The thing was, he wasn’t positive. Riley and Josh had always had a friendship that was closer than most, but they’d always figured it was because they grew up next door to each other. They’d said they loved each other for years, following their parents’ lead. They were always quick to dole out affection. They were so close hewondered how he could figure out if he wasn’t already in love with Josh.
How would he figure out when he was in love if Josh had always been the most important part of his life? How would he know when love becameinlove? At least that was something they could deal with together, but the closeness of their families complicated the whole situation.
They called each other’s parents aunt and uncle, so they were practically cousins. Oh shit, he had only been worried that their parents wouldn’t approve of their sexuality. He hadn’t even considered the fact they might be against it because they were practically family.
At least they had Sophie on their side. They’d have to make sure she was present when they told their parents. She was pure chaos, but it made her an excellent buffer for difficult conversations.
Yet again, Riley was having trouble focusing on his workout because of his racing thoughts.
He was standing in a tree pose but he felt more like a flamingo, as Chase led them in their regular Tuesday yoga practice. As he looked around he noticed everyone was a little less wobbly this week. Tobias was right when he decided to add this element to the gym.
When he looked in Josh’s direction, he noticed his eyes were shut and he had a calm look on his face that Riley could only describe as meditative. He had a realknack for yoga. Riley wasn’t quite as confident, but he could feel himself improving each session, and he noticed a decline in his sore muscles throughout the week thanks to their cooldowns. He used to leave right after their workouts, not bothering to stretch anything after.
Chase directed them into a downward dog pose, then flowed into a forward fold.
“Keep breathing, steady and even. We’re going to try an advanced move that’s not always easy to get on the first try, but the more we do it, the more comfortable you’ll feel. Roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae. I’m going to demonstrate this for you first, since once you get into the position, it will be hard to watch me at the same time. Everyone, move your ab mats so they are directly in front of you, maybe a foot in front of your feet, square to your body. This is called crane pose.”
Chase had directed them to make sure they had ab mats for that day’s session. They were all curious what they’d need them for. They were little arched cushions they usually used for back support when doing sit-ups, but they were clearly going to be used for something different today.
They all watched as Chase moved into a forward fold, slowly bending his knees and then his arms, standing on his toes until suddenly all of his weight was on his hands and his knees were somehow resting on the backs of his arms.
What the fuuuuck?
He even managed to talk while in the middle of the pose.
“You’re going to use your core to hold this pose. Engage your muscles and make sure you keep breathing. If you feel like you’re going to fall,” he paused and started to lean forward until his head made contact with the ab mat, “you’re safe to fall forward thanks to the mat. And if you start to fall backward, you’ll land on your toes.”
He pushed himself onto his toes and rose into a forward fold, rolling up slowly through his breaths.
Riley was gaping. He tried to exchange a worried look with Josh, but he radiated excitement. Tobias, meanwhile, had a serious and determined look on his face.
“Are you guys ready to try it?”
Josh shouted yes while the rest of them murmured in agreement, and Chase led them in the sequence.
As Riley moved into the pose, his body trembled and he could feel the sweat dotting his brow as he focused on engaging his core. Slowly pushing off his toes, he landed right back on them. It took him a few tries before he managed to get into position, and then he was falling forward, but thankfully Chase was right about the ab mat protecting his head, and he tried a few more times. Eventually, he was able to hold the pose for a solid five seconds.
Riley heard shouts and groans around him as people struggled with the pose, but he dared not look around orhe’d fall on his face.
It was nowhere near as fluid and graceful as Chase had been, but he was buoyed by how well he did compared to thinking he was going to immediately faceplant on his first try.
Chase led them through the rest of the session, They spent a quiet minute in corpse Riley's favorite because you kind of just laid there—and congratulated them on a great session.
Hunter was the first to speak once they’d finished. “How long does it take to get as good as you?”
“I’ve been practicing yoga since college, but I also work at Cherrywood Boulders, the rock climbing gym, and that uses a lot of bodyweight strength too.”
“What’s the craziest move you can do?” Josh asked excitedly.
Pink started to stain Chase’s cheeks as he thought about it.
“Uh, well, not a yoga pose, but the most impressive one is probably ‘human flag.’”
“So you wave at us? I can do that,” Riley joked, waving like royalty at Chase. The others chuckled.
“Not exactly,” Chase said as he strode over to the weight rack that stretched against the wall. He grabbed one of the poles and lifted himself until his body was sideways, completely parallel to the ground.
Human flag. I can totally see it.
