Petra Ironwood's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Petra stayed low in the water and watched them. Sunny's arm was draped along the tub's edge. The man with the gel hair had drifted to her side. He was still talking. Petra measured the two of them with her eyes. Sunny's shoulder was wider than the man's head. Sunny's forearm was thicker than Petra's calf. Petra pressed her own bicep under the water and squeezed. It felt small. She looked down at her chest. The water sat below her collarbone. She looked at Sunny's chest. The water sat above hers, pushed up by muscle and flesh Petra did not have. Petra had trained for three weeks and gained an eighth of an inch. Sunny was three times her age and had built a body the room bent around. The man laughed at something Sunny said. Sunny had not said anything funny. She had only tilted her head. He kept going, telling her about a bar fight he'd won. Sunny's smile did not move. Her eyes slid across the tub to Petra and held there. "Shut up," Sunny said. The man stopped mid-sentence. "Kiss my chest." He blinked. Then he grinned like he'd won a prize and pushed off the wall. He swam the short distance and set his mouth against her. He kissed once, then again, working across her chest. Sunny did not look at him. She looked at Petra. Petra's jaw locked. She watched the man's back rise and fall as he moved along Sunny. He was doing exactly what Sunny told him to do. He thought he was the one getting something. Sunny lifted one hand out of the water. She flexed her arm. The bicep swelled to the size of a melon. She held it there for Petra. Then she let it drop and stroked the back of the man's wet head, gentle, like he was a dog. "You've been counting inches," Sunny said across the water. Her voice was easy. "Wrong thing to count." Petra opened her mouth. Nothing came out. The man kept kissing. "He wanted you when he came in," Sunny said. "Now he wants me. You know why." Petra knew why. She stood up. Water sheeted off her shoulders. Her chest cleared the surface. It was not enough. Next to Sunny it would never be enough at this size. She climbed out of the tub. Her feet slapped the tile. She did not grab a towel. She walked past the hatch, through the door, and into the main floor of the gym. Rows of machines waited under the lights: cable stacks, pec decks, plate towers. She had been coming here for months. She had been lifting like a person. That was the mistake. She went to the heaviest bench and started loading the bar. She did not stop at the number she used last week. She kept adding plates.