October 31st. 8:37pm
Jade Newman sat at the bar, alone, in some dark dive by LAX. She was nursing her third drink of the night, feeling sorry for herself. She remembered when she once was somebody. A hot, young actress that had over a dozen movies on her resume. Every man wanted to fuck her, every woman wanted to be her. She was on top of the world. That was 20 years ago.
When she turned 29, she was filming her latest movie, 'A Woman in Venice', things started to change for Jade. The film was expected to deliver Jade her first Oscar, something she had been coveted since she began acting. But things began to derail when she ended up falling in love on the set. It proved to be a little bit of a controversy in the tabloids, since the man she fell in love with was Benito Santini, the director of the film, 20 years her senior, and married. To top it off, as a result of the tryst, Jade became pregnant while still filming. When news of the affair, and the pregnancy, made headlines, Benito and his wife divorced. He and Jade married soon afterwards.
The stories in the tabloids overshadowed the release of the film, and as a result the movie was a box office bomb. Not only did Jade not win her Oscar, but she ended up not even being nominated that year. Because of the pregnancy, and some undiagnosed depression, she took over a year hiatus from acting, and retreated from the prying eyes of the tabloids.
Hollywood is a cruel place, especially for a woman. Because of her very public pregnancy, she lost the image of the sexy, virginal girl next door type that she so effectively played in her movie roles. Now she was an adulterer, a wife, and a mom. When she came back to acting after a year off, the roles she was always considered for in every major picture dried up. Casting agents were now looking at the next group of vixens, the 24 year old bleach blondes with fake tits that wouldn't mind sucking a producer's dick to get their next role.
Over the next ten years or so, Jade found work being cast in a number of B movies, or films that went straight to cable or DVD. It was a far cry from her earlier work, but at least she was still acting. When she was in her early 40s, those roles began to become scarce as well. Now as she is approaching 50, the only work she really gets are guest starring roles on some television shows. Usually when they are trying the "Hollywood nostalgia" stunt for ratings.
She did get a call this week to come in and read for a part for an upcoming, independent film. She was hoping that the script reading today might be the first step in her career renaissance, but it proved not to be. After hours and hours of running lines, she was prepared for the script reading. But when she got there, the casting director was more interested in asking her about stories from twenty years ago, than he was about hearing her read for the part. Jade knew that she wasn't going to get the part. So she drove to a no-name dive bar, far away from the fake shine of Hollywood, where no one would recognize her, to drink alone.
As she sipped her drink, she looked in the mirror behind the bar. She saw an image of herself that didn't match the one she sees when they endlessly replay her old movies on cable. Instead of seeing the incredibly sexy, skinny, long haired blonde with big tits. She sees an older woman with curvier hips from childbirth, and shoulder-length blonde hair that is now starting to show slight signs of gray, and tits that weren't as perky, but at least they were bigger.
Her phone lit up with an Instagram notification. She absently looked at it, and saw it was a notification that her husband's,Benito, was tagged in a post. She decided to open Instagram to look at the photo. She was directed to an account of someone she didn't recognize, a girl maybe in her late 20s. She was having dinner with Benito, and obviously flexing to her friends. Jade looked at the tagged location, it was the restaurant at the Chateau Marmont. The same hotel Jade and Benito used to go to when they were having their affair. Some things never change. Jade knew that Benito had numerous affairs over their 20 year marriage, but with social media, they were becoming more public, and more embarrassing for Jade. Girls like this either do not know or not care about the damage they do when posting such public photos of them with married men, just as long as it advances their career.
The relative quiet of the bar was disrupted, when a group of boys came in, all laughing, and having a good time. Without having to turn around, Jade could see them come in from the reflection of the mirror. She saw three boys, all of whom were in costume, one dressed as a vampire, one dressed as Austin Powers, and another as Mario. All of them were obviously underaged. They most likely were college students, probably from nearby Loyola Marymount, and found a bar that did not really care about IDs as long as you were spending money. They all sat in a booth on the wall opposite of Jade.
As she was finishing off her drink, she saw one of the boys, the one dressed as a vampire, start to walk up to the bar. He stood next to her, nervously trying to get the bartender's attention. The bartender was effectively ignoring the minor, and concentrating on other things. "Ahem." the boy said.
Jade giggled, thus drawing the attention of the boy. "Am I doing something wrong?" he said while looking at Jade. "He's acting like I'm not even here."
"Well, he might take you more seriously if you took out your plastic vampire teeth." Jade laughed in response.
Embarrassingly, the boy removed the costume teeth. "I'm kind of new at this. I want to order something other than beer, but I'm not sure what to order. Could you help me figure out what I might like?" and flashed her a smile.
"Is he flirting?" Jade thought to herself. It had been quite some time since someone had flirted with her. She wasn't sure if he was flirting, nervous, or just naive. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above.
She decided to find out. "Well, I'm drinking a White Lady, but I'm not sure you can handle it." Jade said playfully.
"You would be surprised what I can handle. A White Lady sounds tasty." he retorted.
"Yep. Definitely flirting." Jade thought as she smiled. She raised her finger to signal the bartender. "Two Old Fashions...and one Dirty Mother." Jade said with a purr in her voice. This was getting fun.
"And a Screaming Orgasm for the lady." the boy responded, actually making Jade blush.
As the boy got his drinks and got ready to carry them back to the table, he said "I'd love it if you came and had drinks with us."
Jade considered it for a moment, while looking at the boy. He was all of 18 years old, and ruggedly handsome for his age. He was 6' tall, muscular, and had dark hair, which was colored almost jet black for the purposes of his costume. She continued to look at him longingly, thinking about the things she could teach this naive boy. But then as she looked at him, she thought about the fact that he was the same age as her son. She was too old to be thinking about this sort of stuff. She smiled at him and said "You're a good kid. Now go back to your friends. They are waiting for their drinks." She touched his hand briefly, and then began to consume her newly ordered drink. The boy looked a little dejected, but went back to the booth with the others.
Jade would quickly spy a glimpse of the threesome, laughing and having fun. It didn't seem like that long ago when she was that age, not a care in the world. But now life snuck up on her, and she was almost 50, and hadn't laughed like those boys were laughing in a long, long time.
Her phone lit up again. She looked, another Instagram notification. She reluctantly opened up the app. She was again redirected to the young starlet's IG page. There she saw a photo of her nearly 70 year old husband, at a club, dancing with the girl. The quote for the photo read "Age ain't nothing but a number."
