My first try at a short story....

Sitting on a old dirty couch in their bedroom at the Lambda Chi house were two friends, Mason and Bill. One with his legs on a rickety coffee table that was fashioned out of brown wicker basket with a piece of 3/4" MDF screwed to the top to cover up the weaving of the wicker and provide a level surface to set the beers, cigarette lighters, and ash trays. The other friend was simply slouched down so far that he might as well have been lying on the ground. Overhead hung two monstrosities that held full size mattress. This was the bedroom shared by two close friends. The friends sat quietly in a room that smelled of stale beer and cigarettes watching re-runs of "The Simpson's" or whatever else was on during the commercials. 

It was the beginning of a new year. The outside was cold and school had just begun. It was early January and both friends had a full load of classes on their plate. Mason, was from Memphis, Tennessee. He was a scraggly boy but with quite a funny and playful side. Bill hailed from Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a serious type, somewhat carefree,  but yet very logical. Bill and Mason both were in their Junior year of college. They attended the University of Tennessee. Many a days were spent talking and sharing stories of their hometowns, and high school heydays. It just so happened that today the droning television, which played nothing but re-runs from 4pm to 8pm, despite having 200+ channels, led to a conversation and story that would forever change Bill and Mason. This story would be later reminisced some four years later at Mason's wedding, but let's not get ahead of ourselves too quickly.

Mason says to Bill, "I think I want to start working out and getting into shape"

"Well you know I have a few theories about lifting weights and training, I used to be in great shape back in high school", said Bill.

"Oh yeah what do you know?" says Mason

"Well as I am sure you remember from our day after the Christmas party pledge versus brothers football game, I used to be quite the football player." boasts Bill.

"Yeah I remember you and Pittsburgh (the other northern in the freshman pledge class), were decked out in your high school football regalia and cleats to play a bunch of hung over older fraternity brothers," sneers Mason.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, any ways I took strength and conditioning class every year of high school and my teacher and coach taught me everything he knew. He would train us 3 times a week, we would do full body workouts and focus on all the muscle groups each workout. His philosophy, which I believe in, was to train to failure, recover, and do it again. This allows the muscles to get the little micro tears and re-build and become stronger. It works too! I really bulked up in high school under this doctrine of his. If you wanna start working out we should train together. I'll do it with you. It's always better to have a partner that way you push each other harder, and they can always be there to help you to get one more rep when you think you're spent."Says Bill.

"Really? That some good stuff." Mason says as he and Bill both simultaneously reach to stamp out there cigarettes in an already over flowing ash tray. "Maybe we should do it today, instead of sitting here flipping back and forth between Home Improvement re-runs and Inside Edition", 

"Okay. I think I can put us both thru a solid workout. I did our workouts enough in high school I could never forget them. Plus I have never even been in that huge new T-REC's center across the street from our house. I mean its huge, brand new and I have never used it, chimed Bill.

Well alright then, lets get changed and go have at, a jovial Mason comments.

Mason and Bill rise up and start sifting threw their dirty clothes and dresser draws looking for clothes to wear while they workout. Obviously they didn't have a drawer set aside for workout clothes as this was something that was hardly a routine for either of them. They both would piece meal together some nylon shorts, cotton socks, and an old fraternity shirt, hoping they wouldn't look too out of place in the new fancy gym. The walk was short to the T-REC's or student recreation center at the University of Tennessee. It was literally across the street from the Fraternity house. A proverbial stones throw, but seriously, it could be hit it with a rock, and actually one night the previous summer one of the fraternity brother did just that. Minus the stone and add a beer bottle.

No one would ever suspect that these young college chaps, Mason 21 years and Bill only 20 would be turning a page in their live at this point. One could imagine and wonder what if these guys never decided to be roommates? What if one of them had scheduled a class during the time of "Home Improvement" re-runs and they would have never had that conversation? What if? There are so many other things that could have happened. But what happened that day would forever change Mason and Bill.