Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (60 page)

“It’s about time, I’ve been waiting here for
over two frickin’ hours.” Julienne stormed into his office, and
looked at Mike with an attitude.

“Julienne, how nice to see you,” Mike spoke
as Julienne held out her hand for him to kiss it. He shook her hand
instead, adding, “Please, sit down.”

“What do you have to discuss with me, Mike;
is it about a movie role? You know, I hope it isn’t about another
stupid TV show wanting me to make a guest appearance. Or even-”

Mike cut her off, saying with disappointment,
“Julienne, it’s about you.”

“What about me?”

“I saw you on TV a few days ago, it was at
the premiere for that movie with Darell O’Conner,” he replied.

“Yeah, that was me all right. Didn’t you
think I looked great?” Julienne asked with a smile.

“No, I thought you made a complete ass out of
yourself.”

“I did not.”

“You made a complete fool out of yourself.
Number one, you were promoting that Jose guy, it was like you were
telling the whole world that you discovered him, and that you want
all the credit if he becomes famous; dating him to further your own
career. Let me tell you one thing, Julienne, you are a horrible
actress when it comes to talking to the media. All of Hollywood
knows your vicious plan. You practically admitted it at the
premiere,” Mike shouted, turning around and making her stare at his
back. “It’s over, Julienne; after the premiere in February for your
movie, I don’t want to ever see you again.”

Julienne’s eyes showed anger, but still her
acting began, asking in a low voice, “What plan?”

“You see, what did I tell you, you’re even a
bad actress when it comes to talking to your own agent. Everyone
knows that your using Jim, or Jose, whatever his name is, to
further your own career. I’ve already been getting calls about you
from other agents. I’m the laughingstock of Hollywood.” Mike then
turned around to face her.

“Listen, Mike, I don’t have any plan with
Jose,” she defended, seeing Mike’s head shaking left and right.

“Alright, then I’ll explain it to you, just
in case it comes to your head. Your plan is to use that guy for
fame, and then ditch him later on. Am I right?” Mike sat down in
his black leather chair with nail marks engraved in the arms of it,
adding, “I got all of that information by just watching you on
TV.”

“I swear to you, Mike, whatever you thought I
was planning, it’s false.” A tear came from her right eye, looking
down at the office floor and questioning, “I mean, why do I have to
use him for fame, I already am famous?”

“Julienne, you know yourself that you’re
losing your fame. Hardly any directors or casting agents want you
anymore. You’re known as a liar in Hollywood, and everyone knows
it.” Mike then punched his fists on his wooden desk. “Julienne,
face it, you feel that Jose is your only way to stardom again. You
feel that if everyone loves Jose, then they will love you too, just
because you discovered him and are dating him,” he yelled.

Tears came flushing out of her eyes, shouting
back, “I swear to you, Mike, I’m not using Jose for anything. If I
made it seem like I was on TV, then I’m sorry for it.”

“That’s it, I’m not waiting for your premiere
in February. It’s over, Julienne, you’ve pulled this before with a
lot of other actors in the past, that’s how you got here. I warned
you about this before, I’m not going to warn you again. Goodbye,
Julienne.” Mike ripped up her contract in front of her, throwing it
at her face.

Julienne wiped her tears away from her eyes,
and shrieked, “What are you doing?”

“You know what, Julienne, you’re not an
actress; you’re a con artist.”

The anger built up inside of Julienne as each
piece of her contract fell to the ground. Her acting vanished,
looking at Mike with a sinister look upon her face. She crossed her
legs and lit a cigarette while Mike watched her, showing a little
grin coming over her face. She blew a cloud of smoke at him,
speaking, “Fine, you’re right, Mike.”

“Right about what?” Mike asked with
strictness.

“You’re right.”

“Right about what?”

“Right about what you accused me of doing.”
Julienne then got up and walked toward the sunlight coming from the
window.

She blew a cloud of smoke toward the
sunlight, seeing it create a small, skinny road in the air, moving
about with designs of stormy skies.

“I want you to say it, Julienne. Right about
what?” he questioned again.

“I am using Jose. When I saw him a few months
ago, my career was on the rocks. After finding out that lies were
going around about me being a bitch, I just wanted to go to that
club and get drunk. That’s when I met him,” Julienne responded,
showing that her grin became a full smile. “You see, Mike, fame is
a very powerful thing to possess, and I’ll do anything to make sure
I keep that power. I’m addicted to it. When I first met you, you
said that to me.”

“Said what to you?”

“You said that having power is the most
wonderful thing you could have.”

“Julienne, when I said that, I didn’t mean
fame, I meant faith. When you first walked into my office, I knew
that you had the talent for this business. I knew that you had the
faith to pursue in this business. You told me that you prayed every
night to God; you said you prayed for fame. And look what happened,
you got it. Now you’re abusing it,” Mike said in a serious fashion.
Julienne turned around to face Mike when he added, “Julienne, once
you lose your faith in God, you lose everything. And guess what?
You lost your faith.”

She shrieked, “I didn’t lose my faith in
anything, and I’m not abusing my fame. You don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“Just leave that Jose guy alone. If you care
about him, then you’ll leave him be. You don’t want him ending up
like you,” said Mike as Julienne walked up to him and stared at his
long, blond hair in a ponytail.

Julienne said with sarcasm, “Oh thanks a lot.
The thing is, I don’t care about him. I’ll never care about him.
You listen to me, Mike, my plan is going to work, and there’s
nothing you could do about it. You’re just jealous.”

“Get out, Julienne. As a matter of fact,
leave Hollywood,” Mike shouted, grabbing her arm and guiding her
out of his office.

Julienne’s cell phone started to ring.
Without answering it yet, she turned to look at Mike from his
doorway, and spoke with evil to her words, “You’re going to be
sorry for ever ripping up that contract.”

Julienne walked away from him, hearing his
door slamming, and feeling the wind from it brushing up against the
back of her long neck. Before she exited the agency, the secretary
said. “Have a nice day, Miss Wells.”

“Oh, shut up.” Julienne then walked down the
hallway and toward the exit sign of the building. She pulled up the
antenna on her cell phone, put it up to her ear, and spoke,
“Hello?”

“Hi, Julienne it’s Jose, I’m ready,” he
announced, standing next to a bum at a bus stop.

“Alright, I’ll be right there, just give me
about fifteen minutes,” Julienne said in a sad way. She looked at
her watch that read 3:45 p.m., and kept on walking down the
hallway, realizing that this was going to be the last time she’ll
ever see these hallways, or even this building’s insides.

“Alright, see you then.” Jose hung up the
public phone that was full of bubble gum and dribble, even before
she could say ‘bye’ herself.

“Yeah, see ya,” Julienne yelled out, entering
into her limo and beginning to open up a tube filled with cocaine.
She hung up her phone, yelling out to the limo driver, “Just drive
around for ten minutes.” She tipped over the tube and watched the
cocaine as it flowed onto the palm of her hand. After she took a
sniff of the white substance, she noticed that the limo wasn’t
moving yet. She yelled out again, “I said drive, damn it.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Darell looked out of his penthouse room
window at his image on a billboard, looking at the name of his
movie that was printed above his photo, and then staring at his
name that was printed on the bottom of it. Darell went over to his
bed and picked up the script that he had been studying for awhile.
He brought the script over to the window and looked at its
reflection on the window’s body, staring once again at the
billboard, transfixed on its body as well. Darell looked deeper
into the window and saw Tom’s reflection; he entered the room. Mr.
Fryer said in a happy and excited manner, “Look at this.”

Darell turned around and asked, “Look at
what?” Before Tom replied, he threw Darell a magazine. Darell
looked at the cover of it and saw his photo, questioning, “They
printed it already?”

“Yep, they were just sent out about nine
hours ago,” Tom responded in excitement.

“But this photo was just taken this
morning.”

“No, Darell, this morning’s photo was for
Star Struck magazine, this isn’t that magazine,” Tom announced,
seeing that Darell’s confusion grew.

“What magazine is it then?”

“Well, why don’t you read the cover of it?”
Tom asked in a snotty manner as Darell looked down at the magazine
and saw a whole bunch of blurry words.

“I can’t read it now; I’m too high from the
coke.”

Tom snatched the magazine from out of his
tight grasp, pointing to the photo and saying, “Darell, this isn’t
a photo of you posing. This photo was taken of you at the premiere.
You can even see me a little bit.” Tom then pointed to a dot on the
cover.

“Oh.” Darell walked back over to the window
and began looking at the reflection of Tom again. He stared at him
through the reflection and said, “This script is harder than I
thought it would be.”

Tom looked over Darell’s contract, asking,
“What do you mean, it can’t be that hard, is it?”

“Well, it’s a lot of words, and that means I
have to develop a stronger memory,” Darell answered, taking a sniff
of cocaine with a rolled-up dollar bill.

“Maybe if you lay off of that stuff, you
could remember more things. Like for instance, how much they are
paying you to remember this script,” Tom said in a frivolous
manner, opening up his briefcase and putting the contract in
it.

Darell pointed toward Tom and inquired with
sarcasm, “Hey, who was the one who got me this stuff in the first
place? Besides, I don’t do a lot.”

“Listen, all I know is you better practice
more on that script.” Tom walked into the bathroom and shut the
door, adding, “Alright?”

“I know, I know, don’t keep on reminding me,”
said Darell in a whiny tone, noticing Mr. Fryer’s briefcase was
opened.

“Just keep on going over the lines, one by
one,” Tom spoke from the bathroom as Darell began to open the
briefcase all the way. “Listen, after this movie is complete,
you’ll be getting offers from every single director and casting
agent in Hollywood and New York, even Chicago,” he added with
Darell looking through his files.

Darell paid close attention to the files and
contracts in Tom’s briefcase, looking them over one by one, just to
be meddlesome. He kept on looking, saying, “Yeah, I hope so.”

“You are going to be bigger than any star I
know,” Tom announced as Darell came across his own contract, the
contract that he signed to have Tom as his agent. “You know,
they’ll probably have a stamp with your face on it,” Tom added,
exiting the bathroom and seeing Darell with a diabolic look on his
face, holding a piece of paper that was clenched in his grip.

“What’s this?” asked Darell, beginning to
look at the paper.

Tom realized what the paper was, and began to
become entangled in his nerves. But he couldn’t back down now, he
had to try and keep up this lie longer, so he questioned in a phony
voice, “What are you talking about?”

“What is this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It says here, that this contract is for four
years. I don’t remember agreeing on a four-year contract with you,”
Darell said in anger.

“Listen, Darell, I was going to tell you
about that,” Tom said in a nervous fashion as Darell ripped up the
contract in front of his face, and threw them at Tom. He shouted,
“You’re fired, after this movie is done, you are no longer my
agent.”

Darell took another sniff of his cocaine,
hearing Tom’s words say, “Listen, I could explain.”

“No, I don’t want to hear it from you,”
Darell yelled, exiting the room and entering into the front room of
the penthouse.

“Calm down, Darell, that crap you’ve been
sniffing is making you crazy.”

“I don’t want to hear it, you’re just a loser
agent who doesn’t have anything better to do than order people
around. You listen to me.”

Tom walked up to him and interrupted him from
giving his lecture. He grabbed onto Darell’s arm and turned him
around to face him, shouting with a dictator’s tone, “No, you
listen to me, you little shit. Do you know who I am? Do you?”
Darell felt the fear growing inside of him, and the highness from
the cocaine was beginning to make him ill. “Come here,” Tom
shouted. He pulled Darell’s arm and forcefully guided him to the
picture window in his room. “Look at that, I did that for you,” he
said in an aggravated tone, pointing toward a big billboard with
Darell’s face on it. “I’m Tom Fryer, I am one of the top talent
agents in California and even in the U.S.A. When you talk to me, I
want you to talk to me as if I were God,” he screamed out, letting
go of Darell’s arm and staring at his reflection in the window.

“But...”

“No buts. I made you, I could destroy you.
All I have to do is make a few phone calls and your so-called
career would be finished. You got it?” he roared as Darell looked
away from Tom’s reflection.

Darell sat down on the bed, agreeing, “Yeah,
I got it.”