California Dreaming

Chapter 9

We woke up the next morning, of course, we all had morning wood, so after a quick morning love session, we walked across the street to Hurley’s Diner. After a quick breakfast, we picked up a copy of the Hollywood Citizen to see if there were any jobs in the want ads. Nothing jumped out at us, so we decided to take a walk on Hollywood Blvd. I was the most excited about this, one of the first buildings I saw was The El Capitan Theatre. It was beautiful, I wanted so bad to just run inside and up on to the stage, just to see what if felt like. Patrick chuckled, “I’m sure it isn’t even open at this time of day, Ivan.”

I sighed as we got closer and realized he was right. We spent the rest of the morning walking around the area. Next door to The El Capitan was the Roosevelt Hotel, further down the street was the Brown Derby and the Plaza Hotel. All the places that I had dreamed about were right here in front of me, I was in awe.

This became our routine for the next couple of weeks. After one of our outings, we started to walk back to The Normandie, as we came to Western Avenue, we walked by a place with a sign that said, “Arvid’s Place”. I wasn’t sure if it was a restaurant or hotel, the windows were darkened, with a door in the center of the building front. It was a two-story structure, it appeared there were rooms of some sort on the second floor. Just as we reached the door, a man stepped out in front of us almost running us over. He grabbed James’s arm before either of them fell to ground. He was dressed in a fancy suit, a top hat, and he dropped his walking stick. I picked it up and handed it back to him.

He looked all three of us over as he regained his footing, he smiled as his hands came up in the air and he said, “oh my, aren’t you just delicious.”

I stifled a laugh, this man was the living version of all those “dandies” that my father described in his rants about men in the theater. I would guess he was in his late forties or early fifties, grey hair sticking out of his hat and two large gaudy rings on each of his hands. Patrick grabbed James, turned him, and we continued down the street. The man turned in the opposite direction and walked away from us. We laughed as we made our way back to the Normandie. It was late afternoon, so we stopped at Hurley’s for dinner. As we ordered, we asked our waitress what Arvid’s Place was.

She rolled her eyes, “you mean that queer joint on Western?”

James asked, “what do you mean queer joint?”

She said, “well, I’ve never been there honey, but from what I hear they sell illegal booze downstairs, and they have a stable of young guys that for a little cash you can go upstairs with for, well, you know. It’s owned and run by a guy named Arvid Marlow.”

We all looked at each other as she walked away from the table, Patrick said, “that makes sense, he certainly was, um… well, not masculine.”

I chuckled, “that’s one way to put it.”

We ate our dinner and went to our room and looked through the paper we had picked that morning. We saw a couple ads for jobs, and decided we would go check them out in the morning. After walking around all day, we were all pretty tired, so we turned in for the night.

I woke up at a little after midnight and needed to use the bathroom, when I came back to the room, I realized that James wasn’t there. I woke Patrick up.

I shook him, “hey Patrick, James is gone.”

He groggily rolled over, “he probably just went outside for a smoke.”

I crawled back into bed next to Patrick and asked, “should we go check on him?”

He pulled me close to him, “I’m sure he is fine, just go back to sleep.”

I snuggled in and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, we were woken up by James coming in the door.

I rubbed my eyes, “hey, where were you?"

James said, “oh, I couldn’t sleep, I went for a walk.”

Patrick asked, “since midnight?”

James paused, “no, you guys were asleep when I came back, I woke up early and went for my walk.”

Patrick and I got dressed and we all headed out for a day of job hunting. Patrick had seen an ad for a copy boy at the Hollywood Citizen, a local newspaper, so we found the address and went there first. James and I waited outside as he went inside to ask about the job.

I asked James, “where did you walk to this morning? You know we probably shouldn’t go out alone until we know the area a little better.”

He nodded, “yeah, I know.” He thought for a minute, “promise you won’t be mad at me?”

I furrowed my brow, “mad? About what?”

He took a deep breath, “as soon as you guys fell asleep last night, I went to Arvids.”

I turned to him, “Arvids? Why would you go there?”

He hung his head, “I got a job there.”

I asked, “doing what?”

He kept his eyes on the ground in front of him, “a waiter?”

I asked again, “a waiter? At Arvids?”

He nodded, “yeah, I start tonight, and the job comes with a room to stay in.”

I made him look me in the eyes, “James, do you know what they expect you to do upstairs?”

James just looked at me, he said, “yes, I do Ivan, but I have a chance to make a lot of money.”

I shook my head, “James, I don’t think this is a good idea, I mean that place is serving illegal liquor and then they will expect you to take strange men back to your room and have sex.”

He said, “I know Ivan, but I will only work there long enough to save enough money to get my own place and I’ll find a better job. It will only be for a month or two, Mr. Marlow said his customers will really like someone like me. A lot of his other workers have been hired by his clients for other jobs and can quit working at the club.”

My mind raced, “but James, there are better ways to make money. You should…”

He stopped me, “Ivan, I already told Mr. Harlow that I would be there tonight, besides, you and Patrick deserve to be alone. I appreciate all the help you have given me, but I need to make my own way. I will be fine, I promise.”

I ran my hand through my hair, “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

He gave me a smile, “I can take care of myself Ivan.”

Patrick emerged from the newspaper building with a big smile on his face. He beamed, “I got the job, I start tomorrow.” He saw the look on my face, I was trying to happy for him, but I was worried about James. He asked, “what’s the matter?”

I said, “would you like to tell him James, or should I?”

James shook his head, so I told Patrick what James had just told me. For the next hour Patrick and I tried to talk James out of going to Arvid’s Place. We gave him all the reasons we could think of not to take this job, and the longer we talked the more determined he became. He finally threw his hands up and said, “I have made up my mind, this is what’s best for me, I am free to do us I please now. That’s why I got away from Charles.”

Patrick sighed, “James, I still think this is a bad idea, but I can see that we can’t talk you out of it. Please remember that if you need help, Ivan and I will always be here for you.”

I added, “yes James, and we won’t judge you and you will always be welcomed back.”

He smiled, “thanks guys, I appreciate that and everything you have done for me.”

We watched as he walked back to the Normandie, we still had a bad feeling about what he was doing.

I turned to Patrick, “I’m sorry, but hey, tell me about the job you got.”

His eyes lit up again as he said, “it’s nothing special, I’m a copy boy. Mostly I have to run errands for all the writers and editors. I’ll be taking the stories written by the writers to the editors and then back for rewrites or to the press room when the story is ready to be set. I have to help load the papers when they are printed too. I hope to get tips from the writers and someday maybe I can be a writer for the paper.”

I smiled, “that’s great Patrick, I am so happy for you.”

We made the rest of our rounds at the places that I wanted to apply to. I crossed the firm nos off my list and marked the ones that I would circle back to tomorrow. The last stop we made was at the Roosevelt Hotel. The assistant manager talked to me and said that he needed a bus boy, but he would need to get the approval of the manager. He told me to come back tomorrow at 10 and I could meet with him.

Patrick and I went back to our room, both of us in a good mood, Patrick had a job and if things went well, I would have one tomorrow. We walked into our room and the first thing we saw that James things were all gone. We were still concerned for him, but we knew he needed to find his own way, we just hoped he would come to us if he ever needed help.

We sat on the bed next to each other, it was the first time we had been alone since Chicago. We leaned in and shared a kiss. A minute later we were both naked and sucking each other’s cocks. Patrick started to play with my hole, I remembered back to the night that James fucked me. I did enjoy it, I spread my legs to give Patrick all the access he wanted. I moaned as he slowly pushed a finger inside me, then two. I threw my leg over Patrick, my ass was now in front of his face, he took the hint and started to lick my hole. I continued to suck his cock as he slobbered all over my ass, once I was wet, I turned around and went in for deep kiss. I reached back and aimed his cock at my hole.

He looked at me in surprise, “are you sure?”

I smiled at him, “yes, I at least want to try, just go slow.”

He grinned, “ok, just tell me if you want me to stop.”

We kissed as his cock met my hole, slowly the head pushed in, our eyes remained locked on each other. The discomfort turned to pleasure the further he pushed in. I gave him a smile and started to bounce up and down. Every time I came down, I hit my sweet spot, my spine shivered in shear ecstasy. My cock was bouncing between my stomach and Patrick’s.

Patrick moaned, “your ass is so tight, you are going to make me shoot very soon.”

I grinned at him, “that’s the whole idea, give me your load.”

I increased my speed, and he increased his groans, I pushed down as far as I could, and it sent me over the edge. My cock erupted sending my semen flying all over Patrick’s chest, his cock started to pulse, and he flooded my guts with his hot seed. Once our bodies stopped spasming, we kissed as I rolled to his side, and we snuggled together.

Patrick wrapped his arms around me, and asked, “so, did you like that?”

I smiled, “yes, very much, from now on we will need to take turns fucking each other.”

He grinned, “I think that would be just fine.”

We crawled under the covers and went to sleep.

We got up early the next morning and I walked with Patrick to work, I wished him good luck on his first day.

He said, “good luck on your meeting today too.”

He went inside and I continued walking to the Roosevelt Hotel. Mr. Oscar Mills called me into his office and asked me a few questions. A half hour later he told to be back at the Hotel at 3 o’clock tomorrow and report to Tom Billings, he would show me what to do. I thanked him as I left and let out a huge sigh of relief, Patrick and I only had about a week or two left before we would have been out of money.

I didn’t think things could get any better at this point, but as I walked by The El Capitan Theatre and I noticed a sign on the door. I stopped to read it, “Open Auditions for our upcoming Christmas production. See Director John Fischer inside for details”.

I didn’t even think twice, I walked into the theatre and headed straight to the director’s office.

 

To be continued…