Is This True Love? (DNF)

Chapter 63: First Meeting

Clay POV.

The tears glistened in the light, and I watched as he ended the call and wiped his face. "George?" I approached him, giving a soft smile to try and comfort him. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I know what you told me." He sniffled. "Ab-about how Karl wasn't really my friend, but I didn't really believe it." He confessed.

I understood where he was coming from. Obviously it was different to what he was going through, but I also felt betrayed when I discovered what Karl was truly like. Even if George had an experience with Karl, he hadn't seen all the disgusting truths that the brunette had.

"I'm sorry." Was all that I could really say as I went to hug him again. It was something that I had repeated over and over again throughout the afternoon we'd been in the woods. "I had talked to him weeks ago, truthfully he is not a good person. He always thought he was above this show... above you..."

"I've known him my whole life, and he never liked me?" George asked, tearing up some more. "I- I-" He wasn't able to come up with words as he sobbed in my arms. All that I could do was hold him, knowing that I wouldn't be able to comfort him in any way.

When he had been there for a while I took the phone from George. Despite the fact that he was still relentlessly sobbing, the brunette tried to grab at it. "Clay!" He protested.
"I'm just powering it off." I reassured him. "So that they won't be able to track us down." Then I put the phone in my pocket, although I planned on dumping it somewhere later.

He let out a sound of hopelessness, of disheartment. I could do little to comfort him and I knew this, instead just standing up and moving away from him. "So I know you planned on getting us out of here... how are you going to do that?" George questioned, and I noticed him studying me as he said that.

"Well there are about a dozen exits to this dome. I was thinking if I could approach one of the lesser known ones, charm the people who are there keeping an eye on it, and escort you outside." Perhaps it wasn't my best plan, I would admit that, yet it was all that I could think of before they got entire search parties organised to go after us.

George seemed convinced though, full of trust and love and a desperation to get out of this nightmare. While he watched me I I averted my gaze and thought. 'Now all I need to do is remember where the exits were... '

✨️A few months ago✨️

"I still can't believe that you are going to be coming on the show... Clay Smith and George Davidson! Hollywood's two favourite faces hanging out for two weeks." The woman bubbled happily as she walked a few steps ahead.
"Kris, try and keep calm please." Jimmy was firm yet full of care.

"Sorry Jimmy... just excited for this opportunity." She chirped.
"Honestly I can't believe it myself." I admitted. "I've grown up watching George, and now I'll be in the same room as him. It feels unbelievable."

We'd been walking along a hallway, with Jimmy and Kris ahead of me and Chandler and Nolan behind. All of them I knew, having been acquainted at many different events throughout the years. All of them were incredibly nice and genuine people, quite down-to-earth for their status and donating lots to charities.

"So up here we have our main monitoring room." Jimmy stated, opening the door and showing off a large circular room. It had a high ceiling and around the walls were probably forty at least. A few people were running around, none paying me any mind as they focused on watching footage and radioing information back and forth.

"There are exactly 15,390 cameras on the island and we can monitor up to fifty-two in this room alone." Chandler was quick to comment. "It doesn't sound like much, but we can monitor every angle that you can think of for George."
"That's impressive." My voice was flat, respectful to the four as they talked.

I was a hard core fan of the show, this knowledge was not new to me, yet my gaze caught on the TVs whenever they flickered from one angle to another. The idea of living with dozens of cameras watching your every movement was unnerving, kind of like a George Orwell Big Brother thing. I couldn't imagine living like that at all times.

"Don't worry." Nolan was watching with a curious expression, in fact the whole group was. "We don't watch when our crew, or George, are doing anything sensitive. Like getting changed or showering or having sex." He shrugged.

The way he talked about it so blandly shocked me, not that I let it show. Perhaps though, this was a common conversation, since I could guarantee lots of these people wouldn't want to work here if their sex or their showers were monitored by the crew. I managed a smile, adding a 'good to know'.

As I had been talking with him the rest of the group had moved towards a table in the centre of the room. It was round and I saw streaks of colour brushed across it, surrounded by a ring of blue. It became more clear as I approached; a diorama of the town.

My mouth opened in awe at the intricacy of the design, yet I said nothing. "So we will be introducing you to the person you are staying with later, but this is her house." Jimmy stated, pointing at a building with a dark roof. "Her name is Niki, she will be your cousin." I took note of what he said.

The man continued to point out other buildings, shops I may need to go to, homes belonging to people of note, etcetera. Then he pointed to some areas that were marked with small red flags, jutting an inch above everything else.

"These are all entry points." He explained. "When the cast or the crew need to come in or out for any reason these are the places they go to."
"That is the main entrance." Kris pointed to an area off the main island which had two flags marking it instead of one. "That's where most people leave from."

"Around town there are ten places to enter and exit." Kris dutifully explained. "However sometimes, if it gets busy you can exit through these doors, about a three minute drive or a seventeen minute walk from the main door."

My eyes fluttered and I looked back over to George. "I figured it out."
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