The Accident: A Josh Hutcherson Story

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

(Just as a sidenote, I do not hate Claudia Trisac, I'm sure she's a lovely girl . . . I guess . . .)

Ella ran her fingers along her lips, her eyes searching the t.v in her temporary room. For some reason, she was obsessed with watching Detention, especially Sander's party. She hated Ione. The girl irritated her. There was something about her overly chirpy, annoying, 'I'm dating Clapton Davis!' personality that pissed Ella off. And, okay, she'll admit it, she didn't like the way they were eating each other's faces against the bookcase either.

"She's just a whore," Ella muttered to herself. She had to constantly remind herself this because there was a small voice at the back of her head that kept reminding her about their escapade in the toilet cubicle. At one point, she got so irritated with herself that she pummelled one of Josh's pillows with her fists. 

He was engaged, she shouldn't be concentrating on that at all.

"Ella?" Claudia stood in the doorway, only having missed the girl's meltdown by a minute. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Ella asked, pausing the t.v. "Oh, yeah, everything's fine."

"You don't look so sure," Claudia said, entering the room. She glanced at the t.v and frowned, completely confused by her film choice. "Detention? Not one of his finest . . ."

Ella shrugged. "It's alright, I suppose." 

Claudia folded her arms and bit her bottom lip, staring at the blonde bimbo on the screen. "When I marry him, he's not allowed to kiss anyone. Not even in movies." Ella looked at her incredulously, hoping that she was joking. "What? I'm not letting him do anything with anyone. He can only be with me."

Knowing that she wasn't in a place to judge but being unable to help herself, Ella asked, "Isn't that a bit possessive?"

Claudia didn't look bothered by the assumption. "I'm not as big as him, I don't have fanboys fawning over me, he doesn't have to worry about me. But I have full rights to worry about him. So, no, I'm not letting him kiss anyone other than me when we're married. I think it's a pretty mundane request."

Mundane?! He's a goddamn actor! It's his job! "Why?" Ella frowned. "Don't you trust him?"

"Of course, I do," she rolled her eyes. "Just not fully enough to believe that he won't ever make a mistake."

Ella refused the urge to yell in frustration. Urgh, why did she have to say something like that?! Of course Josh had made a mistake. She was the mistake. Her and her stupid tendency to get wasted at bars, her and her ridiculous urge to make depressed people feel better, her and her worrying obsession with guys with sexy asses! Her, Ella, was the mistake Josh had already made. She was the accident.

"You're his cousin, right?" Claudia asked.

"Erm, yeah?"

"Would you trust him?"

Ella blinked, confused. "Well . . ." How could she go with this? She couldn't tell Claudia the truth and tell her that she didn't trust Josh as far as she could throw him but she was a terrible liar . . . "You should trust him. I think I can safely say he won't make any more mistakes."

"Any more?" Claudia frowned.

"Yeah, everyone makes mistakes. But . . . now that he's found you . . . he won't make any more." Ella smiled weakly, trying to sound convincing. Claudia didn't seem to buy it at all but, by the looks of it, she didn't want her fiance's 'cousin' going and telling him that she had been questioning his faith to her.

"We're going out," she said instead. "You've been so cramped in this house, I was-we were-wondering whether you'd like to come with us."

"Uh . . ." Ella was reluctant to go. She really didn't want to be with Josh anymore than she had to be.