Never Before Ever After

CHAPTER 4

The Hallucinatory Fan

G R E E C E

Despite the fact that Archer had graduated a few years prior, I made the dumb decision to attend the same high school after middle school. When I was in high school, I was extremely into Wingfield High, despite my brother's wishes for me to attend the same high school as him but then, knowing my brother’s fame in high school being the basketball varsity team captain, teachers had a lot of expectations from me, so I ditched it.

Since I was a die-hard fan and was curious to learn more about his education. Since he is my favorite basketball player, I wanted to attend the same university as him so that I could see what his professors were like, see his accolades and pictures in the Wingfield High basketball teams hall of fame, and learn more about his teachers.

Though it sounded like much of a stalker, I really wanted to know what his high school was like but then most of my high school life, I think I made a mistake. I ended up regretting being enrolled in Wingfield High School because as much as I wanted to live a normal life, I was not able to. Most of my years in high school, I was heavily bullied because of my weight. I was fat and I was mostly known as “Greasy” which rhymes with my name Greece.

Another reason why I did not want to attend the same high school as my brother was the fact that I was very chubby and I was a bit shorter than most female students so I avoided the thought of being poked fun and being constantly compared to how athletic used to be. I wanted to avoid the notion and expectations that people had on me but then it was much worse in this dream high school that I have always wanted to be in.

I endured all bullying for four straight years and how they were constantly making fun of my body type. The jocks and the cheerleaders would constantly call me out in class or when they see me in the hallways making every other student around me laugh at me. My high school life was hell and most of the time I would end up crying in the bathroom or having lunch in the exit staircase to avoid people from seeing me because I am always called out for eating so much.

“Hey Greasy!”

“How does it feel to be so Greasy and fat?”

“Give it up for Greasy!”

“Look guys, it is Greasy Owens!”

And everyone would always end up laughing as soon as they would make those introductions upon seeing me without really knowing that those words had been terrifying and hurting me for the past four years in that school.

The infamous jocks Bryce Richardson, Chet Brandon, Declan Todd, together with their significant others, who are cheerleaders Heather Fox, Sabrina Taylor, and Libby Turner, were all my tormentors in high school. I do not know why they always had fun bullying me almost every single day of my life in all of my high school years. I do not know what was fun and enjoyable about being body shamed in front of many other students while no one would be there for me but myself. At the end of every single day, the teasing and the bullying had gotten into me even though I was getting used to being called as Greasy, I made a pact with myself. I swore to myself that before heading to college I had to vastly slim down and prevent the same cycle from happening all over again in college.

And I did achieve it, I slimmed down with the help of my brother who I have been working out with in the gym which most people would think that we were a couple, which was ew.

Now that I am eighteen years old, I lost so much weight with the help of determination and the help of my brother who honestly became my dietary coach since he studied to become a nutritionist which was a great help for me. He helped me with my diet and the amount of calories intake every single meal that he would prepare for me. Well, I was my brother’s first trial and error before he would start accepting any clients which eventually we did not really fail since I literally lost a lot of pounds and started eating healthier than I had ever been.

Being in a medical school, studying nursing had been something that I had been focusing on aside from my adoration towards my most favorite basketball NBA superstar Archer De Bereveaux. Studying nursing was something that my mother had influenced me with since I have seen her taking care of the sick and helping those people who are in need. When I was younger, I considered my mother a superhero because of how she cares so much for people who are ill, especially when I would get sick or my brother would.

As soon as I was done looking up the Los Angeles Pythons’ upcoming game, I came across some information that I read online based on images that were uploaded to a Social Out account about Archer being spotted in a New York bar following his match with Boston. He allegedly entered a pub by himself, accompanied by his two bodyguards, and departed the establishment at around five in the morning, accompanied by three women who boarded the backseat of his black van. I paused to examine the photo to see if it had been altered, if it was a fake, or if there was another man in it who might have been a similar looking man. But to my horror, they were not.

I eventually zoomed in on the photos that had been taken, and oh, I was utterly frightened to see that they were actually photos of him. As real as Hell, they were.

This was the first instance of him being seen with another woman over the entire length of his basketball career. Ever. In addition, the fact that he went out with not just one woman but three women is even more astonishing than the fact that it was the first time in his whole career that he entered a bar. What the hell, three women!

As immediately as I could, I went to Google and began typing his name and the most recent information about him while my hands appeared to be trembling a little. Because he rarely gets headlines like this, it was all over the news and was being discussed by every media channel. Actually, he always and only truly gets news concerning his basketball career, therefore this is shattering his previous record for the most news in a career.

I exhaled and started going to Social Out and typed the message: “I did not want to…”

The vertical blinking line kept appearing but I did not want to send the message because I understand that it is his life and I am merely nothing but a fan, totally unknown to him. Immediately, I started erasing the message and decided to type in my to-do list that I needed to do tomorrow and included the exams that I will have tomorrow and for the rest of the week as well. I ignored the news and reminded myself that I am a fan and I know where I should stand even though I kept reading news about him and the comments of his female fans were absolutely horrible.

They were commenting so much about the women that he was with and called them out as sluts for being with him even though Archer would be to blame since he chose to be with three women at the same time. The women on the comment section were very terrible and vulgar with their comments against the other three women who were with Archer and I do not get why they were hating on them when in fact it was his choice. Women were tearing up other women with their harsh comments just because they were spotted with him. I admitted that I was somewhat kind of just a little bit jealous but then I reminded myself again that he does not know me, I had no right to feel that way in any kind or form and I would not want to turn myself into the kind of fan who would profoundly call out and hate the women he would be seen with.

It just did not sound right.

It absolutely did not.

I knew, eventually, this day would come that he would be seen around another woman, although he was with three women, I knew that he would go out and get photographed. But, really, three? It had to be three.

I eventually went home and contemplated everything that had transpired.

A year after Archer was photographed with three unidentified women inside his van after a night out in a club in New York City broke out, news about Archer changed drastically; from constant news about him and his basketball career to news about him becoming the NBA’s womanizer.

Yes, womanizer.

That man who was never seen with any woman. That man who was always seen practicing and training. That man who was always single and was always private about his personal life. That man completely disappeared.

For an entire year, he had been seen with different women every two weeks or every single month and it went on and on for an entire year; from influencers, to YouTube vloggers, to supermodels, to actresses and singers. He was heavily dating different women, going out to clubs, and getting drunk in paparazzi pictures and it was shocking to the world since he had always and, I repeat, always, had been focused mainly and only, on his career.

And not on those things.

He had never been pictured anywhere near any bars but now it is like he is visiting every bar in every state in the United States with different women and it is absolutely horrendous to think about it and to see it. Even though he was still playing skillfully in every game and winning every single one of ‘em, he was constantly seen dating different women biweekly or monthly, like it was that woman’s expiration date. But he never brought any women with him on the side court to watch him play.

So, maybe, something happened to him that the world did not know about.

Perhaps, in the back of my head and the other fans gossiping about the whole ordeal, that it was just a publicity gimmick to boost his profile or get people talking about him since there were other rumors that he would be trying to do another kind of career given that he had been intending to model and walk the runway.

But it has been a year and he still has not walked the runway like what they had been talking about. And, he does not need any publicity stunt to make him more significant or relevant, because he is already famous.

Eventually, since that first news about him came out, the one in which he had three women with him, I stopped sending him DMs in his Social Out account because the reality hit me straight in my face that I was just being a hallucinatory fan.

Until, around three in the morning on a Friday while I was studying for an exam, my phone beeped a notification at a random time that I never would usually get, not unless it was related to school. I wanted to ignore it but maybe it was an announcement that the exam is moved to next week, but as soon as my eyes rested on the screen of my phone, I froze to the point that I dropped it on the floor which made a loud thud that woke my roommate up and told me to shut up. I totally iced the second I saw a DM from Archer in my Social out account.

@archerdbrvx: Been a year since you never sent me anything. I loved the knock knock jokes.