“Yeah, every night at 12:00 a.m.,” he said.
“Great, this is perfect.”
Jose then stated with nervousness, “Yeah, but that means you’re going to have to do this tonight. Well, actually, you’re gonna have to do this in an hour, it’s already 11:00 p.m.”
“I know that. Don’t worry, Jose, I got everything under control. Just explain to me one more time what Darell talked to Damen about. Tell me word for word.”
Jose explained everything that he heard from Darell’s lips. The anger built up inside of Julienne, as well as the fear that her plan for fame would be lost.
Julienne explained while Jose took a drag from his cigarette, “If Darell tells Dennis tomorrow, then your career is over with, and all because of Darell.”
“Wait a second, your career will be over too,” Jose mentioned.
“No, it won’t. I’ve been in Hollywood for a long time, everyone loves me and trusts me there.” Julienne knew, in her mind, that her career and plan of making a brand-new one would be over with too, but her plan was to not let Jose ever know that. “But, if you follow my plan, then you might have a chance.”
“Julienne, I’ll do anything,” Jose said in a serious and wild manner. “But, what are our chances of this plan actually being successful?”
Jose started to rub his temples, feeling the pressure of all these plans, evil acts, tormenting his conscience, afflicting his soul with evil remorse.
She answered, “Very slim, that’s why we’re gonna have to do this thing tonight.”
“So, what are we gonna do to make this plan work?” he asked in a sincere way.
She sat back on the couch, took another sip of his beer, and explained with pure menace, “Well, like I told you before, the plan begins with a simple flash of the camera.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Night fell, the miniature village was sound asleep, with Darell prancing his silhouette through the cold wind, in search of passionate exile, rapture within his mind, wanting to please his cravings for Becky’s young, innocent, and illegal body. He tiptoed, toward Becky’s trailer, looking around and about, making sure no one was seeing him through the night, and then knocked on Becky’s door. He knocked again and again, wanting to get in there as fast as possible, with his cravings ready to explode, and his testosterone making his knuckles pound faster and harder on her door. “Hey, Becky, open up.”
Becky’s eyes awoke, feeling her half drunken mind, pounding pain of anguish, agony against her temples, feeling sharp pains striking at her forehead and eyes, and then closed them again; the pain was too unbearable. She heard the knocking once more, this time with more force and rage, opening her eyes up for the last time, shouting, “I’ll be right there.” She crawled her way to the door, opening it barely, and showing Darell her drunken image.
He laughed at her, “Boy, it looks like you had too much to drink.”
He entered into her trailer, helped her up from the ground, and then sat down on the couch, smiling toward her in a lecherous, erotic, and seductive sense. She smiled back, grabbing his thighs, pulling her body and loins close to him, and questioned while showing her tongue and wiggling it, “Do you got any coke?”
Darell got up, and walked over to her bedroom, while waving his finger for her to follow him. He jumped on her bed, filled with stuffed animals of all sizes and natures, and then patted the bed’s body, signaling to Becky that he wants her to join him. As soon as she jumped on the bed, Darell pulled out a bag of cocaine from his pocket, and answered, “Hell yeah, of course I do, I’m always prepared.”
Darell made the first line of cocaine with a credit card, and smiled at it like it was candy of some kind. He took the first sniff, the line of cocaine went directly into his left nostril, when abruptly he noticed a flash coming from the window. He looked at the window’s glass, then toward Becky’s drunk, horny body, and spoke, “Becky, you should close your window, I think there’s going to be a storm coming.”
“Who cares, just give me my medicine,” she slurred.
After they finished inducing the drugs into their bodies, they began the most favorite part of Darell’s evening: intercourse. As they proceeded with this massively, large temptation, lustful moment, Darell noticed more flashes of light coming from the window. He jumped out of bed, and pulled up his pants, but Becky still crawled up against him, wanting only thing in her high mind. She crawled up his body, but noticed him not showing any signs of wanting her anymore. That’s when she stopped her mating ritual, and asked with disappointment, “What’s wrong?”
Darell ran up to the window, explaining with suspicion, “Listen, it’s the middle of February, and I don’t hear any rain falling or thunder striking.”
“So, come back to bed.”
Darell closed the drapes to the window, examined Becky with anger to his eyes, and yelled, “So? Becky, didn’t you notice the flashes of light? I think someone’s outside taking pictures.”
“You’re just paranoid, baby, now come back to bed.”
Knock, tap, knock, tap.
Noises came to the trailer’s front door, sounding like knocks to Darell’s paranoid sense of hearing. He ran to the door, leaving Becky’s horny body alone, and asked, “Who is it?”
Julienne stood outside of the door, placing eye-drops in her eyes, to build fake tears of pain, and said in a phony, frantic fashion, “It’s Julienne, could you let me in, me and Jose got in a fight.”
Darell opened the door, allowed Julienne’s fake, sad image to step in, and sincerely questioned, “What happened?”
Before Julienne could answer, she saw Becky exiting a bedroom, and walking up behind Darell. Julienne gave her an evil stare, feeling angry that Becky was nosey. So, Julienne turned her face toward Darell’s and asked, “Darell, could we talk in your trailer, it’s very private?”
“Sure, I’ll be right there.” He got his shirt on, and coat, zipped it up tightly, and added to her, “Becky, I’ll be right back.”
“Where you going?”
Becky stood in her bedroom, while Darell was still putting on some garments to keep him warm. After he was all bundled up, Darell walked back to where Julienne was standing, and replied, “I’m going for a walk with Julienne, her and Jose got in a fight.”
“Well, hurry up,” said Becky before she went back and lay on her bed.
Julienne and Darell both walked outside and sat down on a picnic bench that was underneath a green canvas. Darell turned on a lantern to give them some light and said, “I’m sorry we can’t go back to my trailer, but Mr. Fryer’s in there.”
Julienne looked at him, and spoke with sadness, “Oh, it’s alright.”
Darell grabbed Julienne’s hand, caressing it in a sincere rhythm, and questioned, “Now, what happened?”
“Well, Jose told me about what happened with Damen. He told me about the lie that has been spread about Damen. He said you were going to ask Dennis about who told him that Damen was on drugs,” Julienne replied in a phony, fake fashion, wanting to sound like she was really upset at the situation; she began to tell the lie that Jose didn’t know about. “The thing is, Jose was the one who said that to Dennis.”
“What? Why would he do that?” he asked in confusion, pointing his face toward Jose’s trailer.
“Because, he’s jealous of Damen. I don’t know why he is, but he is. Listen to me, if you talk to Dennis about the lie, then he will tell you that Jose told him it. After that, you will go back and tell Damen, and Jose’s lie will come out. Jose knows his career will be over if this lie ever comes out,” Julienne explained.
Darell jumped up from the cold picnic table, started walking away from her, and screamed, “You’re damn right it will be over!” Darell yelled as he began walking away. “Jose’s frickin’ career will be finished.”
She began running after him, shouting, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to Dennis’ trailer right now, and I’m gonna tell him that it was all a lie. I don’t w
ant Damen to get screwed over, I know he’s not a drug addict.”
She stood in back of him, smiling away, loving every moment of her own plan, working out like she wanted it to, like she predicted. Julienne then went in front of him and caused him to stop, showing a face of seriousness to Darell, saying, “Yeah, but if you tell Dennis that, you’re the one that’s going to be screwed over.”
She took eight Polaroid photos from her pocket, and showed them to Darell. “What’s this?” Darell saw himself having sex with Becky in the photos, adding again, “What the hell is this?”
“Jose took these pictures, and he wanted me to show them to you. Listen, if you tell anyone about the lie, then Jose will give these photos to magazines, the media, and the police,” she explained as they slowly walked back to the picnic table once again.
Darell sat down at the table, looked at her with frivolous but very serious eyes, and questioned, “Why would he give them to the police?”
“Because Becky’s only sixteen years old. That’s statutory rape. You’ll go to jail, and your career will be finished.” Julienne pretended to be just as upset about the photos as he was, but in her mind, she was laughing away.
Panic struck Darell’s mind, widening his eyes, confusing his own thoughts, rapping his nerves inside of his body, striking his fear with all of its might. “What? She’s only sixteen?”
“Yes, but listen to me, Darell, I was just as upset as you are now when I saw these photos. But, you have to understand that Jose has changed a lot. He will show these photos, plus the other photos he took of you. Now, Jose doesn’t know I’m showing you these pictures, and if he ever found out, he would take these photos directly to the police. He just wanted to take these pictures for insurance. You can call it blackmail, or whatever you want, but you can’t tell anyone about the lie. You can’t even tell Dennis,” Julienne explained.
Darell noticed there was a photo of him doing drugs. A terrified shock came over his mind, like a black, dirty blanket, coming over a white, innocent bed sheet. Pressure came to his veins, and torment came to his heart, feeling it pumping faster as more of his terrified thoughts, of what would happen if these photos ever circulated beyond his own eyes, and what the world would think of him. Out of all this, the pressure and agony of fear, allowed a single tear to fall from his left eyes, showing itself to Julienne, making itself known to Darell as he felt its warm, slippery, transparent body. “Why is he doing this, Julienne?”
“Listen to me, Darell, if you don’t tell anyone about the lie, then these photos will never leave Jose’s hands. I told you before, he’s changed, all he thinks about now is fame and that’s it. The only reason why I’m showing you these photos is because I like you, Darell. I think you’re an okay guy. But, you can’t let Jose know you know about the photos. Just pretend you never knew about the drug lie,” she warned in earnest, seeing Darell dropping the photos on the cold ground.
“Yeah, but Damen is my good friend,” Darell said as Julienne picked up the photos and put them in her coat pocket.
She picked up the photos from the ground, put them in her pocket, and stated with seriousness, “Well, Darell, it’s either your friend, or your career plus jail time. Which will it be?”
After an hour, Julienne ran back to Jose’s trailer and saw him sitting on the couch, waiting for her. She walked throughout the smoke-filled room and stared at him, gawking at his cigarette, and how it was almost finished and smoked up.
Jose questioned in panic, “So, what happened?”
“Well, I told him that I took the pictures and I told him I’ll go to the media and police if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut,” Julienne replied, lying down on the couch, and stealing Jose’s cigarette away from him.
He lit up his sixteenth cigarette, gazed at her, watched her smoking the last drag of his own cigarette, and then asked, “What did he say?”
She closed her eyes, wanting to get some sleep, and explained, “He said okay, he’ll keep his mouth shut, and he won’t breathe a word of it to anyone.”
“Did you tell him that I didn’t know anything about it?”
“Yes, don’t worry. I also told him to not even talk to Damen again. I told him that if he talks to him, then I’ll show the photos to the police and the deal’s off.”
“Cool,” said Jose in a happy, relieved voice.
“Now, get some sleep, you have to wake up early, Jose.” Julienne closed her eyes harder and began to dream about the fame Jose would give to her, and the fact that the moment for her rebirth into the business of Hollywood royalty wasn’t far away at all.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Seven months passed by and the days began to seem longer for Damen, going along, frame by frame, like a movie in slow-motion, dragging about, dawdling its story to one conclusion that Damen didn’t know of yet. Each day, he would think of Sugar Valley, never allowing its beauty to die from his imagination, but only to revive itself over and over again, whenever he was feeling depressed or lonely.
The only person he talked to, that went away, was Vivian. He talked to her at least once a week and thought of how much he missed her face. It turns out that Vivian was doing great on her soap opera, but Damen was doing even better with his commercials. Throughout the months, Damen has risen a lot through his commercials on T.V., he’d already done twenty-five of them, but of the same product. You can say he was becoming famous through the zit commercial. Yet, to Damen, it wasn’t enough. Even though he was becoming well-known in Hollywood, something still didn’t seem right. He wanted more out of Hollywood. He wanted to become a movie star, not a commercial star. He wanted and craved various roles, and roles that would consider him a grand actor of many talents. Lingering through each day, waiting for that perfect moment when he would receive a call from anyone who was in control of the entertainment industry and take him away to build up his acting craft, by giving him a lead role in a picture. But, that call still simmered in his imagination, his dreams and ambitions, craving it to happen very soon, but realizing the waiting was caused by reality setting in. Still, he stuck to his guns and waited, not giving up, but patiently stood in Hollywood, knowing that one day soon that call would happen.
As a well-known preacher quoted, “Give it your best, and God will do the rest,” which is what happened to Damen’s life on September 21. He was waiting a long, long time for this, and it happened one day, when he received a call from a casting agent.
He was working hard in the café, busy as usual, drunks and actors coming in momentarily to have a bit of coffee before they got drunk again, or went to an audition.
Ring, Ring, Ring.
Through the loudness of conversations from different types of people, Damen still served them, spilling hot coffee on himself numerous amounts of times and kissing up to the mean customers so they’d be pleased with his service.
Ring, Ring, Ring.
He then noticed, through the noise and the busy style of the café, that the phone was ringing mildly, allowing him to give a sigh of exhaustion, not wanting to answer it at all.
Ring, Ring, Ring.
The sweat formed on his face, handing hot coffee to customers, taking orders from tyrants, and hearing the phone echoing its voice toward his anxiety-filled head. So, he went over to the phone and picked it up, but dropped it on the ground. He picked it up and discovered that he’d disconnected whoever called, so he hung the phone back up and catered to the customers again.
Ring, Ring, Ring.
The phone spoke again, allowing Damen to feel angered by its tone. He went over to it, picked it up with force, and answered with an attitude, “Hello, can I help you?”
A man, dressed in a suit, sitting in a leather chair, surrounded by a titanic office, held the phone tightly in his grip and watched a video on his large television; it was a video of one of Damen’s commercials. The man then spoke, “Hi, this is John Bower, is Damen there?”
Chuck slowly walked up to him, seeing customers trying to speak over thems
elves, wanting refills on coffee.
“This is he, could I help you?”
“Yes, um, this is Bower’s casting agency, I was wondering if you would be interested in starring in a Stephen Settler film? You see, Stephen Settler is going to be directing a film about a boy who’s dying of AIDS. I was wondering if you would be interested in trying out for the part?” John asked.
Silence came to Damen. He couldn’t even hear the customers anymore, not hearing anything but the sound of his heart beating and noise of his blood soaring through his veins and body. The excitement built, exhilaration was what he felt when he questioned, “Um, I don’t know. When is the film going to begin?”
John rewound Damen’s commercial, and played it again, saying, “Well, we don’t really know yet, but it will be soon. I was just wondering if you’re interested, are you?”
Butterflies, insects of little, ticklish sizes, flew around Damen’s stomach, like a roller coaster, soaring through the sky. “Yes, yes I’m interested. But, why did you choose me? I mean, I do zit commercials. What drew you to call me?” he asked before Chuck grabbed the phone.
John replied, “Well, this part is supposed to be played with comedic style. Since you show good comedy in your commercials, that’s why we chose you.”
Chuck put his mouth over the speaking part of the phone, and said with semi-calmness, “Yes, he’s very interested in it. Um, when do you want to meet and discuss the film?”
“Well, how about in two hours? You see, I’m already going to have three other people trying out for it, but that’s going to be later on today. If Damen comes in before them, then that will give him a bigger chance at getting the role,” John replied.
Chuck’s eyes widened, looking at Damen, trying to read his face reactions, desperately attempting to see and hear what John was conversing with him about. Damen saw that Chuck smiled with exhilarated glee, saying into the phone, “Sure, where do you want us to meet you?”
Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) Page 53