You Are My Beautiful Soul (A Jesse McCartney fanfic)

Chapter 2

Good things happen to people who wait. Whoever said that must be a fool, or else exceedingly optimistic. If he had waited, he would not be where he is today. If he had listened to that blubbering fool and waited for his dreams to come true, he'd probably still be arranging boxes in a store-room at the back of his father's store.

            No, good things happen to people who reach for it as soon as they see it; those who wait, gets left behind, that should be the right saying. If he had a way he'd introduce that aphorism to the world, but then again, who's to say that he can't. Maybe at the next interview, he'd say that. But what's the point, it's not like it would matter anyway. People would listen to the words he say and praise it, but at the end of the day, it was just the talk of the rich and famous. If he was a philosopher, those words would be carved on stones and printed on books for the future generation.

            He wondered what it would be like if he was a philosopher, or a Nobel Prize Winner, to mean something to the world – to make a difference. What did it matter anyway? He was famous, and he had all the money in the world, plus he had the looks that would take him in all the right direction. But is all this enough? He always thought to himself as he lay awake each night, trying to sleep. Are all the money in the world and all the adoration enough for me? Why do I still feel something missing in my life?

            Maybe he needed a real girlfriend for once, not a fake one like Victoria Grayson. Oh, Victoria, if only you knew how much I hate you, with your fake face and fake body and fake smile. Everything about you is fake and worst of all I hate this fake relationship!

            "Why does it have to be her, of all people?" Jesse McCartney asked his manager and long-time advisor, Benjamin Wyatt affably known as Benny.

            "Look here, Jesse," Benny said, "She's in the same movie as you, plus she's famous, though not as famous as you are, but this partnership would make your popularity explode."

            "I don't need her for my popularity to explode," Jesse retorted, as they discussed this in his penthouse. There are better looking actresses and models out there, and he knew Victoria's reputation was the worst. She's been in rehab almost thrice, summoned for drunken driving uncountable times and there was once she behaved aggressively towards a photographer who tried to take her picture coming out of a gym.

            "Jesse my boy," Benny said in a fatherly manner. He had been with Jesse since the first time he brought the boy to his first audition. He was actually just a family friend, but right now he was like a friend, a brother, an uncle and a father to Jesse McCartney, "You do know that you are now almost twenty-seven years old. When you started singing, you were seventeen and fresh. And then, a year after that you sold your first million albums, and since then you were working non-stop, but people are getting bored to see your face on the TV screen."

            "How can anyone be bored with me?" Jesse said, grinning and showing all his teeth to Benny who playfully shielded his face from Jesse's grin.

            "I'm not saying they are," Benny said, "I'm saying that they will, soon;unless you do something new."  

            "I could bungee-jump," Jesse suggested.

            "Would you?" Benny asked, looking at him skeptically, as he is very well aware of Jesse's fear of heights.

            "No, maybe not," Jesse agreed, "I could do something else, instead of date this witch!"

            "You don't have to date her for real," Benny said, shaking his head exasperatedly, "We will sign a contract on paper – I've already talked to her manager, all you have to do is go out with her in public and show the world that you're in love."