Sex and Violence in Hollywood (11 page)

Michael Julian guarded his bedroom as if it contained his entire fortune. It did not, of course. But a small chunk of it was kept in a floor safe under the desk in his office, which he did not guard at all. Adam had been stealing marijuana, liquor, and money from his dad’s office since he was a little kid. The safe, which was always packed with bundles of cash of varying amounts, had been his livelihood. His dad never gave him money, because Adam never asked for it. He just went to the safe and took it. He was never greedy and only took what he needed, and never made a visible dent in the safe’s money. Michael had caught him red-handed a couple times, but was so delighted to see Adam poking around in his office—probably hoping a desire to write screenplays would rub off—he never seemed to notice.

Adam finished the yogurt and left his desk. He did not care if Rain got caught in the master bedroom, but Gwen would be the one to take the heat for it.

He went down the hall, past the stairs to the other end, around the corner. The door of the master bedroom stood open a few inches. It was always locked, so either Rain had stolen her mother’s key or picked her way in.

Inside, he looked around cautiously. Gwen’s cavernous walk-in closet was open and the light was on inside. In the closet, Adam found Rain sitting on the floor, an open cardboard box on her lap. She was going through its contents, mostly papers and folders and fat envelopes.

“Excuse me, but what are you doing in here?” Adam asked.

“Oh, hi, Mr. Douglas. Tree still up your butt?”

“You know what my dad would do if he found you in here?”

“Give me a spanking?”

“You’d wish. Come on, let’s go.”

“This is my mom’s stuff I’m going through, not your dad’s.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re in the room. How did you get in here, anyway?”

She put a lid on the box and tucked it away on a bottom shelf. Standing, Rain said, “Locks don’t stop me, Big Brother. Get used to it.”

“Come on, I’m serious. Out.”

“You’re afraid of him, aren’t you?” she asked, cocking her head to one side. She looked him up and down, smiling. “And here I thought you had a tree up your ass. You’re just afraid of Daddy.” She left the closet.

Adam turned off the light, almost closed the bedroom door, but remembered the lock. Reached around to the doorknob on the other side and pushed the button in the center.

“Fuck that kind of thinking,” Rain said as they went back down the hall.

“What kind of thinking?”

“Being afraid of your dad.”

“You said that, I didn’t. I’m not afraid of my dad. I think he’s pathetic. Catch me in the right mood and I might pity him. But I’m not afraid of him.” Not anymore, he thought.

“Then why play policeman?”

“Because I know my dad and that’s one thing that makes him go all Carrie. I’m just trying to keep the peace, because for now, I live here. What were you doing in there, anyway?”

“The usual. Looking to see if Mom had any money or pot or pills I could take. Hey, why don’t you—” Rain stopped in front of her closed bedroom door, but Adam kept going. “Hey. C’mon in.”

“No, thanks.”

“Then I’ll come to your room.”

Adam sighed as she laughed. She opened the bedroom door and went inside. Not wanting her in his room, Adam followed her and said, “Okay, but just for a couple minutes.”

The bedroom looked like CNN footage of a tornado’s aftermath.

“Did your luggage explode?” Adam asked.

“Mom told me to unpack. She didn’t say anything about putting shit away. So, Big Brother, why do you live here?”

Still looking around the room, he shrugged. “Because it’s convenient for now. Don’t you have any posters or pictures? Bare walls are so depressing.”

“What the fuck do I look like, a little kid?”

“As a matter of fact, you do.” He meant it.

Rain wore a tie-dyed tank top with Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me written over her left breast, denim cut-offs, and nothing on her tiny feet. With no makeup, she looked her age—a cute sixteen-year-old blonde, tanned, smiling, all-American California girl. But she wore it like a pair of shoes. No matter how perfectly they fit and matched everything she owned, they would never, ever be a part of her body.

“Close the door,” Rain said.

“I’m not staying.”

“Fine, but close the fucking door until you go, okay?”

Adam closed the door.

Rain rested a hand on her hip. Her eyebrows rose high over her eyes and her mouth opened as if she were laughing, but didn’t make a sound. “Shit, man, somebody’s trained you well, Mr. Douglas!” she said.

Adam smiled. “You told me to close it, so I closed it. No big deal.” He took a steadying breath and asked, “Any particular reason you wanted me to come in here?”

“Yes, there was a reason, Big Brother.” The tie-dyed tank top was gone before she finished her sentence, and her cut-offs were open and on their way down her legs as she walked toward him.

“No, uh-uh,” Adam said as he turned and opened the door. “No more of that.” The knob slipped from his hand when Rain threw herself against the door and slammed it shut.

She leaned back against the door wearing nothing, and smiled up at him. “What board meeting are you late for, Mr. Douglas?”

“Could you please do me a favor and call me Adam? My name is Adam. Not Mr. Douglas. Not Big Brother. Adam.”

“Shit. You gonna sue me now?”

“I’d just appreciate it if you’d call me—”

“You don’t like me, do you, Adam?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that, I don’t even know you well enough to know if I—”

“But you liked fucking me, didn’t you?”

Adam stopped talking. He watched as Rain tilted her head back and swept the tip of her tongue back and forth over the bottom of her smile. Cocked a leg and pressed the bare sole of her foot to the door. Even that single, simple act oozed with wet, sticky sexuality.

“Didn’t you? Adam.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “I did, yes. It was...pretty amazing. I still may have to notify my insurance company, I’m not sure yet, but it was amazing.”

“And you’d like to fuck me again, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d have to be brain-dead not to. But we can’t do it again, because it’s going to lead to nothing but misery and pain and ugly scenes you don’t want to see, trust me.”

“I’m not gonna be makin’ any scenes.”

“I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about everybody else. If we keep fooling around, it won’t be long before everybody knows. It’s a big house, but it’s not that big. Can you imagine what’ll happen then? The yelling and fighting and crying that’ll go on past Christmas?”

Rain kicked a path through the clothes and towels and underwear on the floor and sat on an old cedar chest at the foot of her bed. The chest had belonged to Adam’s mom, who had gotten it from her mom. Rain patted the empty space beside her on the cedar chest.

Adam smiled and shook his head.

“You can trust me, Adam,” she said.

“No, I can’t trust you. Or myself. Could you put some clothes on?”

Delighted laughter sprang from Rain as her face brightened. She pointed at the firm mound in Adam’s jeans next to the fly. “Look who showed up!”

“Yeah, well, he can’t stay, either.” Adam opened the door.

“Wait, wait! I’ll put something on.” She searched the floor, snatched something up and slipped it on—a silver terrycloth robe that fell mid-thigh and seemed to hang on her crookedly. There was something heavy in the right pocket.

“Something?” Adam asked. “That’s hardly anything at all.”

“How old were you when your dad started hitting you?” Rain crossed her legs properly and sat with her palms pressed flat to the cedar, elbows locked.

Adam leaned back against the door. “I don’t know. But it wasn’t always hitting. Sometimes he kicked me, dragged me around by my hair. Can you believe that? Even when he was beating a little kid, the son of a bitch fought like a girl.”

“Fought like a girl? You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re right, the guy fights like a pussy, but not like a girl. You’ve never seen girls fight because we only do it when you’re not around. It’s ugly and bloody and people get hurt. Fought like a girl, my ass. You know what I’d do in your position?”

“The thought of asking terrifies me,” Adam said.

“I’d wait for the right time, when Mom was out of the house, and he’d find me masturbating naked on his bed. I’d get him on the bed, give him head, and then I’d bite off his cock. I’d smile at him while he bled to death. Tell him it’s not such a good idea to go around pullin’ people’s hair, is it? Then I’d make it look like Mom did it and get that miserable cunt outta my life. Two turds with one boner.”

“That wouldn’t work for me,” he said.

“Why not?”

He laughed. “I can hear it now. ‘Hey, Dad, let’s watch a game together. Or go shoot some hoops. Or...I know! Your favorite—I could give you a blow job!’ Uh-uh. He’d kill me. He’s not into that, anyway.”

“How do you know? You don’t know what the fuck he’s into. He might take you up on it, ever think of that? Yeah, he might jump on it.” She smirked. “Bet that’ll fuck with your head for a few days. Don’t ever think you know what kinda sexual shit people are into, because you don’t. You only know what they want you to know. Most people, if they know they won’t get caught and nobody will ever find out, will do fucking anything if it looks like it’ll feel good. I say use what you got when you need to. If it ain’t their thing, maybe it’ll stir up a little heat they didn’t know they had in ’em.” She grinned.

There isn’t a jury in the land that would convict me of statutory rape, Adam thought, shaking his head. No matter how solid the prosecution’s proof of her age, no one would believe she’s only sixteen.

“Well, even if he was into it.” Adam said, “I’m not.”

“Don’t know until you try it.”

“Try it? Is that how you found your sexual identity, Rain? Fuck a few girls, a few guys, maybe a German shepherd or two, see which one makes you squirt harder?”

Rain shrugged.

“Is there no end to your decadence, Rain?”

“No end to my what? Speak fuckin’ English, will ya?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

“I bet you’ve wanted to kill him, haven’t you? You’ve thought about it.”

“Would you really bite his dick off?”

“If I had to. Most people’d do anything if they really had to.”

“No offense, Rain, but...you’re not like most people. And most people aren’t like you.”

“That’s what my fuckin’ mother says. I think you’re a couple of shit-for-brains Teletubbies. You’re livin’ in Fantasyland, ridin’ through ‘It’s A Small World’ over and over.”

Adam pushed himself away from the door and slipped four fingers of each hand into the back pockets of his jeans. Walked slowly toward her, trying not to step on any of her clothes. “Why do you hate your mother so much?” he asked as he sat beside her on the cedar chest.

“The fuck do you care? You gonna try to fix me? Please, Adam, be anything you want, but don’t be one of those whiiining, booorrring assholes who wants to heal all my wounds so he won’t feel guilty when he finally fucks me. They’re so predictable.”

“I’m just curious. I like your mother. I can’t figure out what she’s doing with my dad.”

“You only think you like my mother, and I know exactly what she’s doing with your dad.” She turned toward him, put both feet up on the cedar chest and hugged her knees. “She’s shopping. Planning her future. Which doesn’t include him.”

“Why would she do that?” he said. “If she was after money, she could’ve done a hell of a lot better than my dad.”

“Maybe she’s done it before and has more money than she needs already. Ever think of that? Maybe she’s got a shitload of dead-husband money packed away and she just wants more. Wants it, doesn’t need it.”

“Well, you should know if she’s done it before. She’s your mother.”

Rain nodded. “I do know.”

Adam frowned. “You mean...are you saying she has done it before?”

She nodded again.

He did not believe it. Nodded with eyelids half-closed in a yeah-sure expression.

“Four times. Twice before she had me. All rich. She’s got quite a nest egg put away. A great big Tyrannosaurus Rex nest egg. Might even retire after she’s done with your dad.”

“So, that would make the second rich man your father? Or...wait. The third?”

“I don’t know who my fuckin’ father is, and neither does she.”

There was a perfectly natural casualness to her tone that bothered Adam. It gave her words a note of truth.

“When I was little, she took my pediatrician for free appointments and a discount on my tonsillectomy. And she didn’t even have to. We could afford it.”

“How’d she do that?”

Rain lowered her head. Her eyes crinkled up a little as she smiled behind her knees. “You’re so fuckin’ cute when you’re dense. She fucked the pediatrician, Adam, what do you think?”