A/N: I'm new to this so I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks.

The cool breeze tickled my ears as I rolled down my window to look out at the ocean. The salty smell of the water made we realize that this was really happening. I was finally moving from LA to San Andreas with my best friend Madison. Honestly this whole idea of leaving my hometown was so excited that I almost couldn't believe that it was actually happening. Madison and I have wanted to leave since we were 17 and finally did at 33. I remember when we were teenagers we used to always say that we would get away from our dysfunctional families.

San Andreas was beautiful, the view of the beach wasn't anything like the one in LA. Sure we have beaches there, but they're so dirty and unflattering. As we drove further into the city we started to get closer to Los Santos where we would be staying. The water began to fade away into the distance and the city was more visible. The skyline blended into the blue sky with no clouds in site.

"Wow…this place is so cool." I muttered.

"I know!"

Madison took her hands off the wheel and threw them back letting out a loud yell. I yelped as the car began to drift to the left and grabbed the wheel. Madison laughed and winked at me.

"Crazy bitch!" I couldn't help but laugh myself at her spontaneous behavior.

"You know, I'm really glad that we finally did it." Madison began, "I was getting sick of living in LA. I thought I was going to go nuts or something."

"I don't think I'm going to miss it to be honest."

"Yeah me too." she sighed,"I know I'm not gonna miss that dick Dane. Fucking asshole…"

The moment she mentioned his name it made me sick to my stomach. It was ridiculous how many times she went back to him. This move would definitely prevent her from ever doing that again. I really just hoped she would find someone out here that would treat her right. We were silent for the rest of the ride until we finally drove up to our apartment. The building looked decent from the outside and I just prayed that it would be okay on the inside. We were getting this place for cheap. Madison and I climbed up the first flight of steps and stood in front of our front door before going in. I think the whole thing was all too real for us. Our dream had finally become a reality.

"Here we go." I said as I unlocked the door.

The lock clicked from the other side and the two of us slowly crept in. The stale smell of the apartment filled our noses leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Despite the smell the apartment looked decent enough. We had to get all the furniture ourselves but thankfully the kitchen appliances were all provided for.

"Home sweet home." Madison said as she plopped down on the floor.

I sat down beside her and laid my head on her shoulder. She wrapped her arm around me and let out a sigh.

"We finally made it Willow."

She grasped me tight before suddenly popping up. She had this devious look making me get up as well. I already knew what she was getting at. There was no way I was going to let her pick a bedroom before me. I shoved her out the way and ran towards the bedrooms. Madison squealed and cursed behind me. As I quickly poked my head into both of them I was disappointed to see that they were the same size so I just decided to go with the one furthest from the bathroom. Madison came into my room after she looked at her own and groaned. She crossed her arms and pouted like a child.

"Aw man…I wish these rooms were bigger!"

"Me too, but when you think about it the apartment isn't big enough for that." I walked to my closet and opened the door,"At least the closet is a nice size."

"I guess." Madison shrugged and started towards the door,"I'm going to start bringing stuff in."

I decided to do the same and followed behind her. We started with the heavy stuff and tried not to fall while coming up the stairs. After finishing with that we moved on all our personal belongings and from then on we just started bringing random things up. It didn't take us as long as I had expected it to which was good giving us more time to explore the city before it got too late. The two of us piled in to our Jeep and hit the road headed no where in particular. For a while we just drove around taking in our new surroundings and eventually ended up in the outskirts of the city. At that point the sun was started to set and we hadn't eaten anything for hours so we decided to stop at the local diner.

Madison held the door open for me and winked at her own gesture. I shook my head and smirked as I entered. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by one of the waitresses. We replied back and sat down at the booth furthest away from the busyness. There were quite a few truck drivers sitting at the counter eating pie and flirting with the waitresses. Before Madison and I could even take a good look of the menu someone came over to take our order. She was wearing a bright yellow dress uniform with a checkered apron and it was already giving me a headache. Her neon pink lipstick wasn't helping either.

"Hey girls! Whaddya like?"

Madison started to say something but got quickly interrupted.

"Say," she put her hand on her hip,"I don't think I seen you girls around here before."

"Yeah we just moved here today from Los Angeles." I said annoyed.

"Oh! LA girls. Well welcome to San Andreas! I'm Nancy by the way."

"Yeah, we could tell by your name tag." the sarcasm oozed out of my voice.

Madison cleared her throat nervously and gave Nancy an apologetic look.

"Um…thanks for the welcome." Madison pointed to the menu,"Could you give us a couple more minutes?"

"Sure hun."

She left with a wink and scampered off to another table. Madison rolled her eyes and grunted.

"I hope not everyone here is like that." I muttered under my breath.

Madison frowned at me and looked down at her menu. I opened up my own and browsed the choices of dishes. It was just typical diner food like any other place we had encountered on the road. But nevertheless I was hungry so I decided on a plain grilled cheese and soup. Madison snickered at my order and shook her head.

"I'll never understand how you can be a vegetarian for this long. You're missin' out on the finer things in life!"

"You know I never liked meat! So it's really easy for me to pull it off."

"Sure! But you're missing out! The cheeseburger I just ordered is gonna be delicious!"

I gagged and stuck my tongue out in disgust. "Honestly I don't even know how we're going to shop for groceries. We have such different diets."

"True, but we both know it's going to be you shopping. Like, all the time."

I laughed and threw my hands up in defeat. There was no way of getting out of that one.

The two of us chatted for a while about our life back home until our food came. Madison was too engrossed in her greasy burger to have a conversation. However my grilled cheese was just okay and the soup was split pea when I asked for tomato. But I was hungry so I ate it anyway. Suddenly my phone buzzed in my pocket so I pulled it out to see who it was. I frowned, it was my mother. I really didn't feel like dealing with her right now so I just ignored the call. I was not in the mood to hear her nagging right now. I want my first night here to be a stress free one.

The jangle of the door got my attention since I hadn't heard in a while. I looked in that direction to see a grotty man moving towards the counter. He had on this red t-shirt with some sort of logo on it and stained jeans. He had this sort of roughness to him, I could tell as soon as he walked in. When he sat down at the counter, our waitress went over immediately to take his order. The guy was real friendly to her, making jokes and such. He had this gruff, hoarse voice, it was kind of sexy. There was something about this him that made me attracted to him, but I couldn't really tell what it was. Madison must have saw me staring and turned around to see what I was looking at.

"You looking at that old guy?" She spun back around with raised eyebrows.

"He's not old!" I laughed. "Yeah I was looking at him why?"

"He's like 50. He's not even hot."

"Well you were't talking to me!" I giggled,"So I resorted to staring at the customers!"

Madison moved her eyebrows up and down insinuating that I was attracted to the guy, which I won't admit to her that I was.

"Why don't you go talk to him?" her eyes grew wide as if she realized something, "You could have your own sugar daddy!"

She lunged at me from over the table and grabbed my hands nearly knocking over my soup.

"Oh my god Willow! Do you know how great that would be for us? He could buy you whatever you wanted! That means we could furnish the apartment and-"

"Madison what the fuck are you talking about? I am not getting a sugar daddy!"

"You're such a killjoy."

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my grilled cheese.

'Why don't you get yourself one?"

Madison looked at me like I was crazy.

"You know I'm not into older men."

"And what makes you think I am?"

Madison shrugged and avoided the question so I continued looking at the guy sitting at the counter. He was no longer talking to Nancy, instead he was eating a burger. Now another guy was sitting next to him having a conversation with Nancy. She looked a bit uncomfortable with him especially since he kept touching her arm. The guy in the red tee seemed to catch on to this and said something to the man talking to Nancy. I didn't quite hear what it was, but I think he told him to cut it out. But the other man brushed it off and kept bothering Nancy. So the guy took another bite of his burger before getting up and slugging him in the jaw. Nancy let out a yelp and Madison snapped her head around to see what had happened.

"What the hell?"

The man kept punching the guy in the face until he dragged him out the door and continued beating him up out there. At this point only a few people were actually watching the scene unfold outside. Most of the people were still eating or talking amongst themselves which I thought was strange being that there was a man beating the shit out of another outside. It's like he just lost it, he couldn't stop punching the guy. I tore my eyes away to see Nancy making her way over to us to take our plates. Before she could get away good I stopped her.

"Nancy, what the hell is going on out there? What just happened?"

"Oh well, he was just helpin' me out you see. That guy," she pointed to the guy who was now on top of the man in the red tee,"kept bothering me and wouldn't cut it out. So he punched him for me."

Madison looked at her with a confused look. She said that all so calmly like it was a common thing.

"Oh don't worry, that's normal behavior for him."

Nancy walked off with our plates leaving us with our mouths open as we gazed out the window. The guy with the red tee was back on top and finally knocked the guy out. As soon as he did, he got up and walked back into the diner. He sat right back down and finished his burger before leaving and telling Nancy goodbye. Madison and I sat there in a daze not believing what had just happened. After we sat there for a little while, Nancy came back over with our check. We left her a tip and slipped out the door.

It was dark out at this point, but the street lights lit up the parking lot just enough for us to see the guy lying on the ground. As we got closer, the metallic smell of his blood grew stronger. His breathing was rather loud and was followed by a gurgling sound. I knelt down closer to see his injuries. He had blood all over his face coming from his bashed in nose. His bottom lip was busted and his eye was swollen shut. I didn't look like any of his limbs were broken, but they weren't in the best shape either. Madison knelt down beside me and held her nose from the smell.

"Looks like your boyfriend is fucking lunatic."