"Ring Ring Ring!" Johnny's phone buzzes on the nightstand next to him. Johnny opens his eyes after being woken up by the loud noise. He picks the phone up and looks at the screen. It was his PR agent, Chuck. Johnny sighs and picks the phone up, not excited for this call.
Typically whenever Chuck needed something from him, he would just text, but when Chuck called, it was never good.
"Hi Chuck." Johnny answers, sitting up in bed, groaning. "Hey Johnny, how's it going?" The man asks. Chuck had a strong masculine voice, it even commanded Johnny around. He was a good PR agent and always helped Johnny with issues, even if Johnny had bitten off more that he could chew.
"I'm fine, why?" Johnny seems to have been rushing his PR agent, not wanting to be on call for too long. "You should check twitter, you're trending." He says in a serious tone. "Alright." Johnny smiles, thinking he's been trending for a good reason.
Johnny scrolls his phone onto Twitter, seeing his name in the trending column. He taps on the column, his smile dissipating from his face. He wasn't trending for a good reason. He thought maybe someone had tweeted something good about him. What was he thinking, it was Twitter.
What he had seen was a clip from his most recent fight. God knows how someone got footage of it in Outworld, but this wasn't good for Johnny, passing out in the middle of a fight wasn't in the style of a martial arts star.
He looks through the comments, being even more disappointed. "What kind of fighter is he?!?!" "I knew he fakes his stunts." None of the comments seemed to be supporting him. They all made fun of him. His 'devoted' fans all turned a cheek on him. None of them were real.
"I want this off of the internet, get it all down." Johnny sounds angry. It was Chuck's job to deal with these types of messes. Why did he have to show Johnny?
"Fine Cage, I'll get on it now." Chuck didn't like it when Johnny had used a stern voice. It wasn't Chuck's fault he didn't see every little thing online. He thought Johnny just wanted to know what was happening about him online.
Johnny hangs up the phone and slams it down on the nightstand. He gets up out of the bed. Johnny kicks the nightstand out of anger, hurting his foot. "Fuck." he says to himself annoyed. What could he do to gain his popularity back? There had to be something. Johnny picks his phone back up from the nightstand. He opens his contacts, and taps into a contact titled 'Blaze, hype'.
Weirdly enough, Johnny had 2 contacts named Blaze in his phone. It was hard knowing so many people, especially in Hollywood. Everyone had switched their name to something more stand-outish. He had even done it.
He texts Blaze "Send invite's out, party at my house tonite." He adds a couple of emojis on the end of it and hits send. Blaze was one of Johnny's 2 hype men, the other being nick-named Otter, since he was skinny and sleek. Johnny had later texted Otter too.
Johnny knew both of them were good at their jobs, they had been under his employment for 5 years. They were trustworthy.
—
Johnny goes downstairs, realising that since he was having guests over, he needed the place to look good. There was still some laundry piled up on the couch he needed to fold and put away, he could probably vacuum as the Roomba seemed tuckered out, going to its charging station. He grouped a couple other things together and put them all into a list. He starts on the list right after he changes his clothes into his cleaning ones.
Johnny had an outfit for cleaning, he hated getting good clothes dirty, and when a pair of clothing had gotten a stain on them from cleaning, he decided to make those specifically for cleaning. The pair was a white t-shirt discoloured and ragged, with a pair of gym shorts he used when sparring with his friends. He wouldn't be caught dead in those shorts with a trainer.
As Johnny cleans, he thinks "People can't worry about me when I'm throwing a party, right?"
He scrubs harder at the spot on the couch. "This will show that nothing is wrong." Johnny smiles a little at his thoughts.
His thoughts always made him feel better, even when he was a kid. Sometimes he let his thoughts run free, speaking out loud. People may have thought he was egotistical, but it was his way of making himself feel more comfortable in conversations.
—
Johnny's party had been going well for the first part of the night. Like always, Blaze and Otter had done their job's well. People came in throughout the night, the door practically staying open.
"Good job you guys!" Johnny pats both of his 'hype men' on the back. "Yeah no problem Cage, people like coming here." Otter smiles. Otter looked at Johnny's wrist, he had his flashiest watch on. It was something he only put on during parties, but only on formal ones. "What is his plan?" Otter thinks to himself.
As Johnny leaves Otter and Blaze, James, a bigtime director, taps him on the back. "James!" Johnny says as if he was an old school friend he hadn't seen in years. "How's the new movie going?" Johnny was good at small talk with directors and actors. Even though he didn't know what projects half of them were working on, he could still kiss ass. "It's going good, but I did want to ask a favour of you. The choreography was awesome, who did it?" James asks. "That would be yours truly." Johnny points to himself with a smirk on his face. "How would you feel about coming onto the team to do our action shots then?" James puts his hand onto Johnny's shoulder, obviously having drunk enough for a week. "I would be honoured." Johnny jokes, ready to get onto another movie set.
As Johnny searches the crowd for another person to talk to, a younger guy comes up to him, almost cornering him in the crowd. "Johnny, Johnny, can I talk to you?" The boy asks, looking giddy with excitement that he was talking to a movie star. "Sure." Johnny tries to seem excited for the talk, but he knew it would be a boring one. "Thank you thank you!" The boy practically shouts.
He didn't look old enough to be at the party, he was short with a baby face. Maybe he was in college or university, but he couldn't have been old enough to be a graduate. At Least it didn't seem that he was drinking. The boy was there for business.
"Mr. Cage, I'm in my first year of film school and I wanted a real professional's opinion, someone who's been a part of everything." The boy was speaking fast, practically jumping up and down. "Woah woah woah, slow down." Johnny interrupts. "Right, sorry But I was wondering if you'd watch my film?" the boy asks. Johnny lets out a quiet sigh, not wanting to be rude to the guy. He was only trying to get started in hollywood. Johnny saw a little of himself in him. "Sure, sure, do you have a copy on you?" Of course Johnny knew the boy had a copy on him, but he thought he would ask. "Yes yes, thank you again Mr. Cage!" The boy digs into a crossbody bag he had around his shoulder like a purse. He has a gigantic smile on his face. The boy hands Johnny a DVD, it had a homemade look to it, the cover of it all drawn by hand. "Alright, now get out of here, it's probably a school night for you and we don't want to be tired." Johnny definitely saw himself in the boy, it seemed as if he didn't want him to make the same mistakes that Johnny did when he was still in school.
Johnny looks for yet another person to talk to. It was easy since it was his house and his party, but he didn't like being alone anyway. Luckily for Johnny, a girl comes up to him.
She was wearing a nice red, yet showy dress. She had heels on too. They matched her dress. The girl's hair was beautiful, thick and black. She was overdressed, but in a good way.
"So you're the infamous Johnny Cage." She says in a flirty tone. "You're looking at him." Johnny smirks, knowing where this is going. "That shirt looks good on you." She says, getting closer to him, almost touching his shoulders. Johnny laughs a little, complementing her dress back. "You know, I've never been with a movie star." The girl puts her arms around his neck. "Well, what's your name?" Johnny asks. "Rebecca." She answers, getting closer, almost hugging him. "Your dreams might just come true." Johnny says, then going in for a kiss. She kisses back. After a couple of seconds, they break apart. "Why don't we go somewhere more private?" Rebecca asks. "Of course." Johnny takes her up the stairs, to his room.
