For a fic request: high school football player Jack getting really blushy around his coaches son who bakes and figure skates and is just super lovely and attractive in general. Jack making up excuses to spend time with him, mainly excuses to do with football which are pretty weak, and Bitty is beginning to catch on.
!!! This is such cool prompt but I know NOTHING about football and my football loving friend has midterms as well so lets just see what I got let’s do this;
(also blah blah blah all these are super unedited and at some point i’ll rewrite them okay lets do this 4 REAL)
Eric Richard Bittle did not have a crush on the quarterback.
Nope. That’d be way to cliche. Plus, he isn’t out, and the quarterback isn’t gay, he’s just… nice.
He’s so nice and Eric kicks himself for it all the time. Jack is so kind to him, compared to the rest of Coach’s team. He talks to him every time he sees him, and that’s it. He’s convinced it’s no basis for a crush and yet here he is, baking a pie in his family kitchen, while Jack is talking to Coach about NCAA football teams at the kitchen table. Eric is purposely not paying attention, not looking up from his work, because he doesn’t want to get involved in the discussion. He knows if he looks up just once, Jack will ask, “Eric, what do you think?” and he doesn’t want to talk about the idea of Jack graduating in 7 months. So, Eric keeps his head down, and focuses on the cherry pie in front of him.
He’s so focused he doesn’t hear the conversation ending and Coach leaving to give Jack contact info of other coaches. Nor does he notice Jack leaning on the kitchen counter until he hears a, “What’s up?” two feet away from him.
Eric jumps a little, turns to Jack, and responds with, “Oh, baking a pie.”
“Cherry, but it’s a bit different from what I usually do.”
“I’m uh, trying something with the crust, since the cherries are a bit tart. Adding a bit more sugar in it, as opposed to the filling, and seeing what that’ll do. It’s nothing too interesting, it’s just pie.”
“I find that hard to believe. If it’s your pie, it’s got to be a great one.” Eric looks up to see Jack smiling at him and if both their cheeks were a little red, he’d blame it on the September heat.
“Thank you, Jack.” But before Eric could say anything else, his father came down with a list.
“There you go,” Coach handed it to Jack, “Coaches from Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. Let them know I gave you the info.”
Eric refocused on his pie, rolling out the dough, and most definitely ignoring the idea of Jack graduating.
“Thank you, so much, Coach Bittle.”
“Anytime, kid. You’re a great player.”
“Hey, Eric” Jack placed his hand on Eric’s arm, “I’ll see you at school, yeah?”
“Mhm!” Eric flashed him a smile that Jack had returned in ernest, “I’ll see you then.”
“Heh, yep.” They stared at each other for, what Eric though was, minutes. “I should-“
“Oh, yes, of course!” he grabbed a tin full of cookies he had made a couple hours ago, “Please feel free to take some! If you can’t finish them I’m sure your parents would like them. Or you could share it with them, though I assume that’s what you’d do first because these are an awful amount of cookies but I had so much maple syrup in my fridge, i blame the sale. It was $20 for 5 bottles and it was all real syrup! That’s such a steal and I also remembered you saying you liked maple syrup that one time I totally wasn’t stereotyping you and if you thought that I one-hundred percent apologize I meant that-"
“Thank you, Bittle,” Jack placed his hands over Eric’s as he took the pie tin from him. “I’ll be sure to share them with my parents.”
“Maybe you could teach me how to make them someday.”
“I’d- I mean- yeah. Someday.”
Jack left the kitchen, leaving Eric alone. He wanted to cry or bang his head against the counter several times. He opted to bury his head in his hands.
Good Lord, he’d fallen for a straight boy who would never show interest in him… clearly… right?
