I Abuse my Jacket


 I got my prized jacket for Christmas after waiting for the horrible knowing weeks of having it in the house and having to act surprised on Christmas morning. I was assisted in my acting by actually being really, really excited to finally have my strait up legit Chicago Bulls gear. I was only frustrated that school was out and no one could see how awesome I looked in my sweet new threads. I waited out my time until school blessedly reconvened. I wore by jacket to school the first day back and it got a fair amount of respect and that was the first time an article of clothing of mine was impressive and I liked it. I decided to wear it the next day and not leave it my locker for one moment. I wore it all day and all week and then all month. In the second month of my owning this amazing jacket it was actually getting to warm many days to legitimately be wearing a jacket in the heat of the day but it was the coolest thing I owned so I pushed through the discomfort. One morning I was actually unable to find a clean shirt and instead of doing the sensable thing of washing a shirt and going late or not going at all I decided to go to school just wearing my jacket zipped up with only my bear nakedness underneath. As it turned out we were having one of those unseasonably warm February thaws that Utah gets on occasion and by the time I was at school I realized I had made a tactical error as I was already sweating and the slick liner of the jacket was not doing any of the absorbing that I liked my shirts to do. I was wearing the zipper quite high and tight to not give away the fact that I was shirtless and it looked a little weird to everyone who was enjoying a rather balmy day in the sunshine. A couple of people had asked me why my jacket was zipped up all the way and I just tried to change the subject. I was getting hotter and sweatier and more and more uncomfortable as the day wore on. I was cursing myself for making such a dumb decision. At lunch I cracked and decided that something had to give I was all soggy wet and boiling in my own juices so I broke out. I started walking home and let my jacket loose a little to let out the swelter and had made it about two miles down the highway towards home when I was stopped by the cops. He flipped on his lights and then popped out to see what I was up to. I told him that I was feeling really sick and that I was walking home because no one would answer at my house. He had me come sit in the car as he had dispatch call my mom who was actually at home. He told he I was sick and walking home and skipping school and asked what he should do with me. She said to bring me home and he took me I got a lecture about being in school and checking out and being safe and whatnot but I was just glad to head home and take off my plastic lined sweatsuit jacket and put on a shirt without being terrified that someone would find out I was not wearing any clothes. I wore the jacket less and less and lost track of it when I went to college. I have abuse outer clothing since then but usually only to run t the store or to answer the door or something short term and never a all day charade again.