HWI 36

Hollywood What If Chapter 36

"Brother..."

"Shut up!"

Kazir received a punch in the face and stumbled down. His nose was bleeding as he touched the ground.

He was stunned for a second. However, another punch hit him in the face.

"H- Hey! Stop! Aaron! You have to stop! You're hurting your brother!"

"I don't have a brother."

The people at the funeral stopped Aaron from hurting Kazir. Or else Aaron might kill him.

Kazir groggily sat up and stared at his older brother. All he could see was the anger in his eyes.

"Dad left half of the inheritance to you, I don't care if you will take the money or not. Just don't show yourself ever again. I don't have a brother."

Aaron has a cold face as he stated these sentences. Aaron didn't care about the money, he was rich on his own. But the fact that Kazir only showed himself after their father died was irking him so much.

Aaron walked away in disgust.

"..."

Kazir weakly wiped his bleeding nose and glanced at his father's tomb. There was no grass around the tomb since the coffin was just buried.

He didn't know what to say. His heart felt heavy. As if he could not breathe.

He was afraid to meet his father and brother because he knew that he failed them. No matter how many times he tried to make movies, none of them was successful.

He was afraid that his father would be disappointed in him. When Kazir received a call, it was already too late. In the end, he didn't know if he should attend the funeral.

Just as he expected, Aaron was mad at him.

In his opinion, he deserves every beating that he received. If not, more.

He took a deep breath and stood up. He didn't know how many hours passed. There were no people in the cemetery and the sun was gradually disappearing.

Kazir was walking ahead with his face swollen from punches. There was even dried blood under his nose. He fucking lost it.

For unknown reasons, Kazir found his feet in front of the cinema. As if he was trying to find comfort.

The ticket seller was confused by his appearance but he decided to give him a ticket. Kazir randomly chose a movie to watch. He didn't care what kind of movie it was. He just wanted to disappear.

He realized that he had chosen Napoleon Dynamite.

He didn't understand the jokes in the movie. In his opinion, it was boring and the delivery of jokes was awkward. Heck, he didn't like the movie at all.

However, his eyes didn't leave the screen.

Minutes passed and he reached the last sequence of the movie. Napoleon started dancing, it was cringe-worthy in his eyes.

However, he realized that tears started rolling down. He sobbed as the ending credits went on. He cried loudly. Thankfully, there were few people in the theaters and no one was disturbed.

He almost killed himself. He wanted to kill himself.

But for unknown reasons, Napoleon Dynamite gave him hope. Since then, Kazir big the DVD of Napoleon Dynamite. He always watched whenever he was depressed. It was his go-to comfort movie.

.........
......
...

October 14, 1995

It was already two days since Napoleon Dynamite was released. Kazir had promised Reese that he would watch the movie with her.

Reese Witherspoon and Kazir Grey had a good relationship these days. Yet both of them didn't want a serious relationship. Reese wanted to focus on her dream while Kazir was afraid of love.

The two had never watched Napoleon Dynamite because they were both busy these past two days.

Kazir settled his contract with his brother and talked to his lawyer about his newly established film company. On the second day, he attended the celebration party of Se7en.

As for Reese, she had acting lessons and she was working a part-time job in the catering business. She only received a small amount of $8 thousand in her role in Napoleon Dynamite.

Well, she was not complaining.

"You promised me that I will receive a bonus once Napoleon Dynamite is released in theaters."

Reese leaned closer and kissed his cheek.

"Reese, I promise everyone in the crew that they will receive a bonus if Napoleon Dynamite became successful."

He answered and invited her to his car. Everyone needs money, especially poor people who were having trouble feeding themselves.

"So what kind of success then? Once it surpassed 50 million?"

"$100 million at the North American box office." He replied.

"... You're insane. Are you saying that Napoleon Dynamite, my first heavy role, will have $100 million at the North American box office? Are you that confident? Or you are just arrogant?"

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"What about Se7en? I'm sure New Line Cinema will never be stingy to give you a bonus."

"$100 thousand."

"So why are you still using this car?"

"I'm still having trouble choosing between Honda or Toyota."

"Hm, I hope Napoleon Dynamite will be successful."

She hoped that more people would watch the movie and remember her.

"Don't worry Reese, you will become famous."

"You kept saying this thing like you know the future."

Well, she didn't hate it. Kazir's assurance gave her strength. Reese was still young and she knew that her dream of being an actress might be nothing but a myriad.

"Let's go and watch our movie."

The two entered the theaters and bought two tickets for Napoleon Dynamite.

As they went inside one of the theaters, they saw a few people inside the theater. Just like them, they were interested in watching Napoleon Dynamite.

The movie was already released two days and it was slowly gaining a reputation. As of Saturday, Napoleon Dynamite had made $70 thousand with 12 theaters. That's right, the first week of Napoleon Dynamite only had a minuscule of 12 theaters.