8. Supporting Act

Shouldn’t lavender have a calming effect? Why am I not calm!? Must be the caffeine. Shouldn’t I be immune by now? And what on earth was I thinking, wasting a whole year on that absolute jackass!

Julia walked up and down, getting more and more frustrated about feeling this upset without being able to control it. Finally, she spotted her gym bag, grabbed it and left her flat. She didn’t often go to the gym. But when she did, it was normally after work. Packed with like-minded corporate zombies that needed some stretching after being glued to a screen for half their waking time. As she stuffed her clothes into her locker, a fortune cookie fell out. The third for the day. Please don’t be something awful. Julia closed her eyes and broke it open. Her assigned role for her own training session in her own free time was Supporting Act. First, she’s the villain at work, then she runs into her ex, and now she’s just someone else’s sideact when she wants some peace and get off the stage?! She slammed the locker door shut and walked out.

Upset and angry, she went straight for one of the machines. You know, the one where you pull down a long horizontal handle to pull up the stacked weights behind you? Where you should check the weight and if it’s secured properly first? Well, Julia didn’t check the weight and didn’t notice the loose bolt. And just as she lifted her arms to grab the handle, someone yelled: “Wait!”
Julia flinched. In her anger, she hadn’t even noticed that she wasn’t alone in the gym. There was a kid in his late teens with blond hair and freckles. He walked towards her: “Sorry, the bolt is loose, and I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.” He pushed the bolt in and lingered timidly. Finally, he asked: “Are you alright? I mean, I saw you marching in, and I don’t know. People often hurt themselves when they’re upset…”

Julia could tell that he was being sincere, and she didn’t care about her health when she had marched in. “Have you ever felt like life was only giving you really annoying roles? Like, it’s your life, but you’re not the main character and someone has just decided to toss you on stage without a script.”

The kid blushed: “I don’t even know if I’m even on any stage. Right now, I only like this”, he replied, pointing around the gym. “Some paramedic told me earlier this week I should think about if I’d like to be a personal trainer. But you don’t get a job without experience and no experience without a job.”

Julia thought for a moment and then said “Would you like to be my personal trainer for a day? “Seems like I can’t be trusted with equipment today.” The kid’s face lit up. And the next two hours, they spend stretching, chatting and working through the machines around the room. By the end, the kid had gained a lot of confidence while Julia had worked through all her anger and was feeling calm again. Julia thanked him and went to change. Should I have tipped him? I feel like I should have…

On her way out, she ran into him again. He was beaming ear to ear. In his hands he was holding a job application. “The manager had saw us earlier and offered me a job for the summer! I can’t do the PT work right away for insurance reasons, but I think I just got on stage!”