Chapter Text
August 1981
“It seems she hangs on the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear. Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear.”
The voice of Romeo muffled through the apartment, vibrating the floor on which Jimmy—alongside the black- and-white-CRT set in front of him—lay. He mumbled alongside the grainy voice, the line had been long ingrained in his head, it having been his favorite. He shifted to his stomach, resting his tired head on his arms splayed in front of him with a dreamy sigh.
The movie, alongside the Soviet vinyl player hooked up with a crackly Frank Sinatra record, helped to drown out the noises of the New York City streets.
This was his favorite scene of his favorite movie: when Romeo watches Juliet from across the room at the Capulet’s masquerade ball and proclaims his undeniable infatuation with the girl. Romeo enchanted him dearly. The actor was tall, tan, muscular, and young. Jimmy couldn’t remember all the words to describe him, but knew there were more. He hadn’t been sure why he had this passion for Romeo, but perhaps it had something to do with admiration. Maybe Jimmy just wanted love, and admired Romeo for giving up everything for love. That’s what his Aunt Eva had told anyone who questioned his obtuse interest, at least.
Jimmy knew it wasn’t about Romeo at all. It was about Gordon. Gordon Wardell.
He’d only learned the man’s name after his Aunt had bought him a copy of the Shakespeare novel that he regarded so highly. Upon reading, he found the spelling of Romeo, and was able to watch the credits to find the actors name. Since then, Aunt Eva hadn’t heard her nephew talk about anything but the man, and Jimmy hadn’t thought about anything but him.
He had been fifteen then. He knew it wasn’t an infatuation with the man’s masculinity, or an admiration for the man (at least, not mostly admiration) like his Aunt swore it was. He knew it was something else. What? He wasn’t sure. Something that made his stomach feel weird, something that made him dizzy, something that made him bounce off the walls at the very mention of his favorite actor, something that made him watch every single movie the man was in to the point he’d learnt English from it. ‘Something exciting,’ Jimmy concluded.
The door to the apartment creaked open, and closed. Jimmy smiled, stood, and padded over to the living area that intercepted the entrance and television room of the small apartment. Jimmy bounced in excitement as his Aunt walked towards him. She looked about as tired as she always had back then, but Jimmy hadn’t noticed nonetheless.
He had begun to ramble. Jimmy couldn’t remember the exact words that had come out of his mouth, (He was pretty sure it was about Gordon Wardell’s upcoming move from California to New York City for his broadway debut, but he digressed; the details weren’t too important.) however he could remember his aunt having just a bit too long of a day to stand it, and shoving him in his room by the collar before telling him to not come out until dinner in her broken Russ-lish.
Jimmy sighed, and crawled onto his bed. Not like there had been anywhere else to go. His room wasn’t a real bedroom, it was intended to be a walk-in-closet. However, it fit a bed, and, very snugly, a dresser just at the foot of the bed to act as a desk just fine, furthermore, the wall hosted all of his cut out newspaper articles and drawings of and about Gordon Wardell nicely. He wasn’t sad, just no longer bursting with energy.
February 1985
He sipped slowly on his drip coffee, the paper cup warmed his gloved hands as he made his way home. The advertisement job had gone alright, simple magazine photo with tacky button-ups that didn’t feature his face. He hadn’t been fond of advertisements, especially since he hadn’t had an agent, so work was questionable sometimes. However, it made rent, and that was all that mattered at the time.
Jimmy strolled. Work had been in the Upper East Side that day, so he had a pretty long walk to his Chinatown studio apartment that he’ began renting around five months ago, desperate to get out of ‘Little Odessa’. Thankfully, Broadway lead him nearly all the way to his apartment door, and Jimmy could never deny himself a good peep down Broadway.
He typically just looked around for anything featuring Frank Sinatra, or, of course, Gordon Wardell. Typically, he saw more of the latter. When he would have a bit of disposable income, he’d buy cheap tickets to some of Wardell’s shows. Sometimes he got so happy to see the man on stage—right in front of him—that he would have to walk out halfway through the show. He hadn’t thought much of it, he just felt giddy.
He had no other plans for the rest of the day, although, tomorrow he had two movie auditions, and one musical audition. He mentally groaned thinking about it. He hated auditioning. He had been in three movies since he started auditioning at eighteen, around a year ago. No major roles, just minor ones or background characters. He hadn’t been casted in any musicals or plays he had tried out for, though.
His nineteenth birthday was in less than two weeks now.