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"Don't worry about that," I said. "I'll cover you."
She looked up at me with wide eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
I snorted. As if this was her fault. "You have nothing to apologize for," I said. "Just relax and let the medic do her job."
Slowly, she nodded.
I smiled. "I'm Christopher by the way."
"I'm Anna."
3
Anna
When I had come to the casting call, I figured the worst-case scenario would be getting rejected only to drive my crappy car over an hour back to campus. I didn't think I would actually get injured.
The medic took one look at my leg and called an ambulance for me. My stomach clenched with nerves and nausea. I wasn't worried about my leg even though it was hurting. I was more worried about the medical bills. Sure, in the heat of the moment, the producer, Christopher, had said he would cover the bills, but he would try to dance his way out of that one? Why would he even bother paying a bunch of money for a random extra? It wasn't like he knew me and I wasn't planning on suing.
The medic bandaged me up as well as she could, but she wanted me to get checked out in the hospital anyway. Luckily, she gave me something for the pain.
The director came over. "We need to move her. We have to keep shooting."
"Are you kidding me right now?" Christopher said, looking angry. "A person's been hurt and needs to go to the hospital."
The man didn't seem that affected. "Yeah," he said. "That sucks. But unless you want to be stuck at this lake for a third day we have to keep shooting." The director pinned me with a glare. "I don't have time to wait around because someone couldn't get out of a fucking chair in time."
I flushed. Maybe I should have reacted sooner. But they gave me a book as a prop and I had just started reading it and had gotten absorbed in the work. I tuned out the entire scene. This probably was my fault and now everything was on hold because of me.
Christopher stood up and squared off with the other man. The look on his face was practically murderous. "I'm getting really sick of your bullshit," he said. "Unless you apologize to her, you're fired."
Richard sneered. "Why do you care so much about a stupid extra anyway? She never should have been here. Do you want to fuck her or something?"
Christopher's jaw clenched and for a second I thought he was going to actually punch the other man. "It's okay," I said quickly. "I can move out of the way. It's all right." I tried to stand up. Pain radiated through my leg and I felt myself waver. Christopher acted quickly. He caught me before I fell and helped me to a sitting position. "You're not going anywhere," he said. "Don't listen to Richard. He's an asshole. You've done nothing wrong. I promise."
"Please don't fire him because of me," I whispered. "I don't want to cause any trouble." I smiled sheepishly through the pain. "Well, any more trouble at least."
"You're okay," he said. "This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault." He looked at Richard. "Keep shooting and keep us out of the shot. We can fix any problems in editing."
The director stalked off, muttering to himself. I leaned back on the ground, feeling completely humiliated. At least I wasn't on the broken chair anymore. The ground was a mixture of sand, rock, and grass surrounding the lake and it was at least moderately comfortable.
"The ambulance should be here soon," said Christopher. "Don't worry."
I nodded. "Thanks. You don't have to stay here if you don't want to. I'm sure you have to go back to work. And don't worry about paying the hospital bills. This isn't your fault. I'll make do." I would probably be dodging debt collectors for the rest of my life, but oh well. I would have ended up doing that anyway."
"Nonsense," Christopher said. "They don't me right now and it'll honestly be better if I get away from Richard and let both of us cool off." He looked at the actors who were shooting the scene again. "Also it would be a bad look for me to punch Mark even if I'm really tempted to right now."
"It was an accident."
"He's drunk."
I grimaced, knowing he was right. I had smelled the booze on him when he crashed on top of me. I felt bad for his costar. If they had a kissing scene today, I only hoped he popped a breath mint first.
Mark was supposed to be the huge heartthrob on set but I honestly couldn't see it. He was more repulsive than attractive in my opinion.
When the ambulance came, shooting had to be interrupted again. The director glared at me as if I had gotten stabbed in the leg on purpose. As I got loaded up into the ambulance, Christopher stood up. "I'll meet you at the hospital," he said.
"You really don't have to."
