Tethered by M.L. Young Read Free Book Online Page A

the middle of a dogfight in the Pacific Ocean. They had to make sure they drove fast, dodged pedestrians, and didn’t crash into the back of the car in front of them. This was usually accompanied by texting, tuning the radio endlessly, and screaming in a foreign language. To say I was terrified was an understatement.
    •••
    “Okay, we’re here,” the man said as we turned in Humble Studios, which was the studio that did all of the big movies in town.
    I looked out the window , as he seemed to slow down, as if the presence of this huge place was enough to make him think sensibly and calm when it came to driving. He turned from a Formula One racer to a student driver trying to pass his license test. He rolled up to a guard gate, which looked somewhat familiar to the one at the premiere, and unlocked the doors.
    “Okay, you get out here . Nice men have already paid your fare, so have a good day okay,” he said as he motioned his hand in the air.
    “Oh, okay, thank you,” I said, as I was just glad that Kurt or somebody else at least paid the fare for the taxi.
    I got out of the taxi, closed the door, and walked up to the gate as the driver screeched off as if he couldn’t wait to get out of here. You’d think we were driving up to Immigration Services or something.
    “Can I help you?” a man behind the gate asked.
    “Yes, I’m here to see Kurt Simmons,” I said, which he had most likely heard a million times before.
    “Name?” he asked in an almost drone like voice.
    “Chloe Steiner,” I said confidently, as to not give him any indication I was lying, which I obviously wasn’t.
    He scrolled through the stack of papers on his clipboard and finally stopped at my name, which was bolded out, as if to either say to watch out for me or that I was some kind of important person.
    “I see you right here, Ms. Steiner. If you’d like to come through the gate, I’ll call somebody to come and drive you over to the set,” he said before handing me a special lanyard, like the one I got at the premiere.
    I put the lanyard on , walked through the gate, and stood in a waiting area among a dozen golf carts, which I had seen tons of people driving around the set. The buildings were huge, like airline hangars, and there were signs from a bunch of television shows I had seen before. It was almost weird to see them being shot here, because they always portrayed it as happening in the street or a real house on TV. Thinking they had a mock-up of half a living room in there where the whole show took place just seemed like such a foreign concept to me.
    “Are you here to see Kurt?” a woman asked as I stood there in awe of the soundstages.
    “Oh, yes, I am,” I said with a smile, as if I were so happy and proud to admit to that.
    “My name is Savannah, and I’m going to take you over to his set . From there you’ll meet other people who will coordinate the meeting,” she said with a shy smile.
    She must’ve been somewhere around my age, likely an intern, and she actually reminded me a lot of Morgan . We got into a golf cart, she fired it up, and onward we went toward Kurt’s set, which I was hoping wasn’t too far away.
    I saw everything on the way there, from men in gladiator costumes to a bunch of cars from upcoming movies I saw trailers for . I smiled, looked on in awe, and likely looked like the biggest and dorkiest tourist there ever was. I wanted to point out everything to Savannah, but I knew I’d just seem like an idiot. She saw this stuff all day every day, and I knew she’d just smile and think to herself that I was some crazed fangirl here to lock Kurt up to a bed and break his knees or something.
    •••
    I was checked in once we arrived, and told to wait in his trailer for him. The spiel was that they were running late on set and that they personally didn’t know when he’d arrive, but that he would and we’d get to hang out for a bit. I happily agreed, knowing he would likely be a little busy,