Hollywood King

That evening, Angelina, Ian, Raelynn and Niko ended up having coffee with conversations that were heavily about Ian’s new book.

“So, Ian, are you telling me that you were clueless when you thought you wanted to become a director?” Angelina questioned.

“Yeah, but I believed in my talents… I tried my best to work hard— But yes, it could not be the same case for everyone,” Ian said and shrugged.

Currently, they were seated in an arrangement where Angelina sat right in front of Ian. And beside Ian, there was Raelynn, and in front of Raelynn, Niko sat comfortably.

“I mean, I still can not believe the fact that you hit a peak in the industry in less than three years… That’s unbelievable.”

Ian shrugged hearing her words.

“The thing is, you need to be smart. It doesn’t matter even if you have all the decks of cards in your hand when you don’t know when to play Ace,” Ian’s words left a thought of mindfulness in others’ minds.

While Angelina was continuously admiring Ian’s work and how well he had been doing so far, Niko was using his phone.

Keith was constantly texting Niko, but suddenly his eyes lit up at what he saw. He took several minutes to think and observe exactly what he was watching.

“This can not be true… Is this for real?” Niko questioned himself as he continued to look at the screen.

Around him, Ian’s eyes automatically went to Niko.

“Niko, share with us,” Angelina invited him, unable to bear the suspense that spread within her.

Niko looked around and back at his phone. He continued to watch the same thing several more times until he realised that everyone was waiting for him to reveal what he was watching that excited him.

“Pardon me for my poor table manners…” he started by saying. “But, Keith texted! And he rarely texts me…”

“Niko, you looked way too interested in your phone? Someone got lucky today, huh?” Rae joked.

Niko rolled his eyes.

“Not really. We might break up soon. It’s not the case though. Look what walked right into my feed.”

“What is it?”

“Show us?”

Niko leaned forward and showed his phone. Ian first looked at the screen, and others followed.

It was a video. It was a video by Eric, and the video had gone viral. Millions of people had already watched it and thousands of people were commenting on the video, encouraging Eric.

“What the hell is ongoing?” Raelynn asked as soon as she peeked to see what was happening. She could only see his face in one glance. “Who is it?”

“It’s Eric. I met him during the signing conference. He is in his healing process. I promised I’ll take a tour on set next time. He promised he’d try his best, but I don’t know what this is about…” Ian explained.

Niko kept the phone on the table.

“Just watch it, you’ll see.”

Ian took the phone, kept it in the middle of the table and started watching the video.

Eric, wearing his soccer team jersey, sat with his ball and Ian’s newest book. At one glance it was confusing.

Ian hit the play button.

“Hello, internet. I’m Eric. Just a fourteen-year-old, who barely made it out of death. To begin with, the leg injury didn’t end there, when I was met with the accident, it hit some serious nerves, and I had to rest a lot. The rest wasn't the easiest. I was so used to practising more than half of my life, and knowing that I can’t do it anymore—tore me apart, truthfully.

“I always thought dying young is bad, you know… With how many things to do, how many girls to date… But heck, try having nothing to do with life. Try having that one thing you love so much being taken away from you—but… Ian Renner changed my life the day I met him.

“And no, I’m pretty sure of how famous he's famous, you all must be thinking that he made me an actor… No, he didn’t. He did something even better. I’m too young to say things too seriously, but he gave me hope. He promised me something, and I wish to deliver my end of the promise.

“I met him… That is what exactly happened. When I met him, the first thing I saw in his eyes was how much he believed in me. And that already meant so much for me, because of the obvious reason, I was a fan! But by how he looked at me, I saw something in myself too. He said he believed I can walk again, and I’ll be proving it to all the bullies in school. I will walk again, and I will take that tour.

“May God bless you all, and Sir Ian Renner, if you’re watching this… I loved reading A Game of Thrones so much, I finished it in three days! Thank you for sending me the book! To all my fantasy lovers, go and read this book… As great as the cover is.”

He said and turned his life off. Raelynn and Niko looked face to face. Ian simply had a smile on his face.

‘I didn’t realise it would be this much of a big deal'.

Ian took a deep breath in.

“That’s…” Angelina started by saying as she wiped the happy tear that rolled off her face.

Ian said nothing as Niko started talking about the young man. Ian was speechless for the first time in a long time.

The next thing was that Ian’s phone rang and saw the notification: ‘Ian, sales increased 25% after the viral video. Hope you saw it already, if not, here’s the link.’

It was Steven who had sent the text. The increment in sales must be obvious for him to point out.

Ian simply smiled and shut his phone.

“Well, this screams for a bar date, all of us,” Niko said and finished his coffee.

“I have some work to finish, maybe not today,” Ian said as he realised he needed to add some finishing touches to the Star Wars script.

“Alright, maybe some other day then… But, Rae, will you be joining me to go to the bar tonight?” Niko asked as he gave a pleading look to Raelynn.

Raelynn smiled and nodded–unable to bring up some witty comment in front of everyone else.

-

[Chandelier BookStore]

“Mia! Come over here!” a twenty-something young male invited his friend to walk over to see what he had just seen.

“What? Dude, I was literally checking out the romance section, no new romance books. Ugh! The horror section had new recommendations and was about to go inside it next… This better be good-”

The guy showed what was in his hand. Both of them were students who were very well focused in their studies… And the fictional world that both of them were obsessed with.

But as their load of assignments and classes took most of their time, the only free time they spent was reading books.

And with what their classmates called them, they were ‘book worms’ and they embraced every part of it.

“Is this the new book by Ian Renner? I thought it was sold out, dude… It’s the last copy here!” Mia said and grabbed it quickly.

She held it tightly to her body and walked to the cash register. Her friend looked at her and laughed.

‘This woman will always be one to run for good books’ his thoughts were invaded by how she quickly ran the register.

“Hey, was A Game of Thrones in here? I saw the book before I left to take money from my husband,” a woman wearing a suit walked in and looked at the young man.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see it. Maybe the stock ended. You should ask from the cash register,” he said and walked away.

“Babe, it’s not here either, let’s go to the next store?” The woman walked away with a sad face.

“Maybe what you did was right,” Mia’s friend said to her as she looked up at him and smirked.

“That’s how you do it. We’ll talk about who gets to read this first later,” she said and gave a knowing nod to the cashier.

The cashier smiled and saw the two kids walking away.

“Maybe I should keep one of Game of Thrones to myself. Everyone asks for it today,” he said and started ringing the next customer.