They sat in the departure lounge waiting for their flight to be called. They weren't really speaking. Brian could tell that Ail was anxious about leaving. He didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better.

"So do the guys know you're leaving?" She looked up at him, surprised.

"Well not exactly. But they will when they get home from the garage. I left them a note."

"Are you sure that's the way you want to leave it?"

"No but I think it was the easiest way. I don't want any more arguments. Plus if I had told them that I was leaving they would just have tried to change my mind - which would have been very easy to do."

"Oh right well they sound like good enough reasons." He said smiling at her and trying to coax a smile back. It didn't work. She just looked away and down to her feet.

They sat in silence for what seemed like forever to Brian. It was clear that she wasn't in the mood to talk. O God this is going to be an exciting flight he thought to himself.

About an hour later they were on the aeroplane on their way to America. Ail couldn't believe that she was on her way to America. She decided there and then that she was going to start a new life for herself. She was going to forget about everything in her past because that's exactly what it was – in the past. She was going to forget about Taylor, his little tart, her friends who had let her down, her dad. She didn't want to remember them anymore. Especially Taylor. She had loved him so much and he constantly hurt her. Brian brought her out of her thoughts.

"You want a drink Ail?"

"Yeh sure. Thanks. I'll have a diet sprite please." She smiled at him as he ordered the drinks of the air hostess. He handed her her drink. He went to take a drink of his.

"Wait! I want to say something." He looked around at her, shocked.

"Ok go for it." He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Ok I've decided that I'm leaving my past behind, and I mean everything. I'm going to make myself a new life and live it for me not for other people. And I just want to say thanks Brian for being here and letting me go to LA with you. I know we barely know each other and that's what makes what you did even nicer. Thanks..

"That's no problem girl." They clunked glasses and took a drink.

"Look out LA here I come." And they both started laughing.

They arrived in La at about 2pm local time. Ail couldn't believe the heat when she got of the plane. She'd never been to America before. The whole flight there her and Brian had talked about different stuff. They had talked about cars and racing and Ail had even attempted at trying to explain European football to him – but it didn't really work.

There were standing waiting to get their luggage when a thought came to Ail.

"Here how are we getting to wherever we are going?"

"Don't worry my girlfriend is picking us up. I'll ring her when we get outside."

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend. She won't be too happy about you travelling half way across the world with another woman." Ail couldn't help but laugh.

"She will be fine. She's great."

"Aww it must be love." They both laughed as Brian blushed slightly.

"Ok so I take it you'll be staying with her.?" Ail had assumed that they would be staying in the same place. She didn't like the idea of staying somewhere on her own in a country she'd never been in before.

"Yeh and so will you."

"No way I'm not being the gooseberry between you and your girlfriend."

"The what?" He looked confused and was laughing.

"The gooseberry. You know the one on her with a couple."

"O right. Don't worry it isn't just us in the house. There's the rest of the team as well."

"The team?"

"Yeh we are a team. There's Dom – he's like the leader you could say- his girl is Letty – she can be a bit off to strangers so try and stay on the right side of her – then there's Leon and Jesse - Jesse is the computer genius and Leon is a mechanic - then there's Vince – bit of a bad temper but he's ok, he's a mechanic as well – and lastly there's Mia and me."

"Ok that's a lot of people to remember."

"Don't worry about it you'll get used to them really quickly. Oh and by the way Mia is Dom's sister."

"Ok. So how does everyone fir together?"

"Well I was the last to join the team but from what ive been told Letty grew up on the same street as Mia and Dom. Vince and Dom have been best friends since the 3rd Grade. Leon and Jesse just kinda turned up one day and never left."

"Oh ok then. Well that seems to make some sense. Will they not mind me just arriving at the house with you and expecting to stay?"

"No. Well Letty maybe but that'll just be because she's very, how would you say it, well she doesn't like other girls around Dom, she doesn't trust them or him for that matter."

"Sounds like a loving relationship." She said sarcastically.

"Yeh" he said laughing "but they can't live without each other. They are well suited."

"Cool."

They finally got their luggage and headed outside. Brian took his mobile phone out of his pocket and turned it on. he dialled a number and spoke to someone – Ail assumed it was Mia. He finished the call and out his phone back into his pocket.

"Ok Mia's already on her way here. I told her what flight I was on before I left."

"Ok cool."

Ail was fascinated by her surroundings. She was trying to take everything in. She had never seen such a bit airport. The furthest she had been was to London. She noticed some of the cars around her. They weren't like the ones back home. She had seen hundreds of car magazines showing off American cars so she knew what to expect but she just couldn't get over how different they were. She would definitely have to get an import if she was going to stay she decided.

They talked for a while longer about various things to do with Brian's life in California before a cherry red sporty car came into sight in the distance. It caught Ali's eye, she liked the artwork on it.

It pulled up in front of them and a woman, about 5 foot 5 with long brown hair, a pretty face and olive skin, jumped out of the passenger side and ran up to Brian wrapping her legs around him as she jumped into his arms.

She didn't even notice Ali standing there, although, Ali thought that it probably wouldn't have made a difference even if she had. They kissed and said their hello's before Brian set the woman down.

"Mia this is Ali," he said turning around to face Ali again, "Ali this is my beautiful girlfriend Mia."

Ali could tell that Brian obviously loved this girl a lot. His eyes had lit up the moment she stepped out of her car. She noticed Mia looking her up a down slightly before she spoke to her with her Californian accent.

"Hi girl, nice to meet you."

"Yeh you too."

"So you came over with bran from Ireland did you?"

She looked Brian straight into the eyes as she asked the question.

"Yeh she did."

Brian spoke before Ali could answer. He gave her a look that said just leave it.

"And she's going to be staying with us for a while. Ok?"

"Yeh sure why not."

Ali could tell that the way Mia had said this had sarcasm in it. All of a sudden she wasn't so sure if staying with theses people was going to be the best idea after all. And this girl Mia was supposed to be the nicer of the two girls that Brian lived with. She was now dreading meeting this girl Letty. She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of Brian's voice.

"Ali? Ali?"

"Sorry I was in a little world of my own there."

"Don't worry about it."

Ali could see that Mia had got back into the drivers seat of the car and was waiting on them. She obviously wasn't too pleased about the situation.

Brian picked up her suitcase and put it in the boot of the car along with his and then opened the passenger side door to allow Ali to climb into the back seat. He then got into the car and Mia sped off out of the airport and onto the motorway (or was it called Highway in America?)

Ali realized, there and then, that it was going to take a while to get used to the American way of things.