(Author's note: Okay this is my first ff thing that has to do w/Angel. My friend got me totally sucked into it. I just love it. I hope you like my writing. Leave reviews!)

Chapter 1

Aralyn Thomson walked the night streets of Salt Lake City, in Utah. No one gave her a second glance as she walked by the clubs and bars, but it didn't bother her. She wanted to attract as little attention as possible, which was usually hard for her to do. She had red-blond hair, and blue eyes that looked almost purple. She was tall and looked about the age of 17. She'd been lucky in this town, unlike many others she'd been to in the past few years. No one had tried to mug or hurt her, or even worse attract attention to her. The last thing she needed was for people to start asking questions about who she was, where she came from, and seek her out to question her.

Aralyn took out the keys to the apartment she rented about a month ago, as she got within a block or two from the apartment complex. She looked at her watch; it was 3:00am. She walked a little faster even though she knew she'd be fine if she walked, but it made her feel better. She relaxed as she got to her apartment, and opened the door. When she got inside, though, she saw the few belongings she owned had been strewn all over the small apartment.

Aralyn just shook her head, she was to used to people who thoughth she was hiding something, like murder or something else, going through her apartments. She began picking up the items at her feet; a tissue box, one of her books that had been ripped up, some pieces of glass from a frame, and a photo. She threw the book in the trash along with the glass. She put the half smashed tissue box on the counter, and then inspected the photo for any damage.

The photo was extremely old, and frayed around the edges. In the picture was a woman holding a young girl. Looking at the picture you could tell the woman had once been a young, carefree, and beautiful woman. In the picture she still retained her beauty, but her eyes had a look of fear in them. She had her arms wrapped protectively around her daughter, as if she could loose her any moment. The little girl was slim, and pale. She looked to be around three years old. Her hair was pulled back into two small pigtails. She looked alert, and very aware of her surroundings. One of her hands clutched onto her mother's arms in love and safety, while the other was playing with the necklace around the neck of her mother. Aralyn loved this picture, and had kept it for years. She smiled as she looked at the picture, and unconsciously played with the necklace around her neck. Seeing the picture was fine, she set it down, and started to gather up her things.

It took Aralyn all day to clean up the apartment and pack her things. She didn't want any questions about the break in, and didn't want to take the chance of the person who broke in coming back and finding her next time; which she was sure was the reason of the break in. Besides she'd come here looking for someone, but that person wasn't here. So she would have been leaving soon anyways. The only thing she had to do was call the club where she worked and tell them she couldn't work anymore. They wouldn't ask questions, they'd just find someone else.

In the mean time Aralyn took out a map and put an "x" over Salt Lake City. The "x" matched the ones on many of the other capitals, and major cities in other states. Now she had to choose another city to go to. She started to scan the map for any city that would catch her attention. She looked at some of the cities in Arizona, but it was Las Vegas that caught her eye. That city, along with a few other cities in Nevada and California, were ones she'd been avoiding. Mostly because there were a lot of people there who might notice her. But she knew she'd been avoiding the city for too long. She sighed then put the map away. She figured she could check out St. George on the way to Las Vegas; kill two birds with one stone. Next she looked up bus times. The latest one was at 5: 30. She looked outside at the fading orange sky, and then at the clock on the bed stand, which read 4:45. Good she thought, At least I won't have to stop a bus in the middle of the night this time. At 5:07 Aralyn turned in the keys to the apartment, and walked to the bus stop.

As she waited more people gathered at the bus stop. Some of them were carrying small suitcases like hers, others were holding briefcases, and others were just holding money for a ride home. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"So, you're leaving? I kinda hoped you'd be staying longer than this." Said a young man behind her.

Aralyn smiled to herself. As much as she tried to stay invisible there was always one person who noticed her. She turned around to face the guy.

"Austin, I told you I don't stay anywhere long. Although, this is one of my shorter stays." Aralyn said softly. "And why do you care? From what I've heard you move from girl to girl pretty fast."

Austin laughed. "Usually I do. The same thing over and over again gets boring, you know?"

"Kind of the same with life, huh?" Aralyn answered him

"Actually I've been enjoying my life so far."

"You haven't been alive long. After a while it's bound to get boring."

"And you have? How could you know about that kind of stuff, you're not a day over 22."

"Mmmm." Aralyn said with a slight smile.

They stood there for a few minuets in silence. As they stood there some people muttered about how annoying late buses were and left, and more joined the large group that was crowed around the bus stop.

"So is this what New York is like?" asked Austin as a man shoved past him to get a spot closer to where the bus would stop.

"Yeah, except there's no end to the crowd. Sometimes you feel like your suffocating, and drowning in the crowds."

"Huh, I'd leave the big apple if I felt like that up there. So, where are we going?"

"We?" and for the first time Aralyn noticed that Austin was carrying a small suitcase like hers. "We?" she asked again.

"Yeah, we."

"Austin, we aren't going anywhere. I am going to Las Vegas. You're staying here. Don't leave your job, and life because you want to come with me. There's nothing between us, and I don't really date your type."

"Now that's where you're wrong." Austin said. "I'm not leaving for you, and I'm not leaving my job. I was fired. The boss thought the reason you quit was because of me. He thought I freaked you out somehow. I don't mind though. When I could get you talk you talked about how much you've traveled, and it sounded cool. So if you don't mind, I thought it would be fun to travel with you. "

"It's not you Austin, but I travel by myself."

"Another reason I should go. You're too much of an introvert. You need someone to introduce you to people, and you need a friend. I mean, you don't want to do everything alone, right?"

Aralyn laughed, and looked at Austin. True she didn't want to always be alone, but she was scared of what might happen if they got too close. He'd most likely get hurt, or worse hurt her if he knew all her secrets. But as she looked at him she felt the pull of possibly not having to be alone and the longing for a friend, and the pull was too strong. She felt herself nod, as the bus pulled up. She didn't know if it was the right bus or not. She knew it wasn't the original one she had planned on getting on. But she hoped it would take her to where she wanted to go.