The boy grabbed a muscle smoothie from the shelf and took it to the man at the counter. As the man behind the counter ran the smoothie though the till, the boy took out his change.
"Only buying the one eh, son?" The small boy looked up.
"Yeah, why?" he asked.
"Well one isn't going to do much on it's own and at this price I can see them selling out quickly. If I were you I'd get as many as I could."
"You would say that. It's your job to sell this stuff."
"That's true and it's your choice but I was only letting you know." The boy took another glance across to the shelves with the smoothies.
"Hold on then." he said as he made his way across to the shelves to grab some more.
An hour later and the boy returned home to be greeted by his mother.
"There you are Jake! I was starting to wonder where you had got to."
"Aww mum. Stop fussing will you? I'm going up to my room."
"Well, dinner will be ready soon so listen out for when I call you, OK?"
"OK mum!" Jake called back in reply. He got into his room, closed his door and collapsed onto his bed. He was still clutching a bag in his hand. A bag that contained the muscle smoothies. He must have ended up buying about 30 of the things! He was quite surprised but also pleased that his mum hadn't quizzed him about it.
He sat up on his bed and opened the bag. Reaching in he pulled out one of the smoothie cans and read the label.
"Muscle Smoothie. Gain muscle mass fast!"
Jake opened it and downed it without thinking. "This stuff isn't bad." he said to himself. "I think I'll have another with my dinner." To make sure that his mum didn't know what it was, Jake fetched an empty glass and poured another smoothie into it. No sooner had he done this than his mum shouted to him to go and get his dinner.
Jake made his way downstairs and sat at the table to have his meal. He was slowly drinking his smoothie as he was eating until it was gone when he had finished his meal. He thanked his mum for dinner and then returned upstairs to his room.
When he reached his room once more, he went to relax on his bed, lying down on his back. As he lay there he noticed that his t-shirt felt different on his frame somehow. It didn't feel as though it fit any more. Jake sat up on the end of his bed and looked into his nearby mirror. What looked back startled him.