Someone Else's Fairytale

Chapter Two: Photograph

“Miss?” said one of the men to me. “You can't just walk around-”

“I'm not trying to wander around the set,” I snapped. “I'm supposed to be back with the extras. Do you mind?” I tried to push past again and the grip on my arm tightened. “Let me go!” I shouted.

“Guys, guys!” That was Jason Vanderholt, stumbling down the steps behind me. “Back off.”

“Look,” I rounded on him. “I don't know you. I don't know why you summoned me like this, and this-” I gestured at his goons "-is not okay. Let me leave."

“Right, sorry.” He spread his hands. “Guys, back off. Come on. Don't block her in like that. Give her space.”

“Is there a problem, Mr. Vanderholt?” Another woman in a headset appeared in the crowd that had gathered. “Is this woman-”

“No,” he said. “No, and call me Jason, will you?”

My outburst had caused a flurry of commotion. More people were pouring into this lane between the trailers. The sky was pale blue overhead and the sound of traffic on the main road had picked up.

“Is this woman causing problems?” another man asked.

“No,” said Jason. “This is Chloe. She's a friend and I was just going to walk her back to... wherever she needs to go.” He looked at me, one eyebrow raised.

“I just need to get my things from where the extras were, and then leave,” I said.

“Okay, let me walk you. It's okay, everyone, move along.” He came over to put a hand on my arm, turned me back in the direction of the anthropology building, and we started on our way.

The crowd stayed behind. I could feel their gazes boring into the back of my skull. Now that all the excitement was over, the embarrassment set in. “I'm sorry,” I said. “I hope I didn't just get you in trouble.” My face burned hot. I'd just behaved as if he'd propositioned me, when he hadn't even said two words. He probably thought I was the most presumptuous, ridiculous girl he'd ever met.

“No, I'm sorry.” We rounded the trailer. “I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh.” We reached the open parking lot.

He paused and turned me around to face him. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just... guess I got up too early this morning. My head's not clear.” I looked down at the asphalt.

“You can look at me, you know?”

I lifted my gaze to that face I'd seen on countless movie posters and tugged my arm out of his grasp. “Sorry.”

He dropped his hand and smiled. “No, don't apologize. I just... I don't know what kind of instructions people gave you. Sometimes they tell the extras not to look at the actors and with me, it's fine. You can... Okay... no one told you that, did they?”

I shook my head.

“I must sound like the most arrogant person ever.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and I noticed it stayed perfectly styled. Weird.

“Well, if everyone behaves the way they did in line-”

“Right, yeah. It's to prevent stuff like that, but... anyway. Listen, I didn't get a chance to really talk to you. Since I know your family-”

“No, you don't.”

“Well, some of them at least. I've spent some time over at Dr. Winters's house, hanging out with Chris.”