American Star

by Jackie Collins

  "I'm not after anyone's job," Lauren said. "I'm perfectly happy doing

  what I'm doing."

  He stared at her from behind his John Lennon specs. "Yes?"

  "Yes," she replied defiantly, preparing to take off.

  "Oh, shit!" he exclaimed.

  "What?"

  "Take a look at them now."

  She glanced over at Selina, Nature and Emerson in time to observe

  Selina slowly and deliberately pour a full glass of champagne over

  Emerson's head.

  "Leave em to it," Jimmy said, putting a restraining hand on her arm

  just in case she was about to take care of that problem too.

  "They'll work it out between em.

  Emerson Burn was now on his feet, stoned and swaying, champagne

  dripping down his face. "Yer stupid bleedin' cow," he shouted.

  "You've ruined me bleedin'" "Yeah," Nature joined in. "Look what

  you've done."

  "Stay out of it, bimbo," yelled Selina.

  "What'd you call me?" Nature yelled back.

  And before anyone could stop them they were at each other like a couple

  of wildcats, tearing at hair, clothing, earrings-anything they could

  get their hands on.

  Emerson prevented anyone from getting near them. "Let em at it," he

  shouted happily. "This is the best part of the bleedin' party."

  "Come on," said Jimmy, taking Lauren's arm. "I'm escorting you out of

  here."

  Before she could argue he steered her to the door and they slipped away

  into the night.

  yndra stormed around her apartment raging in disbelief. "Someone's

  been in here. I don't believe it! Look, Reece, look, there's

  cigarette butts in the ashtrays and a burn hole on the arm of the

  couch."

  "Even better," Reece shouted from the bedroom, where he was

  investigating further. "Instead of taking our stuff they've left a bag

  here."

  "What?" she said, marching into the bedroom to see what he was talking

  about. Sure enough, there was somebody's bag full of clothes.

  She began searching through it.

  "I don't understand," Reece said, scratching his chin.

  "I do," Cyndra said, pulling out a pair of worn jeans. "This is Nick's

  stufE" "Who's Nick?"

  "I told you about him-he's my brother."

  Screw it! Reece thought. Relatives! That's all I need. "How'd he

  get in? An' where is he?" Reece demanded.

  "Knowing Nick, he broke in. Is there a note or something?"

  "That's a helluva thing, breakin' into a person's apartment," Reece

  grumbled.

  "Oh, like you wouldn't."

  The second night of working for Glamour Limousines Nick landed the

  airport run again. This time his passenger was an anorexic woman

  producer with cropped hair and a bad temper. Julia something or

  other.

  She sat in the back of his limo snorting coke and talking nonstop on a

  portable phone.

  When they reached Bel Air he got lost in the winding hills and she

  screamed at him, calling him a dumb fuck and a stupid prick. He almost

  stopped the car and threw her out, but wisdom prevailed.

  When they reached her house she changed moods and invited him in.

  "What for?" he asked.

  She had desperate eyes and bad breath. "A fuck."

  "Sorry-got another job."

  Sweet revenge. Not that he'd have fucked her even with somebody else's

  dick.

  So far he was not having a wonderful time in L.A. That night he stayed

  at the motel again, and in the morning he called Cyndra.

  "Nick!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I've been waiting for your call, I

  knew you were here. I went through your bag and unpacked it.

  Naturally I had to wash all your clothes, you filthy hog. Nothing's

  changed, huh?"

  "Where've you been?" he demanded. "I came all this way and you

  weren't even home."

  "Where are you?"

  "In some crappy motel on Hollywood Boulevard."

  "Get over here fast! You'll stay with me and Reece. Hurry up, I'll

  make you breakfast."

  "Since when do you cook?"

  "This is California. I take it from the freezer, put it in the toaster

  and call it waffles. You'll love my cooking!"

  He made it over to her apartment as fast as possible, parking his car

  on the street.

  She greeted him at the door, almost jumping up and down with

  excitement. Throwing her arms around him she hugged him tightly and

  dragged him inside.

  "It was you, wasn't it? You broke into my apartment."

  He grinned. "What else could I do? You weren't around, so I spent the

  night here, an' when I came back the next day the super wouldn't let me

  in."

  Cyndra giggled. "Don't mess with Rasta. He's a wild man."

  They went into the tiny kitchen, where she poured him coffee and

  toasted her famous frozen waffles.

  "So where were you?" he asked again.

  "Guess," she said, grinning happily.

  He hated playing games. "I can't guess."

  She took a deep breath. "I got married."

  "How long is it since you've seen this brother He chewed on his lip.

  of yours?"

  "Going on four years.

  Reece's imagination began running wild. Cyndra, his little darkie

  beauty, probably had a brother who was over six feet tall and black as

  his patent-leather shoes. What's more, it was likely that he'd want to

  beat the shit out of him. "You gotta be careful of relatives," he

  cautioned.

  She turned on him angrily. "Nick's my brother. I love him."

  "Well," Reece said, hoping the brother would not put in a return

  appearance, "there's nothing we can do about it. I'll store his bag in

  the closet and we'll see if he contacts you. One thing, honey. If he

  does-I've had experience-don't get too cozy with relatives, cause they

  come to stay and then you can never get rid of em."

  "Thanks, I'll take your advice," she said sarcastically. "I'll throw

  my own brother out on the street and hope he doesn't bug me again."

  If they'd been married longer Reece might have smacked her, he didn't

  appreciate sassy women. But he knew that the moment you hit a woman

  you had to have her in a position where she couldn't leave, and since

  they'd only just gotten married, she might take off on him, and then

  where would he be, what with the money he'd laid out on singing

  lessons, clothes and all the rest.

  "I'm going to a meeting," he said, adjusting the tilt of his Stetson.

  She didn't reply. She was too busy thinking about where Nick might

  be.

  Oh, great. "You did?"

  "Yes-me and Reece got married in Las Vegas." She looked at him with a

  half-guilty, half-delighted expression-seeking his approval.

  "Oh, Nick, I hope you like him. He's helping me with my career-he

  really cares about me."

  "Good. Cause if he didn't I'd have to kill him," Nick said, making it

  sound like a joke.

  "He does. You'll see. I mean, when you first meet him you might think

  he's a tiny bit older than me and, y'know, like maybe his cowboy

  clothes are kinda silly, but he's gonna help me make it big."

  "If you say so.

  Her marriage had taken him by surprise. He'd imagined them sharing
an

  apartment and hanging out together just like Chicago. Now she had a

  husband and there was no way he could stay.

  He tried to find out more. "What does this character do?"

  "Personal manager," she said proudly.

  "Who does he manage?"

  "Who do you think? Me, of course!"

  Ofeourse. "So how does he make money?"

  She waved her hands vaguely in the air. "I don't know, he has an

  office he goes to. We don't discuss money. He always has enough."

  Sometimes his sister was extremely naive-how could she not know what

  her husband did?

  "You'll stay here," she said. "The couch turns into a bed-you'll be

  very comfortable."

  It was different now. He was certainly glad to see her, but he didn't

  plan on moving in. "No, it won't work out-not with you bein' newly

  married an' all."

  She couldn't hide her disappointment. "You've got to stay here,

  Nick."

  How could he resist her big brown eyes? "Maybe just for tonight, but

  then I'll find my own place."

  "You can listen to my tapes," she said proudly. "They're

  professional.

  I'm a real singer now."

  "Yeah?" He remembered her singing debut at Q.J."s-a total disaster.

  "I've been taking lessons," she said. "Reece has a record company

  interested in cutting a demo with me. And when we were in Vegas I met

  a couple of the talent bookers at the big hotels, and they might hire

  me to sing in one of the lounges."

  "Sounds great."

  "And it's all because of Reece."

  "I'm glad you're happy."

  "So what made you come to L.A.? I thought everything was going so well

  in Chicago."

  Yeah. Going so well-all the way to nowhere.

  "I finally decided I hadda give acting a shot. You know it's what I've

  always wanted to do."

  "This is the right place. Maybe Reece can be your manager too."

  Sure. Bring him in on a family package.

  When Reece arrived home he and Nick sized each other up, circling

  warily.

  Nick thought Reece looked like a dumb asshole with his fringed suede

  jacket, stupid cowboy hat and droopy mustache. Not good enough for

  Cyndra by a long way. And too old.

  Reece was relieved to discover that Nick was white. All day long his

  imagination had been running riot-Cyndra's brother had been getting

  bigger and blacker as the day progressed. Now here was this skinny

  white kid, and he didn't feel threatened at all.

  "What do you do, Nick?" he asked, going for the friendly brotherin-law

  approach.

  "I was running a bar in Chicago, but I came out here to get into

  acting."

  Reece couldn't help himselœ "Yeah-you and every other schmuck in

  town."

  "Excuse me?" Nick said, holding his temper in check because he didn't

  want to upset his sister.

  "Oh . . . no offense. I mean kids come to Hollywood all the time

  tryin' to make it. Everyone wants to be a star."

  "Oh, I'll make it," Nick said confidently.

  "That's nice," Reece replied. "Y'see, with me behind her, your

  sister's gonna be a big star."

  "Is that why you married her?" he asked, hitting pay dirt.

  Reece glared at him. "I married her cause I love her."

  "That's nice," Nick replied, giving him a long hard stare. "Because if

  anyone ever hurts my sister, they're dead."

  Reece couldn't wait to corner Cyndra in the kitchen. "How long is he

  gonna stay?" he asked agitatedly.

  "Only for the night," she said, not catching his concern. "I'm trying

  to persuade him to hang around longer. Why don't you talk to him?"

  "Sure," he said, although he had no intention of doing so. The sooner

  the brother was out of their way the better.

  The next morning Nick sat at the kitchen table studying the newspaper,

  circling apartment possibilities. "I'd like to get a place at the

  beach," he said.

  "That's easy," Cyndra replied. "I've heard the rent is lower in

  Venice. We could look around later today."

  "Good idea," he said, folding the newspaper.

  Later, when they were driving along Santa Monica he asked her if she

  ever heard from Joey.

  She brushed back her long black hair. "I wish I did. I wrote him

  several times, he never bothered to reply. The last time I called,

  someone said he'd moved and left no forwarding address."

  "Sounds like Joey."

  She nodded wistfully. "Sometimes I miss him. We shared so much

  together."

  Nick felt the same way. "Yeah, we did, didn't we?" he said, thinking

  of the good old days when the three of them had faced the world

  alone-hitching rides, sleeping on park benches, sharing a motel room.

  The first apartment they looked at was a rathole with broken windows,

  stained carpets and barely hidden roach motels. As soon as they got

  outside, Cyndra said, "Ugh, if that's the kind of places available I

  still say you should stay with us. Reece wouldn't mind. He likes

  you.

  Sure, Nick thought. Like a rat loves a cobra.

  "Will you think about it? Please?"

  He promised he would, but of course he wouldn't. One night with Reece

  Webster was one night too many.

  The second apartment they saw was better. Unfortunately the rent was

  too high, so they moved on. The next three were hopeless. On their

  sixth try they found a pleasant if somewhat rundown house on the beach

  in Venice divided into one-room apartments.

  The landlady-a slovenly woman in a grubby orange robe and fluffy

  bedroom slippers-showed them a front-room apartment overlooking the

  beach. It was a large, sunny room with a small kitchenette.

  "No bathroom?" Nick asked.

  "You share with the other apartment in front," the landlady said, a

  cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth.

  "I dunno-" "The tenant is never there-she travels all the time, so you

  more or less got it all to yourself."

  He looked at Cyndra. "What d'you think?"

  "It certainly beats anything else we've seen."

  "You superstitious?" the landlady asked, picking tobacco from her

  teeth.

  Nick noticed a hole in one of her slippers. "Why?" he asked, trying

  not to stare.

  "Cause a guy died in here last week. Hung himself." She hoisted an

  escaping bra strap. "I'm up-front about it-don't wanna fool you.

  If you're into that karma thing, you may not wanna live here."

  He shook his head. "Karma thing? Shit, the rent is right an' it's on

  the beach-I'll take it."

  Cyndra squeezed his hand. "Reece and I will help you fix it up. If we

  all come here next weekend with a bucketful of paint we can make it

  look terrific."

  "You got yourself a job. And you," he said, turning to the landlady,

  "got yourself a tenant."

  After leaving a deposit he drove Cyndra back to Hollywood. She talked

  all the way about old times and the future and her career.

  Finally she just threw it into the conversation. "Did you ever hear

  from Lauren? Remember-that girl you liked in high school?"

  As if he was going to forget. Was she crazy? He would never forget

/>   Lauren.

  "Nope. I guess she dumped me," he replied, making it sound casual. "I

  wrote her a lot-she never replied."

  "She probably married that big jerk she was engaged to," Cyndra said,

  rolling down the window. "Strick-wasn't that his name?"

  "Stock."

  "Oh, yeah, Stock." She giggled. "Dumb oaf! Hey, remember that New

  Year's Eve when he broke your nose?"

  "What a prick!"

  "And then a few weeks later you beat him up."

  "Those were the good times," he said dryly.

  "Would you ever go back?"

  "Would you?" he countered.