Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (89 page)

Julienne heard his tone, feeling the vibes
running up her spine, staring at Jose and smiling, not wanting him
to know of Tom’s anger. As she still faced Mr. Rodrigo, she
questioned with a comfortable voice, “Oh, Tom, how are you
doing?”

“Listen to me, you bitch, guess who I’m
looking at right now?” asked Tom in a semi-calm yet aggravated
way.

Julienne started smiling to Jose more,
feeling the urge to not want Jose to get suspicious; so she began
acting again. Julienne giggled, like Tom said a joke or a phrase
that was humorous, and questioned, “How are you doing?”

Tom peered his eyes at the movie stars, short
and tall, glamorous and not so attractive, beginning to walk into
the building of enchantment. He stared at them, lingering down the
red carpet, and paused for a second to see this glorious sight. He
then turned back to his cell phone, and asked with the same type of
fury, but grander, “What do you mean ‘how am I doing?’ Listen to
me, Julienne, I’m outside at the Academy Awards right now, and
guess who I see? If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking,
that answer is ‘yes,’ you stupid, motherfuckin’ bitch, I see Damen
Schultz’s white ass. He just arrived about a minute ago. I thought
you said you were going to take care of him last night, what the
fuck happened?” Tom was angry, vicious, forgetting about all
morals, how to treat a woman, how to talk regular English, instead
of cursing, profanity. He was full of edginess and anxiety as well;
seeing Damen’s suited-up figure standing near the beginning of the
red carpet, he became furious at this sight.

Jose looked suspiciously toward Julienne,
hearing her say with a stupendous smile, “Listen, everything is
taken care of, you silly goose.”

“What do you mean? He’s still alive, and my
ass is on the line. Listen to me, what did you tell Mark to do?
When is he going to finish the job?” Tom whispered, but in loud
fashion. He saw Damen walking past him, giving Tom a sinister ogle,
showing his hatred toward him, chanting his eyes of hate with every
blink they gave toward him. Mr. Fryer turned away and tried to
catch his breath, knowing that his career was on the line if Damen
stayed alive any longer, feeling his own fate being thrown off a
mountain, if Damen’s life wasn’t thrown off first.

Her limousine pulled up to the Oscar
building, getting as close as possible to the cemented curb.
Julienne was still holding the phone, smiling toward Jose, and
replying to Tom with giggles, “Tonight. Everything’s going to be
taken care of tonight, silly. Listen, I got to go now, I’ll see you
in approximately two minutes.”

Click.

The chauffeur stopped, got out of the limo,
and opened up the door to Jose’s side. He didn’t want to get out
yet, watching Julienne hanging up the phone, he questioned with a
straight face, “What’s taken care of? Who was that?”

“Oh, that was Tom Fryer, he wanted to let me
know about the Oscar party that’s taking place tonight,” answered
Julienne. She paused her words, and looked through the door at the
movie stars, seeing the gigantic, golden Oscar statue that stood
nearly twelve feet in height. It was like a whole new world, a
world that Julienne wanted to be a part of again, and was. It was a
brief out of body experience, or like a dream, where your greatest
imaginations of beauty, dances in your eyes, showing itself to you,
making you believe that this is real, when really, every star
that’s out there, either was lent their dress, the same with the
jewelry, or was given them by a famous designer to be shown off. It
was weird, surreal, the way she looked out the door, Julienne
didn’t realize, or else didn’t want to, that all of these stars,
this red carpet that shines its glamour to her, and the cameras
that flashed their lights, trying to make this evening seem like
royalty, when in fact, all it was for was a statue that would be
given to an actor; that’s it. Still, to everyone, as well as to
Jose and Julienne, even if these people were spurious,
counterfeiting their characters by wearing masks of beauty, and
wearing apparel of grandeur and elegance, it still was beautiful to
see, witness, feel, experience, and well worth it. It was an out of
body experience, and it was Jose’s first time, as well as Damen’s,
so this evening was special to them: very special indeed.

Julienne turned to Jose, leaving the doorway
of majesty with her sight, and spoke in a terrific, exhilarated,
yet romantic tone, “Come on, are you ready to show the world ‘Jose
Rodrigo’?”

Jose turned away from Julienne and glanced
out the door at the red carpet, the Oscar statue, movie stars,
movie cameras, and the flashing lights coming from regular people,
as well as professionals. He gave a deep breath, knowing that this
was his dream, no longer a mirage or hallucination, but finally
seeing its reality, inescapably getting a chance at prevailing that
statue of mused dreams and aspirations, and answered with a subtle
yet sure way, “Julienne, I was born ready.”

Chapter Seventy-Four

He still continued down the red carpet,
seeing fans on opposite sides of him, being separated by a red
velvet rope that stretched all the way toward the building of
delight. He made sure to slow his steps, seeing movie stars around
him, movie cameras that hid in the near distance, Damen Schultz
wanted to remember this moment of seeing the reality of his dreams,
traveling from imagination, to a true, plausible experience that he
was apprehending now. Through this tense but excited moment,
feeling the cameras of journalist’s behind his back, and hearing
the loud screams of fans that were chanting his name, Damen
abruptly saw the image of Sugar Valley in his mind’s eye. The
feeling to him was like a bird finally realizing it had wings and
then using them to fly; the only thing is, the bird has to fly
alone. That’s what was in Damen’s understanding, thinking of Jose
and Darell, on how they were supposed to share and divide this
moment with him, being his best-friends, but losing their place
beside him, for different, terrible reasons that life arrayed for
them. Damen still lingered down the red carpet with John Smitherson
and Chuck by his side, not hearing a word, except for the sound of
birds chirping that he used to hear in the Valley. This was true
reality, and it was too much for him, so he closed his eyes for a
moment, and took a deep breath, exhaling at the same time as
opening his eyes again, feeling a little bit better.

Damen Schultz had a feeling of proudness to
him, pride that was realized through struggling, and watching his
friends become enemies, but still surviving it all, and still
holding in the strength to move on. Nevertheless, little did he or
Jose know, that the fate of their destinies, changing after
tonight, lay in the rafters of the Majestic building, where dreams
were going to come true, and nightmares would show their
authenticity.

Damen turned, for a moment, to face what was
behind him, and saw Julienne and Jose stepping gracefully out of a
black limousine. Damen turned back to Chuck, pointing his finger
toward Jose, and speaking, “There’s Jose.”

John Smitherson overheard Damen’s assertion
and turned to see Jose as well, questioning, “Is that the guy you
were telling me about in the limo?”

Damen didn’t answer him yet; it was as if he
had to cool down his nerves, and anger after seeing Jose’s
silhouette and face. He felt sick to his stomach, his anger was so
high, that it was causing vomit to rise, but he kept it down. Then,
with Damen still observing Jose and Julienne, he responded with an
attitude, “Yeah, that’s the one, John.”

John took Damen’s head, gently, and turned it
around to face opposite of Jose. Damen was confused, but then he
seen John smiling, and heard him speak in frankness and honesty,
“Don’t let him spoil your night, Damen. Come on, let’s show these
people that we’re real celebrities. Stand up straight and
smile.”

Chuck laughed toward John, chuckling, “Oh, is
that the secret to being a movie star? Standing up straight and
smiling?”

John and Damen started to giggle as well,
living in this moment of humor, and enjoying it while it lasted.
Damen laughed even harder toward John’s laughter of loudness, and
then stopped in an instant, halting his cackle and saying, “Wait a
second, I don’t see Darell around anywhere.”

“He’s here,” whispered Chuck.

Damen looked around the crowd of people, in
search for Darell’s face, shadow, silhouette, or even scent, and
couldn’t find either of them. He turned back to Chuck, inquiring,
“How do you know?”

“Because, I saw him when we first got here. I
saw him with Tom Fryer.”

“Well, I saw Tom as well, but I didn’t see
Darell anywhere.”

Before Damen could go on conversing, a
photographer came up to him, pushy as ever, and interrogated with
velocity to his tongue, “Excuse me, Mr. Schultz, would you mind if
I took a picture of you, Jose Rodrigo and Darell O’Conner
together?” The photographer saw Damen thinking, showing bafflement
to his query, and then noticed Darell O’Conner coming up to Damen,
and standing directly behind him, out of Mr. Schultz’s sight. The
photographer smiled, and waited for Damen to answer his question,
not wanting to tell him that Darell was behind him, craving to see
the look on his face after he sees Darell’s face by surprise;
photographers live for these types of moments.

Damen Schultz still was bewildered toward
this misconstrued query, responding with a subtle grin, “I don’t
think so. Besides, I don’t know where they are. I don’t think
Darell came tonight anyway.” The photographer automatically grabbed
Darell’s arm, and put him on the left side of Mr. Schultz. Seeing
Darell’s upset image, and then seeing him turn away from him, Damen
spoke with no enthusiasm whatsoever, “Oh, um, hey, Darell.” Darell
still glanced in the other direction, not wanting to see Damen’s
face ever again, and having Damen feeling uncomfortable at his
presence as well. The photographer then saw Jose, grabbed him, and
put him on the other side of Damen, creating a small traffic jam in
the middle of the red carpet, wanting to take this picture that
would be worth a priceless number. The guys didn’t look at each
other one bit, all feeling uncomfortable to be around each other,
and all having their own reasons for it.

“Alright, now, how does it feel to be good
friends and at the same time become movie stars?” the photographer
asked.

Darell gawked at the camera, ordering, “Just
take the frickin’ picture already.”

Flash, Flash, Flash.

He took their photographs all together,
faster than the speed of the light that shot toward the three boys,
desiring to capture this moment in time, yearning to have this
photograph of them together. Once he was done, he ran off, and so
did Darell, darting away from Jose and Damen, heading back toward
his limousine. While Darell entered his limo, Damen and Jose turned
to look at each other. They were speechless, mute to each other’s
presence, not wanting to say anything, due to the vexation,
bitterness, and rancorous resentment they both felt for one
another. Yet, this was the moment of truth, the precise reality
that they dreamed of. Maybe it didn’t turn out like they wanted,
having their friendships still strong as ever, but still, it was
the moment for their angers to show for one another; with calm
momentum, instead of childish fury. They just watched, like two
boxers, standing in a ring, like two swordsman ready to fight for
their honor, their character, their endurance, and their image.
That’s when Jose moved closer to Damen’s eyes, saying with menace,
“Don’t think you’re gonna leave here with that Oscar. It belongs to
me and only me.”

“Well, we’ll just have to see. Besides, I’m
gonna leave here with it, whether you like it or not.”

Damen’s words struck a grand nerve in Jose’s
body, feeling its multitude, like that of thunder, or lightning
striking his head with all of its intriguing force. Jose went up to
Mr. Schultz’s right ear, and spoke, “Over my dead body. See you
later, want-ta-be-actor.” Jose walked away from him, and headed
toward the building’s entrance, leaving Damen standing alone,
craving to punch Jose or harm him for his own pleasure.

Chuck and John, who watched from a distance,
went up to Damen. “What did he say to you??”

Damen still gawked at Jose’s head, watching
him entering the building. As he stared, Damen responded with a
smile, “It’s not important. Right now, I feel like going in that
building and taking that Oscar away from here.”

“That sounds like a plan,” said Chuck. They
entered into the building, the structure that was a symbol of hope
and dreams to Damen; the edifice that brought Sugar Valley to his
thoughts once more; and the place where his life would be altered
forever, and unremittingly.

Chapter Seventy-Five

The ceremony was getting ready to begin,
hearing vivid sounds to their ears and mind, creating dreams that
were buried deep in their bottomless subconsciousness’ that would
be of grandeur, glamour, and elegance. Mark and Curtis were still
sleeping, snoring away, filled with dust and dirt from the rafters
that became their bed, but yet comfortable for some reason or
another. Mark woke up to the sound of people talking, laughing, and
saw the lights, on the rafters, illuminate brightly, shooting
straight toward the stage, without anyone to manage them, or even
to guide their ray’s. The heat allowed Mark’s clothes to feel warm,
with the little dust mites biting at his flesh, and tormenting his
imagination of what they must look like, knowing that their little
ugly bugs were baking at this temperature. He tapped Curtis on the
head, knowing that there must be people, many people below of elite
characters, but was too afraid to look yet. Curtis still wasn’t
responding to his tap, so he punched him in the arm, hard, and he
awoke finally, looking at him in a state of confusion. Mark showed
fear to his face, speaking with fright, “Oh shit, we
overslept.”