Knock Me Down - [COMPLETE]

31 - VHS Tapes

Early update. I think I like this one.
—

Jasper, Tina and I are sitting on the couch. His hair is messy from how he toweled it dry after the shower he took after his practice. He's reading his textbook, taking notes. We have finals after break so I'm assuming that's why. He looks intense.

My body's sore from weight training today and all I want to do is lounge and watch cartoons. I used to love animation. Not the art, but just watching. It reminded me of the times I'd spend by myself doing my homework with the television on while my brother would leave me behind for Jasper.

"You're burning holes in me"

"Sorry" I whip back to the screen, "Exam?"

He offhandedly hums in confirmation. His handwriting is neat and in cursive. He holds the pencil carefully and in the way people are supposed to. Thumb and index pinched together while the other three support the pencil.

I read his body language and leave him be, not wanting to annoy him.

"My grandma sent me a box of old VHS tapes" He says as if reading my thoughts but still jotting things down.

"From all the way...?"

"Mm. There's not a lot but there's a few"

"Why didn't she just give them to your dad whenever he comes back?"

"She wanted me to see them first. On my own. She knew I wouldn't otherwise"

I resist the curiosity to ask why his relationship with his family was so bad, "Have you watched 'em yet?"

"No" He flips some pages. Underlines some things and starts drawing diagrams. I wonder if his hand hurts. He's filled at least five pages front and back since I got out the shower an hour ago, "Do you want to?"

"Uh–sure. Yeah" My heart shamelessly skips a beat at the question. I've also never seen what he looks like before ten years old. He closes what he's doing, leaving the notebook in to mark his place.

He fetches the tapes from his house rewriting with a small open box with maybe ten of them inside. Luckily I find our old television in the garage. It's not as big as the flat screen in the living room but it's wider and heavier, and most importantly it can play VHS.

"We lost the remote a long time ago but the buttons work fine" He helps me plug it in. We leave it on the ground with nowhere else to put it. He looks through his box, reading the foreign labels most likely in German.

But there are also a few labeled in a language I can't recognize. Each word looks like squiggles with floating dots around it. He seems to skip those.

Inserting one, he tells me, "This ones my 7th birthday"

We hear hollering and laughter outside. Mostly my brothers obnoxious laugh. He's home late. His goofy laugh made me chortle through my nose. I peek out and Jackie's in a boot being lifted in the air by both my brother and Fabian with some of the track team surrounding them. They're by one of their cars. Jackie's panicking mostly out of fear of falling and breaking another leg.

"Hey!" Benicio comes in still laughing, "Why didn't you tell me you were up for 'Rookie of the Year'? I had to hear it from Oliver–" He notices the living room set up and out bodies on the floor.

"What're you guys doing?" He throws his winter clothes on the couch crouching by me. I let Jasper respond since I don't know what he wants to share.

"Family sent me some vids to look at"

"Can I see?"

Jasper hums a yes and we scoot closer to the left to let him get a better angle of the screen.