California Dreaming

Chapter 15

We wrote to James and John and told them the news about Arvid and his club. A few weeks later they wrote back to us and were just as happy as we were that Arvid wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone again. John’s father was teaching them all about the grocery business and really liked James. James liked him as well. I was glad that James finally had someone that cared for him and that he wasn’t being abused. John had written to me without James’s knowledge and told me that it took a while for James not to want a drink. James was also having nightmares, but they seemed to go away when he quit drinking. Thankfully John was there for James and was very patient with him.

My play “Murder on the Second Floor” came to an end. It was well received by the public, and while I enjoyed doing the play, I was glad that it was over, and I could move on to my next audition. I was pleasantly surprised when after the play was over, several of the guests at the Roosevelt recognized me and told me that they liked my performance. I never tired of people saying they saw me in theatre. Carl was having the same success, and we were constantly rehearsing for our next play or going to auditions.

The months turn into years and before I realized it, I had turned nineteen, and had been in California for a little over three years. So much had changed in that time, not only for me, but for the whole country. FDR had been elected President and was quickly working to get the county out of the depression, of course we still had a long road ahead of us. The first thing that directly affected Carl and I came on December 5, 1933. The last three states voted to end prohibition, putting the ratification of the 21st Amendment into place. Both of our bosses at the Roosevelt and the Brown Derby were very excited, and quickly added bar service, giving us a significant increase in business.

Carl and I were doing a Christmas Play at the El Capitan, that would close on Christmas Eve. We had both been getting bigger parts, but so far neither had landed a leading role. The holiday season is always busy for us, both at our waiter jobs and at the theatre. We were both relieved when New Year's Eve was over, and things would slow down a bit. As we got into February of 1934, the theatres all released the plays that they would be producing for the upcoming year. We were in our room going over the list and deciding which ones we wanted to audition for. The Hollywood Playhouse’s list had a play that caught my eye.

I pointed to the list and said, “what do you think? I might try this one.”

Carl snorted, “are you serious?”

I looked at him, “yes, I am. Why not?”

He chuckled, “I love you and think you are a good actor, but do you have any idea how many are going to audition for that role?”

I shrugged, “so what, I will never know unless I try.”

Carl shook his head, “they probably already have someone in mind, you are going to have to nail that audition to even be considered.”

I gave him an incredulous look, “so you don’t think I can play Romeo?”

He laughed, “you do know that you will have convince an audience that you are in love with a girl?”

I stood up with my hands on my hips, “yes, I know, that why it’s called acting. Are you saying that I can’t act like I am in love with Juliet?”

Carl pulled me back to the bed and smiled, “no, I am sure that you would do a good job playing Romeo, but I think that there are probably a few more actors that might be better.”

I sat next to him on the bed, “you know that this is the kind of play that will attract movie producers and studio owners. I don’t care what you think, I am going to audition for Romeo.”

He kissed mt cheek, “good for you Ivan, knock ‘em dead. I will be pulling for you, just don’t be too disappointed if you don’t get the part.”

We went back to the lists and Carl picked several plays that he was going to audition for, he was still trying to convince me to audition for a couple of other plays, just “in case” I didn’t get the part of Romeo. I said I would keep the list and think about it for the next few days, this seemed to satisfy him.

The next day, I left for work early enough to stop by the Playhouse to sign up for an audition and pick up a script so I could rehearse. I noticed that I was the third person to sign up for Romeo, there were also two or three signed up for all the other parts. The man that signed me up asked if I wanted to be considered for any of the other parts in the play, if I didn’t get Romeo. I confidently told him no.

He looked up at me over the top of his glass, “ok, good luck kid.”

I took my script and smiled, “thank you sir.”

I spent the next several weeks working on my lines, I wanted to get this part so bad. Carl even helped me by playing Juliet for me, though, I just suspect that he was just humoring me.

The time for my audition arrived, I was at the Playhouse a half hour early. I found out that there were six of us there for the part of Romeo, and five girls there to play Juliet. I had worked with a couple of the girls in plays that I had done over the past couple of years. They told us that we would be paired with one of the girls to do our scene. One of the girls would have to do two scenes. I was the third to be called, I was paired with Dorothy Stanford, I worked with her on my last play, so I was relieved. We got along well, and I knew she was a good actress. We did our scene and were asked to wait with the rest of the actors. I was pleased with my audition, I thought Dorothy, and I both did really well, however since I didn’t see any of the other auditions, I had no idea how the others did. After the last pair finished their audition, we were all waiting for the director to come out to talk to us. The same man that gave me my script walked out and holding his clipboard.

He looked at his paper, “everyone did a good job, but we are going to narrow it down to three Romoes and three Juliets, we will let the rest of you know if you get one of the other parts later this week.”

I took a deep breath as my stomach did flips.

He continued, “Phillip Reynolds, George Craft, and Robert Foreman…”

My heart sank, maybe I should have told them I would accept a smaller role, maybe Carl was right.

He looked up, “thank you all for auditioning, but you are free to go.”

My body went limp as I let out a heavy sigh.

The director went on, “Gloria, Dorothy, Barbara, Frank, Harvey and Ivan, please wait here and we will pair each of you with a different partner and do one more quick scene.”

An assistant came out and paired us up with our next scene partner, I would be doing my next scene with Gloria Baines. A beautiful blonde, with blue eyes and a slim figure, she could have been Carl’s twin sister. We introduced ourselves and quickly went over our scene as we waited for our turn to audition. I was glad that we hit it off immediately and she was very pleasant to work with. Once again, I felt like our audition went well, and again I had no idea how the others went. We were told that the director would call in a day or two with his decision, and to be sure to leave a phone number so that he could leave a message.

I went to work at the Roosevelt straight from the auditions, I was floating on a cloud. I was so excited that I was still in the running for the part. As soon as my shift was over, I ran home so that I could tell Carl my good news.

I burst through the door as Carl was getting undressed for bed, I wrapped him in a hug, “it went great, I’m still in the running.”

He looked at me, “you mean for Romeo?”

I gave him a kiss, “yes, there were six of us, they narrowed it down to three today. The director is going to call in the next few days.”

Carl kissed me back, “that’s great Ivan, I’m so happy for you.”

We stripped each other and made love until we both fell to sleep.

The next morning, I rushed to the front desk and made sure they knew that I was expecting a phone call and as soon as it came to let me know. I spent the rest of the day going through my script, I was so close to getting this part, I could feel it. I went down to the front desk several times throughout the day, I think I was starting to annoy the desk clerk. Carl and I got ready for work and walked downstairs, I was of course going to check with the clerk one more time. He was on the phone as I approached the desk.

The clerk said, “please hold sir, he just walked in.” He handed me the phone.

I took the phone, “yes sir, this is Ivan Romanov.”

Through the earpiece I heard, “Ivan, this is Ellis Carter with the Playhouse.”

My heart skipped a beat, “yes sir.”

He continued, “we would like you to come in for one more audition, would you be available tomorrow morning at 10?”

I was starting to hyperventilate, “yes sir, that would be fine.”

He said, “we have narrowed it down to you and Frank Dixon. We have selected Gloria Baines as our Juliet. We want to see which one of you has the best chemistry with Gloria.”

I said, “thank you sir, I’ll be there. Thank you.”

Carl was laughing at me, “good news?”

I nodded, “yes, it’s between me and Frank Dixon, they want to see who works best with Gloria Baines. I auditioned with her already, so feel good about this.”

He shook his head, “sorry I doubted you Ivan, you really have a shot at this.”

My mind was racing as we walked to work that afternoon. If I got this part and did well, some movie producers would surely notice, and I might get some auditions for a movie. This could be my big chance.

We were busy at the restaurant all night, so time went quickly, and I walked home running my lines from the play in my head. I walked into our room, Carl was laying naked on our bed. He had lit a few candles and was holding a bottle and two glasses.

I smiled, “what is this?”

He grinned, “I had a table only drink half of their champagne, I told my boss about your good news, and he said I could have it to celebrate.”

I laughed, “I haven’t got the part yet.”

He started taking my clothes off and said, “close enough.”

He poured us each a glass of champagne, we clinked the glasses, and both took a drink. We both swallowed and immediately started coughing.

I sputtered, “how can anyone think this swill tastes good.”

Carl coughed again, “I have no idea, this stuff is awful.”

We set our glasses down and fell back onto the bed, kissing and fondling each other. Within minutes we were sucking each other and playing with each other’s nuts and holes. I loved it when Carl swirled his tongue around the head of my cock and pushed a finger in my hole while squeezing my nuts. I was doing the same to him and from the sounds he was making, I think he liked it too. I replaced my finger with my tongue and gave his hole a thorough licking, pushing my tongue in as far as I could. Carl let my cock fall from his mouth as he reached down and pulled his legs in the air. His moans were not as muffled since his mouth was no longer filled with my hard cock. I moved around and really went to work on his sweet pink pucker, now that I had full access. Carl was writhing in ecstasy, his head was moving back and forth as he was holding his legs up and spread apart.

He panted, “oh God Ivan, feed me your cock. I want you to fuck me, fuck me hard.”

One last lick across his hole and I gave his nuts and cock another suck, then moved up for another kiss. The head of my cock was resting against his pucker, he reached down to guide me in. We held our gaze as I slowly pushed inside his love tunnel. His eyes rolled back in head as I bottomed out and hit his sweet spot, another moan spewed from his lips. He grabbed my hips and started to push and pull me in and out of his hole. He sped me up until we were rocking the bed against the wall, I’m sure the person in the next room knew exactly what we were doing. I watched his leaking cock bounce up and down as I railed his ass. He was squeezing my cock with his ass muscles, causing the juices to start to fill my already full nuts. Carl’s moans turn to loud grunts as I continued my assault on his hole. Without warning his cock began squirting load after load of creamy white goodness all over his stomach and chest, and he hadn’t even touched it. The look on his face and the feeling of his warm tight hole was more than I could stand, I filled his guts with a huge load of my own seed. Once the spasms finally stopped, I licked the semen from his chest and shared it with him with a long kiss, we pushed his cum in an out of each other’s mouth until I collapsed on top of him in exhaustion. I gave Carl one more kiss as I rolled off him and wrapped my arms around him.

He smiled, “that was incredible.”

I chuckled, “yes it was, if that was how you congratulate me for getting a call back, I can’t wait to see what you do if I get the part.”

He laughed, “I will have to think of something special, won’t I?” We drifted off to sleep.

We must have worn each other out the night before because we both slept a little later than usual. We were startled awake by a loud knock at the door. I quickly jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of trousers.

I opened the door to see the desk clerk smiling at me, “I know you have been waiting for a message from the theatre, so I thought I would deliver this to you.”

He handed me the folded piece of paper, I said, “thank you.” My heart was beating right through my chest, I was sure Carl could hear it.

I shut the door and turned to Carl, who was still lying in bed. He looked at me with wide eyes, and asked, “what does it say?”

I slowly unfolded the paper and took a deep breath.

 

 To be continued…