Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (69 page)

“Don’t worry, I could afford it.”

“Yeah, but where are you going to call from?
We’re in the middle of a hill,” stated Jose, hoping inside his mind
that Darell would give up on wanting to call Damen. He figured that
Darell would spill the beans and talk to Damen about why he didn’t
get chosen for the part, and that’s where the lie would be
revealed.

In the middle of the conversation, and while
everyone was having a bit of Jose’s cake, Darell started walking
toward his own trailer—of titanic size—saying, “There’s a town
that’s about a mile away from here.”

Julienne and Jose dropped their pieces of
cake on the cold, green grass and began running after Darell.
Julienne suddenly hopped in front of Jose, saying with anger, “Let
me handle this, you just stand there and be quiet.” They both
reached Darell’s presence, with her speaking, “Darell, do you think
it would be a good idea that you called Damen? I mean, he was
supposed to play Jose’s part; it would be like rubbing your success
in his face. Why don’t you wait till the movie’s over with? You
don’t want to make him jealous, do you?”

Darell stood there, by his trailer door,
speechless, not facing either of them, but looking straight at his
door, pondering if she was right or not. Darell questioned, “Do you
think he would actually get jealous?”

A girl, named Becky, an actress in the film,
came up to them and took a picture of Darell with a Polaroid
camera. He started to rub his burnt eyes from the flash while
hearing Julienne replying, “Yes, he would get extremely jealous. I
tell you what, after the movie is over with, you could go see him
and explain why you didn’t talk to him while you were making the
movie. Trust me, he’ll understand then, instead of now.”

“Alright.”

Becky suddenly kissed Darell on the lips,
asking in her ditsy, immature way, “Like, what are we all talking
about?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Julienne’s eyes widened at Becky kissing
Darell on the lips a second time, after he answered her question. A
plan developed once again in her evil mind, seeing Becky’s lips, in
slow motion, how they touched Darell’s, made her plan develop in a
blink of an eye, in the birth of a thought. Julienne turned to
Jose, still keeping her eyes in focus of this undefined but
passionate kiss to Julienne’s mind, in her view, whispering in a
suspicious tone, “Jose, could you come inside your trailer right
now, I have to talk to you urgently?”

“Alright, I’ll be right there.”

Julienne grabbed Jose by the arm tightly,
pulling him toward her, saying with strictness, “Listen to me, it’s
very urgent.”

Darell and Becky slowly walked away from
them, with Becky still taking his picture, and still kissing him
ever so often. Darell turned to face Jose and Julienne, shouting
from a distance, “Oh, I’ll see you guys later.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later,” Jose
shouted.

Julienne then pulled him by his arm more,
like a little disobedient boy, yanking his sockets, trying to get
him to follow her every move. She pulled him all the way to his
trailer, pushing him inside of it and announcing, “Yes, Jose, I
have got the perfect solution to our, I mean, to your problem.”

Jose took off his winter jacket, questioning
in a high-pitched voice, “What are you talking about?”

“Listen, I’m tired of explaining it to you,
you know what problem I’m talking about, Jose.”

“You mean about the lie?”

She went up to his face, pushed him down on
the couch, and answered in lowness, “Yes, I’ve got an idea about
how we could handle this little lie. It’s a great idea, but it
involves threatening Darell.”

“Well, what’s the idea?”

Julienne explained her vicious plan to him,
saying it step by step, piece by piece as her ruthless mind became
overpowered with lies and deceit. Once she finished her idea, Jose
regarded her with some core of innocent shock, saying with guilt,
“No, I don’t want to do that to Darell.”

“Jose, listen to me, it’s gonna be for
insurance, it’s the only way to stop him from explaining, or
telling anything to Damen. Just do it please, trust me,” Julienne
spoke with loudness, walking up to Jose closer and grabbing his
leg. “Come on, baby, would you please do this for me? I came out
here for you, I’m only doing this for you.” She kissed him gently
on the face, knowing that her seduction would, and will, work on
him, making him crave to her needs, and act to her wants.

She started kissing his lips, tenderly, but
with force, having him give in to her strong, erotic passion,
turning him on by her womanly power. He gave into her beauty, her
lips, her body that quivered toward his own, and whispered, “Okay,
okay, what do I have to do again?”

Later on, when day became night, Darell found
out that Damen was working at the café, discovering the name,
location, and number from, ironically, Jose’s mouth. He went into
town and used a telephone in a bar; little did he know that Jose
was right behind him. Darell called up the café and finally heard a
ring coming from the phone, waiting patiently, listening to the
rings travel, and echo longer into his ear.

Meanwhile, Chuck was washing some dishes in
the café, hearing the phone ringing, he turned off the water over
his sink, and started to dry off his hands. The ringing was
worsening, traveling to Chuck’s ears more, he finally finished
drying his hands off, and went over to the ringing phone. He picked
it up and spoke, “Hello, we’re closed now.”

“Hi, um, I was wondering if a Damen works
there?”

“Yes he does,” answered Chuck, noticing that
Damen was walking up to him. “May I ask who’s calling?”

“Oh, this is Darell, Darell O’Conner.” Jose
snuck into the building where Darell was and listened to the words
that he spoke, waiting patiently, like a killer, stalking his
prey.

Chuck put his hand over the phone, looked at
Damen’s face, saying, “He said his name is Darell O’Conner.”

Damen snatched the phone from Chuck’s grip,
speaking with eagerness, mixed with a form of zealous, “hello,
hello, Darell, it’s me Damen.”

“Hey, Damen, Happy birthday.” Darell took out
a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and then added, “Sorry about
the change in parts, I hope you’re not upset.”

Damen stopped his excitement from growing,
muted his actions and voice, and thought about what Darell meant by
those words. He was confused, not knowing anything about the
situation that Darell was speaking of, or else, would speak of
soon. So, Damen peered at Chuck, standing about ten feet away from
him, drying off some dishes, and anxiously questioned over the
phone, “What change in parts?”

“On how they chose Jose for the co-star role
over you.”

Damen was even more baffled. “Jose’s out
there? Jose is your co-star?” he asked, looking at Chuck in a
confused manner.

The bewilderment that Damen had, or still
has, was injected into Darell’s mind as well. Darell answered with
confusion to his words, “Yeah, didn’t you know that?”

“No, the reason why they didn’t choose me is
because someone said I was on drugs. They wouldn’t accept me
because of that,” Damen explained in a sad but defensive way.

Darell started laughing, saying with
surprise, “What? You doing drugs? And they actually believed you
were doing them?”

Jose hit himself on the head, not knowing
whether to pull the phone line or wait till the conversation
ceased.

“Yeah, I don’t get it either. Dennis gave me
a lecture and then he said to get out of his office and never come
back. Finally, if you thought that was bad, Dennis sent a letter to
almost every agency in Hollywood and told them to not take me as
their client, because I was on drugs,” he explained more, with
sadness in his loud tone.

Jose started to slowly pull on the telephone
wire, having Darell not see him, because of a wall that was
blocking their eye views. The pulling allowed fuzziness and static
to come into the phone, causing Darell to say, “Listen, the phone’s
getting a little fuzzy. I tell you what, I’ll get to the bottom of
this. Tomorrow I’ll go to Dennis and ask him who told him
that.”

Damen’s eyes widened with happiness, knowing
that he was his true friend, realizing that Darell, for the time
being, was his last hope to clear his name, and banish the lie,
while giving birth to the truth. “Will you?”

“Yeah, of course I will, you’re one of my
good friends.”

“Thank you so much, Darell, I owe you
one.”

“I’ll call you up tomorrow and tell you what
he said,” spoke Darell as Jose began to pull the wire harder.

“Yeah, that’s cool, and I’ll tell you about
my commercial I’m in.”

Darell’s face grew a large smile, yelling
with ebullience, zest, “What? You’re in a commercial?” Jose heard
that, and began yanking the wire harder and harder, feeling the
jealousy coming back to him, toward Damen, once again.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
Abruptly, Damen was disconnected. “Hello, hello?”

“Hello, hello, Damen,” Darell spoke. He
looked down at the telephone wire and saw it yanked out of the
wall. “Shit.”

Darell went outside and began walking toward
the car he used to get to town. Feeling the warmth of night, and
the cold of winter, Darell was confused as to who would lie about
Damen. That’s when Jose jumped out of nowhere and asked, “Hey,
what’s up, Darell?”

“What’s up, Jose?” Darell then shook his
hand. “I got a story to tell you. You’ll never believe what
happened to Damen.”

They both went on a trip to France and
strolled into the city of Paris. Darell told him the lie that was
spread about Damen, and also told him about the commercial he got
in. As they walked, Jose tried to pretend like he gave a damn about
Damen, that’s when he started acting again. In his mind, he was
brainwashed by Julienne into believing that this was a mission; a
mission to keep all their lies undercover, to make his own fame
rise.

“I don’t know who could have spread that
rumor about him,” Jose said in a sincere way.

They stood underneath the iron dress of the
Eiffel Tower, looking out at France’s winter, conversing with each
other about a mystery that only Jose knew. “I don’t know either.
I’m just gonna talk to Dennis tomorrow about it. This is depressing
me, let’s talk about something else, like home. You know, I miss
home a lot,” Darell admitted.

Darell gazed up at the cold sky, seeing stars
of every shape and size, while Jose spoke, “I don’t.” Jose just
thought about the conversation that Darell and Damen had, and also
thought about what Julienne said to talk to him about.

“Well, don’t you even miss Maria?”

Jose was in a frame of mute, thinking about
what Damen and Darell were talking about before, and what Julienne
explained to him to talk with Darell about. Suddenly, he was broken
from his silence and answered, “Who’s Maria?” Darell gawked at him
with shock, allowing Jose to see his confused eyes, and to totally
forget about the conversation between Darell and Damen.

“Remember, she was your girlfriend
before?”

“Oh, that Maria, I forgot about her a long
time ago,” Jose replied with a laugh. “Remember we promised her we
would give her a call, or write to her?”

“Yeah. I remember Damen used to like her
too.”

Jose questioned with a loud voice, and
laughter, “What? Damen used to like Maria?”

“Yeah, he was jealous of you.”

Jose started to laugh harder, finding it
amusing that all this time, he was jealous of Damen, and Damen was
jealous always of him. “Man, he could have fooled me. So, how are
you and that Becky girl doing?”

Darell began smiling, sitting down on the
ground, he answered, “Well, we’re doing okay, I guess.”

“Did you sleep with her yet?”

“Hell yeah, she sneaks over to my trailer
every night at 12:00 a.m.,” he spoke as Jose began laughing
again.

“Why should she sneak over? Why doesn’t she
just come anytime?”

Darell started laughing, chuckling, “You
know, I don’t know myself. I guess she wants to be professional
about it. She doesn’t want the whole entire crew knowing about
us.”

Then, Jose quieted his voice, questioning in
a semi suspicious way, “So, ah, how old is she?”

“She’s twenty-one. She’s gonna be twenty-two
tomorrow.”

“Damn, an older woman,” laughed Jose.

Darell laughed with Jose, saying in sarcasm,
“Oh yeah, by an entire week. Ah, man, I can’t believe I’m going to
be twenty-two years old next week.”

Jose lit up a cigarette with his cold
lighter, looking up at the sky, and saying, “I can.”

Meanwhile, Julienne and Becky were having
their own little conversation. They sat inside of Becky’s trailer,
drinking some heavy-duty liquor. The thing was, Becky was doing all
the drinking.

“Come on, have one more drink with me?” Becky
asked in a drunken way.

Julienne held a clear glass with water inside
of it. “I already had ten glasses of this stuff,” Julienne replied,
crossing her legs together and trying to hold in her urge to go to
the bathroom. She pretended to be drunk as well, adding, “Besides,
I think you better calm down on drinking.”

Becky got up and started dancing in the
middle of the room, singing, “I love Hollywood.”

Julienne looked at her coldly, very abruptly
showing her change in eyes, and asking with interest, “So, do you
love Darell also?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“Well, I just figured you two were
together.”

Becky started laughing. Sitting down on her
couch, next to Julienne, she chuckled, “Yes, we’re together
alright.”

Julienne blocked out all noise from her ears,
her mind and concentrated on Becky’s last words, phrase, the way
she said it, the way she smiled when she spoke it. This was the
moment that she has been waiting for, ever since she saw Becky
kissing Darell. Closure, this moment, would allow Julienne’s lies
to never come out, as she thought, to never be revealed, as she
assumed. Julienne looked at her and questioned, “So, well, ah, how
old are you, Becky?”