Chapter One

Willow's POV

California, California, such a wonder that I think I'll stay in bed.

The song drifted through my headphones as I sat on the plane to LA with my older sister, Brody. She sat there flipping through the latest issue of Cosmo as I fiddled around with my iPod trying to find a game that didn't bore me after a few minutes of playing. We had only been on the plane for a few hours and I was already going crazy. A flight from Maine to California was long and we still had three more hours before landing.

I was anxious about going to California. I wanted to start over. I wanted to try and find myself. I mean I knew who I was, generally speaking, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life. At 21 years old I was about to embark on my senior year of college for a degree in sociology. But I wasn't entirely sure that that was what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be a hairstylist and I wanted to be a teacher. I also wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, and a vet. The usual stuff that kids wanted to be when they grew up and the phases they went through is what I was going through now. I wasn't even exactly sure what I could do with a sociology degree.

Brody, on the other hand had her entire life figured out. She just came along for the ride. She had just graduated at the top of her class from NYU with a degree in journalism and already had an internship lined up for the fall with the New York Times. I was always wishing I could have my life figured out like she did. I wished I could be the strong one who knew exactly what they wanted. But no, I was the wild one. The one with the crazy streak and the knack for doing really stupid, risky things. I was generally the problem child.

When the plane finally landed I was more than thrilled to be in California. Brody on the other hand was not. She was only here because she was afraid of me being here by myself. She thought I was going to be getting into all sorts of trouble. It wasn't like I was going to be running like a mad man all over the city.

We pulled up to the apartment we had rented for the summer. It was a beautiful two-bedroom apartment with a gorgeous view. The walls in the open living room were painted an eggshell white and had white furniture to match. There was also a large kitchen with an island and bar. I ran inside and picked a bedroom before Brody could pick one. The room I picked was painted the same eggshell white as the living room, but the accents and furniture in this room were all red, white, and black. The master bathroom was also attached to my bedroom and when I looked out the window I could see pretty much all of LA. I was so excited to be here I was practically running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"You need to calm down, Wills," Brody said.

"Calm down?" I said, "Why? I'm just excited to be here!"

"I know," she said with a laugh, "but we just got here, you need to calm down and unpack. Then we can freak out."

"Alright," I agreed with her and walked back into my room to unpack.

A few hours later when we were all unpacked and settled I suggested that we go out to a club and enjoy our first night in town. Brody wanted to stay in and relax and get over her jet lag. I somehow managed to convince her that going out was a good idea and the two of us got dressed for a wild night on the town. Well, it would be a wild night if I could convince my sister to do the crazy things I wanted to do. When we were ready to go we grabbed a cab and headed to the club closest to our apartment. I managed to get us in through the VIP section by sweet-talking the bouncer, and I knew it was going to be a good night.

The music was blasting and the place was packed. There were recognizable celebrities strewn around the place but there were also a bunch of regular people. Well, really good looking regular people. Everyone was always saying that you had to be good looking to make it in Hollywood, but I didn't actually believe it until I was sitting at the bar in this club taking in the scenery. Being on the look out for a cute guy that I could get to buy me drinks was difficult in this type of setting. The reason being that there were guys everywhere, and I could never tell if they were gay or straight. Because it seemed like in this town every guy put a lot of effort into their appearance. Back in Maine if a straight guy put that much effort into going out it was because it was the prom or he thought he was gonna get laid.

After scoping the room a few times I decided to give up on finding a guy to spend my time in this club with and ordered myself a Southern Comfort and Lime. My sister was casually sipping on an Apple Martini and attempting to look more entertained than she actually was. While sitting at the bar for a few hours I noticed a few guys come and go from the corner of my eye. When finally one sat down while talking to his friend. He barely noticed me, but I noticed him. I guess he could feel me staring because he turned to look at me and I turned away blushing. I could see him smiling and he slid over one bar stool and sat next to me.

"Hey, I'm James," he said, "Can I buy you a drink?"