Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (73 page)

The envy and jealous feeling caused Jose to
lose his cool, to not think before he says, and spoke with a large
attitude, “How do you know?”

“Because Damen did not look like he was a
drug addict. Usually there are signs that drug addicts give, like a
pale face or even bloodshot eyes. Damen didn’t have any of those
symptoms, or signs that would consider him a user of narcotics,” he
answered, pulling out the contract and script for the co-star role,
and slapping them down on his desk. He attempted to let Jose know
that he wanted to do business at this point, by forcing the
contract and screenplay hard on the desk, showing him that the
conversation on the Damen subject was over with.

Julienne noticed John’s polite way of letting
them know that he was sick and tired of this conversation, and he
just wanted to do his job. So, she turned to Jose, seeing him still
standing by the window, and whispered, “Jose, please sit down.”

“Now, are you still interested in the co-star
role?” John asked.

Jose sat down gently, still gazing at
Julienne’s eyes, and showing silence toward the room. So, she
turned to Mr. Bower and answered, “Yes, he is.”

Jose went through the audition process with
flying colors. He then began signing the contract that would allow
him to receive the co-star role in his grip. After he finished
signing all the contracts, he asked, “So, this means that I still
have a chance for the star role, that is, if Damen backs out of
it?”

John got up from his warm seat, and
explained, “Um, yeah, that’s correct. You’re his understudy, and
you have the co-star role as well. If you read the contract, you’ll
know how much we’ll be paying you. And that’s about it.”

He escorted them to the door, opening it and
allowing them both to exit his office. Julienne then stopped,
turned around to face John, seeing him still standing in between
his office doorway, and spoke, “Thank you so much, John, you’ve
been very kind.” John’s eyes started to widen, looking at Julienne
with a strange glare, grinning in a roving way. She noticed this
change in appearance, seeing the awkward expression he was giving
her. “What’s wrong?”

“Julienne, could you say that one more
time?”

Jose formed confusion on his fatigued face,
hearing Julienne ask, “Say what?”

“‘Thank you so much, John, you’ve been very
kind,’ say that again,” John replied.

She was flustered, overwhelmed with
confusion, disarrayed, and Jose was already far ahead of her in a
labyrinth of mind-boggling puzzlement. Jose turned to the
secretary, saw her smile toward him again, and also noticed
confusion on her face as well. Jose then swiveled back to Julienne,
and heard her question, “Thank you so much, John, you’ve been very
kind?”

“That’s it. Julienne, would you mind sitting
down for a few minutes? Jose, you could wait outside,” said John.
He grabbed Julienne’s hand and pulled her gently into his office,
slamming the door in Jose’s face.

As Jose waited in the waiting room, he saw
two actresses walk in, young, beautiful girls, full of energy. They
walked up to the secretary, and one of the girls said, “Hello,
we’re here to see Mr. Bower. It’s for the audition.”

The secretary called Mr. Bower’s office,
smiling toward the girls and saying into the phone, “Excuse me, Mr.
Bower, but I have two women outside that are here for the
audition.”

John went over to his speaker phone, watching
Julienne as she signed a contract, and spoke toward the speaker
part, “Oh, tell them that the position has been filled.”

After an hour passed, the door to John’s
office finally opened and out came Julienne with a happy look on
her face. Mr. Bower kissed her on the hand as she spoke, “Thank you
so much, John.”

He handed her two scripts, saying at the same
time, “So I’ll get in touch with the both of you, probably within
this week.”

John closed his office door, and Jose and
Julienne started walking toward the entrance of the office area.
Before they left the waiting room, Julienne turned to the secretary
and smiled away, showing Jose confusion. He caught on to Julienne’s
jealousy before, knowing that she was jealous of the secretary’s
flirtatious smile. But the thing is, he was right about the
jealousy, he was wrong about what type of jealousy it was.
Nevertheless, he noticed that she didn’t show any type of
resentment or grudge toward the secretary now, which allowed him to
be suspicious of her actions. So, he asked, “What happened?”

She handed him a script, and answered, “Well,
Jose, it seems like I have a co-star role also. I’m going to be
playing the part of Damen’s girlfriend.”

They both exited the waiting room as the rage
and anger reinstated to Jose’s mind, hearing that name all over
again, striking his nerve with all of its might. “What?” he asked
with anger.

They both exited the building as she
explained, “Yeah, John gave me a co-star role.”

They entered into her limo, seeing the
chauffeur opening the door for them and then closing it lightly.
Jose beseeched, pleaded, like a little toddler, “Listen, Julienne,
I have got to have the star role in this film. I can’t let that ass
steal it away from me.”

Julienne was obtaining aggravation against
her will, relinquishment was what she felt, saying with attitude,
“Jose, grow up, at least it’s a part.” He looked at her with shock,
wondering what was the cause of this drastic change in her
character, remembering that she was the one who made him turn on
Damen, and the one who wanted him to get this lead role. Julienne’s
plan was beginning to work, the plan for regaining, recapturing her
fame again, bringing the success back to her again, and receiving
the likelihood at having greater royalty in Hollywood. She really,
categorically speaking, didn’t care what Jose said anymore,
Julienne felt like she really didn’t need him. Julienne was ready
to tell the chauffeur to pull over and kick Jose out of the limo.
She almost said that, but Jose stopped her when he said his next
words.

“Listen, Julienne, I want that part, and I am
not acting like a child. All I’m going to do is approach Damen
tomorrow and tell him that you took a lot of pictures of Darell
having sex with an underage girl. Then, I’m gonna tell him, if he
doesn’t back down from this movie, you’re going to give those
photos to the media and police. After that, I’m gonna kick Damen’s
ass for spreading rumors about me doing drugs. Finally, I’m gonna
kick Damen’s ass again, but even harder, for messing around with
you,” Jose yelled out in a speedy and crazy fashion.

Julienne turned to him fast, cracking her
neck in the process, and knew that she had to still help him out.
She spoke with nervousness, “Alright, listen to me, Jose. I’ll help
you with this situation. But, we’re going to handle it my way.” She
knew that if Jose said anything or did anything to Damen, then all
the lies that she worked so hard to keep hidden would be found, and
they all would point directly to her.

“No, we’re doing it my way,” he yelled.

Julienne knew that she would have enough
power, stamina, force beyond her belief, and fame after this movie
that it wouldn’t even matter if her lies came out. She would just
deny it and everyone would believe her because she regained the
power again. Julienne felt and knew inside that she needed Jose
still. At that point in time, she felt that the longer she had him
in her grasp, the more fame she would receive. So, she couldn’t
allow him to follow through with his plan. She had to think up of a
plan where Jose would be happy and Julienne would be out of harm’s
way of her prevarications and lies being revealed.

“Listen to me, Jose,” He turned and looked at
her, paying close attention to her words. “First, hear my plan and
then decide if you still want to do it your way.”

“Okay, fine, go right ahead.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled,
explaining, “Alright, when I first began in this business, I went
through the same situation. What happened was, my friend and I
auditioned for the same role, it was a star role in a motion
picture. Well, she got the part, and I became her understudy. You
see, one week before the movie began filming, I took her on
vacation to New York to visit her boyfriend. Well, one day before
we were ready to go home, I made her boyfriend kiss me and actually
have, well, sex with me. She came in and caught us having sex, so
she began hitting him. While they were fighting, I took her purse
and plane ticket with me and I came back to California. By the time
she was able to find some money to come back also, she was too
late, the movie had already began and I got the star role.”

He formed a diabolic, satanic grin on his
face, asking, “Why didn’t you just take her to New York and leave
her there? Why did you have to make her and her boyfriend
fight?”

“Because, I had to create a diversion so I
would be able to sneak away and come back here. By the time she
realized that she didn’t have a plane ticket or money, it was too
late. Plus, I hated her, so the boyfriend thing was partially for
my amusement,” she explained, abruptly revealing an evil grin.

“You think it would work?”

She glanced out the window, and saw the
buildings going by fast as the limo built up momentum, thrust to
its body. She then lit a cigarette, thought for a few seconds about
it, and answered, “Yes, yes, I do. Remember I said we would be able
to use the incident, of him kissing me, to our advantage?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, here’s how we use it.” Julienne
inaugurate, started to explain the final plan, conception, and the
scheme that would be the final lie of all. This would permit her to
have it all, to have Jose’s figure, catering to her own success,
and to have all the lies that were ever told by her, being
concealed forever; at least that’s what she assumed. After she
explained the plan to him, she lit up another cigarette and said,
“So, to make this plan short and simple, mainly one week before the
filming begins, we all take a trip to New York. Then, you find a
way to make Vivian kiss you, and I’ll find a way to make Damen
catch you two kissing. After that, you and I go back to Hollywood,
and leave him there, without a plane ticket or money. Finally, we
go to John and tell him that we haven’t seen Damen anywhere. By the
time Damen Schultz comes back, it will be too late for him to get
the star role. So, you’ll have the star role and your understudy,
whoever that is, will take your role, and everyone’s happy.”

He grinned toward her, and questioned, “Is
that a gift or something?”

“What do you mean?”

“The way you come up with plans so quickly.
Is that a gift?”

She smiled toward him, took a drag of her
cigarette once, and answered, “No, it’s a talent.”

He kissed her nose, massaged her face with
his delicate hands, and spoke, “Julienne, I’d like to thank you and
your talent for doing all this for me. I don’t know any other
girlfriend that would go through this much trouble to help her
boyfriend out. You’re one in a million.”

My God, this boy is a pain in my ass.

Those were her thoughts as she stared at him
and smiled. Yet, when it came out orally, it changed to, “What can
I say, I love helping others.”

They entered the steel gates to her mansion,
having the limo driving up to her staircase, parking its luxurious
body right next to the first stair. Julienne said, “By the way,
start memorizing the lead character’s lines as soon as we get in
the house.”

They both exited the limo, with Jose stepping
on a bunch of her flowers that she had growing next to her
staircase. He lifted up his feet, seeing the withered and bent
stems, but didn’t bother telling her what he did. Instead he spoke,
“But I haven’t even began memorizing my character’s lines.”

She meandered up her grand staircase with a
brief pause, stopped in the middle of it. Feeling the warm,
California breeze, zephyr, draft grabbing at her flesh, blowing
around her small, minute facial hairs, tickling her face with its
dance of enchanting delight, she gave out a small grin to Jose’s
eyes. Julienne strolled back down the stairs, and came up to his
face, features of unparalleled elegance and glamour. Touching it
with her hands, she started caressing his flesh, rubbing and
following his face, his neck, all the way down to his chest in a
flirtatious style. She smiled toward him, kissed him once with her
devilish lips, showing him her black-widow type character, and
spoke, “So what, it doesn’t matter anymore. Just concentrate on the
star role dialogues, baby.”

Chapter Sixty

Ecstatic, happy that he finally had a chance
to show his acting ability to all of Hollywood, Damen didn’t want
to screw it up, believing that he was destined to have this, he
didn’t want anything to cause a break in his fate. So he prepared,
rehearsed, and practiced remembering the script, going over it a
numerous amount of times, doing this exercise only in his room. You
can say his room was like Sugar Valley to him; he felt safe in it,
content, out of evil’s grasp, having only him in its body, without
any interruptions, without anyone to baffle his dream, and cause
him to make a mistake in his pursuit for making the script perfect
in his mind. Rehearsing it over and over again, in his head, and
verbally, Damen knew deep inside of his soul that he finally was on
the right road to making his ambition real to the eyes of
Hollywood. Almost one week went by since he got the role, and Damen
was almost done memorizing his script.

One day, while he was lying down in his bed
and practicing the script, going over his lines, repetition, Chuck
walked in his room and asked, “How are you doing with it?”

Damen turned his head toward Chuck, confused
as to why he was interrupting him, breaking into his concentration,
allowing Damen to escape from his work. Yet, Damen didn’t show his
anger, or puzzlement; instead he just smiled and replied with a
grin, “I’m doing alright, I’m almost done remembering it. It’s been
a week so far and I have it almost all memorized.”