ease. My knees had grown weak at the sight then and now I still sometimes thought about it and imagined the feeling of being wrapped up in her strong arms.
After Tegan had left I went into the bathroom to get ready and when I got out, Tegan was already out for her run. So I headed out to meet my old high school friend Shannon, who I hadn't seen in while. It was a welcome break from my usual day activities and I surprisingly really had a fun and relaxing time. It was always nice to catch up with old friends and especially to realize that we still got along just as well as we did ten years ago. At the end we made plans to all meet up again in a few days and go out together and then said our goodbyes.
Feeling refreshed I returned, excided to tell Tegan about the plans I had made. The apartment was quiet and I began to search for Tegan. After checking her bedroom I made your way to the farthest room that Tegan called her "activity room", basically just a room filled with random stuff.
I opened the door and was met with the sight of Tegan doing push-ups on the floor. She was in her workout clothes, consisting of red, mid-length shorts and a grey, sleeveless shirt. Her body was drenched in sweat, her short hair dripping wet, dark strands of it sticking to her face. I couldn't take my eyes off her as her trembling arms pushed her body off the floor again and again, the tattoo covered skin glistening with sweat. She was still oblivious to my presence, fully consumed with the exercise and the music that was blearing through her headphones. I tried to ignore the growling and grunting noises that were coming from Tegan and gave myself some time to slow down my heartbeat and get myself under control again. One last deep breath and I was ready. I marched coolly over to her and kicked her softly in the side. Surprised by my appearance she lost her balance, collapsed onto the ground and rolled on her back.
"Asshole!" she laughed and looked up at me, breathing heavily and taking off her headphones. She saw me sneaking another look her arms and grinned, "Pretty impressive, right?"
Playing it off, I just gave an unfazed scoff, "You're such a show-off."
"Oh, come on. I've worked hard for these. You wanna feel?" She was now standing up and got right in front of me, flexing her biceps. I looked at her smirking face, chuckled and decided to play along for a bit.
"Ok, show me what you got!" I challenged motioning to her arm.
I could see a slightly surprised expression taking over her face for a blink second before the teasing grin was back again.
"But be careful, I don't want you to get hurt at the gun show".
I shook my head, giggling at her silliness and reached out to touch her flexed arm. As my hand came in contact with her skin I desperately tried to keep an aloof expression on my face while carefully tracing the outline of the bulging muscles on her arm. Snapping out of it I gave her biceps a hard squeeze, stepped back a bit and grinned "Meh, I've seen better."
She jokingly gasped at my words, "Oh, you wish!" and stroked her arms lovingly as if to console their feelings after my dismissal.
"Alright, you little narcissist. Now go hop into the shower, you kind of reek. And I'm telling the truth about that."
She gave her armpits a sniff at my words and, apparently coming to the same conclusion, started to make her way out of the room. As she reached the door she turned around to me and grinned.
"So you were lying before then, huh? I knew my guns were irresistible!"
With that she left, her laugh echoing through the hallway.