DARREN
The dictionary defines obsession as a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling, and if that doesn’t describe how I am to a fucking tee, nothing does. I have been obsessed with American actress Jenna Dexter for six years, ever since I worked on one of her movies as an extra. I was fresh to LA from Broxburn, Scotland. I had only been here for three days when I walked onto the movie set looking for a job in carpentry. We were just kids back then, though, and she was two years younger than me.
One look at her, and I forgot all about carpentry. That night I went to a prestigious acting school, got in, and learned from the best. I did every part that came my way and worked my way up to the top just to get to her. The one time we worked together, I watched her like a hawk. Sure, she’s beautiful, but it’s so much more than that. It’s unquantifiable. I am already half in love with the woman; I just have to wait for her to catch up. This upcoming movie is the perfect time to get her to fall for me. I auditioned weeks ago and had a callback yesterday. This part is mine, and nothing will stop me from getting her after that. I’m in my home gym, my place of solitude when my music is interrupted by the phone ringing.
“Hello?” I ask, knowing who it is before I answer.
“Hey, listen… I’ve got some bad news, Darren.” Right then and there, I know the rest of this conversation isn’t going to go how I want it to.
“What do you mean I didn’t get the fucking part?” I yell into my phone. My blood is boiling. Everything rides on this role.
“They went another direction, Darren. You did get a lucrative offer for another movie,” my agent, Suzy Gardner, says. She’s the best in the biz, and she reps Jenna. It was damn near impossible to get her, but I don’t give up easily. After three weeks of hard negotiations, I got her, and everything is riding on her doing her fucking job. The job I pay her well to do.
“I don’t want another role, Suzy. I thought I made that perfectly clear,” I tell her as calmly and as rationally as possible, though I am on the verge of exploding into an unprecedented rage.
“You did, but…” She begins, but I cut her off.
“No buts, Suzy. I’m your client, and this is what I want. You better make it happen,” I tell her before hanging up on her. This isn’t some Hollywood entitlement thing. Over the last six years, I’ve had some truly crappy roles, and I’ve had award-winning ones, but not a single one of them has brought me to the same movie as Jenna Dexter again.
Until now.
Kept by the Keeperis a movie based on the steamy romance novel by Mallory Grier. It’s set in the Regency Era, and it would be the first time I’ve done a role like this before, but I know that I can do it. For her, I can do anything.
It’s time to take things into my own hands. After one phone call to a producer's assistant, I found out who was cast, and I see red.
Jonathan Pearson.
The man is a douchebag of the highest caliber. I’ve worked with him on an action series, and I’d never do it again. Not for any amount of money. The man has no business being an actor as it is, but if anyone thinks I am going to let Jenna do her first steamy movie with that disgusting man, they have another thing coming.
Without a thought, I grab my car keys and head over to his house. I came to a party here last year, but it was just about as debauched as you can imagine, and I left once I ascertained that Jenna wasn’t there. On my continued path of not thinking about the consequences, I knock on his door. When the door opens, I am not surprised to find a private party going on. The kind of party that involves drugs, sex, and two underage girls. I was just going to kick his ass and go to jail myself, but this is going to be much better.
I hightail it out of there and wait down the block before calling the police. Within minutes, his place is surrounded by cops, and he’s being led out in handcuffs. It might be a pussy way to get him fired, but at least I’ll be right there to pick up the pieces since there is no way in hell the studio lets him keep the part now.
Every night that she is in town, I drive over to the house Jenna shares with her parents and her sister. The Dexter’s are Hollywood royalty and have been for generations. I watch them in their mansion, living separate lives. Her parents don’t even sleep in the same room. Even from five hundred feet away, I can hear them screaming at each other. If I can, I know Jenna can. I watch as she looks out of her bedroom window, right at my car. The Lambo isn’t exactly discreet, but I’m beyond caring anymore. This family is messed up, and I’m going to help them. I don’t understand the point of having a family if you don’t appreciate them. I grew up in an orphanage as my parents died when I was an infant. I would have given anything to have a family, but it never happened for me. At fifteen, I left the orphanage and made my own way in life, ending up in LA at sixteen. Here, I’ve found my calling and the one person who makes me want to be a better man she just doesn’t know it yet.
I know what I want out of life.
I want Jenna Dexter to be mine, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get her.
Anything.