The Accident: A Josh Hutcherson Story

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Ella was leaning against the wall outside the hospital, smoking one of the e-cigarettes Josh gave her, when she saw them.

A man with a bag on his hip went through the automatic doors that lead into the building. Ella recognized the sort of bag immediately. It wasn't a tote or a purse or a backpack. It was the sort of bag you'd carry camera equipment in. She had familiarized herself with the sort of things she should look out for that hinted at paparazzi.

Switching the cigarette off, she stuffed it into her back pocket and went off after the man. She weaved around patients and doctors, visitors and nurses. The man with the bag was going in the exact same direction as where she would head everyday after having an e-cigarette. 

The man took a sharp left and started going up the stairs. Ella waited a moment before following to put some space between them. He turned left again once he reached the very top floor and started going down the corridor. Right to where Josh's room was. His hand crawled around his hip to where the bag was, his fingers taking hold of the zip and pulling it down.

To reveal a massive camera.

Oh no you don't! Ella broke out into a run, going as fast as she could with the baby bump. The pap man was getting close to the window into Josh's room and Ella wasn't going to let him get a picture. No one was getting a picture. The man stopped at the window and peered in. He lifted the camera to his eyes as if in slow motion.

Why were the paparazzi like this? This wasn't some game. Josh wasn't dating someone new, he didn't get a new haircut, he hadn't been spotted outside the latest club, he was paralyzed. He was in a serious condition. He could have died. He had been in a coma before she had arrived. It wasn't something trivial. Didn't they understand that?

Ella came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. "Hey, can you help me?" 

The man turned around and when he was facing her, Ella pulled her fist back and punched his nose. The pap stumbled backwards and she kicked his shin. The man tripped and landed on the floor, the flash of the camera going off as his back hit the ground.

"Leave him alone!" Ella yelled. The man took a picture of her and she scowled, stamping her foot down on his ankle and twisting it so it was pinned into the floor. "What the hell is wrong with you?! How about I barge into the hospital where someone you love is in serious condition and start trying to get pictures!? How would you like that dickweed?!"

"I'm just doing my job!" The man hissed.

"Oh, your job?" Ella asked. "Well pardon me all to hell for trying to protect Josh from sleezy men like you because you're doing your job! Get a better job! Join a paper, save a small country, go stalk One Direction and find out who they're going out with. Leave Josh alone! Leave us alone!"

The man pushed himself to sit up on the floor. "Do you have any comments on Claudia's leaving your precious 'Josh'?" he asked, clicking on a recorder. 

Ella's eyes homed on on the recorder, the desire to blurt out everything strong. That Claudia was a control freak. That she had spent all weekend with her brother before finally coming to the hospital. That she left Josh because she couldn't be bothered looking after him, even though he would have stayed if it had of been her. That she threw his ring at her and stormed out. That she was a bitch and a whiny, nasty whorebag. 

But she was a bitch and a whiny, nasty whorebag that Josh still loved.

She couldn't rip on Claudia. She loved Josh too much to do that.

"Get out of here now," she growled through clenched teeth.

But the man was relentless. He stood up, recorder still in hand. "What about the love triangle? Why did Josh fall for a pregnant girl?"