"Okay, so who is that guy you are going to meet? You don't meet people like that."
Wade said, looking at Aiden. He was currently driving him to a residential area in New York City. That was the address of Bruce Morse he had gotten.
For some reason, his phone number wasn't working when he had called him.
"Bruce Morse. I just want to have a talk with him."
"Okay."
Wade didn't say anything else, knowing that Aiden would himself tell him at the right time. He just focused on his driving.
"Why did you even come with me?"
Aiden asked, changing the subject.
"I was bored." Wade shook his head. "Just that. Tom is handling all the important work calls and stuff. George is pretty free due to you not having any singing gigs and both Sasha and Lia are just handling your social media, trying to make your followers in the know about [Sherlock of the Shadows]."
"The release is in November right?"
"13 November. You would need to do the poster shoots, promotions and the additional dubbing before that."
Aiden nodded. Although he was off work, post production work and promotions were still something that he didn't mind doing.
He wanted his first streaming series to work after all.
"Well, we are here."
Wade said as he stopped his car in the residential area. Aiden got off it and looked around.
It was a normal residential area that looked nothing out of ordinary. A man was gardening and someone was playing with his golden retriever on the right.
Aiden approached that guy with the golden retriever and asked.
"Do you know where Bruce Morse lives here?"
"Bruce, yeah, I know that poor lad. Go to that house over here."
The man pointed at one of the houses on the left and Aiden couldn't help but ask.
"Poor?"
"Yeah, don't you know? That guy still lives with his parents and people taunt him a lot here. I feel bad for him and hope he actually succeeds someday."
Aiden finally understood what was going on. The last time he had seen Brue, he did look miserable. By his clothes, he did look like someone who was barely able to sustain himself.
But he hadn't thought of him as someone who was still living with his parents. It wasn't a big thing for Aiden, coming from a completely different culture.
Though, he was well aware that Americans are known as becoming independent and getting their own apartments as soon as they turn 18.
Shaking his thoughts, Aiden thanked the man and walked to Wade who told him that he would wait in the car.
After that, Aiden walked to the house that Bruce lived in and rang the doorbell. A minute later, some footsteps were heard and the door opened, revealing a young girl who looked to be a high school student.
"Is Bruce home?"
"Ah, yeah. He is." The girl said, staring at him with wide eyes. "Aren't you Aiden Silvereye? That singer and actor. You were nominated for Oscars too, right?"
"Ah, yeah."
"Oh my god!!"
The girl screamed so loud that Aiden had to close his ears with his hands. She looked like she was going to faint looking at him.
It was only after a while that she calmed down and Aiden was able to hold a conversation with her.
"I'm sorry. It's just my first time seeing a celebrity. Why are you here? Are you shooting for something?"
The girl asked, craning her neck to look behind Aiden, hoping to see some cameras.
"I said I'm here to see Bruce."
"Ah, yeah. Sorry I forgot in my excitement." The girl lowered her head in shame before turning towards the stairs. "His room is upstairs. He's holed up there and won't come down."
Aiden followed her upstairs and while walking, the girl who he had assumed as Bruce's sister kept talking to him, still too excited on the notion of seeing a celebrity.
They reached Bruce's room and the girl knocked at the door.
"Bruce. Open up! There's someone here to meet you."
"Who?" An irritated voice came out of the other side.
"Aiden. He said he wants to meet you."
"I don't know anyone named Aiden."
After that shout, there was a sound of a person getting out of his bed and walking towards the door. It opened in the next moment and Bruce showed his face.
His eyes lingered on his sister for a second before looking behind her at Aiden. They quickly went wide, in a similar manner to his sister.
"Hello, I wanted to talk to you about something."
Aiden said, giving a smile and Bruce couldn't help but stutter.
"Yes, yes, come in!"
***
Bruce quickly told his sister to not disturb him after Aiden entered his room. His room was filled with posters of different arts. On a desk, there were also pages filled with different character arts that looked similar to Bruce's style.
A few books were also scattered here and there. All in all, it was something not out of expectations.
"Sorry my room is a bit dirty. I didn't expect anyone to visit me today, certainly not you." Bruce said after a few seconds of silence.
"It's fine."
"What do you want to talk about? You said there was something."
Bruce directly asked. Curiosity was all over his face as he wondered what Aiden was doing here. He knew that celebrities would have a lot of work to do.
"Yeah, your comic. <Nightmare Guy>." Aiden looked at him. "I wanted to talk about it."
"What about it?" Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"I was thinking about it. More like, the main character, his powers. It's your own original character, right?"
Aiden asked to confirm and Bruce rigidly nodded his head.
"Yeah, I made it. I got inspiration from writing something like that a year ago and I've been developing the whole story since then. Well, it didn't turn out good enough. My pitch was rejected." Bruce muttered in a self berating tone.
"I think it's pretty good though." Bruce gave an astonished expression. "I mean, not the whole story. That needs help. A lot of it but the main character. You don't know what type of one could do it."
Saying that, Aiden looked up at him.
"I am a writer too if you don't know and I'm really interested in writing a story about your main character. The same main character but a completely revamped story. It's a proposal of mine actually, so you could reject it if you don't like it."
"Do you mean you and I are writing a graphic novel together? With me doing the art and you the story?"
Bruce asked and Aiden nodded his head.
"I actually thought that a novel would be fine enough but the story I have in my mind just sounds better as a comic. A graphic novel if you want to call it that. I liked your art and the original character is yours, so I came up with this idea."
Aiden explained all his reasons and gave Bruce time to think.
'I can't believe it. It's not a dream right? Wait! I'm not daydreaming right?'
Bruce thought in his mind, even going as far as to pinch the skin on his hands. After getting rejected in his pitch, he had completely given up on doing anything worthwhile in his life.
When he had told his parents that his pitch was rejected, their faces clearly spoke of their disappointment.
Their son was a waste of space — That's what he felt they would be thinking about him.
Bruce was playing around with the idea of just going to Nepal to settle in as a monk — Maybe there will be a chance to attain superpowers too like a certain movie — when Aiden had walked into his room.
'Maybe this is the chance. My last chance that God has given me. Thank you! Jesus! I know you would reward me for staying a virgin.'
Bruce thought in his mind and realised that Aiden was still looking for an answer from him. He had been silent for too long.
"I'm sorry I was just thinking about all this. Are you really okay with someone like me? I never really wrote a fully published comic. Every piece I wrote was cancelled after the initial draft."
He immediately regretted it after asking that question. He was just making himself look like someone who was not confident in himself.
"Everyone starts somewhere." Aiden replied. "I'm extremely fine with it."
"I'm on board then. We could start any minute."
Aiden smiled hearing that. He had a feeling that Bruce would agree with his suggestion.
'I'm really getting into all sorts of fields.'
That thought suddenly crossed his mind. It wasn't a bad thing but he didn't want to be known as someone who was jack of all trades but master of none.
He dismissed the worries as something unnecessary and wondered if he should try his hand on drawing.
A skill like that sounded pretty helpful and he was sure that he would be able to acquire it if he tried enough.
But that was for later.
His job here was to give out the story and leave the art to Bruce.
"We could start any minute but are we going to work here?"
Aiden looked around the room and Bruce realised that the space was too less for both of them. He didn't have an office or anything like that.
As he was thinking about what to do, Aiden gave a suggestion.
"I have office space for my team. Both of us could work there on the idea. Are you okay with that?"
"Yes, yes, I'm!"
Like that, a new partnership began for him.
