Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (38 page)

The anger was also passing over to Damen,
building up its flames, traveling to his throat, and finally
releasing a little bit of it, slowly, so it could be heard by Jose.
“I can’t believe what you just said, Jose. It’s that number you’re
dialing, isn’t it? That’s why you said those things? It’s an agent
or something to do with acting, isn’t it?”

Jose ignored Damen’s words, dialing the
number again, he finally answered, “Yes, it has something to do
with acting.”

“Boy, you’ve changed by just getting a
frickin’ page, I wonder what would happen to you if you won an
Oscar. You probably would become a bastard,” shouted Damen, feeling
the anger rising up more to his mouth.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Julienne answered the phone. Showing her sexy
voice, she spoke, “hello, Jose?”

“Hi.”

The rage slowly slipped through Damen’s
teeth, pushing its way out of his mouth, it expressed itself by two
little words. “Screw you.”

Jose paused from talking to Julienne for only
a second, looked at Damen, and shouted at the top of his lungs,
“Screw you, too.”

Damen and Vivian walked out of the café,
feeling their own anger for Jose, and toward Jose; it was too much
to handle.

Julienne heard Jose’s last words, thinking he
was talking to her, she asked with shock, “What did you say?”

“No, I wasn’t talking to you, Julienne.”

Chuck Fritter crept up to him, waiting for
the perfect time to kick him out of the café, or else scare the
hell out of him and break a few limbs in Jose’s body.

“Well, Jose, are you still up for that deal
we made?”

“Hell, yeah. What exactly was the deal?”

“Don’t you remember?” Julienne questioned as
a director approached her in a dressing room where she was. The
room was decorated with photos of herself, posing in sexy
positions, positions that made her look like a goddess. It had a
single mirror with bulbs surrounding its ends, with her staring at
her reflection, while talking to Jose.

“I remember you saying to me, um, that you’re
going to introduce me to a lot of agents,” Jose finally answered
with Mr. Fritter still staring at him with evil eyes.

“Yes, that’s it, but I’m going to do more
than that, I’m going to make you,” she explained. Her words were
cut off by the director giving her a script to read.

“Make me what?” Jose then caught Mr.
Fritter’s eyes, gawking at him like a serial killer’s prey.

Julienne went through the last pages of the
movie script she’s doing now, explaining over the phone, “I’m going
to make you what I am. There’s a dinner coming up on January 1. I
want you to be my date. During and after that dinner, you could be
sure of it that you’ll be asked to be in a few flicks or even a few
movies. So, just come to my house December 31, I’ll get you
prepared then.”

“Why can’t I come over tonight?”

Mr. Fritter looked up at the clock over the
bar area, it said 11:58 p.m., and then went back to staring at
Jose’s eyes, trying to tell him something through his glare.

“Because, silly, I’m not in California, I’m
in Chicago. We’re just finishing up the last few scenes to my
movie, we’ll be done in about three days.” She then closed the
script and placed it down next to the mirror, still staring at her
reflection, smiling at her arrogance.

“Great, that’s a week from now,” Jose yelled
in a sarcastic way, seeing that Mr. Fritter switched his eyesight
from the face of the clock, back to Jose’s face.

“Just meet me at my house early on the
thirty-first of this month,” she said. Suddenly they were
disconnected.

“Hello ... hello, Julienne, are you there?”
Jose then saw Mr. Fritter’s hand on the receiver, so he slowly hung
up the phone, seeing Chuck’s anger through his shaking wrinkles,
and pulsating eyes.

Chuck spoke, “Get out, this dump is
closed.”

Jose slowly walked past Mr. Fritter’s eyes
and walked up to the door, saying before exiting the café, “Well,
Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, or have a nice holiday—whatever
you celebrate, have a good one.”

He strolled down the Hollywood streets for a
while, his mind filled with confusion and anxiety as he tried to
cope with the fact that he had no place to stay. Jose turned into a
whole different person once he met Julienne Wells. Some might say
he let it go to his head, forgetting the deep friendship he had
with Damen and Darell. He forgot the dream that all of them shared,
being only out for himself, and he knew it. After Julienne hung up
the phone, Jose realized that he didn’t want Damen or Darell to
become famous, he only wanted himself to. He realized the dream he
had that night, before Darell left for New York, was an omen of
some sort, a premonition, it was a dream that was telling the
truth. Jose Rodrigo became addicted to fame, addicted to something
he didn’t possess yet; addicted to the vision that manifested his
mind into believing he would become it.

When he reached Vivian’s apartment, he sat
outside by her door; instead of trying to figure out a way of
saying sorry, he was trying to figure out a way to lie, to lie his
way back into the apartment. He tried to think up a plan, a plan
that would trick Vivian and Damen into believing he was sorry for
the things he said. Instead of the words coming from his heart,
they came from his mind, a mind that was wicked, and a mind that
was becoming lost. He went over every act in the book he could
think of, until he came up with one he thought up himself.

His plan was to pretend he was mugged by a
criminal. He knocked on the door and Damen answered with a
depressed voice, “What do you want, Jose?”

Jose saw that Damen wasn’t angry, but
depressed instead. So he went for another strategy, a strategy that
was simple and consisted of two words. Two words that Damen would
definitely fall for. “Sorry, Damen.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little too late for
that?” Damen asked, noticing Vivian standing directly behind the
door so Jose wouldn’t see her.

“I’m under a lot of stress, besides, um,
well, um, it’s the first time I’m spending Christmas away from
home. It will never happen again,” Jose explained while Damen
looked at Vivian. “It’s just, we’ve been in Hollywood for about
seven months, and I guess it did something to me, it changed me.
Now I realize what I did, and I’m sorry for it. I didn’t mean that
about not liking to live in this apartment, it was some other
person talking, it wasn’t me.” During Jose’s fake monologue, the
door started to open up wider. Every word he said meant the door
would open up a half an inch more.

Damen looked at him, trying to cope with the
fact that Jose was an ass, but still he was his best friend.
“Before I let you in, you have to tell me who was on the phone.”
Damen waited, seeing that Jose gave a short pause, Mr. Schultz
added, “So, who was on the phone?” The door opened up all the way,
Damen waiting there in the middle of it, craving for Jose to say
what he wanted to know, and what he should know.

Jose took out the pager from his pocket, and
held it in his palm, showing it to Damen. “Remember, remember that
movie star we met at that club, it was the place we went to when we
first got to Hollywood? Remember it was called the Starbox?”

“Yeah, and you went home with her.”

“Well, before she left--” Jose’s words were
cut off by Damen’s voice, wanting to understand everything about
his explanation as possible.

“Left to go where?”

Damen lit up a cigarette, waiting for Jose to
explain, he wanted to have some shape, form of stimulant to control
his nerves. Damen watched Jose’s eyes, trying to see if he was
sincere about the story or not; Damen’s sight was like a lie
detector test; he knew the truth.

“She left Hollywood to go make a movie, she’s
going to be the main star in it. Well, she told me that she likes
me a lot, I mean a lot. She told me that when she got back, she
would introduce me to a lot of very important people in the film
industry.” As he explained it, Damen let him in the apartment.
“Julienne gave me this pager, she said that as soon as she finishes
the movie, she would page this pager, and that way I’ll know where
to go to meet her. That’s why I got so excited when it went off,”
he explained. Jose realized he was actually telling the truth. He
came back to reality for a bit, he came back to being a true friend
to Damen, but it wouldn’t last.

Vivian jumped in the conversation,
questioning with joy, “Wait a second, you met Julienne Wells?”

“Yeah, honey, remember I told you?”

“No, but anyway, Jose go on, you were
saying,” Vivian spoke, suddenly seeing Helen walking in the
door.

Helen started to throw presents at all of
them, shouting, “Merry Christmas.”

Helen had a Santa hat on. Sitting down,
Vivian said, “Come here, Helen, listen to this.”

Jose explained everything that happened that
night in Beverly Hills. Yet, he thought to himself the whole time,
Should I be telling them this? What happens if they want a piece of
the success? What happens if they decide to go to the dinner?

He finished explaining the story to all of
them while they opened up presents. After he finished, he asked,
“So, do you guys understand now? That’s the kind of stress I’ve
been under.”

“In a way, I do, but you should never turn on
your friends like you did today,” replied Vivian. She then opened
up her present, filled with golden wrappings upon it, and
discovered a brand new watch, ticking its time in a formation that
had silver hands to its body. She gave Damen a hug, knowing it was
his present to her, and kept her hug frozen, while Jose looked at
them and knew that these people were really his true friends.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Jose’s apology was real,
not just an act to get back into the apartment; it was true to
himself, as well as to their ears. Through his realization that
they were really true to friendship, he felt bad for acting the way
he used to in the past months; by keeping secrets from Damen,
allowing jealousy to get the best of him, and by acting like an
ass.

Suddenly, Damen showed a puzzled look on his
face, saying, “I just can’t believe that, Jose, I’m sorry, but
that’s an unbelievable story...”

Jose’s mind became angered at Damen’s
accusations, at Damen’s words. “What, you don’t believe me?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just
that’s too good to be true. How often does that happen to a person
off the streets, let alone, a person from Mississippi?” questioned
Damen.

Jose’s mind turned him into believing that
Damen was not an authentic friend for saying that. His mind made
him believe that, but in actuality, Damen was correct for asking
such a question. His hate toward Damen was beginning, and this type
of hate, only could be caused by the Devil showing its mental
presence.

“Well, it happened to me.” Jose showed a
serious voice, having his mind go back to not remembering his close
friendship with Damen. The jealousy came back of how he was always
envious of Damen when they were little kids, the jealousy of
Damen’s rich family and how everyone in their town would be so
intrigued by their rich and vast farmland. You could say Jose was
beginning to “lose it.”

“Okay, okay, let’s drop it,” Damen said. He
tried to switch the conversation, seeing that Jose was showing
anger. Damen changed it to, “So, Jose, do you want to go back to
the motel with me tomorrow?”

“Why?”

“So we can see if any calls came in from
Darell. They have to have some way of knowing what calls came in
that room,” Damen replied, opening up his present that Vivian gave
him.

“We left that motel a month ago, I don’t
think Darell called there within that short of time. Don’t worry,
he’ll find a way to contact us,” Jose said, enhancing snootiness of
an exaggerated form. Jose began to forget his close friendship with
Darell also, allowing him to somehow not give any care toward him;
jealousy was a factor in his mental change.

Damen kissed Vivian, after seeing the present
she got him; a red scarf, with white striping on the edges of it.
He smiled, thinking it was funny for her to get him a winter scarf
in the California heat, but it made him remember Ridge Crest, and
that was enough of a present. He then put it on, gave out a yawn,
and said while yawning out his words toward Jose, “I guess you’re
right. Besides, I have a long day tomorrow. I have an extra job to
do. I have to wake up very early.”

“Wait a second, on Christmas day?”

“Yep, it’s a small movie, it doesn’t even
have a budget in the hundred thousand dollar range. But it’s still
good practice. So, I’m going to bed now, Merry Christmas,” Damen
said. He took Vivian’s hand and walked over to their bedroom.

“I’m going to get some sleep too,” Helen
announced, throwing out some of the wrappings that she picked up
from the floor.

Helen walked her hard-working, tired figure
over to her own bedroom as Jose spoke, “Merry Christmas,
Helen.”

“Oh, Merry Christmas.”

After she closed her door, after Vivian and
Damen closed their door as well, Jose walked over to the front room
window and said in a whisper, “Well, if it’s true about wishes
coming true on Christmas, then I wish I became famous. But I mostly
wish the one thing I’ve always wanted...” He looked out at the
streets of Hollywood, seeing Christmas decorations of all colors
and textures, and added, “I wish to win an Academy Award.”

He then looked over at their Christmas tree,
seeing its green leaves that had a bit of brown mixed in, and
noticing the star at the top of it, and how it twinkled out silver
light toward his face. The thoughts ran rapidly through his
confused mind, but one thought chanted over and over, causing him
to fall asleep with a headache and still repeating the words over
and over again in his hurting mind.