“No, remember I haven’t seen you for seven months? What’s the movie called?” Darell questioned with a tone of excitement.
“What?” Jose then stopped his words, remembering what Julienne warned him about. He wanted so desperately to tell him about the movie, but he knew he couldn’t.
“What’s the movie called?”
“Oh, um, I forgot. So much has happened this week, it must have slipped my mind somehow. I’ll tell you when it comes to mind again,” Jose responded in a shaky fashion.
Jose Rodrigo wanted to speed along the conversation, stopping and thinking about how Darell knew him good, and could tell when he was lying or not. So, he looked at Darell again, and questioned with speed, “Well, what’s your movie called, you know the one you’re doing in February?”
“Oh, it’s called ‘The Point of a Well.’ It’s going to take place in England,” he replied as a waiter came to their table, taking away the old dishes. “I’m so happy Damen is gonna be acting in this film too. It’s gonna be cool.”
Jose looked up at the ceiling, feeling the jealousy returning once again. Hearing Darell talking about the movie with Damen once more, he tried to control his jealousy, but couldn’t. His mind and thoughts spun out of control. How did I get in this position? That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, I’m so sick of hearing about Damen and Darell together in this movie. I mean, if Damen was in my position, he would have probably lied and said the same thing to get the part from me. I might as well tell Darell.
He looked at Darell’s face and said, “I just remembered what my movie’s called. It’s called...” Before Jose could finish his sentence, the waiter interrupted him and gave Darell a note.
Darell read it, saw that it was from Tom, and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Jose. I have to get back to my table now. Hey listen, tonight I’m gonna sleep in the Beverly Hills Hotel. But tomorrow I’m coming back home with you guys, at least for a day.” Mr. Fryer yelled out his name suddenly, having Darell yell back, “Alright, I’ll be right there.” He got up from his chair and shook Jose’s hand.
“Why are you only staying for a day?” asked Jose in a sad way, when in actuality, he was happy. He felt he only had to keep the secret in for a short time, and that brought relief to his mind.
“Well, I have to leave for New York the day after tomorrow, I’m having some photos taken of me for a few magazine covers. After that, I’m gonna practice my script there for the movie, that will take a few weeks to do. When all that’s done, I’m off to England.”
Julienne walked out of the ladies room and saw Darell talking to Jose, standing up, and looking like he was ready to leave.
“Alright, then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jose said, seeing Darell beginning to walk over to his own table.
Jose stared at Darell’s back for a moment, watching his tuxedo moving with his body, when out of nowhere, Jose remembered, evoked something from his thoughts. So, he yelled, “Oh, Darell, I forgot to tell you, we moved to another location.”
Darell turned around and started walking toward Jose’s table again, with Julienne walking toward it too, seeing this all taken place from a short distance. He came back to the table, as Jose began writing the address down on a cloth napkin, and said, “So that’s why I couldn’t contact you guys. What’s your new address?”
He handed the napkin to Darell, saying, “Here you go, see ya tomorrow.”
Darell began walking back to his own table when Julienne approached Jose. She sat down next to him and started looking at Darell in a nervous manner as he reached his table. She looked back at Jose and rubbed her eyes; the nervousness caused them to water. She asked, “What did you tell him?”
Jose sat silent, watching Darell sitting down at his own table, he then turned to Julienne and responded with stress, “Nothing yet, he knows about Damen. He’s all excited about Damen being in the movie with him. He’s gonna come home tomorrow for a day, you know damn well he’s gonna tell Damen about the movie.”
“Jose, you just have to find some way to prevent Darell from discussing it with Damen.”
“Great, just great.”
Julienne took a sip of her wine, after hearing the sarcasm coming from him, and then placed the glass down on a napkin. “Well, Jose, that’s the way it is in Hollywood, you have to be sneaky.”
“Do you think Dennis is going to mention the drug thing to Darell?” Jose asked. His soul returned and with it came a guilty feeling. “You shouldn’t of lied, Damen’s one of my good friends.”
“No, he’s not going to say anything to Darell, calm down already. I know him, he doesn’t like to create friction at all.” Julienne paused for a moment, and turned her sincere words into truth, speaking in an angered way, “And another thing, it wasn’t just me who lied, it was you too.” She tried to calm herself down, talking slowly and smoothly, adding, “Listen, Jose, everything will go fine.”
Julienne put on her fur coat, not bothering on checking it into the coat hanger’s closet; she didn’t trust anyone with her expensive apparel. She got up from her seat, ready to go home, and searched her eyes around the hall, smiling toward it, loving this life of Hollywood. Jose also got up, trying to trick his own mind into believing everything would be alright, he said, “You’re right, when tomorrow comes, I’ll just keep Darell from discussing the movie with Damen.”
“That’s the spirit. Besides, whatever happens, happens for a reason. We got to go now, come on,” Julienne said before Jose put on his overcoat that she bought for him.
They walked toward the exit fast, not bothering to say goodbye to anyone, and exited the building, placing their feet on the red carpet once again. “Do you think everything will be okay?” asked Jose.
Standing on the red carpet still, looking about and around, she responded, “Yes, I already told you, everything will be fine. Well, just as long as you don’t believe in that saying; I know I don’t believe in it.”
Jose looked up at Darell’s name on the big sign for the last time, questioning, “What saying?”
They walked down the red carpet that led to her limo, waddling for a moment, like they didn’t want this moment to be over with. “What comes around, goes around,” she replied.
Jose looked at her strangely, like he was trying to make himself believe that he didn’t follow that saying, even before he said anything about it. He spoke, but with an unsure voice, “Oh, I don’t believe in that either. You know, I just wish this guilty feeling would go away. I mean, sometimes it does, and other times it doesn’t. I just feel like I’m betraying my friends.”
The chauffeur opened the limo’s door, and in stepped Julienne with Jose following. “Well, you are betraying Damen, and there is a chance of you losing your friendship with him. But, wouldn’t you rather lose his friendship instead of losing this part in the movie?” Julienne asked while the chauffeur closed their door.
“I guess you’re right, I really do want this part.”
“Besides, do you really want Damen to get the part? I mean, think of how jealous you would be if he did get it. I don’t know Damen that well, but if he’s a human being and he got the part in the movie, then I’m sure he would rub it in your face and make you jealous on purpose,” she stated.
His soul went back into hiding, feeling the hatred once more toward Damen, and not even realizing why. The limo drove off, with Jose saying, “Yeah, he always did rub things in my face. Just like back home. His family was the richest folks in the town, and he always found ways to make me feel jealous. Now it’s my turn...”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Damen’s tired body walked with Vivian as he thought, shuffled his mind and analyzed, philosophized about what Chuck narrated to him about people selling their souls to the devil. They both walked home, after closing up the café, and decided to take a little break by sitting down on a bench at a bus stop. His mind still was stuck on that thought, jammed into his memory on Chuck’s perspective of Hollywood, circling about his consciousness, wondering
if it was true or false. He wondered if it was just Chuck’s way of giving him an analogy about the entertainment business, one big hypothetical version that led to an analogy causing fear in his mind. They sat for a little while as Vivian laid her head on his shoulder, not talking to him because of her fatigue, and allowed this blundering thought to grasp ahold of his worst nightmares, and see if it was really reality. After a few minutes, they got up and continued their walk home; silence was still their language, and Damen’s mind was now overwhelmed with confusion.
Halfway home, they saw people of all kinds blowing off fireworks and screaming out loud, “Happy New Year...” Since they heard talking, Damen felt that it was time to end the silence and talk to Vivian on a different subject than that of what he was thinking. So, he said in a tired tone as they walked down a dark Hollywood street, “Boy, what a night. I smell like coffee and liquor mixed together.”
“Yeah, I smell like coffee and vomit. I can’t believe this night is finally over,” Vivian said, passing a bank with a computerized clock on it; it read 3:20 a.m.
“Well, at least something good happened tonight,” he yawned.
Damen’s tired habit triggered Vivian to yawn as well, asking, “Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“Jose went to that dinner, he’s probably at it right now signing a contract with an agent, or else he’s on his way home now with bad news. Either way, at least he went to that dinner. I would give anything for a chance like that.”
They reached their apartment building and saw three people lying outside of it, vomiting on themselves. “Sir, do you need some help?” asked Damen, trying to help one of the vomiting victim’s up to his feet.
“Damen, leave him alone.” Vivian grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him into the building. “Now, where were we? Oh, you were discussing Jose’s dinner.”
Vivian opened the door to their apartment as he explained, “Yeah, I said he’s very lucky to have a chance like that. A chance to meet with Hollywood directors, agents, and even stars.”
“Well, if you ask me, I think you’re pretty lucky yourself.” Vivian then sat down on the couch and watched the lights twinkle on the Christmas tree.
“What do you mean? How am I lucky?”
Vivian poured two glasses of vodka and put some ice into them, saying, “You’re lucky to have somebody tell you that you’re going to make it as an actor here. And also tell you that you have a chance.” She handed Damen one of the two glasses and watched him as a confused look appeared on his tired face.
He took a drink of his vodka, slammed it on the coffee table, lightly, saying with puzzlement, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Damen, I heard what Chuck said to you while you were on your break. I heard almost every word. And to tell you the truth, even I was looking for that twinkling star,” said Vivian; Damen’s face became red and full of embarrassment.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that, I don’t even know why I discussed that with him. I just was so confused about everything,” he said, watching Vivian getting up and pouring herself another glass of vodka.
“You know, you could tell me anything, I’m here for you.” She grabbed the vodka bottle and brought it over to the red-cushioned couch that had burnt holes all over the fabric due to cigarettes.
He got up and walked over to the window, staring out of it, full of embarrassment at Vivian’s knowing of the conversation. Damen stared out the window, watching the clouds in the distance, how they bordered on translucence, watching the different colors from fireworks as they lit up the heavens. “I know, it’s just a lot has happened in such a short time, I guess that’s why I’ve been distant toward you.” He stopped, still staring at the night, and then added, “Did you hear everything I said to Chuck?”
Vivian grinned and started to laugh, giggling, “Yes, calm down, I won’t tell anyone.”
Damen walked back to the couch, finished his glass and stared drinking the vodka from the bottle. “Alright, I trust you, Vivian. That director that fired me, he told me to contact him sometime, I think he said February.” He then pulled out a card from his wallet.
“Well then, call him in February. You didn’t tell me about this,” she spoke in excitement, grabbing the vodka bottle from him and drinking it herself. “That’s great, at least now my news won’t be so bad,” she added, grabbing the director’s business card from Damen’s grip and looking at the telephone number.
“What news?”
Damen noticed that the lights went off on the tree, so he got up and turned on the lights in the room. “I wasn’t going to tell you, at least not till I got the job,” Vivian replied as Damen tried to see what caused the lights to die, pulling the wires and tightening some bulbs; the lights still stayed dead.
Damen discovered the light switch got unplugged from the circuit breaker, so he smiled toward it, but also showed confusion on his face; Vivian’s words caused this reaction. “What job?” he asked.
“Here, sit down and relax. It’s something I’ve been waiting for a long time to happen.”
Damen plugged the lights back into the circuit breaker and brushed the pine needles from off his shirt and hair.
He went over and turned off the lights in the room. Sitting back down on the couch, he spoke, “Alright, tell me what happened.”
Vivian’s face grew a smile. “Today I got a phone call, guess who it was?”
“I don’t know, um, an agent,” replied Damen as a laugh followed. “Seriously, I don’t know, who was it?”
“Yeah, you do, you just guessed it.”
“An agent called you?” Damen’s face showed happiness, but his mind showed uncertainty and a little bit of jealousy.
“Yep, her name is Gloria Speeler, she’s a very good talent agent. Anyway, she wants me to try out for a part in a TV show, the TV show is filmed in New York. She’s gonna try to get me the audition for it. Isn’t that great?” she asked, seeing that Damen’s face started to show a bit of drunkenness to it.
“When is this audition or try-out for the show?” He then thought about how Vivian went through so much for this moment to occur, thinking about her attempted suicide and how Mr. Fryer put her through hell; Damen’s bit of jealousy turned into happiness as he asked again and again, “When is the audition?”
Vivian started to feel a little drunk herself, smiling and replying, “It’s in February, the same time you’re supposed to contact that director. Isn’t this great? Everything is falling into place for us.”
“Yeah it’s great.” Damen turned to look at the Christmas tree lights. Confusion came over his face when he asked, “Wait a second, I don’t mean to change the subject, but I thought the electricity was turned off, wasn’t it?” Damen became full-fledged drunk when he asked again, “Wasn’t the electricity turned off?”
“Yeah, yeah, Helen must have paid the bill earlier in the day. But anyway, back to the main subject.” Vivian words came out in bits and pieces, but it also came out in a slurring form. She paused for a minute and thought about the day when she and Damen first met. That’s when she said in an even more slurry manner, “Damen, I love you.”
“Yeah, I love you too, Vivian,” he said, watching her pass out on his shoulder. “Here you go, we’ll talk some more tomorrow. Well, actually, we’ll talk some more today,” he laughed in a drunken tone, noticing that it was already morning. He put a blanket over her and added, “Here, goodnight, sweetie, sweet dreams.” Damen grabbed onto her hand and began petting it, as if it was an animal of his. “Sweet dreams,” he said before he kissed her on the forehead and lay next to her on the couch, sitting upward.
“You know, pretty soon those dreams you have while your eyes are closed are going to vanish from your mind. You know why they’re going to vanish?” he asked to Vivian’s closed eyes. “I’ll tell you why, because your dreams will become reality soon. After that, you’re going to have to get some other dreams to fantasize about. That must be really depressing for stars in Holly
wood. They all completed their dreams and ambitions. So, what other things do they have to look forward to?”
Damen’s drunken eyes were slowly covered by his eyelids. “Well, that’s not going to happen to me, I promise you and myself, once I make it in Hollywood, I’m going to make sure to never run out of dreams. After all, dreams make and help the world go round. Without dreams, people would never become what they want too. Teachers, architects, engineers and actors, those are just a few that the world needs. Without dreams, Vivian, none of those fields would ever be touched or looked upon.” He fought with his eyelids to stay up and his rambling of words became much more confusing to the human ear. “You know something, I sure do miss Jose and Darell, I hope they’re enjoying New Year’s or have enjoyed it. I can’t believe it’s already 1998.” Damen’s lids fell over his eyes and the vodka bottle fell from his hand. None of them knew what tomorrow was going to bring; but tomorrow would be the beginning of a nightmare, a nightmare that they all had to pass through in order to see the reality of their dreams.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Julienne, I need you to come in with me,” Jose spoke. The limo pulled up to the apartment complex, that he lived at, and stopped in an instant, causing them to jerk back a bit. He leered at the red bricks and the yellow, rusted awning that stood right over the entrance to the building. Jose slowly felt nervous, rolling down the tinted window to get a better view of the structure, he was overwhelmed with the feeling of deceit. As he rolled it down, his nerves started to erect into sweat and his hands began to reverberate vigorously. He conveyed again in urgency, “Julienne, I need you to come up with me.”
Julienne turned her head slowly to face him, beginning to tighten her fists, she looked through Jose’s opened window and then back at him. Giving a deep yawn, she spoke, “I said it before and I’ll say it again—no.”
Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) Page 39