Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (32 page)

Helen got up from her chair. Seeing that all
the actors were there for Tom Fryer, she stepped in the middle of
the waiting room, and said, “Alright everyone, please sit down.”
She looked at the clock on her desk, it read 9:59 a.m. “I have to
explain something very important to all of you, at least the ones
who are here for the 10:00 a.m. appointment.”

Peter looked toward her, saying in a
smart-alecky fashion, “What do you have to explain to us?” Peter
Welch was a type of person who didn’t like to waste time on having
something, which he already knew about, explained to him. Peter
stared at Helen, her knowing that he already knew the drill, just
like all the actors did, but wanted to explain it anyway, because
Tom told her to.

Helen took a big breath in, stared at all the
nervous faces, and how they showed her nothing but fear to their
eyes, and explained, “Listen, here’s how it’s going to be. Mr.
Fryer is going to choose only one person out of you seven. Once he
announces the name, whichever six are left can go, the one he chose
can stay and start the interview.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Darell
mumbled, still biting his nails one by one.

“Well, I didn’t know that,” Vivian spoke,
looking vividly at Damen to see his face reactions.

“I thought you already knew the drill?” asked
Damen.

“What do you mean? I already said I didn’t
know.” During Vivian’s words, Helen’s phone started to ring.

Between the arguing, and the phone ringing,
Helen’s mind felt like a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off at
the right moment. So, she grasped ahold of the phone, put it on
hold, and yelled, “Alright, enough with the both of you. Everyone
knew except for Vivian, who cares.” Helen turned away from them and
pressed the hold button on her phone, slowly beginning to talk into
the receiver in lowness, so the rest of the people couldn’t hear
her.

They just stared at Helen, watching her talk
silently on the phone. Trying to see and hear what she was saying,
all the actors focused their eyes on Helen’s lips, figuring out
what words came out of her mouth, but her body turned away from
them, facing her back toward the waiting room.

As she kept on talking on the phone, the
thoughts from the actors’ minds surfaced the core of their
consciousness and tapped at their foreheads, creating a pressure
that seemed like they were 29,000 leagues under the ocean, without
being decompressed. Through each of their thoughts, Vivian wondered
in her mind, please, say my name, grabbing onto Damen’s hand
tightly at the same moment her thought surfaced to her eyes.

Peter and Darell just watched Helen’s lips
moving, as she turned back to face the waiting room, trying
desperately, once again, to see what Helen was saying.

The other three actors just lay back in their
chairs and looked up at the ceiling, not realizing how important
Mr. Fryer was to their futures.

And in Damen’s thoughts, while gazing over at
Vivian, he hoped in his mind that she would be the chosen one for
Mr. Fryer, knowing that she deserved it all after all Tom put her
through.

He better choose her...

Then, he looked over at Darell sitting on the
other side of him, watching his nervous face and mouth, and how his
nails vanished, chewing nothing but skin. Damen then stared back at
Vivian. Back and forth he went, thinking in his mind as his face
landed on Darell’s forehead, thoughts that he had to argue
with.

God, choose Darell, but choose Vivian also.
If you choose Darell, then that will mean, it will mean fame to all
of us...

Damen suddenly turned his face on the sight
of Vivian’s lips again. Talking to God in his mind’s voice, he
started to make bets.

But, if you choose Vivian, that will mean she
loves me and my acting career could wait for me...

He grabbed onto Vivian’s hand and put his
other hand on Darell’s neck, watching Helen slowly hang up the
phone; Damen knew the time had come for the decision. She walked
over slowly to all the actors, passing one by one, having each of
them putting their heads down to face the floor. She finally passed
them all and then stepped back four steps.

Damen looked at Vivian and Darell, saying as
his head moved back and forth, “Good luck to you both.”

Helen stared at them all, knowing what terror
each of them had inside, and feeling sorry for a lot of them, after
hearing who got Tom Fryer as an agent. That’s when Helen announced,
“Alright, he has only chosen one of you, and that person is...”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Helen’s words were cut off by a loud scream
that Darell made, sounding like a dying horse after its leg broke.
Everyone stared at Darell in awe, having Helen say, “Excuse
me.”

“Sorry, it won’t happen again, I just had to
get it out.”

She then looked at all of them, and spoke,
“Alright, here it goes.” Helen’s voice sounded like a judge giving
a sentence for life in prison; it was loud, and calm at the same
time. All the actors looked at Helen’s lips, locking their sights
on her mouth and eyes, it looked to them as if she was talking in
slow motion. But Vivian and Damen jumped back into focus when she
said, “Vivian, you can go in now.”

She jumped up out of her seat and started
crying, her tears of enjoyment came flushing out from underneath
her eyelids. It was like raindrops falling down from off of the
roof during a big downpour. Drop. Drop. Drop. Her nose started to
flush out more tears, and she crunched down in her chair, trying to
hold in the prosperity, and not go overboard. But, she got out of
the crouched position, hugged Damen and Darell together, and cried,
“I am so happy, you guys, I have been waiting for this moment
forever. Thank you for being here for this moment. This is the way
I’ve always pictured it, having friends there to be happy for
me.”

Darell looked up at her with watery eyes, the
tears of sadness built up within them, but it wasn’t enough to make
a single tear fall. He wondered in his mind, Why am I not that
upset? This is my dream, right? The confusion built up in his
thoughts about why he came to Hollywood. He tried so hard to
release, at least, one tear from his eye. If I cry, that will mean
I want this dream... please, cry already, Darell said in his mind;
he wanted so badly to cry and release the pressure and bewilderment
from his head.

Then, Darell turned to Vivian’s eyes of
water, and spoke in a shaky voice, “Congratulations, Vivian, you’ve
earned it.” He stuck his hand out toward her hand to shake it.
Vivian grabbed onto his hand and shook it with her tear-drenched
hand, Darell squeezing it tightly as the confusion set in deeper.
She broke free from his grip and ran over to Mr. Fryer’s door, like
she won the lottery, yearning to claim her prize immediately and
not waste any time.

“What about me?” Damen questioned. “Aren’t
you gonna give me a kiss?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, baby,” replied Vivian. She
ran over to Damen and gave him a quick hug and a little nibble on
the cheek. She then ran back over to the office and knocked lightly
on it, leaving Damen hanging once more; he knew this was the
beginning of the end for him and Vivian. The first sign she gave
was hugging him quick; it was like he had a contagious disease,
like she was forgetting him slowly. But, to Damen, he didn’t want
to think of those things, he just wanted to enjoy Vivian’s
happiness.

She opened the door lightly and stepped in
his office. Closing the door while wiping her happy tears from her
face with a tissue, Vivian saw Mr. Fryer’s back, he was facing the
window. She sat down in a chair facing Tom’s spine, saying, “Thank
you so much, sir, or I guess now I can say, Tom. Thank you.” He
stared out into the Hollywood sky and held the photo with the face
of a star ready to be made. Vivian noticed he wasn’t speaking, or
even acknowledging her own existence, so she questioned, “Sir, are
you alright?”

Tom stared at Vivian’s reflection on the
window, asking, “Vivian, do you know what I am holding in my
hand?”

“No sir, well, I think it’s a photo,” Vivian
replied, knowing in her mind that it was her photo.

“Correct, this is the photo of the person I
chose, this is the photo of the person I want.” He turned around to
face Vivian’s happy tears, adding, “Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir, I understand perfectly.” Mr. Fryer
handed her the photo faced down in her lap, laying it perfectly
face down, and watched her hands to see if she was going to turn
over the photo. But she didn’t, instead she left it lay there, on
her prosperous trembling thighs, and questioned him, “So, Mr.
Fryer, Tom, um, what auditions are coming up for me to try out
for?”

He lit up a cigar, walked over to his mirror,
and looked at himself and Vivian. “What?”

“What movie auditions are you going to take
me to first?” she asked in a joyful tone. “I mean, you are the top
agent in California, you’re not an average agent, you must have at
least a few already set up for me.”

He took a large drag of his cigar. Blowing
the smoke at Vivian’s reflection, he showed confusion in his eyes.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Vivian.”

“Tell me what?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything, the
answer is on the photo, the answer to your question,” Tom
explained, revealing a guilty expression through his tone.

She slowly picked up the photo and took a
deep breath, not knowing quite what Tom Fryer meant. She turned
over the photo slowly, without looking at it, she looked at Mr.
Fryer, gawked at his vision, and tried to see why he wanted her to
look at it, figuring out the reason through his sight. She put the
photo face up toward the mirror, but Mr. Fryer was blocking the
image of the picture with his body. So, he stepped aside from the
mirror and allowed Vivian to see her destiny. She closed her eyes,
as Mr. Fryer moved away, and began to sweat from nervousness,
knowing that she was about to discover what Mr. Fryer meant.
Opening her eyes a bit, and facing the back of the photo, she moved
the photo down a little, and stared at the image in the mirror. She
discovered that the photo wasn’t her image at all. She dropped the
photo to the ground, and spoke with a whisper, “Why, why isn’t this
my image, my photo?”

He turned around, and faced her, blowing
smoke in her face that caused a stifling sensation in her
tears-filled lungs. “Because the other casting agents didn’t like
you, or your face.”

She stared at him, and shouted, “Then why did
you call me in here? Did you want one last hug or kiss? Better yet,
did you want one last screw?” Her voice was anger-stricken,
subliminally saying that this was enough, and the games that he was
playing would be over with right now.

“No, I called you in here to fire you.”

“What?” she asked, getting up from her seat,
and running up to him. She went face to face with Tom, questioning,
“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, you’re terminated from my place of
business, I don’t want you here anymore, Vivian.”

A single tear of sadness, anger, guilt, and
terror ran down her face, showing its presence to Tom, letting him
know that he was the cause of its birth and death. “Why all of a
sudden? Why do you want to fire me now?”

“Listen, I know the reason and you know the
reason, now goodbye,” he replied. She grabbed a nail file from her
purse and put it in the palm of her hand.

“No, I don’t know the reason. Why don’t you
tell me, Tommy?” After her words, the file was tempted to jump out
from her grip and stab Mr. Fryer in the heart, but her other hand
stopped it from occurring, for the time being.

“Because, your boyfriend upset me that night,
plus you’re a whore. Are those good enough reasons for you?” he
howled, seeing tears running down from Vivian’s face that seemed
like they were in a race. “You’re a bitch, Vivian, and a starving
artist who is not going to make it as an actress.”

The anger built more in her mind’s stomach,
hearing his words that continued on and on, and seemed endless to
reality. He shouted, “You’re nothing but a secretary who gives good
head, amongst other things.”

“You bastard,” she yelled. Vivian put the
file up to his neck, coveting to press down and slice, but just
keeping it there, and seeing the fear in his eyes for her own
pleasure.

“Remember, I could still destroy your career?
Oops, I mean when you get a career,” he stated, feeling the nail
file locking onto his Adam’s apple. For some reason he didn’t want
to show his fear to her, another game he loved to play, but Vivian
was going to make sure she won this game.

“I will, I will do it and you’ll be sorry
that you didn’t choose me,” she whispered, slowly making a little
slit in his throat, seeing his fear finally for the first time. She
dropped the weapon, knowing Tom was right about how he could
destroy her career. She ended the race of her tears, wiped them off
of her face completely with her hand, and grabbed the file, putting
it into her purse slowly. She walked in slow-motion toward the door
and said in her mind, I’ve always imagined coming into this office
with Mr. Fryer telling me he wants me as a client. She ignored her
thoughts, saying to Mr. Fryer, “You’ll be sorry. Just remember
that.”

Tom put a tissue on his neck to stop the
bleeding, stared at her, and asked in a careless tone, “By the way,
would you please pick up the photo and give it to Darell. Tell him
to step into my office.”

She ignored Mr. Fryer and shut the door,
seeing Damen and Darell still waiting there for her to come out,
and noticing that the other actors left already.

“So, how did it go?” Damen asked after he
kissed her on the cheek and smiled. She saw Darell talking to
Helen, and felt a little angered toward him.

She laid her head on Damen’s chest, saying,
“Well.”