When I first met my roommate in late August, he looked like he was made of pipe cleaners. At 5'6" and barely 100 pounds soaking wet, he was so slight I honestly worried the industrial-strength fans in the dorm would blow him down the hallway. He was a "shadow student"—quiet, unassuming, and swallowed whole by a size-small hoodie. I figured he’d spend the year buried in the library. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The Foundation: September to October
The transformation started with the shipments. Within the first two weeks, our floor space was gone. He didn't buy snacks; he bought pallets. Industrial-grade tubs of "Mega-Mass 5000" and "Titan Protein" stacked up like a fortress around his desk. The sound of his blender became my morning alarm at 5:00 AM—a thick, sludge-like whirring as he downed 3,000 calories before the sun was even up. He’d hit the campus gym twice a day, every day.
By mid-October, his clothes, once baggy, started to fit like a second skin. He hit 150 pounds—a 50% increase in body mass—but he just frowned at the mirror.
"I think the laundry service is using too much heat," he’d mutter, tugging at a t-shirt that was starting to drape perfectly over shoulders that had suddenly doubled in width. He wasn't just "toning up"; he was expanding at a rate that defied biology. I’d come back from class to find him polishing off a mixing bowl of pasta, only to see him shaking up a protein shake an hour later.
The Density: November to January
By Thanksgiving, the "little size" he thought he was gaining became a local legend. He was 200 pounds of pure, dense muscle. His neck had thickened into a solid column of granite, and his thighs—once like twigs—were now thick, pulsing trunks that rubbed together with every step. He had to buy a "Heavy Duty" office chair because his standard-issue dorm chair had literally snapped under the pressure of his quads.
When we returned from winter break in January, I actually did a double-take. The person who walked through the door wasn't my roommate; it was a wall of meat. He’d spent the break in a "hyper-bulking" phase, walking in at a staggering 270 pounds. At 5'6", he was becoming as wide as he was tall.
"Dude," I said, dropping my bag. "What have you been eating? A cow?"
He turned, a confused look on his face. His neck had practically disappeared into a yoke of muscle. "What do you mean? I just stuck to the routine. I feel like I'm losing my gains, actually. I feel small today."
The 350-Pound Titan: April
By the time the spring thaw hit, he had peaked. He was 350 pounds of sheer, explosive muscle. He was a walking, breathing mountain, his back a map of muscle groups I didn't even know existed. His arms were so thick he couldn't even put them flat against his sides anymore; he just walked with a permanent, massive power-lat spread.
He didn't walk through the dorm anymore; he lumbered. The floor vibrated when he moved. He’d have to turn sideways to get through the doorway, and he’d just grumble about the doorframes being too narrow. He’d rip a shirt putting it on and just mutter about "cheap fabric." To him, he was still the same guy, just "filling out a bit."
The end-of-the-year keg party was the final act. When he walked in, the music actually skipped. He had to turn completely sideways to fit through the basement door, his massive delts scraping both sides of the frame. He was wearing a shirt that was basically a tarp with armholes, and even that looked like it was under a high-pressure steam blast.
"Thirsty?" I asked, handing him a full pitcher of beer.
"Parched," he rumbled, his voice a low-frequency vibration.
He didn't just drink; he fueled. As the night went on and the beer flowed, the sheer volume of liquid began to take its toll. His rock-hard, six-pack abs, usually carved like marble, began to push outward. By the third hour, his midsection was bloating out—a massive, hard sphere of beer and muscle pushing his XXXL shirt up until it sat above his navel. He looked like a titan who had swallowed a boulder. He patted his distended, drum-tight belly with a hand the size of a catcher's mitt and let out an earth-shattering burp.
"I think..." he paused, "I'm finally starting to fill out. Might actually hit the gym for real next semester."
The sun the next morning seemed to bounce off the sheer acreage of skin currently occupying 90% of our room. I woke up to the sound of the floorboards groaning as he attempted to sit up. The beer bloat from the night before hadn't gone down; it had settled. His midsection was a protruding, drum-tight sphere sitting heavily atop his massive, vein-webbed thighs.
"Man," he rumbled. "I think I'm coming down with something. I feel... tight. Like I’m shrinking."
It was move-out day, but the room had become a trap. He tried to put on his "going home" outfit, but the joggers couldn't get past his calves. He pulled until the seams literally exploded.
"Unbelievable," he muttered, standing there like a bronze statue of a titan. "Clothes are getting smaller every year."
When it was time to leave, he stood in front of the door frame. He tried to walk through normally, but his shoulders hit both sides of the wooden frame simultaneously with a loud thud. He had to exhale, tucking his chin into his massive traps, and literally force himself through. I watched the doorframe flex and heard the nails groan as 350 pounds of unstoppable mass shoved its way into the hall.
Downstairs, his parents were waiting by a heavy-duty SUV. His dad’s jaw hit the pavement.
"Hey guys," the giant rumbled, tossing his heavy bags into the trunk, causing the car's suspension to bottom out instantly. "Sorry I'm a bit late. I feel like a string bean today. I need to get back on track for sophomore year."
As they drove off, the entire vehicle leaned heavily to the right under his weight. I stood on the curb and wondered: if he thought he was a "string bean" now, what would happen when he came back in the fall?
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