Hollywood Zenith



"Here, take a picture." Darren handed Samuel his phone.

"Is so dark out here? Don't you have enough photos of yourself already?" Although Samuel said it, he took the phone since he knew Darren would keep pestering him to oblivion.

"Young master, I can do it for you." Darren's personal butler said from the side. He was responsible for his safety during this trip.

"It's alright, go check if we are ready to depart." 

"And to answer your question, I don't have any photos with an private Airbus! My family is rich but not that rick to afford a plane like this!" Darren laughed and started making poses.

"Right, even if they have one, they will never waste one on you!" Samuel continued to take pictures. He had a basic understanding of photography, and his basic meant he was practically a professional in other's eyes.

"Come here! Let's take one together!" Darren put his arms around him.

"I don't want to! Who knows what you will do with it?"

"It's to preserve our memory! You are a single man now! We will have a blast together!" Darren chuckled and started taking pictures. After getting a good one, he stopped and started fiddling with it.

"I have been wondering, don't you have stakes in this social media company?" Darren showed his recently uploaded photos.

"I do. Why?" Samuel asked suspiciously.

"Can't you direct some followers my way? I have been stuck at hundred thousands for months now!" Darren lamented.

"Why do you need followers?"

"Don't you know? It's the best place to find girls, you can connect with so many people online!"

"You basically mean you will have your pick of women globally?"

"Right! I know you would understand."

"No. Pay for advertising or something, beside you have Emma now right? She will be pissed if she knew what you are up to." Samuel started walking toward the stairs.

"I was just saying! Wait! how come you don't have any social media account?" Darren asked curiously.

"Who says I don't?" Samuel shrugged.

"You do?"

"I used to but I am not active on those. It's a pain in the ass!"

"Why? I think they are great. I have got in touch with so many people that I have lost contact with over the years."

"You mean girls right?"

"No! Why do you keep making such baseless accusations?" Darren said frustratingly.

"Fine! I won't."

"You still didn't tell me the answer?" Darren pressed him a little.

"You really want to know?"

"Yeah."

They entered the plane and sat down in the lounge area. Samuel began to download the app, and after entering his credentials, he handed Darren his phone.

"Here see for yourself."

Darren started going through his social media, and he first noticed the insane amount of notifications that kept pouring in, making the phone into a jingle bell. He also saw his follower count, which was over half a million followers? Didn't that make him the top ten most followed on the site?

"So many people and you only have ten posts? If you upload more frequently I am sure the numbers will skyrocket in no time!" Darren exclaimed. The account was under his actor name, explaining some of the popularity; he moved toward his inbox and was shocked to see thousands of unread messages.

"These are all from girls?" Darren was baffled as he scrolled down, trying to find male senders. It took him one minute of mindless scrolling to find a man!

"Open one up and see."

Darren did as he told him, and what came on was an unappropriated bikini picture of a blonde girl; some texts were attached to it, but those were obscene too!

"There are thousands of them on there. It's not better for my other account too, although it has less followers." Samuel sighed.

"Why don't you just private it?"

"What's the point! I am happy with texting and calling I don't need anymore attention."

"But this...this is a gold mine..why are my inboxes so empty?" Darren immediately became depressed thinking about it. At the same time, his phone vibrated.

Darren picked it up to see a message from someone familiar.

"Fuck!"

"What wrong?"

"N-nothing, s-someone is trying to call me. I should get this." He fled the scene.

"What's up with him?" Samuel didn't think much of it. He asked for some refreshments and waited for the flight to take off.

While Darren was perplexed thinking about his mistake! He shouldn't have uploaded that and with that caption? "When good Americans die, they go to Paris." — Oscar Wilde parading his arrival to Paris and his photos with Samuel.

He knew this day would come, but how should he tell Samuel about it?  That she would be waiting for him!

....

....

....

Many years ago, when Samuel was breezing through his studies, he had the pleasure of attending Harvard for a few months. It was right before his third movie, and he had to complete his courses in a short amount of time.

He was not worried as he already knew everything to do with his computer science course, but he needed to get the degree to prove his worth.

Being an early teenager in an environment of adults was difficult for him to adapt to; it's not like he didn't make any friends, but it was not easier considering his social standing. It was then he met one of his closest friends, Mayra.

A dorky girl with a surprisingly outgoing personality. She wore thick glasses and mostly baggy clothes and looked like a nerd, but what connected them was she was around the same age as him. They used to hang out with his other friends, who were mainly in a similar category to her, an outclass.

She was doing a course in literature and would pester him with deep questions regularly. At first, Samuel couldn't stand her presence; she was always sticking close to him, treating him like a child.

But he understood that she was only doing it out of kindness, and soon they began to understand one another. She never cared about his family's standings as her family was also wealthy immigrants and always treated him like a little brother.

But after those few months, Samuel left the university after completing his studies, and they slowly lost touch. He didn't have a phone back then, but they met up a couple of times over the years; with his crazy schedule, those yearly meetings too soon ended.

But now the wheels of times were turning again, Darren also studied in the same university and when she was in her final years, he got acquainted with her. She would ask him about Samuel knowing they were friends but more than that he became her target for his first year at the university.

That year was hell for him and he never wanted to be reminded of that but how long could he avoid it?