Never Before Ever After

CHAPTER 1

The First Fan

G R E E C E

Since my older brother London had always played basketball, I had been exposed to it at the age of five. The majority of the time, my dad, mom and I would support him fervently as we saw him compete against another team at school. Dad was a fantastic basketball player when he was younger, but he never pursued his ambition since he was never asked to play professionally, and because my mother became pregnant for the first time, carrying my older brother at the age of twenty-one, he needed to work a nine-to-five job to support her and their needs.

Six years later, my mother became pregnant with me so growing up with an older brother, I have always watched him play basketball in our backyard. As a result, I spent much of my youth playing around with him and watching my older brother do what he loves the most, which was basketball.

On the other hand, my older brother London was given the opportunity to play professionally but was unable to do so due to a thigh fracture he had in a car accident when he was twenty-two years old. After a successful surgery, he underwent months of therapy, but his doctor warned him that he would no longer be able to play basketball as frequently as he once did when he was younger.

Before I had to push him to train young children and teenagers in basketball, my devastated brother fell into a deep despair for months. Since that time, he has been able to overcome his sadness and has occasionally come to terms with the fact that he does not necessarily need to play the sport to feel better; instead, he finally found a different kind of joy in working with children and seeing how they develop.

But let's go back to the precise moment when I was ten years old and everything about how I viewed basketball changed; that was the moment I saw for the first time that my older brother had been defeated by a different team from another school in the championship. London faced off against the shooting guard of the opposing side, who was exceptionally quick and could shoot from any point on the basketball court. At the time, it seemed absurd to see another sixteen-year-old pass my brother's remarkable defending and blocking abilities. That other sixteen-year-old youngster gave my brother the appearance of being a fragile piece of paper that might be split in half with a single motion and he did that to my older brother, numerous times during the match.

Since that time, I have grown to be the biggest admirer of Archibald De Bereveaux, also known as Archer De Bereveaux to the entire the world, who has a staggering one hundred and twenty-eight million followers on the app Social Out, which is an anagram of "instant camera" and "telegram". It is a free online photo-sharing app and social networking site where you can upload your photos and videos for others to view and like. You can also add titles to each post, and other users can use location-based hashtags and geotags to index these posts and make them searchable within the app by other users. You may also use it to direct messages, or shortly called as DMs and you may also follow your favorite celebrities and other superstars.

I could still remember my ten-year-old self, bravely walking towards Archibald as soon as the game was done which made my parents and London utterly surprised. “Excuse me?” I called out the sixteen-year-old Archibald’s attention as soon as he was done being crowded by his teammates.

He had a pink long face towel around his neck and was using it to dry the sweat from his forehead as he struggled to regain his breath while drenched in perspiration. In addition to his white and lime green basketball school varsity uniform, he was still sporting white basketball shoes and long white basketball socks covering the half part of his calves. When he turned around and confronted me with his stunning gray eyes fixed on me, his buzz cut hair—which was still his hairstyle from that time—looked amazing on him. I could feel my insides squirming in happiness and overly excitement.

“Yeah?” He responded while looking at my dad’s hoop pen which had a small basketball tied to the basketball ring that dad usually plays with when he is bored in the office and a piece of paper which I tore from the last page of my mother’s nursing book as I was holding them in my hands. “What do you have there?” He questioned.

My hands were shaking but my smile was at him, he was tall and I was a short chubby ten year old, “I… I want to ask for your autograph.” I told him as soon as I had gained my confidence. “If… If that is alright.”

His eyes looked surprised as he was in silence before smiling at me widely and answered, “Of course!” He answered happily before he knelt down in front of me and accepted my dad’s hoop pen and chuckled while playing with it, “You have got such a cool pen.” He smiled at me and my ten-year-old self was absolutely mesmerized by his presence despite his sweaty face but he did not smell at all.

I watched him sign the clear side of the piece of paper that I had torn from my mother’s book and handed it to me. I can not believe that he actually gave me an autograph. He even wrote the date; sixth of April two thousand and fourteen, his name; Archibald “Archer” De Bereveaux in neat handwriting, and a short message for me which was; ‘Whatever you want to be, you can achieve it with perseverance. Thanks to my first fan! You made me realize how it feels like to play ball.’

“Why don’t we take a picture together?” Archibald offered.

“Really?” I chimed in surprise as if stars appeared from my eyes.

“I will take the photo.” I heard my mom volunteering as she had finally approached us and she looked happy. She pulled out her favorite manual film winding and rewinding KODAK Film Camera i60 which she always uses to take pictures and develop the film to put them in her scrapbook to treasure memories that can only be deleted in phones.

Yes, my mom is that classic.

As soon as I accepted the piece of paper, I moved next to Archibald who was still kneeling on one knee while his right arm was hanging around my back as his hand, which was still holding the hoops pen, cupped my tiny arm. I was nervous but he told me to smile the biggest smile that I could ever do and I did smile as soon as mom snapped the photo after saying the infamous line “Say cheese!”

“Since you have my autograph,” Archibald said, which caught my attention right away. “Is it okay if I take this pen with me? As a remembrance from my first ever fan?” He smiled sweetly.

I smiled even wider and answered him with a nod, “Yes!”

After that day, I was unable to stop admiring Archibald for his basketball prowess, his ability to play with such finesse and his ability to score from any point on the court. I asked the rival team's player for an autograph, which I had never actually done, and London was furious with me. After a while, he got over his wrath, and I continued to like the young Archibald who is six years older than me, which London ultimately came to accept, especially after we discovered how Archibald could play a variety of positions in a way that made him appear to be a pro, which Archibald eventually became one.

I am eighteen years old today, clutching my left wrist with my right hand, as the crowd of spectators on the court roars with increased excitement. Eight years have passed since that game when I was ten, and the tension is at an all-time high while I am watching on my phone. With barely ten seconds remaining for him to score three points for their team to win the game, I am spending my time observing Archer being guarded by two NBA players from the opposing squad but winning this game in their opponent’s court would be a wonderful thing.

As the seconds ticked down closer to zero and the two defenders attempted to stop Archer from scoring on their basket, I could almost feel my heart hammering inside my ribs. Archer, who is known for his speed and weird combos, faked passes to his right to force the other defender to leave him with the other as he poked, relaxed a little bit, made a hesitation dribble against the other remaining defender, took a step back, and fired a three-pointer which made the crowd quiet for a second.

The fans erupted in jubilation as soon as the ball penetrated the basket within a few milliseconds of the ball flying towards the basket and an instant later the buzz reverberated around the court.

“Yes!!!” I screamed so loud, throwing my fist in the air with so much joy, only to realize that I was in the library and every single student who was looking at me. I gaped in embarrassment as I pulled my earphone out from my right ear while the librarian was looking at me intently.

It was my cue to leave the librarian as most of the students were gossiping and laughing at me.

Leaving the library feeling embarrassed, I kept smiling while immediately going to Archer’s Social Out account and sent a DM: “Congratulations Archer! Another win! The stepback was done great and the fake pass was really amazing! They fell for it. I am so happy for you and L.A Pythons!”

I had already sent him a ton of unrelated messages prior to this particular one, so it wasn't the first time. As absurd as that seems, now that I'm used to it, I send him all sorts of stuff, including knock-knock jokes, lists of my assignments, university projects, and shopping lists.

In the back of my head, it was fine since I was not harming anyone and he would not read or open them anyway.

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PLAYLIST: (available in Spotify: Author Ellyreiv)

1. Infinitely Falling - Fly By Midnight

2. Lovely - Fly By Midnight, Betty Who

3. Hair Tossed, Arms Crossed - Mark Ambor

4. Bonfire (acoustic) - Peder Elias

5. Anyone - Justin Bieber

6. Take My Breath Away - Emma Bunton

7. Falling - Keahiwai

8. Dancing In The Kitchen - LANY

9. Better With You - Jesse McCartney

10. Body Language - Jesse McCartney ft. T-Pain

11. The Game of Love - Santana ft. Michelle Branch

12. Monalisa - Lojay, Sarz, Chris Brown

13. Narcissist - Lauren Spencer Smith

14. I Could Not Ask For More - Edwin McCain

15. Drowning - Backstreet Boys

16. All or Nothing - O-Town

17. Gravity - Sara Bareilles

18. Glad You Exist - Dan + Shay

19. Always Be My Baby - Tim Halperin (cover)

20. Like No One Does - Jake Scott

21. Baby, I Love Your Way - HRVY (cover)

22. I’ll Stay - Leroy Sanchez

23. If You Love Her - Forest Blakk feat. Meghan Trainor

24. Speechless - Dan + Shay feat. Tori Kelly

25. Love Like This - Ben Rector