Rise To Stardom - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Gigs, Gigs, Gigs!
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“Yes! Like that!”

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“No! Not like that! Raise your arm up a bit higher. Feet evenly spaced, one foot forward.”

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“Now move to the couch and sit on it!”

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“Claire. C’mon! He has nice, broad shoulders! Lean on it!”

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“Good! Yes! Perfectionné!”

Blinding Kyle with the flashes of his camera was a French photographer.

Resting her head on his shoulders was a beautiful model who was also in her early twenties just like Kyle.

‘My cheeks hurt…’ the young man inwardly groaned as he was asked to changed poses again.

Over the course of the past week since the talk show, endorsements from multiple brands, ranging from clothing to accessories to shoe brands, had kept contacting him to model for their products.

Each of them were willing to pay $60K+ for each photoshoot session and considering money was needed to fund their endeavors, Kyle and Oliver saw no reason to refuse the offers.

The reason for this lucrative offers though, were of course Kyle’s song which was still at the top of the charts.

On the ‘Buzzing 100’, [No Clue] stubbornly refused to leave No. 1.

Sitting at 20.1M streams, it far outstripped the second most popular song on the chart by over 5M+ streams.

As for his previous songs, all three were dominating the ‘Indie Sensations 100’ charts at the first to third positions, a truly remarkable achievement for the young man.

Considering a lot of popular magazines and internet blogs had been keeping an eye on Kyle, careful not to write any articles just yet since playlists were a rapidly changing thing, they had expected the craze for his song to reach its peak and stagnate after a week or so.

How wrong they were because even after the craze died down a bit, people still listened to the song like obsessed addicts.

This was partly due to the song’s very relatable lyrics, partly because of its re-watchable music video and most especially, because it was a genuinely well-written, well-planned out song with all the right musical arrangements, making it a genuine joy to listen to for most people.

Added to the fact that it was a song with next to no profanity in it, people really felt like it was a breath of fresh air from the usual popular songs in recent memory.

Due to this scenario where Kyle was still staying relevant in the public’s eye, another floodgate of articles hit the internet again, with many of them writing about the young man.

Simply put, Kyle was quite famous at the moment.

And for endorsement brands who liked to keep up with the trends, he was basically fresh new meat that they could use to promote their products.

Add that to the fact that Kyle was blessed in the looks department, it was a no-brainer move for most of them really.

“Alright. That’s it. We’re done for the day! Thank you Monsieur Kestis.” the photographer walked up to him and offered a handshake.

Happy to be relieved of this stressful turn of events, Kyle received the handshake with the utmost joy and replied gratefully;

“Merci, Monsieur André.”

“(You speak French?!)” he widened his eyes in mild surprise as he stared at Kyle.

“(I dabble…)” Kyle smiled in reply.

Claire who watched the entire thing play along from the side, bewitched once again by Kyle as he exchanged fluent French with their photographer for a few more seconds, practically made her intentions known with the sultry gaze she was giving him.

Having finished up his short conversation with Kyle, André then gave the same greetings to Claire, complimenting her for a job well done.

Swiftly, Kyle seized the moment and vanished from the area with immediate alacrity, much to Claire’s disappointment.

“Did you purposely run away from her?” Oliver who had been watching from the sidelines asked as Kyle walked over.

“What do you mean by that?” the young man tilted his head, a mix of curiosity and confusion settling on his features.

“So you didn’t even notice… Interesting…” Oliver sported a rare playful grin.

Kyle however, not even in the mood to prod deeper, simply requested that they head over to a restaurant because he was really hungry.

Their schedule was pretty much packed to the brim again today.

There were still a few more photoshoots to attend, bars and clubs to sing at and also, a small podcast for indie artists he was invited to.

Honestly, if Kyle had been left to his elements, he’d rather just sit at home, reading all the comics and novels he had yet to catch up on in recent memory but as Oliver had told him, it was necessary that they solidified his brand as a musician.

“Remember Kyle. Achieving fame is hard but keeping it, now that’s even harder.” Oliver said as they pulled over at a restaurant.

“I know. I know.” Kyle sighed in understanding.

Even though he loved writing songs, singing them and also enjoyed being an actor, the fame that came with it was still something of a mixed bag of sorts for Kyle.

On one hand, he’d get the chance to gain more funds to be able to source his dreams and aspirations; which was to make really good music – along with also getting more acting gigs.

But on the other, his privacy would become everyone’s business, a scenario he wasn’t really a fan of.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Kyle, now sitting in restaurant, politely requested for the waitress to order some food.

Quickly, the waitress on duty came over and attended to them.

Seeing him though, the lady couldn’t help but ogle for a few seconds as he gave his order.

He had just come out of a photoshoot after all and as a result, the young man was visually stunning and at his best so situations like this couldn’t be helped.

Oliver on the other hand, had an amused expression on his features as he also ordered, finding it interesting how Kyle could be surprisingly and shockingly oblivious to things like this.

No sooner had they given their orders though, the doors to the restaurant opened and in walked Christina.

This was the restaurant she worked at and her noon shift would be coming up soon so she came a few minutes earlier.

Noticing her from the corner of his eyes, Kyle, a bit surprised, waved over at her.

Seeing him, a visible brightness bloomed on Christina’s pretty face as she quickly walked over.

Giving each other a friendly hug, along with the lady also acknowledging Oliver’s presence, she then congratulated Kyle on his achievements.

About a few seconds later, she had to get on shift and Kyle didn’t mind.

They had already conversed quite a lot ever since the success of [No Clue].

Asides from getting a call from multiple indie musicians and even some fairly well-known ones to write a script for their music videos too, the writer’s guild had also contacted the blonde-haired lady again regarding her previously submitted script and had discussed a contract on the rights to her work; all due to the exposure the music video gave her.

In addition to that, Christina now also worked with Maria to make some short films, an offer the lady was more than willing to accept.

Some modelling agencies even contacted and made offers to her after seeing her in the music video but the lady had politely turned down the offer, explaining that she wasn’t interested.

Modelling, just wasn’t a thing of interest to her.

Eventually, about a minute later, the pretty waitress came along with their food, asking Kyle with a smile as she bit her lips;

“Anything else handsome?”

“No. None at all. Thank you for the food.” Kyle respectfully replied with a thin smile and the waitress nodded with a light smile of hers, reluctantly proceeding to attend to the next customer.

Spotting Christina from the corner of his eye giving him a smug smirk, Kyle tilted his head in slight confusion but the lady simply giggled and attended to another customer.

Oliver too, gave Kyle the exact same look and at this point, he really had no idea what the two of them were on about.

Sighing, not even bothering to question them, the young man ate his food, his hunger satiated and a blissful expression on his features.

Finishing up the food a few minutes later, Kyle then noticed a small paper on the tray with a number on it and a text with a heart before it that wrote; ‘Call Me.’

Finally realizing what the two individuals had been pointing out to previously, the young man shook his head with a genuine sigh of resignation.

Glancing over to Christina, his eyes squinted at her, the lady stuck out her tongue playfully and went back into the kitchen.

“Took you long enough.” Oliver chuckled as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“You could’ve just informed me you know…” Kyle mumbled.

“And miss out on your obliviousness? Not a chance.” his agent replied, his tone nonchalant.

“Anyway, we need to move on to your next gig for the day.” he casually threw in.

“The Funky Bar right?” Kyle asked, whipping out his phone to check the rest of their schedule for the day.

“Yes. We also need to cross out as many of the other gigs as possible before this week ends since you won’t be chanced to attend to any of them next week.” Oliver got up and Kyle followed.

Texting Christina that he was leaving, the lady swiftly replied;

‘{Alright then ‘Handsome’. I’ll text you later(>ᴗ•). Take care of yourself!}’

This solicited a light grin from the young man as he exited the restaurant.

‘{I will. You do the same too.}’

Returning the phone into his pocket after sending that text, Kyle’s thoughts soon wandered off to the short script that had been sent over, just a few days back.

Having had a general idea of what he was required to do embody the character that he would be auditioning for, the young man had been jotting notes in between his free time on how to make an impactful act.

‘A vigilante hmm… I’m really looking forward to the auditions…’ Kyle mused as he got into the vehicle.