Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (91 page)

The button, that when pushed, made Jose a
creature of evil, strength, cruelty, and fame, making his mind only
focus on nothing but fame, fortune, success, and being the best,
the top-dog, the only one in the spotlight.

Jose turned to face Damen, being hesitant at
first on pushing the button. He closed his eyes and opened them
again, pushing the button unnoticeably, and saying toward the side
of Damen’s face, “Darell has to learn to fend for himself. I backed
out of babysitting him a long time ago. I think you should do the
same.”

Mr. Schultz finally looked at him, through
the dim-lighted, almost darkened room, and felt shameful toward
him. “Jose, I feel sorry for you.”

Jose grinned at him, showing malevolence
through it, a type of evil that only the devil could show. “By the
way, how did you like New York? Oh, and thank you for giving me
your star role. If it wasn’t for you, I might not be here right
now.”

Feeling the anger, anxiety, forcing through
his veins, allowing his blood to boil to a dither, panting his
saliva, draping his soul with hatred toward Jose, Damen was about
to lose his head. He gawked at Mr. Rodrigo, not wanting to speak to
him, but longing to show his words physically by punching Jose at
that very second. His knuckles started to tighten and fold, his
flesh began to burn, and his face formed sweat, dripping down to
his red fists, cooling them off a bit from the high temperature
that his boiling blood caused to his hands. He pulled his hand and
fist up toward Jose’s face, but then, Chuck grabbed it in time,
saying, “It’s not worth it, Damen, let it go. Just let the hate
go.”

“Oh, is this your daddy? I thought your daddy
was a farmer? That’s the only thing you were ever good at, Damen,
the good old trait of farming,” spoke Jose in an evil, smart-alecky
way; Damen looked at him with a wicked glare.

Julienne turned away from the stage, seeing
Jose conversing with her big threat, Damen Schultz. So, once again,
she pulled Jose’s face toward her, speaking with attitude, “What
did I tell you, Jose? Don’t pay attention to him. The show’s about
to start.” Julienne realized, with this situation, that her butt
was on the line, literally, not knowing about the seating
arrangements, wishing that she would have.

How could I have been so stupid? I should
have checked who we were sitting next to.

Those thoughts traveled through her mind,
making her nerves fly off the handle, and cause her hands to shake
wildly, like a hummingbird’s wings. The nerves in her body were
building up every time Jose talked to Damen. She knew every word
that was spoken between them meant that there was a chance that her
lies would get out.

My God, if they begin arguing again, then
Jose might tell Damen about the drug lie, just to be cruel to
him.

Those thoughts also attacked, over and over
again, in her twisted and demented head, comprehending that
everything would come down on her, everything would crumble by
Jose’s actions. She knew that there was a very, very slim chance of
her lies getting out between Jose and Damen, but she still didn’t
want to take that chance. So, she made a decision, telling Jose,
“Alright, switch seats with me.”

“No, I’m fine right here.”

“Well I’m not, now move,” she demanded,
pulling Jose up by his arm and sitting in his seat. “Good, now you
two boys won’t argue.”

Damen grinned past Julienne, and showed his
smile to Jose’s sight, questioning in a smart-alecky manner, “Hey,
Jose, is this your mommy?” Mr. Schultz started laughing at his own
words, adding, “She kind of reminds me of her. You know, that
whorish, sluttish type?”

Jose gawked at him with a cold glare while
Julienne turned to Damen and just stared at him, at a loss for
words. She looked him straight in the eyes, defensively stating,
“Excuse me, but I’m not a whore, nor a slut.”

“Oh yeah, well who was the one that lied and
said to Jose that I kissed you and was messing around with
you?”

“Julienne told me,” Jose answered for
Julienne. She leaned over to get closer to Damen, feeling fear in
her gut, craving to make him stop talking.

Damen grinned, and explained, “Yeah, I know,
Vivian told me Julienne said that to you, and you believed it.”

“Because it’s true!” Jose words were loud,
like he was forced to believe that lie she told him, making his
mind think it was the truth, causing him to defend it to its
highest battle. Julienne was ready to begin her acting performance
again, waiting for the right time to jump in, like a black widow
waiting for its prey to get close enough to her and then mangle
it.

Damen looked at Julienne’s blue eyes,
questioning, “Oh really? So, Julienne, did I do those things to
you?”

This is where the black widow would strike.
Julienne managed to create her craft into an acting performance of
a timid, sad woman. She turned to Jose in sincerity, and answered
Damen, “Yes. And I told Jose to not discuss it with you.”

“Well he didn’t, my ex-girlfriend did, and
she became my ex because of it, plus for other reasons.”

Throughout the argument, the Master of
Ceremonies, with his suit of rich quality, entered onto the stage
and stood by the podium.

“You know, Jose, it’s kind of funny, but you
believed a bitch over your best friend. It’s a shame. You know that
I would have never done that to Julienne, or any other of your
girlfriends. But now that I realize the true you, I would have to
say I would have. Except Julienne, I wouldn’t touch her with a
seventy-foot pole. Except if I were to slap her in the face for
lying,” Damen explained with fury, feeling his blood starting to
boil once more, steam traveling through his mouth. Jose thought
about what Damen just vocalized, wondering himself why he believed
Julienne right away. As Jose thought about it more, he realized
that Damen would have never been that cruel to mess around with one
of his girlfriends. The button was slowly beginning to release
again, yet Jose tried once more to push it back down, craving to do
it, to avoid confusion.

Jose looked at Damen’s eyes once again, but
instead of yelling, he announced with kindness, “Well, enjoy the
show, asshole.”

Damen looked at Julienne, trying to analyze
her lie in her head, and then gaped at Jose and his words. “Yeah,
the same goes for you two, bastard.”

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Following the moon’s birth of light, we
travel now to Ridge Crest, where the time was almost the same,
judging it by distance, hounding it by weather. The ceremony began,
and the parents of Damen and Darell were waiting to see their sons’
dream come true; the dream of being at the Oscars. Even though they
didn’t support them once they discovered their true ambition,
destiny of fate that they wanted and craved so badly, but after
they seen that success came to them all, their views on acting
changed drastically, and pure utter hope took its place. The two
mothers gazed out the window of this house, staring at the
moonlight, seeing if rain clouds were up above. While this normal
ritual was taking place, they were also wondering why Jose’s
parents didn’t show up yet, being that the Academy Awards show was
already about to begin. Yet, they didn’t let their disappearance
worry them too much, so they both went back to their seats, and
gawked at the television set, feeling pure nervousness inside of
them, yearning to see their sons’ faces on its multicolored
screen.

Still glaring at the tube, the nerves were
rising in Mrs. Schultz’s mind, so she ran back to the front window
and awaited Jose’s parents to be in sight. She wanted everything to
be perfect that evening, because this is the evening where they
were finally going to see one of their son’s real dream come true;
the dream of winning the Oscar trophy. As she waited desperately
next to the big window, Mr. Schultz, holding a yellow bowl full of
bright orange popcorn, came up to her and spoke, “Come on, you’re
gonna miss the show, Karen.”

“I’ll be right there, Jack, I’m just waiting
for Carol and Antonio. I don’t want them to miss their son, Jose,
when they show him in the audience.” Karen then went back to gazing
out the big window’s body, seeing only trees and cornfields,
stretching out within the night, and abruptly hearing the sound of
laughter, coming from her husband.

Jack had a hyena laugh to him, choking his
breath during each interval, exhaling his chuckle with a loud
screech of annoyance. Karen hated that laugh, being that they’ve
been married for some time now, she still despised that one
characteristic about him. Noticing rain falling from the dark
skies, Karen turned away from its liquefied, natural beauty, and
placed her full attention on Jack’s self-humor. Wondering why he
was laughing, she showed him her confusion through her eyes, the
way she lowered them toward his face and crossed her arms in a slow
manner; she was irritated. Normally a man would stop whatever he
was doing, and obey his wife’s body language, but Jack was
different, he didn’t obey anyone. He still kept it up, laughing
away, like he wanted to go to the boundary-line of her patience,
and see how far he could stretch his annoyances toward her; a
dare-devil. He saw that she wasn’t breaking her guard, still
showing confusion toward him, so he cackled out, “Honey, honey,
honey, if they’re going to miss it, they’re going to miss it, you
can’t do anything about that. Come on, Darell’s parents are waiting
in the TV room for us.”

She smiled at him, showing her happiness at
his finally breaking his childish guard. Karen was satisfied with
it. She spoke, “You’re right, if they want to come, they’ll come.
After all, they don’t have a television.”

Knock, Knock, Knock.

Knocks came at the screen door, and before
Karen could even acknowledge the sound, it opened up, and in came
Jose’s mother. Carol, being a short woman, kind as a flower and
strong as a weed, showed her excitement, saying with enthusiasm,
“Did we miss anything?”

“No, it just began, Carol,” Karen answered,
giving her a kiss. “Where’s Antonio?” she added with them entering
into the television room where Darell’s parents sat.

This room was intriguing, half of it being
nearly outside, with that half of the walls being made out of
netting, sort of like a screen house, and the other half, being
sculpted out of old firewood that created a homey, ambience of
wilderness, country-look to the room. Mr. Schultz’s natural prizes
hung proudly on one side, filled with stuffed fish, deer, birds,
rabbits and even coyotes, smiling with half of their bodies in
tack, gawking at the people who sat in the room of entertainment.
On the other side of the room, held all of Mrs. Schultz’s prizes
and antiques, from blue ribbons for pie-baking contests, to old
fashion plates, that showed country life, and the way it was in the
1800s. It was marvelous, perfect for conversation starters, but the
best thing yet, was the netting on Mrs. Schultz’s side of the
room.

Through this netting was their backyard,
feeling the breeze blowing in from out there, smelling the fresh
scent of pine trees, as well as nature giving out its aroma. This
captivated their scents each time they would smell their own
outside area, but when it came to actually sitting inside of a
house, and smelling it the same, it was even more beautiful and
comfortable.

Once Carol reached this breeze-filled,
intriguing room, she walked straight up to Darell’s mother and gave
her a tight hug. She then answered to Karen, “He’s coming a little
bit later.” Carol sat down in one of the chairs that resembled a
wooden rocker, and faced a gigantic deer head with its tongue
hanging right out. Of course, to little Carol Rodrigo, this was a
very bothersome, exasperating, vexing, and disgusting sight, so she
turned to Darell’s mother, smiled even more toward her, and
questioned, “So, how are you doing, Martha?”

“Oh, I’m doing marvelous, I’m so proud of our
boys,” spoke Martha, noticing Damen’s father, Jack, walking into
the room. Martha also noticed the many heads of animals, hanging on
beautiful boards, with silver lining and chrome edges; she didn’t
care too much for it either.

The commercial on the television ended, and
it turned black for a second. Going to a flash of bright light on
it, the Academy Awards came back on again, with Carol asking,
“Jack, how are you doing?”

Jack gave Carol a tight hug. “I’m fine, how
about you?”

“Great, I’m doing great. I can’t believe how
proud I am of our boys.”

Out of nowhere, Karen Schultz yelled with a
high pitch, for reasons that weren’t known yet, creating confusion
in each of their minds for her motive to do so. Jack turned to his
wife, with his heart beating one-hundred miles an hour from her
scream, and muttered with delirium, “What happened, Karen?”

She couldn’t speak, all words were blocked
from her mind, it was like she couldn’t think of the words, in
order to say them, and therefore she was dumbfounded for this brief
moment, and even impaired. All she could do was point her trembling
index finger toward the television screen. As she proceeded to lift
her finger, that’s when she saw the words in her mind, that she
just wanted to scream out, but instead spoke with tremendous shock,
“Look, that’s our babies.”

They all turned toward the screen, and stared
with wonder, optimism, seeing the faces that they’d known
personally, realizing that dreams do and could come true,
especially for people that they know and love. It was like a ton of
bricks, or better, a ton of iron, hitting them in the heads,
knocking full sense into them, that they were actual bona fide
movie stars. Jack grew a big smile on his face, but then it turned
to a grin, showing confusion in his eyes. He spoke, “Oh, yeah,
there’s Damen and Jose. But, where’s Darell?”