If you use public transportation pretty regularly you’re bound to hit up on the same folks a couple times. You form a sort of strange pseudosocial relationship with these strangers. You unconsciously learn things about them. Where they get on. Where they get off. Parts of their schedule. Maybe you overhear bits and pieces of conversation.
For the duration of that bus ride your spheres intersect and you are granted a fleeting, shallow glimpse into their world. And then one of you gets off and that bond dissolves like candy loss until you meet again.

It started when you saw a dude get on the same route as you did. Every day for a week. Painfully normal. Kinda chubby. Kinda ugly. Unassuming. Nose in a book. You assumed he must be a student of some sort, but besides that he was completely unmemorable save for the fact that he was always on when you were on. You always got off before his stop so you never saw him leave.
It was the same kind of routine for weeks. Months maybe. He kinda zoned into the background, but became a constant in a sense. Vaguely comforting. 

One day though it kind of hit you. Was he getting bigger?  Not massively but..yeah definitely getting bigger. More toned for sure. You saw edges in his jaw that were new. His arms filled his sleeves differently. Veins were popping up under baby fat.
You didn’t notice it at first because it’s really hard to see those changes gradually if you’re exposed to them every day.

The books were also gone. He just scrolled on his phone now. One time when you sat nearer to him you saw what he was looking at. Insta and twitter and tumblr. Dude’s timelines were filled with musclebros and fitness influencers.
Kinda funny. You swear you saw him flexing his arms a couple times. You ignored it though.

You stopped taking the bus for a few weeks. Called in your vacation days to have some time off so no need to catch that Morning express into the city.
Crazy how much can change in a couple weeks.
When you got back to the grind you had pretty much forgotten your Bus dude. But seeing him again hit you like a bat.
Dude was packing on pounds fast. And he’d changed up his style. No more sleeves. Not even in the oncoming cold weather. First time on you couldn’t stop staring at them.  Toned. Powerful. folded across his chest accentuating that plunging neckline and the cleft of his pecs. The muscles in his forearms seemed to jump with every motion. Now those were something to remember him by.
He stuck in your mind more. You occasionally even found yourself thinking about him even after you parted ways.
You paid attention to his habits on the bus more.
Every day now he got off at the same stop before you. Jumped off right outside the gym and went inside. Weird. Didn’t he used to go all the way into town towards the university? It wasn’t holiday time yet as far as you remembered. He was smiling so much more now, so maybe he was on vacation, right?
His eyes were simultaneously so focused but so much more empty. 

He definitely flexed his pecs every couple of minutes. You would too if you were him. And every time he did you swear you saw a corresponding bounce in his pants. You tried to restrain yourself. Feels so skeevy and voyeuristic noticing those things in public. But damn it was hard not to notice with this guy.

Eventually you got a car! Hooray…well. It was a company car and it meant you had to work a lot more.
But hey, no long bus rides. No more bus dude. It was silly to feel such a wistful loss of a guy who literally didn’t even know of your existence. But he still stuck in your mind.
You didn’t really have any reason to use the bus for maybe 2 or 3 years. That was until your car broke down.
So you fished out that old bus card for the first time in ages and got on. It was hard to say you missed it really. Uncomfortable seats. Weird smells.
Couple stops later a total stud jumps on. Sits across the row from you. Legs spread. Gym shorts filled with thick thighs. Stringer showing off the total bulging size of his upper body. You’re a little gobsmacked at first. And then you do a double take.. Fuck is that him?! It has to be.

If he sat normally he would still take up one and a half seats. But the manspread on him made it so that he took up the whole 3-seat row. It was lucky the bus wasn’t too full and that people seemed to be avoiding those seats anyway…though you get the sense that it wouldn’t have really mattered to him. Manners and etiquette were the last thing on this dudes mind. He adjusted his bulge openly and proudly. No way it could be the same Bus dude…unless everything had grown.
He smiles and just sits there emptily. Doesn’t even scroll on his phone. And for entertainment he just openly flexes and feels himself. Fingers kneading into his Massive pecs. Massaging his biceps and tensing them.
You swear he’s looking at you but it’s hard to tell. His eyes are almost glazed over. Listless.
Is he drooling? Licking his lips?
Then you see a small spot on his shorts right where his bulge twitches and moves. Fuck..it just hit you how much of an aroma he has. It practically filled the bus making it reek of body odour and testosterone and intense douchey Axe bodyspray.  It made your heart throb. Absolutely intoxicating. But so vile and not fit for public consumption. He flexes his pecs and he almost moans. Adjusts his crotch and even after doing so you can practically see the rhythmic throb of his veins along his shaft.

You look at the bus driver like “why aren’t you doing something?”
It’s then that you notice. The driver’s got a shiner and has his eyes glued to the road.
All of the rest of the bus patrons are either transfixed like you or know well enough to avert their gaze

He on the other hand, is still staring straight ahead. It feels like his eyes are burrowing into you. But then you notice, he isn’t staring at you. He’s looking at his own reflection behind you. That your head just so happens to obscure.

The old gym is coming up soon and you feel a bit of relief. Being in this dudes presence was overwhelming. You needed a moment to collect yourself.
But that moment never comes.
Instead stop after stop goes by with him not moving. Just staring. You feel like a vulnerable piece of meat somehow.
Eventually your stop is up and you get up and ring the bell. Concealing the tent in your pants.
He gets up too. Fuck..he’s tall. You take a step. He takes a step.
You tag off, He doesn’t; you realize he never tagged on in the first place.
The bus peels away and you both are there on the sidewalk.

“You were blocking my view.”

It’s the first time you’ve ever heard him speak. It’s disarming. Soft. Deep. Sort of slow. You imagine he probably sounded different when he first got on the bus years ago.
You mutter and bumble through an apology though you trail off when you realize he’s mostly fixated by his own reflection in a shop window.

“I remember you. You work near here right?”

You gulp and nod. He remembers you?? Its confusing. No way he still remembers all the times you got off at this spot right?

“You know where The Abyss is? It’s a new gym that opened up around here and i’m supposed to start my first day as a trainer there.”

Guess school didn’t pan out..
You had heard about a new place. Supposedly super niche and weird. You’d passed it maybe a few times as a detour when you walked a different route from where you parked.
You say as much.

“Mind walking me there? If you’re not too late for work I could show you the place. I think my Boss would love someone like you with a good eye for potential”

He smirks and pulls the neck of his stringer down even lower.
You think back to the bus driver.
You opt to be a little late for work today.

You can find the first Avis Abstraction here.
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