The Trick Is To Keep Breathing 7
Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between the characters in this story and real people (appearances, names, etc.) are purely coincidental. This story may contain homosexual material, including love and sex, so if material like this is illegal in your region or if it discomforts you, please leave.
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The Trick Is To Keep Breathing
Chapter VII
There were hundreds and hundreds of people who showed up for the casting call, they were in a really long line at the Three Of Us studios when Kyle arrived.
"Good morning, guys!" Kyle greeted the potential models as he walked down the hall along the line.
"Morning!"
"Good morning!"
"Kyle!"
"Oh, my god!"
"Good morning!"
"What time did you guys wake up?"
"6:00!"
"5:00!"
"5:30!"
"Well I see not one single flawed face here! I hope you guys are ready!"
The long line of potential models cheered and clapped as Kyle continued to walk down the lobby. Christian Hawkings was standing outside of the audition room wearing a headset and holding a clipboard.
Kyle hugged the former jock and said, "Morning, Chris. How are you?"
"Hey, Ky. I am well. Are you excited?"
Grinning, Kyle replied, "I am! My god. Hey, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate you coming in at 8:00 on a Saturday morning."
Christian shrugged and responded, "For seventy-five bucks an hour, I'd be insane not to."
"Warren is scheduled to come in at 10:00, right?"
"He texted me, like, ten minutes ago. He just woke up. He's gonna go for a run and then come in."
"Excellente!" Kyle cheered. "Remember, ten models at a time."
"Got it."
Inside the audition room, Kyle sat beside Samantha Illep, his lawyer. She was there to help him choose models.
"Good morning," Samantha greeted kindly. "We have three hundred forty people here currently and more are trickling in. So remember to be professional and concise. You're only choosing six models but collect any head shots that interest you."
Kyle nodded, and then asked, "8:57. Shall we start?"
"Are you sure you don't want Lana Veruska here?" Samantha asked with concern. "Being a former agent, she would offer so much expertise."
"Let's see how the morning goes," Kyle replied, and then said into the handheld radio, "Okay, Chris, can you send in the first ten?"
Eight young women and two young men filed into the room and lined up neatly in front of the desk. Kyle wanted to ask for all of their information for callbacks, they were all so beautiful. But he knew he couldn't do that.
Studying the ten models closely, Kyle asked, "Can I get headshots from you and you?"
The blonde young woman and the light-brown-haired young man smiled minutely as they both took their headshots out of their portfolios.
"Thank you," Kyle said warmly. "We will be in touch this afternoon. Thank you guys for coming in!"
The first group filed out of the room, and the second group entered. This group was equally as beautiful, which made it difficult for Kyle to choose.
Kyle pointed and asked, "What's your name, Sweetie?"
"I am Adaoma," the young woman answered with a shy smile.
Smiling at the young woman's accent, Kyle asked, "Where are you from? Can I have your headshot?"
Handing Kyle her headshot, Adaoma answered, "I am Nigerian. I move here for university."
"You have a very beautiful complexion, Adaoma. We will be in touch with you around 4:00 this afternoon."
"Can I get your headshot, too?" Samantha asked a Latina.
"Thanks to all of you for coming in!"
Six hours later, after seeing nearly seven hundred potential models in the open casting, Kyle and Samantha began laying out the fifty-eight headshots they'd chosen.
Through the radio, Warren's voice said, "Hey, boss, we're back from lunch."
Kyle grabbed the handheld radio and said, "Chris, Warren, you guys are done for the day. I have your paycheques up here."
"That's a ten-four," Warren replied.
"Roger that," Christian chimed in. "Over and out."
Kyle scoffed in amusement and told them both, "You guys are the biggest dorks."
Studying the headshots, Samantha stated, "We need to somehow choose six models out of these fifty-eight."
Warren and Christian entered the room, so Kyle wrote their paycheques. Christian's was for six hundred, and Warren's was for four hundred fifty. Both kissed Kyle's cheek and left the studio.
"Well I definitely want Adaoma," Kyle replied while grabbing her photo. "She has amazing dark skin. And this Fiona."
"Fiona's sixteen," Samantha said. "We should photograph her first so she gets home to do her homework."
"Be nice," Kyle demanded with a laugh. "It's not her fault she's a minor."
"I strongly think we should use Francesco," Samantha offered. "He has stunning eyes."
"Yeah, yeah," Kyle agreed. "Maioko has beautiful bone structure."
"Okay," Samantha agreed, studying the fifty-four remaining photos. "Two more."
Kyle sighed and responded, "Two more."
What about her?
No, I like her better.
Kyle and Samantha went back and forth for the next half hour. They had no idea who to choose. They were both frustrated, not with each other, but they still bickered like an old married couple.
Kyle happily said, "At least we're down to just four now."
"Yeah, but it's not any easier."
"For fuck's sake just pick two!" Samantha said with a laugh of frustration.
"Fine. I'll go with Johnny and Alessandra."
"Finally," Samantha happily cheered. "Now you call your models and I'll start calling the ones that sucked."
"They didn't suck!" Kyle laughed. "We just didn't choose them. Now I'm really starting to see how much of a bitch you are."
Kyle walked over to the small refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of apple juice. After handing one to Samantha, Kyle took his cell phone out.
"Hello?" Adaoma answered her phone.
"Hello, Adaoma. This is Kyle Hemstad calling you about the modelling job that you came in for today. How are you?"
"Yes. I am fine, thank you."
"Excellent to hear. So I am calling you because I want to use you as a model."
"Oh, my god!" Adaoma cried excitedly. "Really? That is amazing news!"
"I was serious when I said that you have a stunning complexion. I am totally looking forward to working with you. Are you available to work on May twelfth at 1:00 in the afternoon?"
"Absolutely. I will be there."
"Great! The photoshoot will take place here at Three Of Us studios. What size clothes do you wear? I will be supplying the outfits, you see."
"Oh, that's nice. I wear size four."
"Got it. Now according to your headshot info, you don't have a modelling agency. That is definitely no problem, but you may want to find a lawyer to review the contract that you will have to sign. It's a basic contract, but it has a nondisclosure agreement, meaning you cannot speak of the photoshoot to anybody until the launch."
"My husband is study law here. He will be a lawyer next year."
"Works out for you then. Awesome. Because you don't have an agency, you won't have to pay an agent, I can write your cheque out to you directly. The pay will be a thousand dollars. Do you have any questions?"
"Yes. When will the photoshoot end? I have child, toddler."
"Okay, I will have you in hair and makeup and shoot you first so you can get home to your family at about 2:30 or 3:00. Does that sound okay?"
"That is great. Thank you, Kyle."
On Wednesday morning, Kyle woke and was very surprised to still be cwtched up with Brendan. He hadn't opened his eyes but he could feel Brendan's arm resting over his side and his leg sandwiched between Brendan's.
When Kyle opened his cognac eyes, Brendan's brilliant blue ones were gazing at him affectionately. Brendan offered him a soft smile, and kissed him.
Kyle said, "Morning. Time's it?"
Brendan reached behind himself, looked at his phone, and answered, "9:41."
"Weren't you supposed to be at the gym at 9:00? Not that I'm complaining. I love waking up with you."
"Thought I'd surprise you," Brendan replied as he stroked his finger along the brunette's jaw. "I texted Betty last night to handle business today. I just wanted to spend a day with you. If you have any videos to film, I don't mind waiting."
With a smile of appreciation, Kyle responded, "I just have one video to film today. It can wait til this afternoon."
The young couple spent ten to fifteen minutes snuggling in bed. They were completely relaxed, Kyle had his face buried in Brendan's neck and loved the smell of the redhead in the morning.
Still dressed clad in their underwear, Kyle and Brendan turned off their phones and brushed their teeth. They then went into the living room where they cuddled on the couch darkened by the blackout curtains. Because they were both lazy cook, binge-watching the second season of 'Narcos' on Netflix, and enjoying each other's presence anyway, Brendan ordered breakfast from Townhouse Diner.
"We need to do this more often," Kyle said quietly and kissed Brendan's cheek. "It's nice doing nothing with your boyfriend."
Brendan responded by tightening his one-armed embrace around Kyle's shoulders and kissed his wavy brown hair.
Twenty minutes later, their takeout breakfast arrived. Brendan, being considerate, got Kyle's thin tan trench coat out of the closet and answered the door.
Kyle moaned- moaned as he ate the first bite of bacon. It caused Brendan to giggle as he sliced his eggs benedict.
"Sooo good to eat bacon!" Kyle stated gleefully. "We should do this more often, too. Eat bacon, I mean. Not often. Maybe four or five times a week."
Brendan simply laughed in response. He enjoyed his eggs benedict, pork sausages, and wheat toast. Kyle greedily enjoyed his spinach and ham omelette, bacon, real diced potato hashbrowns, and rye toast. Those were the greasiest meals the young couple ate in two years.
After breakfast, Kyle and Brendan left the emptied food containers on the coffee table as they continued to watch 'Narcos' on Netflix. Normally, Kyle would keep everything super clean- obsessively clean- but he just relished in cwtching up with the redhead.
Just after 1:00 that afternoon, Kyle cleared the food containers as Brendan began mixing up batter for apple cinnamon muffins. Kyle then dressed up and went into the office to film.
"Hello, guys!" Kyle cheerily said to his camera. "How are you doing today? I hope you're having as an amazing day as I am. I was going to be filming this video at about 10:00 this morning, but Brendan decided to stay home so we've been cuddling up on the couch for the past few hours. Because of this, as you can clearly see, I'm not wearing any makeup today.
"The time is currently..." Kyle grabbed his phone, "1:06P.M. so let's get started. As you can see from the title of this video, we are gonna be doing a Q and A while factory resetting a bunch of 2017 mobile phones. It is nearing the summer of 2018 and a bunch of brands have already rolled out their new devices. As a bonus to you guys, I'll be giving some of these phones away. I won't be giving all of my phones away because I'll have to keep some for shooting comparison videos to their successor handhelds. To enter this giveaway, all you have to is be a subscriber to this channel and comment down below.
"So, ladies, gentlemen, welcome back to Hemstad Hardware.
"So I did get all of my data off of each device, like photos, videos, music, etcetera. We will start with the Samsung Galaxy S8. To hard reset this, I hold the power button and select 'Turn Off'. Now that it's turned off, I'll hold the power button, volume up button, and the Bixby button at the same time.
"So first question comes from @justin_h411 asks, 'I still have the Galaxy S7 Edge. Would you recommend I upgrade to the S8 Plus or the S9 Plus?' Well, Justin, there are minimal, minimal differences between the two devices. The S9 has a couple millimetre thinner body but the battery is bigger. Its display is four millimetres bigger, and the display is brighter. For those reasons, I would highly recommend splurging and getting the S9 Plus.
"Now that the S8 Plus is reset, I'll put it away in the box, ready to be shipped. Next is the Huawei Mate Ten.
"Second question comes from @mkbhd. Marques! Hi! Okay, Marques asks, 'Which phone is, in your opinion, better? The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus or the iPhone Ten?'"
Kyle was totally amused. He covered his face in his hands and laughed unabashedly.
"Marques and I were texting back in February when I got the new Galaxy S9 Plus. If you guys don't know, Marques is also a big tech reviewer on YouTube. He also has the Galaxy S9 Plus, but he still favours the iPhone Ten. So anyway, we were texting and debating which phone is better. We were texting for about a half hour, and then he calls me. We debated for another ten minutes or so. No hate, though. Marques is a chill guy and an awesome content creator.
"So, Marques, to answer your question, the Galaxy S9 is definitely, definitely the better phone. It has stunning colours, a super sharp display, basically half the thickness of the iPhone, better cameras, louder surround sound speakers, crisper sound, and the amazing usage of the curved edges.
"Huawei Mate Ten is reset, and ready to ship out. Next is the LG G6.
"Next question is from @anna_stackson_lover and she asks, 'What is your biggest pet peeve about other YouTubers who review products, whether it be cosmetics or tech?' Well, I can't stand it when reviewers title their videos 'Brutally Honest' or 'Totally Honest' or 'Honest A.F.'! No matter what, whether companies send you products or you bought it, your review should be honest. Titling your videos like that makes it sound like your other videos are not as honest, or there is some sort of bias.
"@canucksnowboarder asks, 'Congrats on HH reaching four mill subscribers and KB reaching 5mill! Do you actually do all of your YouTube career stuff by yourself?' Thank you! I owe a big thank you to you guys for helping me get to where I am today. And yes. I choose not to have an agent, a manager, a moderator, an editor, or anything. I handle it all. And because I aced all of my finals last month, I'll be graduating from N.Y.U. in a couple of weeks! I am so excited! So I have more time to do it all now that I am done university.
"Mate Ten is reset and ready to be shipped. Next phone to reset is the Nokia Eight.
"Next question comes from @surfercaliboi, who asks, 'I will be attending U.S.F. this fall. Would you recommend the Microsoft Surface or a MacBook for classes?' Well, putting my love for Mac's aside, I would totally choose a MacBook or an iPad because both devices support Mac and Microsoft applications like Pages, Numbers, iMovie, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etcetera.
"@jacquesm98 asks, 'Do you sometimes give products to your boyfriend that you received for free?' No. Anything that Brendan has is either something that he purchases himself or is a gift. Like back in November, Brendan stayed up until 3:00A.M. to order his iPhone Ten. The phone case he's currently using is a Christmas gift from... I wanna say his friend Sasha gave that to him but I could be wrong. The Canon camera that he uses to film his videos was a gift from me for his birthday. So no, I never give any friends or family products that I received for free from companies. If I don't use something, I either give it in giveaways or donate to shelters.
"Okay, the Nokia is reset and ready for shipping. Next phone is the HTC U11.
"Next question comes from @barnabusclausen, who asks, 'What camera lens do you use to film?' I use the Sigma eighteen-to-thirty-five lens because it gets me crisp images, has the panned out picture when not zoomed, gets up close and personal, and focuses quick when autofocus is on.
"@your_fair_maiden asks, 'When will you do another collab with tech YouTubers? Last one was with Jonathan Morrison'. Yeah, I'll leave a link down in the description box of the video that Jonathan asked me to be a part of. And that was, like, nine or ten months ago. But I would happily collab with someone when we have an amazing idea. In Jonathan's video, we built his ultimate hardware desk for all of his filming gear, computer, two displays, ergonomic keyboard slider, etcetera. Marques and I have been talking about filming about collaborating, but it's a surprise.
"HTC is done resetting, but the box for it was destroyed so whoever wins it, I promise I'll ship it with the utmost care. iPhones are easy to reset, so I'll reset both the Eight and the Eight Plus at the same time.
"@tdogg_bruiser asks, 'How much do you make from being a YouTuber? Must be a lot because you don't do sponsored videos'. I will link a video down in the description box where I explain how much money I make being a content creator. And I rarely, rarely do sponsored videos because I already make so much money. The last sponsored video I did was... hmm... I think it was the video where I reviewed a bunch of Spigen cases for the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. I chose to do that video because Spigen was giving away an S9 Plus. I only choose to do sponsored videos when you guys- and only you guys benefit from the sponsorship.
"Awesome! All phones are factory reset! So be sure to subscribe and comment down below for a chance to win any of these phones shown today. It'll be random so I'll tell you what phone you've won, if any, through Instragram or Twitter D.M.'s. If you don't want that phone, I'll choose another winner and you get none. Fair's fair.
"Okay, that is it for today's video, guys. I hope you enjoyed it! Best of luck to those who enter the giveaway. I hope you have an amazing day. Bye."
After hitting the shutter button, Kyle imported the video into his computer and spent fifteen or so minutes editing it. Because he already had two videos pre-filmed for the next couple of days and this new video was scheduled to be posted on Saturday.
Brendan was emptying a brown paper bag on the kitchen island when Kyle came down the hall.
Smiling with excitement, Brendan said, "I got us bacon cheeseburgers and curly fries from Jackson Hole."
Smiling, also excited, Kyle responded, "Oh, my god. We are gonna have to run a hundred miles if we continue to eat like this today."
"I don't even know when was the last time I ate a burger," Brendan replied. "And I bought tortilla chips and salsa for a mid afternoon snack."
The two young men carried their burgers and fries to the couch. Brendan turned on Netflix and started streaming 'Weeds'.
While chewing his first bite of the burger, Kyle euphorically said, "Jesus Christ this is good. J.H.B. has the best burger sauce."
Brendan snapped a selfie of him and Kyle holding their half-eaten burgers, and Kyle had a bulge in his cheek as he smiled. Brendan laughed, and captioned the photo 'Having an amazing unplugged day with this gorgeous man @kylehemstad. We will be back online tmrw' and posted it to Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.
Kyle arrived at the Three Of Us studios just before noon. He was the first one there. He set down his two suitcases beside one of the three vanities. One, the smaller suitcase, contained hundred and hundreds of cosmetic products. The bigger one contained dozens of outfits.
"Hey, Kyle!" a young woman greeted as she walked into the room.
Farrah Dalston was a makeup artist that Kyle hired for the photoshoot. He had seen her work a year prior while she was working at MAC and thought she was brilliant.
"Hi, Farrah. Makeup is in this suitcase. Would you mind setting up two vanities while I steam the clothes?"
A young man cried, "Heyooo!" as he walked into the room pulling a giant wheeled box.
Richard Welledin was a photography student at Columbia University. He had answered Kyle's advertisement calling for photographers. Kyle loved the photos that Richard submitted, particularly the photos of his sister's wedding.
"How's it going, Ricky?" Kyle asked kindly.
"S'awesome, dude!" Richard answered enthusiastically. "My first paid photography job! Thank you!"
While hanging the clothes on a rack, Kyle replied, "Yeah! You have stunning photos, Ricky."
Farrah then asked, "Do you mind if I use my own makeup brushes? I think I'd apply makeup better with them."
"Go ahead. Just remember to clean them between models or switch 'em out."
"I've brought three sets," Farrah responded. "And a bottle of brush cleaner."
Richard set up the white photography background, three wireless camera flashes with softboxes, his camera tripod, checked his three memory cards, and cleaned his camera lenses. Farrah organized the hundreds of cosmetics on the vanities, cleaned brushes, and then helped Kyle unpack the outfits while he steamed the wrinkles out.
Dorian Manilon, Kyle's hairstylist, showed up and immediately began setting up his hair products and tools at the last vanity.
Adaoma and Francesco were the first models to show up. Farrah did Francesco's makeup at Kyle's insistence because he was looking forward to testing the makeup on Adaoma's super dark skin.
Johnny showed up when Kyle was applying light grey and ocean blue eyeshadow to Adaoma's eyelids. He told Johnny that he was up next and that there were bottles of water in the mini refrigerator.
After misting setting spray on Adaoma's face, Kyle told her that there were three clothing racks and that her outfits were labeled, and she could change behind the free-standing partition. He also told her to see Dorian after changing.
Kyle said to Dorian. "I like her hair exactly as it is, but before her outfit change, can you straighten it?"
"You got it, Kid," Dorian replied.
Kyle studied Francesco's face, and told Farrah, "Looks great. When he finishes his first round of photos, can you try a nude lipstick and golden-brown eyeshadows?"
Francesco's makeup was finished, so he grabbed an outfit off a rack and went to another partition to change. Farrah started on Johnny's makeup while Kyle sat at the desk where Richard's laptop was situated. He studied every single photo that the photographer took of Adaoma, and was incredibly happy with them.
Kyle then went to Dorian where he was styling Francesco's black wavy hair slicked back.
"For his second shoot, can you pompadour his hair? And then for Johnny, can you fix his blonde hair in a curly organized mess?"
While studying the website, Kyle asked, "Can you make the product titles a size bigger, the price tags two sizes bigger, and the info bullets a size smaller?"
"No prob," Steve Veclunes, Kyle's new technical analyst and website manager, replied.
Kyle's phone buzzed with a notification, and Kyle asked, "And can you enlarge the model photos by fifteen percent and layer the text over them?"
"Absolutely," Steve replied as Kyle grabbed his cell phone off the desk.
- YouTube:
- 'Tati Uploaded: "KYLE BEAUTY | NEW MAKEUP BY KYLE HEMSTAD REVIEW | Worth It?'"
Kyle had already seen the video the night before because Tati Westbrook had emailed it to him. But he opened the notification to open the video anyway to see any comments, if any.
There were comments!
The video had been live for just a minute but it already had a hundred views and a dozen comments.
'Never opened a notification so fast!'
'I knew it!'
'Kyle Beauty has makeup!'
Tati began her video with, "Hey, guys! Welcome to today's video! We are doing a random unboxing. A couple of days ago I got this box from fellow beauty guru Kyle Hemstad. If you guys don't know who that is, I will link his channel down below so you can check him out. Most of you guys know who Kyle is, his beauty channel reached five million subscribers just last month. But he is launching his new makeup line next week, and he has given me permission to review his cosmetics to show you guys ahead of time. I am sure this launch is a bit of a surprise to you because Kyle has been keeping this hush-hush for the past couple of years. He has been working extremely hard on this project and I AM EXCITED FOR HIM! I have never been more proud of a fellow YouTuber, let alone another beauty guru.
"I actually opened this box- and it's a pretty big box- just last night as soon as I could but only to read these fact sheets. I promise that I have not seen a single one of the products, it'll be as much of a surprise to me as it is you. So let's get started.
"In this box is primer, foundation, concealer, setting powder, contour duos, blush, highlighter, eyeshadow palettes, setting spray, and lipsticks. Kyle is still working on brow pencils, brown gels, eyeliners, and mascara. I don't know if Kyle is planning on false lashes, but I would hope he does because so many of his cosmetics are all-natural, while the rest are mostly organic with hints of non-harmful chemicals that we're used to anyway.
"First item is this face primer," Tati said while showing the box. "What I love about Kyle's cosmetics is the simple naming. Simple black packaging with an elegant Kyle Beauty logo. This is called 'K.H. Primer' and it is all-natural, which I have my qualms about simply because I don't have the best experience with all-natural primers. It has this beautiful glass bottle and a simple black pump, with the Kyle Beauty logo. But let's just test this out. Oh, it smells fantastic! It smells like melon, with a hint of vanilla. Oh! And it feels fantastic! Nice cooling sensation, and it's making my pores look so much smaller! Not as good as Benefit's Porefessional, but amazing in its own right. For this fluid ounce of primer serum, you pay twenty-five dollars.
*"Next up we have the * 'K.H. Foundation'. I am already really impressed with this foundation because the line, as you can see, has a range of thirty-four shades! That is almost unheard of for a brand new cosmetics company! Now according to the fact sheet, this foundation is mostly organic, but has a hint of dimethicone to give your skin a matte look because this is a matte-finish foundation with full, full coverage. Again, stunning glass bottle, black pump, elegant logo. Let's see... I might be this shade. This is shade number 003. No, this is a bit light on me. Let's try shade 005. Again, simple naming for shades. I like it. There we go, 005 works for me. So I'll apply on half my face using this dampened Beauty Blender, and the other half with my Clarisonic. So it's blending in really nicely with the Beauty Blender. Nice full coverage, and already looks pretty matte even when it's not completely dry. Each bottle of this foundation sells for thirty dollars, and Kyle is planning to release more shades in the future."
Waiting inside the Yankee Stadium field wearing a purple graduation gown and cap, Kyle looked at the statistics of his updated website. It was his graduation, and there were people making speeches. His cosmetic products were scheduled to begin sales at 12:00A.M. that day, which was just over eleven hours ago.
- K.H. Primer, 1 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,186
- Price/Unit, USD - $25.00/Unit
- Costs/Unit, USD - $7.34
- Sales, USD - $29,650.00
- Taxes, USD - $2,668.52
- Costs, USD - $8,702.24
- Profit, USD - $23,616.28
- K.H. Foundation, 34 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,572
- Price/Unit, USD - $30.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $9.14
- Sales, USD - $47,160.00
- Taxes, USD - $4,244.49
- Costs, USD - $14,368.08
- Profit, USD - $37,036.41
- K.H. Concealer, 5 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,430
- Price/Unit, USD - $25.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $8.98
- Sales, USD - $35,750.00
- Taxes, USD - $3,217.55
- Costs, USD - $12,841.40
- Profit, USD - $26,126.15
- K.H. Translucent Powder, 1 Option(s)
- Units Sold - 1,469
- Price/Unit, USD - $20.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $6.32
- Sales, USD - $29,380.00
- Taxes, USD - $2,644.37
- Costs, USD - $9,284.08
- Profit, USD - $22,740.29
- K.H. Contour Duo, 4 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 971
- Price/Unit, USD - $15.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $4.76
- Sales, USD - $14,565.00
- Taxes, USD - $1,310.91
- Costs, USD - $4,621.96
- Profit, USD - $11,253.95
- K.H. Blush, 8 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,012
- Price/Unit, USD - $16.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $5.02
- Sales, USD - $16,192.00
- Taxes, USD - $1,457.82
- Costs, USD - $5,080.24
- Profit, USD - $12,569.58
- K.H. Highlighter, 3 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,003
- Price/Unit, USD - $16.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $5.66
- Sales, USD - $16,048.00
- Taxes, USD - $1,444.37
- Costs, USD - $5,676.98
- Profit, USD - $11,815.39
- K.H. Eye Palette, 2 Option(s):
- Units Sold - 1,449
- Price/Unit, USD - $35.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $9.70
- Sales, USD - $50,715.00
- Taxes, USD - $4,564.52
- Costs, USD - $14,055.30
- Profit, USD - $41,224.22
- K.H. Setting Mist, 1 Option(s)
- Units Sold - 1,503
- Price/Unit, USD - $25.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $8.86
- Sales, USD - $37,575.00
- Taxes, USD - $3,381.96
- Costs, USD - $13,316.58
- Profit, USD - $27,640.38
- K.H. Matte Lipstick, 14 Option(s)
- Units Sold - 1,658
- Price/Unit, USD - $18.00
- Costs/Unit, USD - $4.91
- Sales, USD - $29,844.00
- Taxes, USD - $2,685.99
- Costs, USD - $8,140.78
- Profit, USD - $24,389.21
- Total Units Sold - 13,253
- Total Sales, USD - $306,879.00
- Total Taxes, USD - $27,620.50
- Total Costs, USD - $96,087.64
- Total Profit, USD - $238,411.86
Kyle wiped a joyful tear from his eye and sniffled. In less than half a day, his total profit was just over two hundred grand. Sending entire collections to other beauty gurus on YouTube really helped because they made their own videos reviewing the cosmetics.
The biggest reason that Kyle had barely slept the night before was because he was scared that his cosmetics wouldn't sell as well as he had hoped. But his fear was unfounded because sales were skyrocketing. He'd be able to pay off the business loan in no time at all.
Kyle's classmate Denise Telliman nudged Kyle's elbow and said, "You are trending at number one on Twitter and Instagram. Your makeup line is doing really well, according to Vogue, your sales are at fifty-one thousand."
"That is way off," Kyle replied with a laugh while wiping another tear. "Understandable, though, because my admin site refreshes every ten seconds."
Just less than three hours later, Kyle ran to his whole family and hugged his mom so hard.
"Ohh, my baby!" Mrs. Hemstad gushed with a tear in her eye.
Going in for hug next, Mr. Hemstad cheerily said, "There's my hard-working N.Y.U. graduate!"
Brendan embraced Kyle next. Brendan had a steady stream of tears flowing from his eyes and his smile conveyed the utmost love and adoration. They shared a deep kiss and giggled at Kyle's accomplishment.
Kyle hugged his little brother, and then his little sister. The whole family then climbed into Kyle's Escalade and went off to Morimoto for an early dinner.
Mr. Hemstad raised his glass of water and said, "We have a focused, determined, hard-working person in our lives who takes nothing for granted. Kyle, you've finished university a whole year before anybody expected. You double-majored, remained near the top of all your classes, all while maintaining your huge YouTube career and testing ingredients for your makeup company. You did it all by yourself, my boy. And for that, I am so fucking proud of you. To Kyle."
"To Kyle."
"To Kyle."
"To Kyle."
All six clinked their glasses together, and Mrs. Hemstad smacked her husband on the arm for the language.
Kyle wiped a tear and said, "I still can't believe I'm done uni and it is surreal to me that Kyle Beauty has launched."
"It's real," Elijah told his brother affectionately. "And it's sick, bro."
"I know you said no gifts..." Mrs. Hemstad began cautiously, "but I couldn't help myself. We all pitched in, so it's from all of us."
"Aww," Kyle cooed as he accepted the gift box. "Oh, my god. Guys. This is... I am gonna cry and you can't take any photos!"
It was another heartfelt and considerate gift. It was a scrapbook filled with family photos, school photos, Santa Claus photos, art Kyle did as a child, cards he'd given to his family, and a lot of it was ridiculously adorable!
After Kyle thanked his family, Mr. Hemstad said, "Oh, your sister has some news!"
Megan grinned and said, "I got into Yale."
Kyle rose from his chair, hugged his sister, and cheered, "Meg! My god! Congrats! I'll get you an Amtrak pass so you can visit as often as you like. Every weekend if you want to."
To Be Continued
Hello! I hope you enjoyed reading this seventh instalment of 'The Trick Is To Keep Breathing'. I am having fun writing about YouTube personalities as I know next to nothing about being a YouTube 'content creator' as they call themselves.
tyler.christopher36@yahoo.com