#number 173

“I was about to say that you might want to stay down for a while,” the young man said. “The doctors said you’d feel a shooting pain in your head if you sat up too quickly. Any ways, welcome back Vivienne. How are you feeling?”

Vivienne grimaced and rubbed her temples. “Like a bus just hit me. Who are you?” Her mind was jumbled and everything that happened a few days ago seemed fuzzy.

The man smiled and ran a hand through his short, light brown hair. The doctors had warned him that he might need to jog her memory, especially since she hit her head pretty hard. “I get it – you need a refresher, don’t you love?”

"That would be helpful," she replied.

"I'm Tom. Tom Daley," he said.

"Yeah you looked familiar – you're the diver right?" she said.

He nodded and leaned forward in his chair. "Yes and we met a few days ago. At Universal Studios Hollywood. I asked you to give me and my mates a tour of the park-"

"And we had a run-in with these girls who liked you and really hated me! Oh gosh its all coming back to me!" Vivienne said as she slowly sat up. Her head didn't hurt as much as it did now and she moved her hand away from her forehead.

***

Two Days Earlier

“Excuse me!”

Vivienne turned around to see a young man about her age running up to catch up to her. He had a park map clenched in his hand, which to her was a dead giveaway that he wasn’t from here. She had been to Universal Studios Hollywood so many times that she skipped the map altogether.

“You look like you know this park inside and out,” the guy began. “So I’d like to know where’s a good place to eat here.”

Vivienne studied him carefully – he looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t put her finger on where she had seen him. “Well uh, Mel’s decent,” she said. “But I prefer either Karl Strauss or Buca di Beppo in the Citywalk to any place in the park. The food tends to be more interesting.”

The young man grinned widely at her and straightened his messenger bag on his shoulder. “Well since you seem like an expert, how about giving me and my friends some pointers as to what’s good to do here.”

One of the young man’s friends shouted, “Why not just have her be our tour guide?”

Vivienne shrugged her shoulders and said she could do that. “Uh yeah I was about to go do the Studio Tour right now – its a great way to kick off the day. That okay?”

“Sounds awesome,” the man replied. He motioned to his friends to follow him and Vivienne as they headed to the escalators that led to the boarding area.

“So uh, didn’t get your name,” Vivienne said as she turned back toward the man.

“Yeah that’s kinda important if you’re leading us around,” the man replied. “I’m Tom. That’s Asha, Chris, Jack, and Olivia. What’s yours?”

“Vivienne, nice to meet all of you,” she replied. She hesitated before the escalator because it always intimidated her to get on safely. She had a slight fear of escalators ever since she was a kid. Tom offered her his hand and she took it as they stepped on together. She normally wouldn’t have agreed to hold some stranger’s hand, especially if it was someone she had just met, but Tom seemed...well different.

She could hear Chris hooting and Jack making kissing noises behind them. They were quickly silenced by Asha and Olivia  who elbowed both of them, telling them to stop being childish. Tom ignored them and guided Vivienne off the escalator carefully.

“Thanks,” she said. “For some reason, I just always hate getting onto a down escalator. I guess its fear of stepping onto one of the cracks and falling onto my butt once the steps go down.”

Tom laughed hard at the thought of that happening and Vivienne pursed her lips. It wasn’t funny in her mind, since it happened to a few of her friends when they were little. One of them broke their tailbone and had to have it removed 2 weeks later. She remembered that her friend was in pain whenever she sat down and eventually she had to stay home until the surgery was completed.

Tom apologized once they got in line for the tour. “I’m so sorry but the thought of it is so funny!” he said. “I mean, really.”

“Yeah try telling that to my friend Bea when she broke her tailbone by falling backwards onto an escalator step,” Vivienne said. “And she said that she was crying every time she sat down until the tailbone was removed.”

“Yeah that does sound painful,” Asha cut in. “So are you local?”

“Yep. Where are you from?”

Tom straightened up and replied, “We’re from the UK actually. Erm, you might recognize us from Team GB’s diving team. That is, if you watch diving, I mean. Cause if you don’t, you need to.”

Olivia rolled her eyes and brushed past Tom. She gestured to Asha and said, “Asha and I are on synchronized swim. Unlike you boys, we are elegant and coordinated. So if there's a sport you need to watch, its us.”

Tom pretended to take offense and he drew back from Olivia in mock anger. “Are you saying that we’re just clowns plunging off a board? I think not!” He turned toward Vivienne and threw her a pleading look. “Viv dear, please tell Livy and Ash that we guys can be graceful when diving. After all, diving is not about just getting the dive correct but doing it with elegance and a small splash.”

Vivienne looked over at Olivia and Asha who were trying to persuade her with clasped hands and eager looks, then she looked at Tom, Jack, and Chris who were giving her identical puppy dog eyes. She knew this was a cop-out answer but frankly, she couldn’t choose between one.

“I think that both sports are amazing,” she said. “I mean, all of you are really talented at something that I have no skill at doing. I would probably scream the whole way down if I dove. And I’m really clumsy so synchronized routines are hard for me to perform gracefully.”

Tom wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned in close to her. His lips nearly brushed her ear as he said, “But secretly you like us better.”

Vivienne shot him a polite smile and removed his arm from her shoulder. It wasn’t like she thought Tom was not her type but he seemed a bit forward for her liking. Sure he was handsome and had a charming smile, but the last thing she needed was attention from other girls who were watching their little group in line. She hoped that no one had seen that but it was too late – one girl in a group behind them had seen her and had begun to whisper amongst each other. This girl glared hatefully at Vivienne while her friends shot her angry or jealous looks. Vivienne tried to shake it off and look ahead to the front.

As they neared the front of the line, Vivienne felt someone shove her roughly to the side. She slammed into the railing hard and nearly fell to the ground, except she caught the horizontal bar of the railing to steady herself.

"You all right?!" Chris asked as he helped Vivienne to her feet.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks," she said to him. She turned to see that it was the posse of girls from behind them, led by their glaring leader. She looked down upon Vivienne and gave her a cruel smile.

"Hey what gives?" Chris demanded as the girls brushed past him. "That was a cheap shot!"

“Oops, didn’t see you there. Guess she must have been invisible,” the girl taunted as she made her way over to Tom . She twirled her hair on her long, slender fingers and shot him a warm, welcoming smile. “Well hello there gorgeous. I know I’ve seen you somewhere.”

Tom narrowed his brows at the girls and walked over to Vivienne. He placed a hand on her shoulder and noticed that there was an ugly, purple bruise on Vivienne's forearm from where she had been shoved. He turned to the ringleader and said, “Hey you sort of got a bit rough with our tour guide here. An apology would be great.”

The girl feigned innocence and stepped closer to Tom. "I must have not been paying attention. But then again, how can I when I'm standing behind UK hottie Tom Daley?" Her posse agreed and sidled up to Tom.

"Am I chopped liver here?" Jack muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Vivienne stood next to him and observed this scene go down. "Face it Jack – we've been shunned by the Princesses of Hollywood."

Olivia rolled her eyes and walked over to Jack and Vivienne. "They aren't worth getting your knickers in a bunch over. They seem rather crass."

Asha stepped between Tom and the snooty girl and said, “You could do me and everybody else a favor and just get back to your original place in line. Don’t think anyone else here likes a cutter, right?”

She looked around at their neighbors standing in front and behind them in line for back-up. The people around them voiced their dissent and shot the girl and her posse some harsh glares.

Tom looked over at the girls and crossed his arms over his chest as the rest of the crowd sided with Asha. "Well I know I don't like people who cut the line. And I really don't like people who shove our tour guide down. She didn't do anything to you, last time I checked."

With the harsh glares from the rest of the people in line and Tom's statement, the girls backed off and one of them muttered that they'd rather go do something else. The ringleader rolled her eyes, flipped off Asha, and threw Vivienne an ice glare before stepping under the ropes and leaving the line. The rest of the guests in line cheered and Olivia patted Vivienne on the shoulder as she looked at the bruise.

"You okay?" she asked Vivienne.

"Yeah I'm all right," Vivienne replied. "Thanks for sticking up for me back there, guys."

Tom smiled and grabbed two pairs of 3-D glasses, one of them which he handed off to Vivienne. "For you. Sorry about her shoving you," he said. He tilted his head toward her and gave her a sympathetic look. "You want me to kiss it?"

"No its just a bruise, it will be fine," Vivienne said as she nudged him. "Let's just get on the tram before they come back."

***

"That was an awesome ride!" Jack said as they exited Transformers: The Ride. He turned to Vivienne and said, "I think it was great luck that we ran into you today. We got a lot done today!"

Vivienne blushed and lowered her head at this compliment. "You're welcome. I'm glad I could help."

Olivia checked her watch and commented that it was getting late. "We should probably head back to our hotel now."

Tom turned to Vivienne and shoved his hands in his pockets. "So uh, what are you going to do now?"

"Me? Probably head back to my dorm at university and try to avoid Rush Hour," Vivienne replied.

"Where do you go to school?" Chris asked.

"I go to Cal Fullerton," she replied. "It's not too far from here but it can be a bit of a drive, depending on traffic."

"And its about Rush Hour right now," Olivia noted as she put away her phone. "So we can hang with you until it clears out."

"It's fine guys," Vivienne said. "If you guys want to head back to your hotel now, that's cool with me. You don't need t-"

"At least just relax in the lobby with us," Asha insisted.

Vivienne opened her mouth to decline but Tom took a hold of her arm and began dragging her to the bus stop for the hotel.

"While we're waiting for Rush Hour to pass, maybe we should all take a dip in the pool," Tom said. He winked at Vivienne and she gave him a funny look, all while her face was slowly turning rose pink.

"But I don't-"

"Just borrow something from me!" Asha said as she guided Vivienne onto the bus. "We're about the same size so it will work!"

                                                                 ***

Vivienne stared at Tom and winced as she touched the side of her head. She rubbed the sore bump on it and remembered how she got it.

Asha had given Vivienne her white bikini to wear when they came back. She and Olivia claimed that they wanted to get their make-up off before they swam so they told Vivienne to head down and meet the guys. She arrived at the pool early and had sat down on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the cold water. Vivienne had shuddered since it was so cold but she tried to adjust to the water. Then she saw a shadow behind her and before she could turn her head, she was roughly shoved into the pool with much force. Vivienne had sunk down to the bottom, head first, and because it was the middle of the pool, which was only 5 feet deep, she had struck her head on the bottom. Everything was fuzzy after that.

Vivienne turned to Tom and asked, "So what happened after I was pushed in? I know I hit my head and blacked out for a bit but everything's a blur."

Tom nodded and sighed as he leaned forward in his chair. “Good thing I happened to get there soon after. I thought we’d never come back from that one. It was that prat who shoved you earlier who pushed you in.”

Vivienne smiled weakly at that, since she had a bad feeling that the girl would try to seek revenge for earlier. "Did she try to seduce you?"

Tom groaned and put his hand over his face. "Don't remind me – here I was panicking because you were under the surface and not coming up and she was pushing me into a deck chair. Nearly sat on my lap!"

Vivienne snickered at the thought of it, making Tom frown and nudge her gently. "Hey! It wasn't funny Viv! I was scared for you! And having her put the moves on me wasn't hot at that moment."

"Not your type?" she joked weakly.

"Not even!"

“Did you get me out?” she asked.

“Yeah I jumped in and pulled you out,” Tom said. He blushed and looked away as he continued. "I uh, had to give you mouth-to-mouth. You weren't breathing and well..."

"Thank you," Vivienne said. "Hospital?"

"Yeah Olivia called and they picked you up immediately," Tom replied.

He locked one hand under Vivienne's and rested the other on top. His thumb stroked the soft skin on top. "Well uh you weren't conscious when I said this, but you looked fit in Ash's bikini," he said. He leaned closer to her and shot Vivienne a wicked smile.

Vivienne reddened and looked away. She hated to admit it, but Tom had her where he wanted her. She had tried so hard to resist his charms but somehow, he just happened to work his way in without being invasive. She caught him looking at her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Tom closed the gap between them and swiftly pressed his lips gently against Vivienne's. His hand cupped her cheek, which was warm and turning a brilliant red. He slowly broke off the kiss and stared her straight in the eyes.

“So aside from your head being sore, how are you feeling?” he asked her.