Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (77 page)

Click.

“Damen, hello, Damen are you still
there?”

Mr. Schultz hung up the phone and turned to
see Julienne and Jose’s angered faces, perceiving their gawks of
anger, and their straight mouths of pressure, with their bottom
lips, pressing hard against their uppers. But their images turned
to a smile deliberately, not wanting Damen to know that they were
upset at him for delaying, wanting, through their own private
deprivations, to be as nice as possible, but not overdoing it.

Later on that day, Damen, Julienne, and Jose
went to the hotel and began to get unpacked. They all got ready and
put on their best clothes to visit Vivian, fixing their hair,
bathing their bodies and cologne on their flesh, to smell perfectly
for her. To Damen, this was a regular, conventional, orthodox visit
to his girlfriend, the first visit he ever seized, so he was
high-strung, jittery, and nervous, yet excited at the same
time.

To Jose, this was a mission, a plan of
action, to ditch Mr. Schultz in New York, so he could take his star
role away from him. Jose made sure to memorize the exact things
that Julienne discussed to him, playing his character like it was
just a normal visit. But in his mind, it was a war of deceit, and a
war to make sure that Damen never came back to California, for when
the film begins shooting.

Finally, to Julienne, this trip was more than
just a visit, more than just a scheme, and more than just a war, it
was a way out of her lies. She was doing this for Jose, catering to
his wants, knowing that if he didn’t get his star role like he
wanted, then he would confess to Damen, almost every lie that he
and Julienne falsified about his character, and the jealousy would
also cause Jose to harm him physically for, supposedly, messing
around with Julienne. All these lies, all these plans, and all
these deceitful deeds that she created, all lay on this moment, in
New York, where she would either leave with success under her belt,
or leave with loser imprinted on her face, and her lies coming back
to her tenfold. So she was careful, this was her destiny, she
wanted to just get rid of Damen Schultz, for Jose’s sake, and
everything would be fine, and splendid. Yet, she couldn’t predict
that her lies would haunt her in the near future, and come back to
her infinity fold.

After they catered to their own
presentations, they took a taxi to the destination, the location
where Vivian lived, and discovered she wasn’t in her quarters.

Damen knocked harder on Vivian’s apartment
door, saying with aggravation, “Damn, I knew we should have called
first.” He kept on knocking, louder and louder, harder and harder,
where his fists were beginning to hurt, forming a numbing sensation
around his knuckles, as if he was pounding on sharp dry-ice.

Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.

Jose saw the fatigued aggravation in Damen’s
knocks, comprehending that he was about to vanquish this
obstruction in her aperture of a doorway, and knock down the door.
He didn’t want to get in trouble for Damen’s loud beats against her
closed entrance, so he spoke, “Well we just have to come back
tomorrow.”

Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.

Damen continued his annoying knocking,
noticing that a door, next to Vivian’s apartment, was opening
slowly, but he kept up his beat still. In a way, besides wanting
Vivian’s door to open, he also yearned to show Jose and Julienne,
that he didn’t travel all this way, just to have a vacant
apartment, without Vivian being there; he hungered to show that he
was upset.

Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.

An obese man with hairy side burns, and a
ripped, cleaved white undershirt on, came out of his doorway,
saying with infuriated irritation, “Excuse me, but would you mind
not pounding on that door so loud?”

Damen discontinued his annoying pound,
speaking, “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Julienne was appalled by this man’s
presentation, seeing that he was a slob, and a low-class person,
noticing his cleaved shirt, and appearance of an unlikely
gentleman. Yet, she always, perpetually in her existence, knows how
to get what she wants, seeing that this man was looking at her in a
flirtatious way, she walked up to him slowly, and questioned in an
alluring and seductive verbalization, “Excuse me, honey, we were
wondering if you knew where a Vivian Gryer lived at? Because, we’re
not sure if this is her place or not.”

“Yes, sir, we would appreciate it,” said
Damen. Julienne turned around and said “shut up” in a silent tone
to him, and then turned back to this man of disgust.

She asked again, in her same, flirtatious
way, “Like I was saying, do you know if this is her apartment,
cause you look like a kind, knowledgeable man, and a gentleman of
great qualities?”

Damen and Jose were smiling, catching onto
her act, finding humor in it. The man started itching his belly,
while his ripped, smelly, and tight pants were revealing his
underwear. Looking at Julienne more closely, widening his eyes, he
questioned with vivacity, enthusiasm,

“Hey, aren’t you that Julienne Wells
chick?”

“Why yes, yes I am.”

“Oh, my brother is crazy about you. Could I
have your autograph to give to him?” the man asked, pulling a pen
out from his tight pants pocket and holding a newspaper against
it.

“Well, I’ll give you an autograph, but only
if you tell me where Vivian Gryer lives. Does she live here?”
Julienne pointed to her door, seeing that the man was confused
about the name, and gawked at him, waiting for an answer.

The man handed her the pen and paper,
answering with, “Yeah, yeah, she lives there.”

She began signing the newspaper, but still
stared at this man. “Do you know where she might be at now?”

“Yeah, she’s probably working on that dumb
soap opera.”

“Do you know the address?”

“Yeah, um, let me think, Oh I got it, I
believe it’s 3421 West 34th Street.”

Damen stared down at the newspaper, and saw
the way she was signing her name, what her penmanship was like, and
what style she created of her own. Julienne then finished her
autograph, and handed the pen and paper back to the man, without
even saying a word to him, without even acknowledging his
existence. That’s the way she was, once she has what she wants, she
leaves that person be, only using them and making them feel used.
They all walked away, while Damen turned around quickly, saying,
“Thank you very much.”

“Yeah, thanks also for the autograph.” The
man then looked and saw that Julienne had signed Minnie Mouse
instead of her name.

While they all walked with fury and quickness
to their heels, Damen turned to Julienne and questioned, “Hey, why
did you sign ‘Minnie Mouse’? Why didn’t you just sign your
name?”

“Because he said his brother was crazy about
me, he didn’t say he was too.”

They took a taxi to the address that the man
gave. Exiting the taxi, they ran into the building that looked like
a warehouse, big to its size, with two big doors that were as
immense as King Kong himself. Entering into it, they went to a
security guard and began asking him questions.

Julienne looked at the guard, thinking that
he was going to notice her as being a movie star, she thought that
this was going to be simple. So, after a few seconds of her staring
at him, smiling away, she asked, “Excuse me, but I was wondering if
you knew where Vivian Gryer was at?”

“Yeah, but you can’t see her now, she’s in
her dressing room,” the guard explained, looking down at her from
his 6’ 7” figure.

She turned her attention to Jose and Damen,
then back at the guard, protesting with a snotty voice, “Excuse me,
but we know her, we’re her friends.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone says.”

Julienne looked back at the boys and then
faced the guard once more, questioning with a conceited, proud
smile, “Listen, do you know who I am?”

“No.”

“I’m Julienne Wells. I’m a movie star.”

“I don’t care if you’re the First Lady,
you’re still not going to see Miss Gryer,” the guard proclaimed,
gazing at Julienne with attitude in his eyes.

Damen then noticed Vivian from a distance,
staring through all of the props and different sceneries that this
studio consisted, and spotting her face. “Vivian,” yelled Damen
before Julienne put her hands up to her ears.

“Would you mind not screaming in my ears?”
Julienne shouted in aggravation.

Vivian noticed them, hearing her name being
called out; she pointed her eyes to where the echo began, and saw
Damen, Julienne, and Jose by the guard. She started running toward
them with Damen saying to Julienne, “Sorry.”

Vivian ran up to them, giving Damen a big hug
and asking, “My God, what are you guys doing here?”

“We decided to come out here and visit you,
baby.”

Julienne smiled, turned her eyes toward the
guard, and spoke with an attitude, “You see, I told you we were her
friends.”

“Hi, Jose. Hey, Julienne,” said Vivian,
shaking Julienne’s hand and giving Jose a little hug. “Wow, this is
a big surprise. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the cast.” She
grasped onto Damen’s hand and started guiding them into the studio,
while he was in his glory with her, yet Julienne and Jose were
still a little bit nervous.

Two nights went by, Julienne and Jose
prepared for the plan that was about to be brought on. Miss Wells
gathered all of the plane tickets together while Damen Schultz was
sleeping. Jose already left early to go and see Vivian, and
Julienne stayed to wait till Damen woke up. Before he did, she just
ogled at his sealed eyes, showing a bit of remorse for him,
lighting a cigarette and still gazing at his sleeping figure. The
newborn sun, shooting its new light through the white drapes of his
room, revealing Julienne’s silhouette, standing next to the window,
gazing over at his body, his face of rest. The silhouette of her
smoke also showed through the sunlight’s presence, draping over
every bit of lasting nicotine-smoke that it caught, allowing the
smoke to look like it was a cloud, levitating in this room, showing
its beauty of oxymoronic qualities. With every exhale of the
cigarette’s body, she would grin a little bit toward his sealed
eyes, finding it exhilarating that today was the day, that all of
her plans, the lies, and deceit would be gone for good, abandoning
Damen in a web of crime. Julienne comprehended and understood that
no human being, after having this happen to them, could possibly
still not give up, and continue on their dream’s road, its path of
hardness and labyrinth-like endings. She felt, that this was it,
once they left him here there was no way, as she thought, that
Damen could possibly be a threat to her or Jose, ever again. A
human’s mind could only withstand so much, but once they reach a
sector, a boundary where pain of mental anguish and tears comes to
their presence, they give up and leave the hard road that they
thought, as in Damen’s case, was finally over with.

She found this funny, seeing Damen’s sleeping
body, noticing a smile on his face, wondering what he was dreaming
about. Maybe he was dreaming about the Oscars, and having the host
call out his name? Or maybe he was dreaming about the movie that he
was going to star in very soon, and how this will be the beginning
of a career that he had to go through hell to realize, almost, its
full reality? Who knows, but Julienne still gaped at him, knowing
that once he awoke, the beginning of her plan would start, and
Damen’s inevitable fall, after the plan was executed, would occur
in a matter of seconds. To her, it was very funny, comprehending
that an actor could work his whole life, and finally become a star,
and it only took a couple of seconds for that star to fall, and
begin at the starting line again; like a mountain climber, striving
his way to the mountain’s glorious top, and then falling from it,
having death hit him in ten seconds.

As she thought, smoked her cigarette, and
felt a little remorse for what she and Jose were about to do to
him, Julienne whispered, “Well, Damen, I’m sorry that we have to do
this to you, but you know what they say, “every man for himself.” I
just hope you don’t write a book about this; then again, you won’t,
because you’ll never know about it. And I’ll make sure that you
never know, Mr. Schultz, I’ll make sure that you never find out
about who told these lies. You guys were just in the wrong place at
the wrong time. I’m sorry for ruining your friendship with Jose,
but I need him, more than you do. For me, and from my point of
view, you guys were in the right place at the right time.”

He then started to wake up, so she panicked,
put her cigarette out on the red carpet of the room, and then
changed her character to a frantic one, questioning with stress,
“Um, where’s Jose?” The plan, this fraudulent, deceitful, and
unscrupulous mission began, and Julienne made sure to play her part
very carefully, using her canny, her astuteness, wit, her
intelligence to overcome this battle that, oddly enough, she
began.

Damen opened his eyes, yawning, “What do you
mean? Isn’t he here?”

“No, when I woke up he was gone. The plane
leaves in two hours. If we don’t find him, he’ll miss it.”

Damen got up from his bed and quickly put on
his winter coat over the clothes he slept in, hearing the frantic
voice of Julienne, knowing that this had to be serious.

He handed Julienne her jacket, saying in a
soothing voice, “Calm down, it’s gonna be alright, we’ll find
him.”

As he turned around to face the doorway of
the hotel room, Julienne pulled out a letter that she made Jose
write, from her pocket, and placed it on a coffee table,
inconspicuously, unobtrusively. She tried not to be that
suspicious, so she put on her best acting face, and questioned,
“Wait a second, what’s this?”

“It’s a note from Jose; it says he’s at
Vivian’s work. He wants to say goodbye to her,” he read out loud.
When he finished reading it thoroughly, he crumbled up the note and
became a little resentful, jealous. “It also says that he has
something really important to talk to me about.”