Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret)

by Stephen Andrew Salamon

  Meanwhile, Mr. Fryer marked several of the actors down on a piece of paper. I’m only going to choose one of them, he said in his mind. He called Vivian into his office and explained to her that these were the actors he wanted. Darell’s name was on the list, right under Vivian’s name. She typed them out and gave them back to Mr. Fryer. She said, “Thank you, sir, I’ll get their materials to you as soon as possible.”

  “Call all the other actors besides Darell; I already spoke to him,” explained Tom.

  “Yes, sir,” Vivian answered before she walked out of his office with a smile upon her face. She thought of how her name was written on the list, and that caused a piece of tranquility to appear in her thoughts, for the first time.

  II

  The Mistress of Angels Enters to Seek Out

  New Wings...

  Chapter Nine

  As Vivian called up all the other actors that were on the list, Jose, Darell, and Damen were doing their own business. The friends walked out of the motel and down the street of Hollywood like they were in another world, a world in which some of them thought they belonged in. Normally, at this time of night, the boys are usually either still in the Valley, back in Ridge Crest, or camping in the woods near their home. So this was new, and in a way, awesome to their minds. They didn’t know what to do, or where to go, so the first thing that came to their sights, they would go in, whether it be a bar, or a club. The first building came in their view was a night club called The Starbox. So they walked over to it.

  This night club was only allowed for the stars of Hollywood to enter. They didn’t know that, of course, but soon they were going to find out. “Hey, let’s go in here, it seems like a nice-enough club,” Jose said, slowly starting to itch the scar on his neck.

  “Cool,” Damen agreed. Darell just nodded his head. Walking closer to the club, they went past people that they’d never seen before; meaning people of strange appearances. They saw people with green hair, no hair, spiked hair, men with long hair, and women with no hair, and even the same sex, holding hands. After they passed this new world, culture, this new tribe of ‘different,’ they came up to the club and stopped.

  The boys walked up to the door and saw a huge man standing over them, with broad shoulders that stifled over his strong chest, and a microphone that was hooked up, and hanging near his mouth. Jose asked, “How much does it cost to enter?”

  “For you, it doesn’t cost anything,” the guard replied with a menacing smile. The other guards started giving out unnoticeable chuckles.

  “Alright ... you see guys, things are going perfectly for us,” Jose stated with excitement.

  Damen grew a smile, a large one, staring at the long line in back of him, and then staring at a red velvet rope, that was going to open for him to enter, caused his smile to become radiant. “I mean, your money is worthless here, you can’t come in,” the guard added, seeing Jose’s smile slowly deteriorating. Damen’s smile melted away, and Darell’s grin was just ripped right off.

  “Why can’t we enter?” questioned Damen.

  “That’s why,” the guard answered, pointing at a movie star passing by them.

  “That’s Jennifer Wilson,” Darell announced. His eyes widened and his finger pointed toward her with shakiness.

  “Yes, I know that, now get out of here. This club is only for stars ... not craters like you guys,” the guard blurted out. He laughed at his own joke, which they didn’t get.

  “We’re actors,” Damen stated, pushing his way in.

  “No... No, you’re not—you guys are starving artists. Now get out of here,” the guard demanded as he pushed Damen into a movie star, a movie star whose name was Julienne Wells.

  “I’m sorry, Miss, that guard just pushed me into to you, I apologize,” Damen yelled out in a sincere tone. The movie star pushed him back, staring at the guard with anger and then at Damen with sincerity.

  The guard, knowing he could get fired for pushing someone into a celebrity, approached Miss Wells in a speedy fashion, while she replied to Damen, “It’s okay, really it is.”

  “I’m sorry, Miss Wells, I was just escorting these young men out of here,” the guard explained, grabbing Jose and Damen, while another guard grabbed Darell.

  “Why don’t you just let these guys in?” Miss Wells asked, seeing the guards looking at her in confusion. She stared at Jose with a smile on her face, and then went back to staring at the guards. The moment of truth was about to take place; a moment that would alter Jose Rodrigo’s, Darell O’Conner’s, or Damen Schultz’s life for the better, and for the worse.

  “We can’t let them in, they aren’t accepted here,” one of the guards declared. “I mean, they’re not on the guest list.”

  “Well ... I accept them, they’re with me,” Miss Wells announced, watching the guards releasing them from their tight, fixed, and strong grip. “I know I’m on the guest list, and these are my companions. Come on, fellas.”

  They walked into the club with amazement, not believing their luck and their sight as they stared at neon lights, dance floors on top of dance floors, and chandeliers that hung grand crystal from their dim lighting. They passed through the second doorway that was passed only by those with fame under their belt, and through that they saw the club more closely, allowing them all to give a gulp of saliva, and breathe in the smoke-filled air as if it was sweet-smelling perfume.

  “Thank you so much, Miss Wells,” Jose said as she walked into the seating area and sat down at a table. A guard, or waiter, who was standing in an entrance to the seating area, stared down Jose, Damen, and Darell, as if they didn’t belong. The guard automatically put up a velvet rope and locked its brass clip to a hoop, causing the boys to be segregated from Miss Wells. “Excuse me, we’re with her,” Jose proudly stated. The guard started to laugh in a highly obnoxious way.

  “Sure you are. Listen, if you want to sit down here, it costs five-hundred dollars per table,” the guard laughed out.

  Julienne got up from her seat immediately. Seeing the conflict, she went up to the guard in a baby’s heartbeat. “Um, pardon me, but they’re with me.”

  The guard opened the velvet rope, saying, “Oh, gee, I’m sorry, Miss Wells, I didn’t know.”

  Without saying another word, Julienne sat down at her table again, and the boys followed. “As I was saying, before we were interrupted by jackass over there, thank you so much, Miss Wells, for doing this,” Jose finished in a loud way, so the guard could hear.

  “Please, call me Julienne.” She made a hand gesture for the guys to sit down at her table. “So, where you boys from?” A waiter then came up to her with a glass of champagne. “A couple of you sound like you’re Southerners, just a little bit.”

  “We’re from Missi’,” Damen replied before Jose kicked him in the leg; he wanted to stifle him from saying the truth.

  “We’re from the upper part of New York,” assured Jose. He just stared at her blue eyes, like he was staring at an angel. “Some of our parents are from the South, so it kind of rubbed off on us, but not that much. Being out here, I can sense that we’ll get rid of the accent in no time.”

  “You’re right about that. So, New Yorkers. I have a condo in the upper part there. What upper part are you from?” she asked after she sipped her champagne.

  “Uh ... well, we’re from the rich part,” Jose made certain, with a brief stutter to his voice. The waiter then brought them some champagne also, and that diversion helped end the conversation, by Jose taking a huge gulp of the liquor. But, the diversion didn’t last for long.

  “You must be from Manhattan. What are you doing all the way over here? Are you on vacation?” Julienne questioned, taking a second sip of her drink.

  “Something like that,” answered Jose.

  “What Jose is trying to say, is we’re here for a chance to become famous and get discovered,” Damen mentioned as Jose looked at him with a ticked-off smile.

  “Oh, really? Well, how has your trip to fame been so
far?”

  “It’s been good,” Darell replied.

  Damen and Darell explained everything to her. They explained Mr. Fryer and they explained the situation about the photos and resumes. Jose didn’t say a word; he just stared at her. He was under a trance, a trance that most people call “lust,” but he called it “love.” As the talking progressed, the champagne bottle became empty. The waiter brought another bottle every moment that Jose looked at Julienne, and he looked at her a lot.

  “Well, it’s a good idea to get the photos done by a good photographer, that way you’ll have good pictures and save money in the future from getting any more photos taken,” Julienne explained. Her champagne was finally making her get that drunken feeling, and her words were starting to trickle together.

  “So, what about the resume? I mean, I have all the practice in the world, but Mr. Fryer said I have to have a resume,” asked Darell, finishing his sixth glass of champagne.

  “Don’t you mean, we have to have a resume?” Damen asked. He looked at Darell in a very aggressive way.

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant, we. So anyway, do we have to have a resume?” Darell questioned again. Julienne and Jose were flirting with each other by their eye contact, causing her to not even pay attention to Darell’s important question.

  “What? Oh, yeah, you most definitely should have a resume. But sometimes you don’t need one, you just get lucky,” she replied before Jose got up. He walked over and sat next to Julienne. That’s when he began kissing her. His first kiss to her was a kiss that would change everything.

  Damen and Darell got up and walked around, feeling uncomfortable that they were around such drunken lust. The anger, jealousy, and stifling aggression began to build up inside of Damen, seeing Jose kiss every inch of Julienne’s lips. “How could he do that?” Damen questioned, staring at Jose and Julienne.

  “What do you mean?” asked Darell.

  “Did you forget that Maria is Jose’s girlfriend?” His voice showed anger to Darell’s ears. “How could he do that to her?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Do you think we should say anything to him?”

  “No, kissing is harmless. I know Jose, he wouldn’t go any farther than that,” Damen confidently assured him. Suddenly Darell changed the conversation.

  “Hey, Damen, why is everyone coming up to Jose and talking to him? Why don’t they come up to us?” Darell noticed people coming over to Jose and talking to him, as if they’d known him since birth.

  “I don’t care. What I really want to know is why no one’s going to Julienne and talking to her?” Damen’s observation showed interest to Darell; the way he began to nod his head and agree with Damen, he knew Mr. Schultz was right. “I mean look, everyone is coming up to Jose, but they’re staying away from Julienne,” he stated as he pointed his finger toward them. It was highly suspicious that no one came to her and talked to her, this caused Damen’s mind to be confused. Through the darkness, through the people dancing with bright dresses on, and expensive suits, and through the smoke from cigarettes, Damen and Darell watched Jose and Julienne, as if they were sent there to spy on them.

  “I don’t know, maybe everyone’s afraid of Julienne. I mean, she is a movie star,” answered Darell.

  “Uh, but look at all the other movie stars, celebrities and models, they’re all talking to each other,” Damen pointed out. Something was wrong with this picture, and Damen felt it in his empty gut. He wanted to crack this case, this mystery as to why no one was coming up to Julienne, but his mind was pulled away from this confusion when Jose came walking toward them.

  “Listen, guys, I’ll meet you back at the motel tomorrow morning. Julienne said she wants to show me her mansion, especially her bedroom ... if you know what I mean.” Suddenly people came out of nowhere and began talking to Jose, ignoring the fact that he was talking to two people who seemed invisible to them.

  “Jose, are you coming back to the table?” a woman asked, hugging Jose at the same time.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right there.” Jose looked at Damen and Darell with happiness, he felt as if he finally belonged. “I’ll be right there,” Jose said after three other people approached him with the same question.

  “Who’s that?” asked Darell.

  “Oh, that’s Wendy Grason, she’s a supermodel. So, anyway, I’ll see you guys tomorrow?” Jose smiled at the table where Julienne was sitting, making them see that he probably didn’t even realize he just asked a question.

  “Yeah,” replied Darell. Damen stared at Jose in an angry fashion, without even saying a word. Jose knew something was on Damen’s mind, a strange thought, or something was eating him alive; he could tell whenever Damen was speechless, like now.

  Suddenly, Damen Schultz broke through his iceberg of being nice to Jose, and asked with disappointment, “Dude, what about Maria?”

  Jose said with a smirk on his face, “What about her? Listen, Julienne is harmless. I mean, it’s not like she’s your everyday girl, she’s a movie star for Christ’s sake.”

  “Oh, so that gives you the right to cheat on your girlfriend, who happens to be a close friend of ours, and pork her brains out?” Damen’s words were sarcastic, but well put.

  “I promise, nothing will happen. If something does happen, I’ll make sure that it happens for a short while.” They noticed Jose’s voice showed sincerity; a kind of truth was sunken into its slurs.

  “Yeah, yeah, just make sure you come to the motel before 3:00 p.m.,” said Damen. He didn’t even want to argue with Jose. Damen knew he was pig headed, and wouldn’t listen to anything he had to offer him that would be considered “good advice.” So Damen pulled out a condom from his pocket and handed it to him. “Here, take this.”

  “Thank you, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Jose then saw Julienne coming up to him, causing his best friends to become invisible to his presence. She escorted him to her limo with a champagne bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.

  Damen and Darell were escorted out of the club after Julienne and Jose left. The guard told them never to come back there again, and also made sure to shout it out, in order to embarrass them in front of the club. Even though they became upset at the guards kicking them out, they were still happy to at least have seen what the inside of the club looked like, and also to stay in it for a while.

  Beginning to walk down the Hollywood streets, they suddenly entered onto a sidewalk that Damen always wanted to see: the Walk of Fame. Both were standing there motionless, staring at each golden star, their minds overwhelmed with pure wonder. It was as if the both of them knew their names were going to be on the Walk one of these days. They walked to the end of it, swaying their eyes past the last star, and turned around to look at it once more, gazing up and down the silhouettes of the stars in a stronger, fixed motion. Damen said, “You know, one of these days my name is going to be on this sidewalk. One of these days all of our names will be on it. I can feel it.”

  “Yeah, me too. But, whose name do you think will be on it first?”

  “Well, that’s up to fate and fate alone,” answered Damen. He thought long and hard about what he just answered, or said to Darell, and how he figured out that this journey, this adventure was already made, and planned for them, and the only thing that would differ at the end, was fate, each of their own destinies. He stared at Darell heavily, remembering what he just asked him, and the answer Damen gave, and sent out a small smile toward him; a smile that had some meaning, no definition.

  They both crossed the street, and headed toward their motel in a very slow manner, a type of walk that meant both of them had something important on their mind.

  “I know, who you think will win an Academy Award first?” Darell laughed out.

  Damen turned toward him, as the pale moonlight shimmered down on the silhouette of Darell’s head, allowing Damen to see him, and face him with such a serious question he just asked. To Darell, it was a humorous question, but to Damen, it was a question that he always wante
d to answer. He stopped in his tracks, faced Darell with the Hollywood streetlights sinking into his back, and allowed Darell to see a shadow of black on his face. Darell saw that the silhouette of Damen’s head was moving a little, as if some thought with great rhythm to it was swimming through his mind, and just trying to find his vocal cords, to break free and fly in whatever tone he chose at this moment. “Well, Darell, I would have to say me, but who knows. Come on, let’s get inside, I’m tired out for tonight. I know, ask me that question when I’m awake, and not tired; that way I can answer it better,” said Damen.

  They both walked inside of the motel and left behind their first night in Hollywood; it was a night to remember, a night where their fate finally began.

  Chapter Ten

  Julienne and Jose reached her Beverly Hills mansion after cruising around the Hollywood streets for an hour. Passion, lust, some form of erotic feeling settled in Jose’s mind, mixed with the leftover bubbly that swam high in his stomach, allowed this young man to want one thing, and that thing was sitting right next to him. Every man’s fantasy was staring him right in the face; a rich, beautiful, successful woman, with all of her parts real to his eyes. She was the prototype of temptation. Is this real, he questioned in his mind, the question that temptation didn’t want him to ask.

  Temptation comes in many forms. Some say the Devil is behind every form or manner of it, and this type of temptation, Jose’s innocent mind felt that Satan was aboard it, but the bubbly allowed his fragile soul to not see him, but only to see this beautiful, heated woman, who wanted this young man that came from the South. Jose knew she could make him a star, he knew he could score tonight, and he knew and felt deep in his drunken mind that his destiny would begin as soon as they stepped into her home. Her perfect face, ravishing hair, and a body that only God could chisel, she was beyond perfect to Jose; too perfect.