Capítulo 23: Disadvantages of fame.
Mark took a sip of his beer as he quickly thought of Andrew's words, what disadvantage could he be possibly talking of? Attaining fame is the best thing that can ever happen to an artiste, so what the hell is he talking about?
"What are the disadvantages?" Mark asked him, this time openly.
Andrew filled his glass cup with beer once again, taking a sip of it, he questioned Mark with a slightly serious look on his face.
"Do you know how it feels to be lonely?"
"Yeah". Mark retorted.
Andrew smiled a little sponging a large gulp of his beer into his mouth, with that smirk still plastered to his face, he queried Mark once again,
"Can you give me an instance of when you were lonely?"
"I can give you instances, first of all, I am 26 years old, and I am still single, no fiancee or wife to show for it, isn't that extreme loneliness? I can give you another instance, there were times as a little kid when I had no friends to play with, isn't that loneliness?". Mark responded.
Andrew laughed out loudly, Mark was really kidding him, he wasn't even close to the type of loneliness he was speaking of.
"Mark, you don't understand the type of loneliness I am speaking of here. Now, this is an example of the type of loneliness I am speaking of. Not being able to walk about on the streets without hiding your identity so you won't get revealed. Being escorted by security and bodyguards most of the time, not being able to make as many friends as possible 'cause you don't know which of them is extremely jealous of you because of how famous you are. Receiving critics from fans and people because of the little mistakes you make, always expecting you to be perfect. Fault finders are everywhere always watching out for the errors of celebrities, paparazzi are everywhere poke nosing on the lives of celebrities all the time. All these results in only sadness, depression, and loneliness, those are some of the disadvantages of being famous".
These impediments Andrew mentioned weren't that new to Mark, he had heard of situations were celebrities pass through these circumstances. But the way Andrew spoke of it with that serious look on his face depicts that it was more serious than what he was thinking of.
"Wow! is it that serious?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, more serious than what you think of, do you remember when I was accused of assaulting Sofie sexually?"
"Yeah, I heard of it, but I didn't take it seriously".
"Why didn't you take it seriously?" Andrew inquired of Mark.
" 'Cause I didn't believe you would do such a thing". Mark retorted with a face and tone of voice that indicates that he never believed in the accusation.
"Yeah, I would never do such a thing, and I appreciate you for believing in me. But not all people are willing to believe in the truth, they choose to believe lies and stand by them. Paparazzi took the false news far and wide, bloggers kept on posting it on their blogs, Sofie refused to say the truth that I never assaulted her sexually, instead, she was the one trying to force herself on me. The news spread faster because I'm a famous actor. Lots of people criticized and condemned me for what I didn't do, I was so depressed and sad for a long time. I lost motivation to get involved in any movie shoot for a long time, some of the movies I was featured on had to be halted for a time being until I regained my motivation to resume acting. It was so bad". Andrew explained with an unpleasant tone of voice.
"Not good at all, but the matter and accusation died down after some time, how was that possible?".
"After I resumed acting, they had no choice but to quit gossiping about the accusation, my acting skills was like bribery to them. I came back with much force into the movie industry, my acting skills improved at threefold. The aura I came back with was evident in my featured movie 'Heresy', the movie dropped and instantly became a hit. They knew I was back for good, so they had to halt the spread of the false rumor".
"Wow! I remembered watching that movie, I was totally in love with it. It happens to be one of the best movies you've been featured in. What of Sofie, what happened to her? Did she ever confessed?". An inquisitive Mark asked.
Andrew emptied his glass cup of beer in just one gulp slamming the glass cup back on the table, Mark's question seemed to have sparked up a sudden bitterness in his heart. With an unpleasant tone of voice, he replied to Mark's question.
"She never uncovered out to the public that it was a false accusation she laid on me. She was afraid of how people would criticize and insult her forgetting how sad and depressed I was at that moment. After noticing that the accusation had withered and people weren't talking about it anymore, I made sure to cut all ties with her, all the business deals and plans we had together, I canceled all. Up till now, I am still holding on to a serious grudge against her. As far as she doesn't confess out to the public of what she did, I am gonna keep on clenching to a grudge against her".
"She has such a wicked heart". Mark stated in disgust
"Yeah, she is a vicious person, so I am just telling you all these things so you would know that fame has its disadvantages also. Being famous doesn't mean your life would go smoothly all the time, that's what I have been meaning to tell you". Andrew declared, by this time, his bottle of beer had been emptied by him.
"Wow! thanks a lot, I have learned a lot, but that doesn't mean that striving to attain fame and attention is a bad idea right?" Mark questioned.
"No, not at all, it isn't a bad idea at all, fame has it's disadvantages, but also has it's advantages also". Andrew replied promptly.
"I asked that 'cause I know how hard I am striving to become popular as an artiste. So as the same for other upcoming artiste out there, we are hungering for fame so much that we don't care about the disadvantages, all we crave for is the fame. You know what Andrew, I feel it is more down hearting to keep on struggling for the fame and not attaining it than to attain it and undergo the disadvantages".
"Yeah, true, I think so too, I should bring another bottle of chilled beer". Andrew uttered after discerning that Mark had emptied his bottle of beer also.
"No need for that, I am ok, I don't wanna get intoxicated". Mark said refusing Andrew's offer.
"Looks like you ain't much of a heavy drinker".
"Something like that, but on a norm, I can drink up to 3 to 4 bottles of beer without getting drunk. But right now, I'm not in the mood to sponge in lots of liquors into my body".
"Hmmm, I am just 23 years old, but I can drink up to 5 to 6 bottles of beer without getting intoxicated".
"What! you don't mean it". Mark slightly exclaimed.
"Seriously". Andrew uttered.
"Wow! you are a heavy drinker".
"Yeah, that's me, Do you care for chips?" Andrew inquired of Mark.
"No need for that, I am ok, seems like you brought me here to feed me". Mark retorted.
"I don't care if you reject my offer, I am still gonna bring it, I've got packs of chips which I wanna share out to people, since you are here, let's eat and enjoy it together". Andrew stated as he stood up to get the chips.
He brought four packs of ruffles chips, gave two to Mark and took two for himself.
"You really brought me to your home to feed me". Mark said after receiving the ruffles chips from Andrew.
"If you say so, whenever I have visitors at my residence, I make sure to serve them whatever sustenance I have to their satisfaction. And you are no different, you are even special to me 'cause I love your songs to the brim, so you must enjoy yourself to the fullest".
"Andrew the generous guy". Mark uttered while smiling as he raised one of the packs of ruffles chips for a chip toast.
"Yeah, that's me". Andrew declared as he slammed his chips with Mark's own for the culmination of the chip toast. They crunched their chips for some time before Mark activated a conversation once again.
"Andrew, there is a question I have been meaning to ask you since we got here".
"What question is that?"
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