Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (72 page)

Greg got up from his seat and walked his
young body over to the window of John’s office. He looked out it
and saw Damen and Chuck walking across the street, having the sun
to guide his eyes, his sight, to where they presently were. That’s
when he answered with a smile, “I know, John, I feel that Damen is
going to help bring in a lot of money at the box office. That boy
is going to be a star.”

In the meantime, Damen and Chuck got in the
car. Damen stood by the car door and looked at the building that
held the Bower Agency, gawking at it while Chuck entered his
car.

Chuck started the engine, and noticed Damen
wasn’t in the passenger’s seat. He looked through the passenger
side window, saw Damen’s body, and then rolled down the window on
his own side. “Damen, what are you doing?”

“I’m making a memory.” He then entered the
car and opened up the window on his side. As Chuck started moving,
Damen stuck his head outside of the window and yelled out, “yeah,”
while the wind blew against his golden-brown hair.

He stuck his head back into the car, hearing
Chuck questioning, “So, are you still nervous, or happy?”

“I’m happy, Chuck. I haven’t been this happy
since Sugar Valley.”

Chapter Fifty-Nine

People say that timing means everything.
Some people speak, chant over and over, that if you’re in the right
place at the right time, then you’re pretty lucky. When a starving
artist hears those words, its sharp meaning stabs, punctures at the
very core of their soul, wrenching it, beating their dream over and
over again, and then blowing up into an oblivion, to only have them
fall into depression’s stomach. Some people say those words to
hurt, to fatigue the dreamer’s mind, grasping onto his weak spot,
and echoing that saying over and over again, till the dreamer lets
go of his ambition altogether. Life is that way; people tend to be
jealous of artists, so they say those words, to only see if the
dreamer is strong enough to withstand that remark being made to
them orally. Yet, with Julienne, she didn’t believe in that saying;
instead, ironically, with her evil self, feeling that it was up to
you if you want to make things happen, which was the right way to
go about it. Allowing fate to handle itself its own way, will only
cause a person to accept everything that life gives them, instead
of changing it, and getting what they want; by working for it. But,
Julienne’s belief was beginning to fade when she noticed that her
plan, her closely watched scheme of using Jose for fame, to better
her own career, wasn’t working, wasn’t showing its full effect for
her.

With Julienne, she always thought ahead of
her plans, studies them closely, in a heartbeat, and then follows
through with it, to only have it show success to her mind’s eye.
All she wanted to do was discover him, make him a star, and be by
his side, feeling that was enough to make directors, agents,
producers, and fans recognize her. She knew what she was doing when
she met Jose for the first time, back at the night club, grabbing
onto his lips, and bringing him back to her place; she knew her
reasons. Julienne felt, knew, and realized in her plan, that all of
Hollywood’s engineers would look up to her and say, “Thank you for
bringing us Jose. By the way, would you mind being in my movie?”
Yet, her plan wasn’t working, wasn’t showing itself as fast as she
anticipated, wanted. Julienne was beginning to get sick of him, she
was ready to quit her plan and move on, leave him be, and stalk
another handsome prey, with the same qualities as him. She wanted
to ditch him, seeing that he was showing no help toward her own
career, but instead, having his career moving up the hill, while
hers was still at the bottom. Yet, she was also human too, which
was her weak spot, and for some reason, stuck with Jose, longer
than she has ever stuck to a plan before. It became a mission for
her, a battle that she wanted to win. So, she tossed the quarter up
in the air, and decided that if Jose didn’t better her career soon,
she would leave him be for good. She decided this when they both
walked into the Bower Agency, feeling that if he didn’t better her
career by today, then she would leave him for good, and he would be
nothing but a memory to her, and she would be nothing but a fantasy
to him. With the help of destiny, that all changed, altered its own
fate, as they walked up to the secretary in the Bower Agency, and
the saying, “the right place, at the right time,” came into effect.
Little did she know, this moment would, inevitably, alter all of
their lives and bring fate into hand; a fate that was tormenting to
God and humorous to Satan’s horns.

She watched as Jose walked up to the
secretary, told her his name, and then gawked at this woman, seeing
her smiling at him in a flirtatious way. Seeing this secretary
showing her tongue a lot when she talked, and locking her eyes at
him when she stared, allowed Julienne to feel threatened by this
worker. Julienne gave the woman a dirty look, grabbed onto his
hand, and allowed this secretary to know that she was his
woman.

This is my man.

She chanted those words over and over again
in her mind, feeling jealousy toward this woman, wanting her to
know that Jose was with her, and only her. Julienne felt jealousy
for the first time, but not the normal type of jealousy, not the
normal cliché between a man and a woman. She wanted Jose for as
long as possible, and she knew that if any other woman, for the
time being, catered to his cravings, then she would lose him for
good, and be known to Hollywood as the girl who was dumped by Jose
Rodrigo. So she played it safe, holding onto his hand now, as she
always did, thinking in her mind that she was going to be the one
doing the dumping, if her career doesn’t begin today.

“Mr. Bower, your five o’clock is here,” the
secretary said as she looked at Jose again and smiled. Julienne
kept on staring this woman down, gawking at her every move, gazing
at her every eye twitch.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bower put Damen’s contracts
into his brown file cabinet, and said to the speakerphone, “Oh,
send him in.” John looked over at his office door, and saw it
wasn’t moving, wasn’t opening, so he placed his mouth toward the
speakerphone again, and added with a demanding pitch, “I said, send
him in.”

John then suddenly saw Jose and Julienne
entering into his office, noticing Julienne was looking out of the
office door, still staring at the secretary’s image. But then she
closed the door, turned to John’s image instead, and said, “Hello,
Mr. Bower.” They both noticed other casting agents in the office’s
space, sitting and showing phony grins to their eyes.

“Hello, Julienne, you’re looking lovely this
evening,” he said, kissing her on the hand. “How was England?”

“Oh, it was very nice, we just got back about
two hours ago.” Julienne stared at Jose, watching him sitting down
in a seat and closing his eyes abruptly. Still looking at his tired
body, feeling anger toward him for his unprofessionalism, she
added, “We’re both kind of jet-lagged.”

“I believe it; when I went to England and
came back, I slept for two days straight,” John stated. “Well,
let’s get down to business, shall we?”

Julienne then noticed, before she could
answer him, that the casting agents got up from their seats,
stepped over to the door, and opened it. She was confused, seeing
them leaving John’s office without even breathing a word of their
motive. That’s when she knew what was up, knowing that the star
role was already given to another actor. She realized that there
had to be many more of these agents present at the audition, but
because they left, she already knew the outcome of this situation,
feeling that in her gut that the only role Jose was going to get,
would be anything but the star role.

Julienne then turned away from the office
door, seeing that it closed loudly, and turned toward John, who was
the only casting agent left in the office, which was his to begin
with. The sun shined, scintillated brightly, admitting its
pulsating rays into the office, hovering over Julienne’s face,
making this situation even more uncomfortable than seeing the other
agents leave. But, she still smiled toward John, noticing out of
her peripheral vision that Jose was moving about in his chair,
twitching his eyes open and shut, knowing that Jose was still
involved in the present, feeling that he was well awake to be at
this audition. Julienne then looked at Jose, without answering John
yet, and saw that his eyes were on hers, wide open, gawking at her
every strategic move, showing her that he also was very suspicious
that the other casting agents left without giving a motive to do
so. She suddenly turned away from him, obstructing the sunlight by
turning her eyes away from it, and faced John again, saying, “Of
course.”

“Here’s the situation, Jose. We decided to
give the star role to someone else, besides you. But you can be his
understudy,” John explained, seeing them both gawking at him in
confusion. “The part that you’re going to be trying out for now is
the co-star role.”

“Wait a second, I thought you said Jose’s
going to most definitely get the star role? You said that he had
the look for the part and the talent,” Julienne announced, showing
a form of loudness to her voice. She stared at Jose again, and saw
panic in his pupils, crying out for her to do something, make John
change his mind.

“I know, but we, meaning the other casting
agents, decided on another guy to have the star role. We just
decided today on it.”

Jose still gazed at Julienne’s eyes, begging
her to do something, to change his mind, but he saw that she stayed
silent, just staring back at him, like a helpless dog who was about
to be put to sleep. So, still staring at Julienne, Jose questioned,
“Who did you give that role to?”

“His name is Damen Schultz, he’s a wonderful
actor.”

Flabbergasted, stunned, fatigued by angered
jealousy, rage of astonishing greatness, and friction from his
hands rubbing hard against his chair, Jose couldn’t believe that
name was being heard to his ears again. He couldn’t breathe, his
touch was obstructed, and his sight was numb, feeling the jealousy
hitting him again, rupturing, returning with great speed, allowing
his mind to hate that name, allowing his sight to only see blood
over that name. Rage of grand size ran through his veins, pumping
boiling blood toward his racing heart, beating a million miles an
hour, like a train, going down an endless abyss. Why, he questioned
in his mind, as Julienne grabbed onto his hand, seeing the silence
that he echoed toward her ears, and feeling the warmth that his
hand gave to hers. Through all the brainwashing that she gave to
him, forcing him to believe that Damen was the bad guy, made his
jealousy and envy thicken every time his racing heart beat once.
Suddenly, he lost his voice, something allowed his vocal cords to
seize, die, respite, and retire their normal job of allowing him to
be heard. He couldn’t speak his mind even, wanting to tell John on
how he was upset, so he grasped onto Julienne’s hand tighter,
allowing her fingers to turn blue. But then, somehow, some way, he
was able to speak one word toward John, and said with tremendous
pain to his fatigued voice, “What?”

“Damen Schultz. Why, do you know him?”

Jose couldn’t take it. Getting up from the
chair, he couldn’t take this sitting down. He walked over to the
window, and saw the sun, piercing at his rage-filled eyes, staring
out of it at the Hollywood streets, craving for his fists to hit
the window and shatter it into a million pieces. But he didn’t do
that, instead he just gazed at the sun, feeling its body striking
his pupils with pain, he still gazed at it, knowing that nothing
could be more painful than the jealousy he was feeling at this
moment. He then looked away from the sun, staring out at the skies,
and whispered, “That son of a bitch.”

“Listen, um, do you want to audition now for
the co-star role? Or would you like to do it tomorrow?” John asked,
looking at Jose’s reflection on the window’s body, wondering if he
was angry or not. “Because you seem like you’re tired.”

Jose was desperate for tactics, something to
make John change his mind about having Damen as the lead role. So,
he allowed his jealousy to get the best of him, forgetting about
everything Julienne explained to him about the plan, and suddenly
grinned toward the window. Without facing John, Jose questioned,
“Um, did you know Damen is a drug addict?”

Julienne looked at him in a shocked way, not
wanting Jose to ever say that again, not wanting to go through the
struggle of trying to hide the lie all over again. She already
knew, deep inside of her, that Damen talked to John about that
issue of drugs. You could say she thought ahead a lot, being a step
ahead at every instant, and knowing exactly what was going to
happen next.

John gazed at Jose’s head, seeing his
reflection on the window, feeling suspicious toward his question.
John blinked his eyes once, then again, and asked in a solemn way,
“Where did you hear that from?”

“I saw him doing it.”

Julienne’s eyes widened, seeing John’s mouth,
ready to open and say a word or two to Jose’s answer, she crossed
her fingers and prayed. But, Julienne felt that she had to fix up
Jose’s mess to better her own career. She already knew that John
knew about Damen not doing drugs, and knew that Damen told him it
was a lie. So, if she didn’t fix this mess that Jose caused, then
John would surely know who the rumor-maker was, and at the same
token, Jose would point to Julienne, and blame it all on her. So,
right before John was ready to speak, she cut him off, and spoke in
a loud fashion, with hesitation, “What he means is, he heard it
from someone that said they saw Damen doing it.”

She studied John’s expression, seeing that
his eyes were still blinking, feeling that her lie helped make John
believe that it was true. Jose turned around and stared at John,
watching John still gawking at him. John twirled a pen in his grip,
and explained with seriousness, “Oh, because me and Damen had a
discussion about that issue. I know damn well that Damen doesn’t do
drugs.”