The Stars Trilogy (5 page)

She only had one sibling. Her brother Jordan, who was older than her by nearly a decade, was training to be a businessman like their father. He was currently in the US doing his post grad studies at an Ivy League university in California. She, on the other hand, was still in high school at a private school in Manila. One day, she would like to direct movies so she could work in their TV network.

“Mom, we’re leaving!” She kissed her mother’s cheek.

“Who’s driving you, girls?” Marjorie asked.

“It’s
Manong
Mando, Auntie Marj,” Shavonne said, pertaining to their driver and bodyguard.

“Alright, be careful and don’t give the poor man a headache.”

Celine smiled at her Mom in assurance.

In less than thirty minutes, they were in Greenbelt. They sprinted toward the cinemas eager to catch the two-thirty screening time,
Manong
Mando right behind them.

Celine’s face fell when she saw the long line in front of the three theaters showing Dare’s movie. Omega was a sci-fi flick with a general patronage rating so there were children, teenagers and adults wanting to get tickets. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg.

They had no choice but to fall in the long, winding line.
Manong
Mando decided to just wait for them at a café near the cinema. It took them thirty minutes to reach the ticket booth.

Finally, they were inside the movie house. The series of trailers was already playing on the wide screen. It gave them time to look for vacant seats. But looking at the mass of people already inside, the theater was already full.

“I don’t think there are any vacant seats left. Let’s just wait for the next screening,” Shavonne said.

“No way! We’re already here, I wanna see it now! I can’t wait for the next screening time.”

“You’re so obsessed with this guy. He doesn’t even know you exist.”

“He knows I exist.”

“He saw you years ago once and that is supposed to make him remember you forever? Get real. He has millions of fans now. He has forgotten about you.”

“One day he will remember me,” she just said and pulled Shavonne’s hand, guiding her up the theater’s carpeted stairs. The movie house was so packed that people were sitting on the steps. They nearly tripped several times, squeezing in between people, trying to find vacant seats.

“Let’s just stay here for now.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Shavonne protested. “You’re not suggesting we sit on the floor, are you?”

“We don’t have a choice. The movie is gonna start soon. Some of those seats will be vacant at one point anyway—”

“Oh my God, you’ve gone truly bonkers over this actor! Girl, take this. One, he is married to the screen goddess and Oscar-winner Alana Christensen. Two, he is a Hollywood superstar who lives in Los Angeles and you’re still in high school here in Manila. Can you do the math or shall I do it for you? Three, what would he do, a Hollywood big shot, with a teenager like you? Does he even know where Manila is? I’m betting not. Four, I think we’re going to stand the whole movie and I have no plan to squat on the floor for the next hour or so in my freakin’ brand new Rock and Republic jeans! We shouldn’t have gotten in knowing it was SRO in the first place!”

“Shhh, lower you voice.” She took out a few folded sheets of bond paper from her sling bag. She’d anticipated this scenario and she came prepared. Dare was very famous in the Philippines and all his movies were certified blockbusters. Filipinos lined up to see him on the wide screen every time.

“We won’t have to squat.” She arranged the sheets of paper on the floor and sat on it. “Come on, it’s not so bad. See? It’s comfy!”

Shavonne looked incensed but sat beside her. “I can’t believe you’re sitting on the floor just to see this movie when we could have waited for the DVD and watched it in your mansion’s home theater! Or I could have just downloaded a copy from the internet for you!

“Cuz, that’s a crime!”

“Huh?”

“Downloading from the internet is illegal. It’s piracy.”

“Duh, and who’s gonna arrest me?”

“I will never watch Dare’s movies from illegal sources. I respect him too much.”

Shavonne snorted. “That’s the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard.”

“Hush, keep quiet.”

Shavonne continued grumbling. “If any of my friends see me now, they’d laugh their asses off! Squatting on the floor for a Dare Montgomery movie, for crying out loud! It’s so tacky! I’d happily sit on wet dirt, but in a U2 concert.”

She ignored her cousin trying to kill her buzz as usual. Shavonne can bitch all she liked but she wasn’t going anywhere. 

The trailer ended. Shavonne finally shut up. Thank God!

Minutes later, she wanted to roll on the floor like a cat being tickled. Her eyes were avidly devouring Dare’s handsomeness she could barely understand the movie’s plot. His hairstyle in this movie was buzz cut. He was portraying an ex-military who found himself essaying the role of an accidental hero as he was forced by circumstances to volunteer to join a team of astronauts aboard a spaceship to fight an invasion threat on earth by aliens that could end the human race. It was action-packed, showing Dare’s tall, lean, muscled body clad in camouflage gear, mercilessly annihilating monstrous-looking creatures to save the world. There was a bit of a love angle in the story and she was envious of Dare’s leading lady who got to kiss Dare a few times.

She sighed. How would it feel to be kissed by him?

When the movie ended and the credits rolled up, she still wouldn’t want to stand up and leave the theater.

“Okay, let’s go,” Shavonne said, already on her feet and dusting her behind.

“Let’s watch it again, cuz.”

“No way! Just rent the video. Come on.”

“Please, please, pretty please?”

“Nope! My back aches from hunching for almost two hours. No way I’m doing that again!”

“We’d be comfy this time. Look, there are vacant seats now!”

“Forget it!”

“I didn’t understand the movie. I wanna watch it again. You know these Americans talk fast,” she alibied. She understood every word, alright. She grew up speaking fluent English in school and at home.

Shavonne looked at her like she’d gone seriously mental. “Which part? I’ll explain it to you.”

Honestly, she didn’t care about the story. She just wanted to stare at Dare. She didn’t get her fill yet.

“Even if you close your eyes you’d be able to understand what’s going on, come on! The plot’s so simple! It’s like a video game!”

She put on a praying gesture. “Please, cuz, please!”

He cousin shook her head in resignation. “Come on, let’s sit over there.”

She hugged her cousin.

Celine felt no less giddy on the second run. Dare was so cute and she missed him and watching his movies was the only way she could feel closer to him. Maybe her fixation with him was unnatural. Maybe she was crazy. He was a Hollywood actor and millions of women around the world idolized him. In fact, most of her classmates were crushing on Dare, too. But she truly felt her feelings for Dare extended way beyond a fan’s affection for her idol. She knew she was more than a fan. She had met him once, when he was not yet an actor.

She really felt so close to him in an indefinable manner. Crazy it may sound but she was dreaming of one day meeting him again and he would miraculously fall in love with her and he would marry her. It would be like a fairy tale love story, a prince finding his long lost love and they would live happily ever after.

Dare’s current marital status didn’t diminish her desire to one day meet him again. But she didn’t talk about this matter to Shav or any of her friends for fear of being admonished for her immoral intentions. Let them all think she was just an infatuated fan. Let them call her crazy and foolish. They didn’t have the Phoenix.

While watching, she was gently touching the Phoenix hanging from her neck. The Phoenix was the symbol of Dare’s love for her. She knew in her heart, they will meet again someday and destiny will decide for them.

God, this is crazy and I’m bad for wishing this. Please, forgive me, but I really love him. I really do. If you will just give him to me one day...I will wait for that...and I promise to love him so much. Please God. Please…I will be so good…I will do everything you want. Everything!

It was just a fantasy, of course, a foolish fantasy of a die-hard fan. She was a bad, bad girl for wishing Dare and Alana to break up. But surely, she was not the only girl on earth who was thinking exactly what she was thinking?

She sighed, her heart full of bittersweet ache and a dream that refused to die.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Dare stared at himself in the mirror.

They said that when a person felt like dying, his life would flash like a movie before his eyes.

It was happening to him. He was replaying his life like a movie flashback, wondering what in hell went wrong when he had planned everything carefully.

It was a joke. A sick joke.

Fate must really hate him.

He was hailed by People Magazine this month as the Sexiest Man Alive following the 800 million-dollar worldwide box-office success of Ground Zero, the second installment of the Jack Logan franchise that he’d starred in. He was indisputably the current king of the box-office and he could now command and demand the kind of movies that he wanted to make.

He’d finally arrived big time, topping the A-list of the biggest names in the movie industry. His agent just declared his talent fee at twenty million dollars per picture, placing him alongside veteran superstars. Yesterday, Olympus Pictures, one of the major production companies in LA, called him for a movie conference with yet another high-budget sci-fi flick. This time, he would be working with visionary director, James Cameron.

He was an angry, jaded twenty-year old when he arrived in LA with nothing to lose. The moment he stepped into the world of the free again, he immediately set his career plans in motion. Languishing in the can for nearly three years with barely controlled aggression nearly killed his sanity. But he’d managed to contain all his demons inside, until he hit the streets again.

Never mind the crushing setback in his career plans, he got right back on track. He had a road map toward his destination and come hell or high water, he would get there or die trying. He had fucked up royally once. He wasn’t about to do so, again.

After attending a two-month acting class with a renowned instructor in LA, he went on a round of auditions, until he landed a small part at a famous sit-com which didn’t stay small, at all. His character was an instant hit and stole the thunder from the lead star of the show. He became a regular cover for teen magazines. He stayed in the show for three seasons and then split. They would have wanted him to stay for as long as the show was running.

TV was just a stepping stone. His main goal was acting on the big screen. In between his sitcom stint, his agent landed him a two-minute part in a Meryl Streep suspense-thriller, portraying a rich widow’s young handsome lover with a sinister personality. It was a small but critically-acclaimed role that put him on the fast track. His roles became meatier in the next two films and then finally, he landed a supporting role opposite Al Pacino in a blockbuster political thriller. His acting was again praised by the critics and he became one of the most famous, young serious actors in America.

In his fourth movie, he was already in the lead. This was kind of prophetic because he had always loved Alan Moore’s comic character, the tormented hero behind a mask named V. He had memorized lines of V while he was a teenager, using them as his script whenever he wanted to practice acting. Little did he know that he would indeed bring V’s character to life on the screen a few years later. He got several acting nominations for that and minor awards. His portrayal of V must have been so effective because V became an icon for rebellious youth and freedom fighters around the world. That movie quickly elevated him to the A-list.

But it wasn’t enough. He wanted a more solid place in Hollywood, a fallback, just in case.

Next on his agenda was to marry Alana Christensen, who’d then divorced from her wealthy producer husband. She was an award-winning drama actress with undeniable clout in Hollywood. Serious directors loved her. She was the muse of filmmakers who wanted to win awards.

She actually proposed to him and he thought, why not? He was the current, biggest box-office draw and she was the queen of awards nights. It was just fitting that they’d come together. In Hollywood, they were a rare and perfect combination despite the fact that he was ten years her junior.

Their fans approved their union. They became one of the most popular celebrity couples in the world. Hollywood hailed their marriage as the beginning of a royalty. A dynasty.

But what really put him in the megastar category was his movie character, Jack Logan. The Navy Seal’s parents brutally died in the hands of terrorists, which turned him into a cold-blooded assassin. Jack Logan became one of the biggest screen heroes of all time. It was in that movie where his moniker Daredevil got attached to his screen name for good as it was the code name of Jack Logan. Little boys and young men would imitate Jack’s swagger, his badass looks and attitude, even the way he talked. That movie made a monstrous killing at the tills and went down in history as one of the highest grossing films of the last two decades.

His star continued to rise even higher over the years. He did a succession of movies that were consistent hits, which made him very wealthy. Ground Zero’s success was just the latest proof of his universal box-office appeal.

Life was velvet smooth and he was ready to take his marriage with Alana to the next level, move on to the future, create a real dynasty.

But he got a call today.

His star seemed to plummet below ground level. He felt like the biggest failure on earth.

He couldn’t stand to look at his image in the mirror. The taunts of his conscience were merciless.

Finally, he turned away from the mirror and went to pick up the phone and dialed an important number.