Brian puts his car in park after pulling up to his house. His wife should still be at work at this hour, and he notices his son's car parked on the side of the driveway.
"It's now or never," Brian thinks to himself as he gets out of his car with the Jock Jacket stuffed in his backpack. Slinging it over his shoulder, he walks up to the front door and knocks a couple times. A few seconds later, the door swings open to reveal his son. Seth is wearing an oversized T-shirt and cropped jeans, with a beaten-up pair of skateboarding shoes. He inherited Brian's auburn hair, but he shares his bright brown eyes with his mom. He is noticeably skinny but still very handsome.
"Uh, Brian, right?" Seth nicely asks as he opens the door wider.
"Yeah, dude," Brian says as he reaches out to dap his son up. Seth gingerly accepts the dap and invites Brian in. "So what brings you here," Seth asks as he closes the door behind them.
Thinking on his feet, Brian responds, "That groupwork for Mrs. Edwards is due tomorrow. Didn't I text you that I'd come by after football practice?"
Seth stands there confused for a second before seeming to snap back to reality. "Oh yeah! I totally forgot, my bad."
"No problem, dude," Brian says as Seth leads him to the living room.
Setting his backpack down next to the couch and pulling out a random binder from his backpack, Brian takes a seat. "One sec," Seth says, "I've gotta get my stuff from my room." Wasting no time as soon as Seth begins up the stairs, Brian quietly and quickly makes his way to the thermostat. "Haha, I always told Seth not to touch this." He quickly knocks the temperature down a few degrees and sneaks his way back to the couch. A few seconds later, Seth plops himself down across from Brian and pulls his binder out, too.
"Okay, let's see..." He flips through the binder looking for the assignment their teacher had assigned them. "Ah, here it is." He pulls out a single sheet of paper with a short couple prompts printed at the top. Thanking whatever force made the groupwork real, Brian gets his paper out from his binder, too, and he notices that goosebumps are beginning to form on Seth's thin arms. Even though he's wearing a tank top himself, Brian doesn't feel that cold at all.
"So, what do you think of this paragraph," Seth picks his paper off the table and hands it to Brian. Thinking he's sufficiently cold based on his shivering arms, Brian makes the pitch.
"You cold? I have a jacket right here you can wear." He reaches into his backpack and pulls out the Jock Jacket. He hands it to Seth, who sheepishly accepts it.
"Uh, you sure you don't want it? You're the one in athletic clothes."
"Nah, man, it's all you." Brian pretends to refocus on the assignment as he slyly watches Seth slip the Jock Jacket on.
"Thanks, dude. This thing is waaaaarm."
"No problem. Suits you," Brian says, overcome with a burgeoning sense of pride with his son finally looking like the jock he's always wanted him to be.
"Ha, I wouldn't really consider me the type of person to wear something like this. I'm more into video games and skateboarding than football and basketball. Something I'm sure my dad wishes he could change... He's always wanted me to be on the football team."
Brian shifts awkwardly as he continues scribbling down nonsense on the paper.
Maybe noticing he got too personal with an acquaintance at most, Seth ends the silence, "Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to lay the distance between me and my dad bare before you. Must be weird to hear me talking about your coach like this. Have you and him ever talked about how y'all have the same name and both play high school football?"
"Haha yeah, a few times. It's a funny coincidence." Brian realizes that the jacket must be keeping Seth from recognizing that he is his dad, especially since Brian used to show Seth yearbook pictures of him when he played football in high school with hopes of sparking an interest in the sport. "Where is he right now, anyway? Coach Chase was covering for him today at practice."
"Did he not tell y'all? The school sent him on some month-long trip to Texas to some convention for top-tier high school football programs across the Southeast. I guess he's hoping to learn some new strategies or something. I've been home alone a lot since my Mom works full-time, which I'm not necessarily complaining about--more time to play video games in peace."
-
About an hour later and writing the last few words on his paper, Brian tosses his pen in his backpack and shuts his binder. "Finally done with that," Brian says with a sigh.
"Yeah, that took longer than expected," Seth says with a voice at least an octave deeper.
"Woah," Brian thinks to himself, "His voice has already gotten deeper."
Seth continues, "Thanks for coming over, dude. I would've completely forgotten about this assignment otherwise. Oh, and let me give you this back." Seth begins to shrug the Jock Jacket off, which gives Brian a glimpse of Seth's newly enlarged biceps.
"Nah, dude! It's freaking cold in here, you can keep it for now! Just bring it back to me tomorrow at school, yeah?"
"You sure, bro?" Seth brings the Jock Jacket back over his shoulders, which have become much broader than before.
"Of course! I'm sure seeing you in it would make Coach's day. I'll see you tomorrow, bro." Brian reaches out to dap Seth goodbye, and Seth much more confidently daps Brian up in return. With the door closed behind him, Brian returns to his car and drives off.