Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (55 page)

“Yeah, I remember, but I still didn’t like
it. Is that okay with you, Damen?” Jose asked in a snotty fashion;
Julienne looked at him in nervousness. She knew Jose was just about
ready to confront Damen about him talking behind his back.

“Yeah, it’s okay with me. What’s wrong with
you? Are you upset with me or something?” questioned Damen.

Julienne spoke before Jose could open his
mouth to answer him. “No, he’s not upset with you, Damen. He’s just
tired from the dinner.” Damen looked at Jose in an even more
confused way, even after Julienne explained his reasons.

“No, I know when Jose’s upset at me. And by
the looks of it, he’s not upset, he’s pissed off at me for some
reason or another.”

Jose remembered Julienne’s plan and to not
bring up the matter about Damen talking behind his back. So, before
Damen could say anything else, Jose’s acting began once again,
saying, “No, Julienne’s right, I’m just tired is all.” He vowed in
his black soul to go along with Julienne’s plan from now on, or at
least till the contract is signed.

“Are you sure, Jose?”

“Yeah, Damen, I’m positive. Now, what time
are we all going to this nightclub at? Let’s go early, because
Darell’s leaving tomorrow.” Mr. Rodrigo remembered that Darell was
only staying for twenty-four hours, after that, he was out of the
picture.

“What? Why are you leaving so soon?” Damen
asked. Julienne got ready to interrupt Darell, that is, if he
brought up the movie again.

“Oh, I have to go for some photos in New York
tomorrow, it’s for a magazine cover and I think an article too,” he
answered.

“How long are you going to be gone for?”

“Well, I’m gonna be gone for awhile. After
New York, I’m going to go straight to England,” Darell explained;
Julienne prepared for the interruption.

Damen looked at him in a sad way, saying with
disappointment, “Man, we’re not gonna see you for awhile then.”

“Well, they’re not, but you--” said Darell
before Julienne interrupted his words.

“Well, Darell, what time do you think we
should go to the club at?” Julienne asked as Darell turned his
thoughts on her question and forgot about what he was discussing
with Damen.

“Oh, it really doesn’t matter to me. How
about we go at 6:00 p.m.?” Darell asked. “That way I could go to
bed early tonight. I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I need my
rest.”

Julienne tried to think up of another thing
to discuss with him, so he wouldn’t bring up the movie to Damen
again.

“Alright, that sounds like a good time. So,
you guys want to play poker or scrabble?” Julienne mentioned with
Jose looking at her in a confused gesture.

“No, not really,” Jose spoke. Julienne looked
at him with widened eyes.

“Well, then what do you want to do?” She then
winked her eye at Jose, trying to explain through her wink that
Darell would try to mention the movie to Damen again, if they
didn’t find something else to discuss.

Jose finally understood the wink, saying,
“Oh, um, yeah, let’s play cards.”

“Alright, I’ll go get the cards,” said Damen,
getting up and walking into his bedroom.

Jose lit up a cigarette when Vivian
questioned, “What are we going to play?”

“How about Russian Roulette?” Jose’s question
caused Julienne to look at him, giving a deep sigh as well.

“This is going to be a long day,” Julienne
said in a low tone to Jose.

Damen returned to the room with an old batch
of cards he had brought from home. “It’s going to be a very long
day,” Jose said in a low tone also, seeing Damen beginning to deal
the cards out. “My God.” Jose picked up one of the cards Damen
passed to him and remembered these cards from Sugar Valley. “These
are the cards we use to play with back home.”

“Yeah, could you believe I still have them
with me?” Damen laughed out.

“You know something, Julienne, this is going
to be a very long and traumatic day,” Jose mumbled to Julienne; she
gave a little grunt, it meant she agreed.

“So, Darell, explain what it’s like to be a
star in a movie,” said Vivian, gathering up each card that was
passed to her.

Darell looked at all of them, smiled with
glee, and responded, “Well, it goes like this.”

Chapter Forty

The evening was hot, perspiring like
breathing was their habit, giggling, and full of liquor was their
poison, and they exited the limo with the feeling that it was a
normal night. Jose and Damen lifted Darell’s drunken body from out
of the limo, having Darell giggling with laughter, and mumbling
words of songs that came out of his mouth like air. “Boy, Darell’s
wasted,” Damen said, holding onto Darell’s right arm, while Jose
had his left. They walked away from Julienne’s limo, carrying their
friend’s drunken body, with his feet dragging on the ground,
scratching the ends of his shoes with sharp stones.

“Yeah, if it wasn’t for him punching that
bartender, he would probably still be drinking now,” Jose
stated.

Julienne and Vivian followed behind them,
watching as they walked up the stairs to their apartment complex,
gawking at these three gentlemen with their backs to them.

Jose and Damen both opened the door to their
apartment building and started to drag Darell inside, when Vivian
shouted, “Watch his head, guys.” Vivian’s warning was too late,
Darell’s head hit against the apartment building’s front door, but
he didn’t feel a thing.

“Sorry about that, Darell,” said Damen.

Darell laughed out loud, he thought it was
funny that he felt a strong force, pressure hit against his head,
shooting it back, but not feeling a bit of pain that should have
followed.

Damen looked at Darell while they were both
carrying him down the hallway, he felt sorry for him, and sorry
because he was so helpless; Damen had never seen, or never thought
he would see, Darell like this.

When they all approached their apartment
door, Jose looked back at Julienne and gave her a small grin, a
grin that meant the plan was complete. Vivian noticed the grin that
shined off of Jose’s face, and that’s when Jose’s eyes came into
contact with hers. He turned his head around quickly while Vivian
stared at his back in suspicion. Vivian turned her head away from
Jose’s back and looked at Julienne; Julienne looked down at the
floor when she saw Vivian’s head turning to face her, she saw it
out of her peripheral vision. Vivian turned away from Julienne and
faced Jose’s back again while the suspicion grew rapidly in her
mind. Before Vivian could open up her mouth and ask Jose why he
grinned toward Julienne, Damen accidentally knocked Darell’s head
into the door. “Sorry about that, Darell.”

“Damen, I don’t think he could understand you
right now,” Jose spoke as Vivian kept on staring at his back.

Damen tried to find his keys to the apartment
with one hand and balance Darell’s arm in his other, when suddenly
he questioned, “Vivian, could you get the door for us?”

She unlocked the door, and whipped it open,
looking in and saying, “There you go, home sweet home.”

Damen and Jose entered into the darkened
apartment, feeling around the walls with their free hands, guiding
themselves toward the couch with their night vision. They both
dropped Darell on the couch like a feather, looking at his
silhouette through the streetlights from the outside window, when
Damen suddenly spoke, “I’ve never seen someone drink that
much.”

Vivian turned on the room lights, seeing
Julienne walking over to the couch and saying, “Well, he was just
enjoying himself, I guess.” Jose lit up a cigarette and gave a
smirk at Julienne’s comment, finding it amusing and bloody
intriguing at the same time.

Damen and Vivian left the room and walked
over to their own bedrooms. Before Damen shut the door, he looked
at Jose and Julienne, saying, “We’ll be right back, we’re just
going to change into our nightcaps.”

Once the door shut, the conversation began
between Jose and Julienne. Mr. Rodrigo blew smoke out of his mouth
that resembled a circle, straight toward Darell, and said with a
smile, “You’re a genius, Julienne. Do you think Damen and Vivian
suspected anything? I mean, all through the dinner you were only
offering and buying Darell drinks. They must suspect
something.”

“Who cares if they suspect anything? The
point is, we prevented him from talking to Damen about the movie,”
she replied in a low tone, looking at Darell’s sealed eyelids and
his drool dripping down to the couch cushion. “All we have to do
now is prevent him tomorrow from talking about it. I think it’s
going to be easy. After all, we’re just going to see him at the
airport for about a half an hour.”

“Yeah, after that, I just have to wait till
Saturday to do the screen test and then sign the contract,” Jose
stated, giving a disgusted face toward Darell’s drool. “That’s
sick.” He wiped some of the saliva away from Darell’s mouth with a
cloth, and showed Julienne that he still cares for him like a
brother.

So, once Jose threw the saliva-stricken cloth
behind the couch, Julienne wanted him to remember why he was so
drunk, and why they were here in the first place. She asked, “So,
are you excited about Saturday?”

“Oh yeah, did you notice how I was bragging
about my movie to Damen? Do you think he got jealous of it?” Jose
questioned; his face had an evil grin upon it.

Julienne suddenly got angry, saying with an
attitude, “Yeah, I think he was and still is.”

“What’s wrong? Are you angry at me?”

“What do you think?” Her head turned away
from Jose, adding, “Listen, I was ready to beat your ass when I
heard you talking about it. Do you realize you almost blew it for
us, I mean almost blew it for you?” She stopped her voice, and
hoped in her mind he wouldn’t stumble onto her correction of
words.

“Hey, I started discussing it after Darell
was drunk. Besides, I didn’t use the real title of the movie.”

“Alright, just make sure it doesn’t happen
tomorrow,” said Julienne as Darell suddenly began to wake up.

“Alright, I promise you it won’t.” Jose then
noticed Darell moving.

Darell lifted his head up an inch, and spoke
with a smeary tone, “Set my alarm for 5:00 a.m., my plane ...
leaves at seven o’clock.”

“Alright, Darell, just get some sleep now,”
Jose whispered when Julienne noticed yelling coming from Damen and
Vivian’s room. Jose put out his cigarette and whispered to
Julienne, “What do you think they’re arguing about?”

“Who cares.”

“You’re right, who cares,” said Jose, giving
an evil snicker toward her.

Vivian put on her nightgown in a rapid motion
as Damen put on his undershirt and gave an aggravated sigh. That’s
when Vivian asked, “Well, do you, or do you not, agree with
me?”

Damen went over to the bedroom window and
began opening it in a furious manner. Banging it with his hand, the
window finally opened with him shouting, “No, I don’t.” He walked
away from the open window in quickness, adding, “Why do you think
Jose and Julienne are hiding something from us?”

Vivian lit up a cigarette, replying in a
smart-alecky form, “Why, you ask?”

“Yes, why?”

Their room was small, filled with one
dresser, a bed in the center, and a television that sat on the
floor. Every word that they spoke didn’t have any place to absorb
itself, except out toward the room where Julienne and Jose were
standing. That’s why he opened the window, hoping that all of the
sounds, loud noises that came from their argument, would fly out of
their room, into the air of the streets.

“Because, didn’t it seem strange that
Julienne only bought Darell drinks? She didn’t bother getting us
any,” Vivian hollered.

Damen’s voice interrupted her theory, saying
with sarcasm, “Are you jealous? Well, honey, next time we all go
out to dinner, I’ll make sure to tell Julienne to buy you drinks
too.”

“No, I’m not jealous at all. I think she got
him drunk on purpose. I mean, she bought him drinks one after
another. If that’s not suspicious, then I don’t know what is.”
Vivian then threw a pillow at his face, hitting him directly in
between the eyes.

“Listen, I don’t know why you’re so upset
about this. I mean, so what if they have something up their
sleeves. All I know is, Jose and Darell are my best friends, and I
know Jose would never do anything bad to me or Darell. For crying
out loud, I grew up with him, I should know him better than you,”
Damen said with a strong and forceful voice.

“Do you realize, she could have caused him to
get alcohol poisoning?” asked Vivian in an even stronger tone.

“Well he didn’t. He’s just knocked out,
probably drooling on himself like he does when he sleeps, or
urinating in his pants as we speak.” Damen’s tone was snotty,
causing Vivian to throw another pillow at his face, but missed. “I
admit, I never saw Darell get drunk in my life, but I did tonight
and I’m okay with it.”

Vivian opened the door again, and before she
exited it, she turned to Damen and spoke, “You know, I can’t wait
till this February.” She ran out of the room in a furious rhythm,
leaving Damen there alone, confused at what she meant.

“Why, what’s this February?” Damen questioned
under his breath. He followed her out of the room and suddenly said
with excitement, “Oh, I know, my birthday’s this February.”

Leaving Damen be, and having his own
perspective on what she thought when saying her last words to him,
Vivian rubbed Darell’s head like a newborn baby, and asked Jose,
“How’s he doing?”

“He’s fine, he’s just drunk is all.”

Vivian glared at Julienne with evil eyes,
stating, “You know, Julienne, you could have killed him
tonight.”

Julienne created a shocked look on her face,
she wanted it to look like she didn’t know he could have died.
Julienne gawked at Vivian with the same eyes as she, and then
changed them to sincere ones, trying to calm down Vivian’s nerves,
and saying with a smile, “What do you mean, I could have? I didn’t
force the liquor down his throat; he did that himself. Besides, we
all had fun, but Darell had the most.”