It wasn’t supposed to go viral.
“Maybe it’ll go viral,” Hunter Brady snickered as he tapped to upload the TikTok. The other bros on the Northmont High football team roared with laughter. Hunter’s phone, which was casting to the enormous TV in his living room, suddenly blared to life as the upload finished.
“Hey, Adrian,” said Hunter’s voice as the wobbly cinematography steadied. A thin, weedy young man, about 5’6” or 5’7”, and dressed a little too nearly for a public high school, looked up.
“The bros and I heard it was your birthday, so we got you a little sump’n,” said Hunter. “Whynchu open it?”
Adrian looked at Hunter suspiciously. “Why would you buy me a present? Unless you’re hoping I’ll tutor you in chemistry so you don’t flunk your way off the team,” he said.
“Just open it,” said Hunter.
“Yeah bro! Open it!” came a voice from off-camera.
Adrian sighed and his shoulders slumped. Resignedly, he tore open the wrapping paper. The camera zoomed in on him as he saw a bright blue box emblazoned with “The Children’s Place”. Someone snickered.
Adrian, his entire body tense, opened the box. Inside was a small blue t-shirt with a football, a basketball, and a baseball on it. “Daddy’s Little Man” appeared in a stylized box between the sports balls.
“Maybe someday you’ll outgrow it and learn to be a real man like us,” came Hunter’s voice as the assembled crowd roared with laughter.
Adrian dropped the box and ran, choking back sobs, out of the frame as the video ended.
“When you’re 6’3 and 220, everybody else looks like a little kid,” said the caption.
Hunter and his buddies, all enormous, gave each other fist bumps and went out to go party it up.