She ended up sitting next to him in art class, a year younger than him and in the same grade. This brace-faced chill girl. Not the prettiest girl in every room, but one of the kindest. With that combination, Fergie knew he was gone. He had spent hours playing songs on repeat which reminded him of her.

He had few other true friends in those days, only much later realizing that was true of most high school students. Even the popular kids who seemed to know everyone were usually walking around feeling lonely, on some level.

Daciana would sometimes find him walking between classes. Just to talk for four minutes was a big event in his day. He always found himself thrilled she picked him to share time with… then he’d see his doughy face in a mirror and hang his head.

The year passed, his crush ballooned, and he kept it inside. Cesar, his classmate who played on the football team, was a big mouth gossip. Cesar was a pumped-up gym rat with a perpetual grin. Very nice guy, but you better not tell him anything personal. Unfortunately, Fergie didn’t understand that until it was too late. He found out about Fergie’s crush and basically forced him to tell Daciana.

“I saw how you was looking at her.”

“What? What d’you mean?”

“I saw youuu.”

“Will you just cut it out, Cesar?”

click forCHAPTER 1
click forCHAPTER 3

But, no. From there, Cesar kept badgering her by telling her someone was in love with her. Then he’d come back to Fergie: “I told her she had an admirer.”

“Man!…”

“Relax. I didn’t say it was YOU. But she’s on alert, looking around now.”

Fergie would’ve swung on the guy if he wasn’t 6’3 230. He found Daciana after school and ’fessed. Cesar would give in to her questions, eventually.

She quaked when Fergie told her, obviously shaken. “You?” she said. Her index finger curled down as she pointed at him. Then, she said some nice things that Fergie couldn’t remember. His mind in a white static noise. The Big Letdown. Why did I say anything?

Welcome to our “chapter by chapter” work in progress, titled “PLEASE FORWARD MY MAIL”! We’ll link the book chapters together each time a piece of the story is published. When it seems “done” we gon’ go ahead and polish and then publish this bad boy! Good, bad, ugly or a mix of all three. Come on back! ~Chris DeBrie