Tory awoke with the alarm clock's annoying bell. With her curly brown hair falling over her eyes under the bright sunlight of the morning, her dyed blonde strands that seemed like molten gold were covering her bare shoulders.

She blinked during a while until her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room. Under her long lashes were hiding two big brown circles. Guys who had already dated with her all had said that there was nothing prettier than the eyes of Victoria Toretto.

Yawning, she shifted in the bed, making the sheets falling from sideways. Her mate still muttered something in his sleep, but turned away. She sat on the bed, and her back rested against the cold wall. She had been soundly sleeping, but the damn alarm had interrupted her sleep.

Once she was fully awake, she glanced at the clock.

"Oh shit!" She yelled when she saw what time was. Instantly, Tory jumped out of the bed. "Dom is going to kill me!"

She picked up her clothes and shoes.

"Josh, wake up!" She ordered, doing a thousand and one attempts to put on her pants. The young man groaned, continuing to catch up on his sleep. "Damn!" Once she had her shirt on, Tory walked up to the bed and began to shake her friend. "Hey, hey!" The boy seemed too gone in his sleep. She ran to the bathroom, filled a glass with cold water and returned to the room. When she clamb on the bed, and didn't hesitated to twist her wrist and she threw all the water on Josh's face, making him awake up in panic.

"What…? How...?" He ran his hands over his face, while the cold water ran down his chest. "Tory!" He yelled, wiping himself with the sheets. "Why did you do that!?"

"Look at the time!" She said, pointing at the clock. As the boy's green eyes traveled to the clock, his expression turned into a grimace of horror.

"Bloody hell!" He shouted as he hurried out of the bed. He had exactly 10 minutes to leave Tory at home, before her brother could notice her absence.

Once the couple was ready, they got into the car. Josh ran as fast as he could. Victoria turned on her phone again. Her heart sank when she saw so many missed calls from Mia. She knew her sister would support her no matter what, but now she had exceeded its limit. Dominic wouldn't believe that his sister had been studying all night for her entrance exam to university. Well, nobody really believed that, really.

Josh took a sharp turn on a curve, and almost collided with another car.

"Keep you damn eyes on the road, man!" She claimed, settling into her seat. The driver had barely heard her; but that didn't really matter: They were running out of time.

"Is it really necessary to do this every time!?" Josh questioned, pressing his hands against the wheel. "Seriously, is Dom responsible for checking if you're in bed?"

"I have a brother, it's different to have two sisters." She snapped.

Once parked in front of the Toretto's house, Josh turned off the engine of the car and rubbed his head while Tory was grabbing her stuff from her seat. They still had two minutes.

"We should stop doing this." Josh suggested. "We should talk to Dom. Maybe he will understand."

Tory bit her lips. She liked Josh, but not enough to start a serious relationship.

"I think it's still soon." She replied, messing with a strand of her hair. "It might the best to wait, just a little longer don't you think?" She insisted.

He chuckled in a fake way and rested his head against the window.

"Hey." She whispered while approaching him. "Meet me at the race tonight." She smiled, stroking his cheek with her delicate fingers. "It will be fun…"

"Goodbye, Tory." He interrupted annoyed, repositioning his hands on the wheel. "See you next week."

Tory looked down and put her bag on her shoulder and tried to say goodbye to him, but Josh refused. Hurt, she left the car and looked at him.

"I will see..." Before she could finish the sentence, Josh started the car again." I hope you…" The engine's sound obscured her words. She took a few steps back, while he drove in the opposite direction, leaving her there.

Tory stood still in the middle of the street. She felt silly for not having told Josh what she really felt about him, but she didn't wanted to hurt him with the raw truth. After all the good moments they had lived together; after three years as friends, it didn't seemed fair that their relationship ended up like that. Thinking about it made her return to the past: when they first met at a party after she won a race. Josh was one of Leon's friends. He was tall, had piercing green eyes, a melting smile and a nice sense of humor.

"What the hell is the matter with me?" She whispered as she turned to return to her house." I'm such an idiot!" She exclaimed to herself out loud.

She reached into her pockets, looking for the keys. Where did she had left them? It would be a very foolish thing to go there and ringing at the bell. How could Dom be so mean at her, for not going to sleep in her own house? Maybe if she explained to him that at the last minute a friend invited her to? No. Her phone was dead? No. It all looked like great ideas in her head, but Tory knew that Dom would discover the truth, sooner or later.

She was so focused on the steps she was taking that she didn't notice the truck coming across the street. The driver honked and when he was at the same distance as the girl and he stopped the march. Tory looked over her shoulder; it was the same red truck that nearly crashed with them earlier.

"Oh shit I'm sorry!" The owner of the vehicle said from the inside. "Hey, hold on a sec..." He whispered once he faced her. "I think I almost caused your friend's accident with his car back then. I just wanted to apologize."

"It's alright, nothing happened" She said.

"Are you alright?" He continued with a concerned face.

'I'm fine, don't worry." She settled her hair and tilted her head. "I've seen you before...You've been for days hanging around my house. Are you a stalker?"

He laughed shyly.

"Nah. Don't worry. I'm not a crazy guy, just a car enthusiast." He explained "I work for Harry."

Tory smiled, watching him up and down. He was handsome. Very handsome. For a moment, she forgot about Josh and that guilt sensation abandoned her. Now she only had eyes for him.

"I'm Brian." He smiled, shaking her hand.

The sun tore bright flashes on his blond hair. Tory felt a squeeze in the stomach; he had blue eyes. Ocean blue eyes.

"Brian Earl Spilner." He ended.

"Wow." She remarked, accepting Brian's hand. "You even got the name of a stalker." She laughed, not taking her eyes off him.

He smirked, revealing his perfect teeth.

"And your name is...?" He asked curious.

"Victoria Toretto." she answered. "But everybody calls me Tory."

"That's a beautiful name you got there." He said, cutting the greeting by putting his hand on his pocket.

The hand of the young girl experienced a sort of electric current that ran through her body. For a long moment, the youngest Toretto was lost in the man's eyes. They were more intense than any other. And that, she liked.

Okay, Tory." Brian broke the silence. "I think it's time for me to go." He took a few steps back, to sit on the driver seat of his truck. "I hope we will see each other soon."

"You still look like a stalker to me.." She joked, crossing her arms. "But I really hope so, Spilner."

After that Mia had scolded Tory for having disappeared all night, the mahogany-haired girl took her place behind the counter of the family restaurant. The place was almost empty; on a table was couple of friends having lunch beside the window; they were sharing silent stares and some other a casual conversation. The atmosphere was too overwhelming as well as hot. She looked directly at the fans spinning lazily, sending weak currents of cold. Tory fanned herself with a thin racing magazine, while the sweat from her forehead traced some paths.

"I wanna go home." She muttered, resting her head on the counter. Usually Tory liked the Los Angeles' weather, but she couldn't stand all those endless days of heat, where it didn't passed even a little bit of cold wind, and rarely rained.

The whole time she had been working, she hadn't heard from Josh. The guy didn't bothered to call her, and she was worried about him.

When the clock struck 12:30, a red truck parked outside the restaurant. Tory looked up, but wasn't surprised at all. Brian Earl Spilner exited his car and headed to the store. As he crossed the threshold, he walked up to the counter and took his seat in front of Tory.

"Hi." He greeted softy.

"After three hours, I was starting to wonder where you were at, Spilner." She smiled.

"I was working." Brian replied, resting his elbows on the table. "And now I'm hungry." He added a little back hunching forward as he crossed his arms.

"What can I give you?" Victoria asked while straightening the hair. A thin strand fell in her eyes, giving her an innocent look. He smiled. After taking his eyes off her, Brian looked at the other clients. They were all eating tuna sandwiches.

"I would like one of these." He answered while pointing at the sandwiches.

Tory looked at a few clients and then turned to Brian.

"You sure?" She asked. "We have other foods if you…"

"Nah, I'm sure. I want a tuna sandwich."

"Okay… how do you like it?" she asked while taking a little white notebook.

"I want tuna on white, no crust." He explained smirking.

"Alright." She left the counter, standing at the table that was against the wall; where were all the ingredients she needed. "You do know that our tuna is terrible right?" She said, biting her lips. With a knife she cut two slices of bread and with a thinner knife she took care of removing the crust.

"Well, I'll take the risk." Brian replied, smiling. She rubbed some mayonnaise between two slices of bread, before finally pouring the tuna. Once she finished, she placed it on a plate and served it to her client.

"Wanna something to drink?" Tory asked, returning to her former position; her body relaxed and her elbows on the table.

"A beer would be fine."

"You like Corona?" She asked.

"I think so." He replied. " I must return to work after lunch." He still explained, taking a bite of his sandwich. Tory approached one of the refrigerators and opened it. The cold inside her skin prickled, but she managed to overshadow the warmth she felt. She pulled out two coronas.

"This one is on the house." She smiled. "Cheers!"

"Cheers." He repeated. Tory took a long drink from her beer and felt it moistening her throat.

"So ... how's your lunch, stalker?" She joked.

Brian smiled and looked at the tuna sandwich.

"Not bad. I don't know why you said all those things about the tuna. I think it's good."

"The mayonnaise makes magic..." She murmured, playing with the tag of her drink.

"Well, the flavor depends on the hands of the cooker." Brian said, giving another bite.

"Aw, thanks, you're so cute." She smiled as she unexpectedly blushed.

For fifteen minutes, both were talking about various topics. As Tory told him she loved being around cars; her greatest treasure was the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 2001; the car that Dom gave in her 20th birthday. She also had told him that one of her ambitions was to get a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley. For his part, Brian told her that he also loved being around cars. He had begun working with Harry to learn more about them and to check some of his theories about the speed and the effect caused by the NOS. They seemed to have much more in common than they thought.

"Well." Brian finished the last drop of beer and pulled the bottle back, next to the dish. "Gotta get back to work." He announced. "It was a pleasure to have spent this time with you, Tory." From his pocket he pulled his wallet. "Tell me how much I owe you for the food."

"Nothing. You don't owe me anything." She replied, picking up the things on the counter. "I told you, it's all on the house."

"Come on." He insisted. "Tell me how much money I must gave you."

"Brian." She looked at him straight in the eyes. "Don't make me repeat things twice. I hate to repeat things twice!"

He, somehow hesitant, put the wallet back on his pocket.

"Well, I suppose I should return tomorrow then." Brian murmured.

"I won't go anywhere." She nodded, cleaner the counter. "But if you'll come tomorrow, you will pay me, Spilner."

He smiled.

"Goodbye, Tory."

"Goodbye, Brian."