Rise To Stardom - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Home Sweet Home
“Bullshit.”

Those were Jasmine’s exact words the moment she searched up Kyle’s name.

There was also a light smile on her lips as she said that.

Although she knew Kyle had probably been trying to prevent her from reading too much into him with his last few words, it definitely had the opposite effect on her.

“Hey babe. Why the sudden cuss?” Liz, a pretty lady with light-brown hair, asked her close friend as they both sat in the limo taking them home.

“Yeah. That’s a rarity from you so who, or what’s the culprit of this turn of events?” Ellen, the second friend with short, straightened out, platinum-blonde hair questioned curiously.

Hannah on the other hand, arched a questioning eyebrow too as she loosened her shoulder-length blonde hair and unbuckled her heels.

“It’s just, Kyle Kestis… he lied to me.” Jasmine smiled a bit as she continued;

“He said he was, ‘Just your average guy’.” the olive-skinned lady employed an air quote.

“But clearly, judging by the articles of him on the internet, he clearly isn’t.” Jasmine finally turned her phone’s screen to the others.

“Oh~. I thought he already looked mighty fine with his glasses on but damn is he one handsome specimen…” Ellen’s eyes lingered on a picture of Kyle’s face in a photoshoot, causing the other ladies to do so too.

Jasmine rolled her eyes at this and urged her friends to actually read the articles.

“Rising Voices contestant takes the Buzzing 100 Chart by storm with his hit-single, [No Clue].” Liz read out, her eyes widening in mild surprise.

“So he’s the one that sang that song! I really enjoyed listening to it.” Liz nodded her head in acknowledgement.

“A multi-talented young man? Kyle Kestis has even better acting chops than singing and composing?” Hannah read the next article headline with a curious expression.

Now that she thought about it, Kyle’s face looked really familiar to her.

“Ah yes! How could I forget?! I do remember seeing memes of him on TweetTalk!” Hannah came to a realization of her own.

“Emma Harper and Kyle Kestis make for a fun duo as they exchange witty remarks on the popular talk show…” Ellen finished reading another article headline.

“Yeah, bullshit is the perfect word because he definitely isn’t, ‘Just an average guy’.” Ellen chuckled a bit as she said that.

“I know right” Jasmine reclined into her seat, her smiling eyes staring at her phone as she browsed through more articles of him.

“But why are you so interested in him though? Do you perhaps like him?” Hannah was the one to question this time and her other friends gave her a similar prodding gaze.

“What?! Girls! No! We’ve had this conversation before!” Jasmine defended.

If it came to suitors, her friends knew Jasmine had no shortage of them.

Still, her interest in Kyle was a topic her friends were very curious about.

“But it’s the first time in a long, long time, that you found a guy interesting. Interesting enough to want to find him at the party and also eagle-search him.” Liz shrugged her shoulders and continued;

“You can’t blame us for believing that maybe, that’s the case this time.”

Sighing as she watched her girlfriends nod in agreement to Liz’s words, she quickly clarified;

“Look. Girls. Most of the time when I head out to parties without you babes, it’s usually forced laughter and faking smiles half the time. And pesky, pesky guys trying to hit on me all night long.”

“That’s my world. That’s how Hollywood, and Hollywood parties usually is for me in general.” she continued.

“But for the first time in forever, I stumbled upon someone asides you guys who had no walls of insincerity. No shifty eye movements or vacancy in them. Beautiful sapphire eyes too, by the way…” she complimented Kyle, causing him to sneeze wherever he was.

The comment on the other hand, caused her girls to raise their eyebrows even more in genuine surprise and amusement, their thoughts on the subject matter getting even more accurate.

“But that’s not the point. The point is, he was a breath of fresh air from what I was used to. Of course I’d be curious about that kind of person. Wouldn’t you guys?” she asked with gestured arms.

Truth be told, now that they heard her explain, they began to reel in their previous thoughts.

Despite the fact that they came in their clique today, each of them had still been hit on a couple few times.

And by a couple few times, it was about seven to ten times each, with Jasmine, singlehandedly reaching a record high of nineteen.

But the raven-haired young man; he didn’t even seem interested in anything of such. His fruit punch had been his priority.

Truly, Kyle had been a rare case of a guy not being attracted to either of them, especially when you put into perspective that they were all quite gorgeous and popular individuals in their own right.

Maybe due to the dart incident, the realization hadn’t fully set in before.

But now that it did, the ladies perfectly understood where Jasmine was coming from.

She was right.

Kyle truly was an intriguing guy.

* * *

“So, what’d you think of him?” Jeffrey asked his long-time pal and also the one who hosted the party as they sipped on a few cups of wine.

Staring at the pool, his white suit still pristine as ever, Jon responded while twirling the wine in the glass cup;

“You were right Jeff. He was an interesting kid…”

“Very mature too, for his age. That was most especially, evident in his eyes. Eyes so young, and yet, there’s that hint of maturity that you’d only find in an elderly person. Quite interesting, I must say…” Jon added, seemingly recalling his conversation with Kyle.

To that, Jeffrey smiled in agreement, his expression warm as he then questioned a few seconds after;

“So, think you’d want to cast him in the new, upcoming season?”

“Hmmm… unfortunately, his acting chops are yet to be seen on the big screen. I can’t just go off casting him if he only has one episode of a series to show for it.” Jon gave his honest thoughts.

“Oh don’t you worry about that old pal. You’ll be seeing him on the big screen soon enough and trust me, Hollywood isn’t ready for the storm that kid’s going to bring.” the old star said with a sagely look in his eyes.

Jon on the other hand, having known that his long-time pal had the most accurate premonitions about actors who were going to become big in the future, sipped on his wine as he took in his words.

When they were younger, Jeffrey had also made predictions to his friend about how Bruce and Mark were going to be quite the duo, a prediction that had turned out to be spot on, especially now that both individuals were literally, established stars in their own right.

In fact, when Quentin had wanted to create his most popular series till date, one that basically made the man’s current studio, one of the most renowned, Jeffrey had given him his pick for casting, a pick that had eventually gone on to become one of the most iconic media characters in the world.

And that was just a few among many others.

That said, Jon, seemingly musing to himself over this, soon spoke a few seconds later.

“Very well then Jeff. I’ll be looking forward to seeing that happen.”

* * *

Waking up very early the next day and boarding the plane to Canada from NYC’s airport, Oliver and Kyle soon found themselves halfway through the one-hour-plus flight to their destination.

“So, I never got to ask yesterday ’cause we had to crash early but, did you meet anyone worthwhile at the party?” the agent asked as the air hostess handed he and Kyle their cups of tea.

“Well, I ran into Jasmine Faye.”

Hearing those words from Kyle, Oliver had a mildly surprised expression on his face as he said;

“Oh~. That’s interesting. An actor I once worked for, back when I was still in an agency, worked with her during my early years as an agent. She truly was a talented young lady back then. Still is.”

“What’d you guys talk about?” he further asked, his tone casual as he sipped on his tea.

“Just mundane stuff really. Nothing particularly interesting.” Kyle shrugged, not wanting to go into the details.

“I see. That’s good then.” Oliver nodded, his trust in Kyle solid.

Despite knowing that a lot of guys Kyle’s age would’ve probably been enamored by the lady, he knew that his ward wasn’t the type to chase skirts.

He was exceptionally polite to ladies yes, but at the same time, maintained a firm, no-relationship policy.

“I did meet someone really interesting though. He shared some pretty insightful stuff and we had a pretty nice conversation.” Kyle then said, a thin smile on his lips as he propped his chin with a gently curled fist.

“And who was that?” Oliver inquired, slightly curious about said man.

“Jon Quentin.”

Hearing that name, the usually calm Oliver almost sputtered on his drink, catching a confused Kyle completely off-guard.

“Jon Quentin?! Seriously?!” Oliver had his eyes widen in shock as Kyle replied, still very confused.

“Y-yeah. Who… who is he?” the young man inquired in genuine curiosity, wanting to know who exactly the sophisticated man was.

Oliver just stared at his ward in disbelief and then, with a small sigh, just after cleaning his mouth with a napkin, explained whom Jon Quentin was to Kyle.

And as Oliver did, Kyle’s eyes gradually also widened in utter disbelief.

…

…

…

“You can take a break you know?” a small sigh escaped Oliver’s mouth as he said to Kyle whom was about to exit the vehicle.

They were parked in front of the storey-building where the young man’s apartment was situated.

“I’ve already had enough of a break. I have to keep moving forward.” Kyle simply responded to Oliver who couldn’t help but shake his head in resignation.

Waving him goodbye, the young man casually made his way up to his apartment.

Opening the door to his room, greeted by the cozy and homely scent that he had missed these past few months, Kyle smiled and said;

“Ah~. Home sweet home…”