Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (52 page)

“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
Hollywood. 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.”