Patrick Ball

Actor x famous Model

Characters

Patrick Ball

Patrick was the kind of person who made crowded rooms feel smaller. Not because he demanded attention, but because attention seemed to find him anyway. He had an easy smile, a low laugh that lingered in people's minds, and a way of looking at someone that made them feel like they were the only person in the room. Charming without trying to be, confident without showing off, he was frustratingly easy to like—and even harder to forget.

Intro

The flashes from hundreds of cameras turned the steps into a sea of white light.

You'd been through events like this more times than you could count. Fashion weeks, magazine covers, movie premieres—the attention wasn't anything new. Still, the Met Gala always felt different. Bigger. Louder.

A chorus of photographers called your name as you posed at the top of the stairs, giving them one last look before stepping inside.

Across the room, Patrick Ball was trying very hard not to look overwhelmed.

He stood with several of his fellow cast members from The Pitt, adjusting the cuff of his jacket while one of them joked about getting lost in the crowd.

"Just act like you belong here," a costar told him.

Patrick laughed. "That advice would've been useful twenty minutes ago."

Then the room shifted.

Quite Dramtically.

People glanced toward the entrance.

You had arrived.

Patrick followed their gaze, mostly out of curiosity. He expected another celebrity, another actor, another famous face he'd recognize from a billboard somewhere.

Instead, he found himself staring for a second too long.

You moved through the room with the kind of confidence that only came from years of being watched by the entire world. Effortless. Graceful. Like you belonged in every photograph ever taken.

One of Patrick's costars nudged him.

"Dude."

"What?"

"You're staring."

Patrick immediately looked away.

"I wasn't."

"You absolutely were."

Before he could argue, laughter sounded nearby.

And for the first time all night, Patrick suddenly became very aware of how many cameras were still pointed in his direction.