Page 92 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

As soon as we stepped from the car, a tiny little dark-haired girl strode from the shadows toward us. She looked annoyed as she handed Josh a slip of paper. Or maybe it was boredom. I couldn’t tell.

“The filming schedule’s changed,” she said, waiting for Josh’s reply.

I watched Josh read the paper, his expression turning dark. “Are you serious?” he asked the girl, but she simply shrugged.

“I’m just the messenger,” she said.

“For fuck’s sake. Where’s Steven?”

The girl raised her eyebrows. “On set.”

Josh turned to me and exhaled. He looked as though he was trying not to lose his shit. I wasn’t so sure he was actually going to achieve it, though. Taking my hand, he started towing me toward a large building. “Is everything all right?”

Josh’s jaw was set tight. Whatever the note said, it obviously wasn’t good. “I just need to find out what the hell’s going on,” he said, pushing through the doors.

We hadn’t gone far when he dropped my hand, half turning to me as he continued walking. “I won’t be a minute,” he said, his voice hard. I slowed my steps, taking his not-so-subtle hint that I needed to wait for him. “What the hell’s going on, Steven?” I heard him say as he approached a short, gray-haired man. I wondered if he knew his voice was carrying. “This scene is supposed to be on tomorrow’s shooting schedule.”

The man nodded. “Hannah can’t be on set tomorrow, so I’ve had to move things around. We can do the den scene tomorrow instead.”

Josh ran his hand over his head. “Why can’t she be here tomorrow?”

The man crossed his arms, his gaze flashing to me for a brief moment. “She has an appointment. Do you have a problem with running the midnight scene?”

I watched Josh put his hands on his hips. “Fuck.” He turned his body away from me a little more. “No, I can do it.”

“Hannah’s asked for a closed set, Josh,” the man said.

Josh threw his hands in the air. “Of course she has!” He looked up to the ceiling for a second before sighing. “I need to go prepare. How long have I got?”

“We start rolling at eleven. I need you to have a quick look over yesterday’s take before you go. I think we may have to go again.”

Rubbing his hands over his face, Josh nodded. Turning to me, he gave me a tiny smile. “I’ll be back in a minute, Liv. Sorry.”

I waved him off. “That’s okay. I’m fine.”

I had no idea filmmaking could be so stressful. As I watched him disappear through a door, I wandered over to a wall of posters and pinned up schedules, reading over them to bide my time. Most of them were time schedules of upcoming shoots, by the look of it.

“Oh, hey,” a voice called out behind me. “Do you know where Steven is?”

I turned to see a small girl with long black hair and vibrant green eyes walking toward

me. She was gorgeous. “Uh, he went through that door,” I said, pointing.

The girl cocked her head to the side. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you new?”

Well, this was awkward. I hadn’t had to introduce myself to anyone Josh knew before. “Oh, um . . . I’m here with Josh.”

Her eyes widened. “Ohhh! You must be Olivia.”

Oh my God. I was never going to get used to people knowing my name. I smiled instead of answering.

The girl stepped forward, holding out her hand. “I’m Hannah Bryant, Josh’s costar.”

Crap.

Taking her hand, I gave it a little shake. “Nice to meet you, Hannah.”

She watched me for a little while, her smile slowly slipping from her lips before she sighed. “You seem like a real nice girl, Olivia. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I feel like I should warn you—girl code and all.”

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