Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning with the sun streaming through the curtain free balcony doors. It took me a second to remember where I was. I realized that I hadn't even looked around before I went to bed so I quickly rolled out of bed eager to explore.

I was obviously in the bedroom which had a large built in wardrobe, it huge double bed and a cute vanity table. There was a balcony that overlooked the apartment buildings large garden. It even had a pool! Through a door there was luxurious bathroom with a shower cubicle and a Jacuzzi bath. Pleased with what the bedroom and bathroom were like I walked out into a small hallway and followed it along to a large open plan room that served as a lounge but also led into a modern kitchen. The kitchen had an island/breakfast bar so there was no need to a dining room or table.

Through another door to the left was another decent sized room, it could be used as another bedroom or an office but I decided that I would keep everything for work in there.


It was 8 o'clock but already swelteringly hot, coming from England I was definitely not used to this kind of weather. Looking out from the second balcony in the lounge I could see the Venice Beach in the distance. The sun was reflecting off the sea making it look the perfect shade of blue. I decided I would have a quick run along the beach before I unpacked.

I pulled on a pair of tight running shorts, a tight vest top and my running shoes. I put my door key in the only zip pocket on the shorts and put my headphones firmly into my ears. Grabbing the dogs leads from floor in the lounge clipped them on and headed out into the sun.


It was about a 15 minute walk to the beach. I followed the signs and I only nearly got run over once. American traffic was much different to English traffic. The beach was free of tourists and sunbathers and instead was full of dog walkers and jogger. The pavement or sidewalk as I should call it now was filled with early rising skaters gliding smoothly.

Stepping onto the sand I let the dogs free and started to jog after them. I started at the recreation center and made my way all the way down the beach until I reached Venice fishing pier. I walked along the pier and sat in the sun on the end. There was no one there; it was either too early, too hot or something like that. I don't really know the routine of the L.A fishermen yet.

After I had basked in the sun long enough I decided to walk back, the dogs were thirsty and so was I. Halfway back along the pier I broke into a jog keeping to the edge. I was going quite fast and didn't notice the small puddle heading my way. The moment my foot hit the puddle it was a blur, my feet lost their footing on the slippy wood and I flew diagonally forward straight into the wooden planks that made up the piers perimeter. Of course due to my luck I smashed into the rotten one which gave way almost immediately leaving me to fall straight into the water below.


(3rd person POV)

The girl flew diagonally forward straight into the wooden planks that made up the piers perimeter. The rotten planks gave way almost immediately and she began plummeting towards the water below hitting her head on the side on the way down. Her two dogs began barking hysterically but no one took any notice, apart from one jogger passing the pier with his own dog on his heels. He was a young man with dark hair and a muscular body. He turned and noticed that his dog had run up the pier towards the barking dogs and spun around to follow him. He quickly reached the three dogs and saw he broken railings. He glanced over the edge and saw a figure beneath the clear surface. He acted. Kicking off his shoes he dived off the pier straight towards the figure.


(Albi POV)

I coughed. Water spilled from my lungs out my mouth. I looked up to see a soaking wet young man about 20 years old hovering above me looking anxious. Glancing around I noticed there was a crowd of people; they had formed a circle around us. There was a pain in my head and in my chest. I started shivering. The boy smiled "are you okay? What's your name?" he was American but looked familiar. I was blinded by flashes as people started to take photos. I looked back at the boy "My names Albi, what happened?" the boy smiled again "Hello Albi, my name is Josh" his face then grew anxious again "I'm not sure what happened, I was jogging past and I heard barking, when I reached the dogs on the pier I looked down and saw you in the water so dived in and pulled you too shore. You're lucky I did lifesaving for a few summers when I was younger" he said raising his voice above the chattering people and the sound of an ambulance growing closer. The ambulance arrived and I watched the paramedics run towards me across the sand. They looked so different to the English paramedics. They wrapped me in a silver blanket and lifted me onto a stretcher. "Is there anyone I can call for you?" josh asked as I was carried towards the ambulance. I shook my head. "Fine ill come with you to the hospital, is that okay?" he asked. I nodded slightly. "My dogs?" I asked him.

"The huskies?" he answered my question with a question, "its okay they are with my friend, he will bring them to the hospital when they give you the all clear okay?" he said when I nodded. I laid back and closed my eyes bracing myself for the familiar sensation of being rushed to hospital in an ambulance.


"Albi? Albi?" I awoke again to someone calling my name softly. I was in a hospital room that contained one doctor, two nurses and the mysterious guy that had saved me. "Good your awake" the doctor said "I need your full name so I can find your records". My mouth was dry, I coughed. "my name is Albane Henson, I'm from England but I officially moved here yesterday so they might be a bit hard to find". The doctor smiled slightly "okay, thank you Miss Henson, I'll be back soon" he said before walking out the small room. One nurse poured me a glass of water and handed it to me before both of them walked out the room. I was left with Josh. He spoke. "so what did happen?" he asked cautiously. I screwed up my forehead with concentration before I answered. "Umm, I slipped on a puddle and fell straight through the barriers" I said laughing a bit now I thought about it. It had to be a record for my clumsiness. Josh laughed too.

"What time is it? " I asked. He glanced at a clock behind me and said "just gone 12, why?"

"oh I'm just trying to work out when would be the best time to call my parents in England and tell them about my little accident." Josh laughed again "little accident! You nearly died babe" he said. My heart fluttered at the sound of him calling me babe, now I had the chance to look at him I could see he was well built and muscular, probably about 19 or 20 years old. He had dark hair and hazel eyes. I laughed awkwardly. "Yeah well if you were as accident prone as me this wouldn't seem that back." I replied. He smiled. "So what's your story?" he asked me. I laughed, I definitely liked this guy. "Well my name is Albane Henson, but everyone calls me Albi. I'm 18 and I arrived in L.A. yesterday ready to start my new job at Paramount Studios in a week. What about you, what's your story?" I blurted out.

He chuckled "wow. My name is Josh Hutcherson, I'm 19, I'm an actor and I live in L.A. what are you going to be doing at paramount? He asked back.

"Oh I'm going to be their new animal trainer" I replied. "Your an actor, that's cool. What have you been in, anything big?" I asked

"Well have you heard of The Hunger Games?"

"Yeah! I was going to see it actually but I never got around to it" I said back

"Well I was a main character in that" he said looking proud but not arrogant.

"Jesus, that's why you look so familiar, I must have been watching you in the adverts for weeks!"

"Yeah that's probably why then" he said helping himself to a apple from the basket on my bedside table and smirking at me. I smirked back.


We sat in comfortable silence for a while until the doctor came back in. he was carrying a clipboard with a thick wad of paper on it. "Well Miss Henson, it seems you have a large Hospital record" he said flicking through it quickly. "Yeah I'm slightly accident prone!" I giggled. The doctor smiled "well it seems you had a lucky escape today thanks to Mr Hutcherson here. You have a bump on the back of your head that needed stitches and you have a few bruises on your chest from the CPR but apart from that you're fine" he said. Josh looked guilty in the corner so I smiled at him. "Thank you doctor, can I go home then?"

"Yes but I would rather someone went with you in case there are problems, do you know of anyone we can call?" the doctor said.

"I can do it Doctor, I need to retrieve her dogs off my friend anyway so I will drop her home as well." Josh blurted out before I could answer. The doctor looked at me so I smiled and nodded.

"Very well then, you can go, and hopefully we won't see you again too soon" he said before walking out the room.

10 minutes later after I had changed back into my now dry clothes and signed out, I made my way out the hospital with Josh. He turned to me "right there might be some paps out there so just stay with me, my car is there". I laughed "look at you, only known you a couple of hours and your already going all movie star on me". He laughed back.

He was right; as soon as the automatic doors swung open we were ambushed by photographers. I was blinded by the lights so I grabbed Josh's shirt and held on for dear life until we reached the car. We climbed in and were instantly hidden behind the tinted glass. "Okay you were not kidding!" I said to Josh. He laughed, turned the key and revved the engine.


20 minutes later we pulled into the drive at a huge house. Josh parked the car, jumped out and opened the door on my side, I smiled at him. He led me up the drive and knocked loudly on the door. A middle aged man answered, he smiled at Josh as we walked in. Josh turned to me "Albi, this is my manager martin." He turned back to Martin "Martin this is Albi, the girl I saved". Martin said hello and shook my hand "Josh I have a meeting in a bit so I'm off now. I'll see you tomorrow okay" he said before walking through the door and closing it.

Once we were in the house Josh led me to the kitchen where he got me a drink of cold lemonade. I could see a huge garden behind him through the glass doors. He walked over and opened them wide. "Driver!" he shouted then stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Seconds later a grey and white pit bull dog appeared and ran towards his owner. He was followed by my Zeus and Nook. All three dogs soon burst into the kitchen. Josh's dog ran straight into him licking his legs. The two bigger dogs boycotted those two and ran back to me yapping and barking excitedly. I knelt down and ruffled their fur whilst they licked my face. "I guess you missed me boys!" I laughed.

After we had finished messing around with the dogs Josh led me outside into the garden where we sat, drank our drinks in the sun and discussed everything. I used his phone to call my parents; they went surprised I was injured already but were glad I was okay. It got late quickly. "Shit" I said realizing the time "I'm sorry Josh but I have to get home, I haven't even unpacked anything yet!"

He smiled sadly, "that's okay, ill drive you back now."

We got back into his car, this time with the dogs in the back and I directed his towards my apartment. When we arrived he parked up. "this has been a really good day Albi, excluding you nearly dying of course!" he said laughing "I understand you probably don't want anything to do with my celebrity lifestyle seeing as you've only just got here but if you fancy meeting up again, give me a call" he blurted out quickly passing me a piece of paper as I climbed out. I smiled and said that I would before opening the door for the dogs and shouting goodbye as he zoomed away.

I made my way into the building and all the way up to my apartment. I was stood outside the door before I realized my key was in my shoe. Frantically I pulled off both my soggy shoes but neither of them revealed the little silver key. They were probably underneath the pier right now. "Fuck!" I shouted.

A/N – so what did you meet of their first meeting? Okay or not? Tell me what you think, either PM or review. Thank you xoxo