Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (67 page)

“Well, if you want to be up there with Darell
and Jose, then shake my hand.” Chuck held out his hand for him to
shake. “Is it a deal?”

“Alright, it’s a deal.” Damen shook his hand
vigorously. He then gazed out the window of the café, at the
streets of Hollywood, the way the darkened night placed a cruel
blanket over everything in sight. As he stared through it, he
spoke, “By the way, do you have any food here? I’m starving.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

The nerves were growing and the anxiety
built as Jose’s flight came closer to England. The fear of what
Darell would say when he didn’t see Damen, but instead saw him,
went through Jose’s mind every moment he inhaled a breath of air,
or blinked an eye. He wanted to ask Julienne what he should say to
Darell when he saw him, but his pride was too great, too
overpowering. He didn’t want Julienne to see his fears, and
especially his anxiety. The sweat started to build on his face,
trying to figure out what he should do when Darell saw him. He
started to loosen his collar and scratch his head in a speedy
manner; it felt like bugs were crawling on his scalp. Then, he
started to scratch his neck; it felt like little hairs were
touching it lightly. He couldn’t take it anymore, so he turned to
Julienne and asked in stress, “Alright, what should I say to Darell
when we get there?”

“Say hello.” Julienne then snapped her
fingers at the attendant to get her attention, adding to Jose,
“It’s that simple.”

The attendant poured Julienne some champagne
while Jose turned to face the window of the plane, saying, “Come
on, I mean, he’s gonna wonder where the asshole is.”

“Just say that Damen didn’t get the part. Say
that you were chosen over Damen at the last minute,” she replied.
“You know, Jose, why didn’t you ask me this before when we first
got on the plane? It would have given me some time to think about
it. Now we’re going to land in about thirty minutes, and you aren’t
gonna know what to say to him. I thought you had this all figured
out?” Julienne asked, reclining her seat and lying down.

“I thought you had it all taken care of? You
are my agent, and I thought you were supposed to take care of these
sort of things, aren’t you?”

Suddenly, the attendant announced on the
intercom that all of the first-class passengers should fasten their
seatbelts.

Julienne put her seat back up and sat there
trying to think of what she should say to his question. She
fastened her seatbelt, replying, “Listen, don’t worry about it,
I’ll help you figure out something. You can tell him anything you
want, just don’t tell him how you got the part.”

Jose picked up binoculars and looked out of
his window again and saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
“Alright, I hope it works.”

The plane landed in Heathrow Airport at 12:00
p.m. on the dot. Jose and Julienne got off of the plane, retrieved
their luggage, and awaited the arrival of Henry and Dennis Schultz.
They decided to wait next to the men’s bathroom, this way if Henry
and Dennis had to go, they would see Jose and Julienne.

Being that Jose was nervous, and agitated
toward the situation he was going to come into, he sat down on one
of his suitcases and questioned with attitude, “What time did they
say they would get here?”

“Dennis said he would be here right when we
got here. He said he was going to be waiting for us right here with
Henry, next to the bathrooms.”

He spoke, “I don’t think--”

Dennis tapped him on the shoulder, causing
his words to die, and he heard Dennis say with a smile, “Hey, how
was your flight?”

Henry shook Jose’s hand as Jose answered,
“Oh, it was great.”

Without warning, three men, dressed in suits,
with black caps on, grabbed his and Julienne’s suitcases. “And how
was your flight, Julienne?” Dennis asked as Henry shook her
hand.

“It was fine, thank you.”

They began to follow the three men carrying
the luggage toward the exit sign of the airport.

“How’s that Damen guy doing?” Henry
questioned Jose; Julienne bit her tongue.

Jose didn’t know what to say, so he answered
with anxiety, “Oh, well, he’s still doing that stuff.”

“Yeah, I heard; it’s too bad. I’m sorry to
hear about it, I know he’s your good friend,” Henry spoke.

They entered a white stretch limousine. Jose
was the last to get in, but when he did, he closed the door, and
said, “Oh, it’s alright.”

The limo began moving in slow motion, feeling
a bit of vibration from the engine.

“Yeah, I know, Darell will be heartbroken
when he hears the news about him,” mentioned Henry.

Julienne grabbed onto Jose’s hand and began
squeezing it, having Jose inquire, “You mean, Darell doesn’t know
about Damen yet?”

“No, no, we thought it would be best if you
told him yourself,” replied Dennis, seeing Henry agreeing with him
by nodding his head.

Henry spoke, “Yeah, because being it that
you’re one of his good friends, we thought it would be best.”

Julienne formed a plan in her head once
again, asking, “Well, are you sure you want Jose to tell him? I
mean, especially before the movie begins filming?”

“Well, yeah, it’s best we get the bad news
over with first. Why, did you have any other ideas?” asked Dennis
with an interested tone.

Julienne replied, “Well, I thought it would
be best to tell him about Damen after the movie is done and
completed. This way, he won’t be worried and nervous about Damen’s
well-being during the movie’s making. Also, he’ll act much better
in his scenes. I know if I found out that my close friend was doing
drugs, I surely wouldn’t want to act in a movie.”

Jose began to understand why she was doing
this. To Julienne, by them not telling Darell the truth about Damen
right away, it would give her more time to go through with her
plan, the plan of using Jose for fame. You see, she figured if they
told Darell about Damen doing drugs, then Darell would call up
Damen immediately and tell him about it. Then in the process, Damen
would deny it, and pretty soon the lie would come out and Julienne
would be blamed for it. But, to Jose, he figured Julienne was doing
this to give him more time to get famous. Jose knew if this lie
came out before they finished the movie, then his reputation would
be destroyed even before it had been made, and molded into
something of greatness. He wanted to gain a little bit of power out
of Hollywood, so when Darell finally discovered that it was all a
lie about Damen, it wouldn’t matter if he told directors, agents,
and so on about it, because Jose would already be at the top in
Hollywood. But, what Jose didn’t know was she’s doing this for her
own fame, not his.

“You know, you got a point, Julienne,” Henry
said.

Dennis began to smile, questioning, “Alright,
if we’re not going to tell Darell, then what are we going to say to
him when he sees Jose?”

Ring, ring, ring, ring.

The car phone started to ring, showing its
presence by a loud humming noise, evolving into a higher pitch
every time it was heard. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. You guys
figure it out,” Henry replied.

“I know, we could just tell him that we liked
Jose more than Damen. We could lie and say that Jose was much
better for the part,” Dennis said with Jose looking at him in a sad
way.

The anger built up inside Jose’s stomach once
again. The jealousy showed as he asked, “Why don’t we just say the
truth to him? Why not say that Damen’s doing drugs?” Jose paused
for a moment and then added another lie, “And that he hates Darell
because he’s jealous of his fame?”

Julienne squeezed his hand, saying with
force, “I liked Dennis’ idea more.”

Henry hung up the phone when the limo stopped
in its tracks, announcing, “Well, we’re here.”

“Who were you talking to?” Dennis asked.

“Oh, that was Becky; she said they’re already
on the set for us.”

Jose and Julienne exited the limo, with her
questioning, “Who’s Becky?”

“Oh, she’s going to play the part of the girl
that Jose and Darell are going to fight over in the film,”
explained Dennis.

They walked up a green hill, thick as hay,
and saw about twenty trailers parked on it. It looked like a
miniature town to Jose, but to Julienne, it looked like Hollywood.
The scenery was breathtaking, seeing nothing but green pastures
once they reached the top of it, and clouds on top of clouds over
them. A sense of awe and natural illusion came to Jose’s eyes, as
well as Julienne’s.

As Jose walked through the town of trailers,
he came across his own. A man was just beginning to paste his name
over the door that had a miniature star pasted on it. When Jose saw
it, he thought to himself, My God, I’ve made it.

When Jose walked up to his trailer, he saw
Darell on the door’s reflection. He was nervous, Jose was so full
of fright that he didn’t want to turn around, but knew he had to.
So, turning around to face Darell, Jose put on his acting craft,
acted excited, and asked, “What’s up, Darell? How ya doing?”

“What are you doing here? Where’s Damen?”
Darell spoke puzzled, mixed with a bit of suspicion.

Julienne approached him from behind. Before
Jose could answer him, Julienne tapped Darell on the shoulder, he
turned around quickly, and she asked also, “Hello, Darell, how are
you doing?”

Darell couldn’t believe what he was seeing;
the confusion engulfed his thoughts so greatly, that he felt as if
he was about to have a stroke. Suddenly, very abruptly, without
answering their fraudulent questions, Darell asked in a loud
fashion, “What are you doing here? What the hell is going on?”

Julienne smiled and answered very calmly,
“You see, Darell, Dennis and Henry Schultz thought Jose was the
best man for the role. They decided at the last minute, it was a
toss-up between Damen and Jose.”

“So, why didn’t anyone tell me this
before?”

“Because they made their decision at the last
minute,” she replied.

“Oh.” Darell’s one word was spoken very low,
like his confusion still was with him, his gut feeling that
something wasn’t right with this picture. But, he ignored his
instincts, as he always did in the past, allowed their phony excuse
about Damen’s disappearance, absence to be the truth to his mind,
and shook Jose’s hand. “I’m sorry for shouting so loud, it’s just I
thought something happened to Damen.”

“Oh, it’s alright, Darell, I would have done
the same thing if I was in your position,” spoke Jose.

Darell started laughing, turning back into
his own self, announcing, “Well, welcome to England.”

Tom Fryer stood about a hundred feet away
from them, shouting, “Darell, Darell.”

“What?” Darell shouted back, with Jose and
Julienne covering their ears.

“Come on, you have to get into your wardrobe
now.”

“I’ll be right there. Well, I’ll see you guys
in about an hour or so,” Darell stated, shaking Jose’s hand
again.

Darell shook Julienne’s hand as well while
Jose slurred, “Alright, cool.” Darell walked away from them as Jose
added to Julienne, “Boy, that was easy.”

“You see, I told you, there was nothing to
worry about,” she confirmed.

Jose walked into his trailer and looked at it
as if it was a palace. “Wow, this is all mine?” It had everything,
from luxurious vases, furniture, to three bedrooms with king-size
beds.

Julienne sat down on a blue leather couch and
answered, “Well, for the length of the movie it is.”

He laughed, “Man, this trailer is bigger than
my house back home.”

He lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke
toward the ceiling of his trailer, creating circles within the
smoke, trying to hit a small, miniature chandelier that hung from
above. “Don’t worry, Jose, they’ll get bigger.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

“Don’t you think we should wait at least a
week till I try out for an audition? I mean, you just became my
agent yesterday,” Damen spoke, watching Chuck ever so closely,
seeing that he signed his name on the audition sheet.

Chuck didn’t answer; he still kept on filling
out Damen’s information, while Damen stared around this filled
room, having a youth of his own age sitting and practicing some
form of lines.

It was a hot room, like all rooms for actors
auditioning, and had only a box fan to blow the heat around, and
keep off of the actors flesh. Damen smiled at it crazily. Having
seen the same type of fan back when he was doing extra work for the
first time with Vivian, he wondered why these places just didn’t
get central air.

He then turned back to Chuck’s figure,
arrayed in a suit, something Damen had never seen on him before.
Chuck just finished facilitating Damen by filling out the
information, turned to him, and finally replied, “Listen, Damen,
this is for a commercial. You just have to say a few lines to the
casting agents, and that’s it. Damen, if you get this part, it
would look very good on your resume, which, I might add, has only
extra work on it presently.”

They both wandered over to two vacant, black,
dirty seats that were surrounded by other seats, filled by other
actors. Sitting down in them, Damen could feel the warmth from the
seat underneath him, knowing that someone else, with a large
figure, had to have sat there recently.

He could smell some form of stench, odor,
reek coming from the seat, but he didn’t care anymore; to him it
was better than sitting in an alley. He watched as Chuck put his
brown briefcase on his lap, and stared out at the room, watching
every actor in it, like a guard, watchman, seeing if any actor had
a better look than Damen. Chuck smiled abruptly, showing that he
knew Damen was the goods.

Damen then turned to him, feeling the box
fan’s warm air, traveling around his brownish hair, blowing little
strands around in a circle, tangling up and hurting at Damen’s
scalp. He pushed his hand through his hair, very quickly, undid the
tangles, knots, and said, “Chuck, this is a zit commercial, I don’t
think I would like to have it on my resume. I mean, don’t you think
I should try out for an actual role in a movie?”