Just wanted to have a little shout out to those of you who have been reading my back catalogue and leaving reviews. I check up now and then and I noticed some of you still here (especially kaybaby but I also saw Juli & Seth among others) have left reviews as you read along so thank you :) I REALLY REALLY appreciate you all :')

Someone mentioned they would buy my book if I got it published, well it looks like I might be printing my own book and selling it probably via Ebay so I hope you guys all feel the same way because if it works and I can cover the printing cost through sales, then I may be able to print more of my work :D

Chapter 20

"What's this about you goin' to LA?" Dex questioned protectively as Gabi swooped in to collect some clothes to cart back to Troy's.

Gabi frowned. "How did you know about that?"

It had only been two days since Troy had been back, two days since he had invited her and two days of making out; but nothing more for Troy's fear of hurting her injuries during sex.

"Troy told me at the track yesterday…"

Gabi rolled her eyes. "Did he now?"

"Hey, he was just tellin' me about his plans, there's nothing wrong with that."

"No," Gabi conceded. "But I was going to tell you, so does it matter that he told you first?"

"Are you coming back?" Dex squinted suspiciously and Gabi giggled.

"Of course I am! The track is here, you're here, Jody's here…everything I have is here…" she assured.

"I heard my name…" Jody padded into the kitchen in his pyjama bottoms, bare chested, sleepily rubbing his eye. "And you two are so loud. Some people were sleeping."

"Jody, it's midday," Gabi looked at him blankly.

"Mm?" He squinted at the wall clock. "So it is…"

Gabi shook her head and punched his bare arm affectionately. "You are such a laze."

"Hey, I was out last night, I have a reason for being late up…" He smiled to himself as he made coffee.

"Look, you should know I'm going away for a few days. And seeing as Dex has gone all 'big brother' on me, please tell him it's not a big deal." She begged of her friend.

"Going away?" Jody twisted and frowned at her. "Where?"

"Not you too!" She sighed dramatically, snarling at Dex's gloating grin.

"Are you going away with him?" He asked of Troy, clearly hurt by this thought.

She pressed her lips together and nodded her chin down. "To LA."

Jody creased his face in displeasure and looked to Dex, then to her, then back to Dex again. "And you're letting her go?"

"Hey dude," Dex grinned. "You're the one who said she's gonna do what she wants no matter what I say…"

"That was about racing, that was different," Jody mumbled sulkily to himself, then appealed his big brown eyes to Gabi. "Do you think it's safe?"

Gabi irked her brow. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, you don't know everything about this guy yet…"

She sighed out with a laugh. "Jody, I'm going to LA not Mars. What are you expecting to go wrong?"

He shrugged. "He might keep you there."

She smiled patiently at both the men before her and faked a mask of confidence. "I'll be fine. And I'll come back. I promise."

Jody looked to Dex and Dex shrugged. "Call me when you get there."

"It's not for a couple of days anyway," she reminded them. "Now I have stuff to do…" she pushed through their blockading bodies to reach the destination she had come for – her bedroom.

/

"I heard that Gabi's coming to LA with you," Jody slid into the seat opposite Troy at the diner where he enjoyed his breakfast alone; a fact that Jody was surprised at, half expecting Gabi to be at his side constantly now he was back.

Troy looked up under his thick brown brows and took a few moments to answer.

"Yeah, that's right."

"She belongs here, Troy."

"I know," Troy squinted, not expecting this confrontation from Gabi's friend. Gabi's friend who was in love with her, apparently.

"So don't take her away." He argued.

"I'm not planning to," he held up his gentle hands in casual surrender. "It's just a visit to get my stuff and come back for good."

"You're moving here?" Jody's brows rose in shock.

Troy swallowed. "To be with Gabi." He made it clear.

Jody sat and frowned and swallowed too, against the lump in his throat as he processed the seriousness of the relationship Gabi had with this guy.

"She better come home, Bolton," he told the man before him with fake bravado.

"I never wanted her to leave," he assured quietly, sensing Jody's unease.

"I just don't get what you have," he shook his head, smiling bitterly. "I've been her friend for years and you show up in town and suddenly you're together, I just don't get it…"

Troy winced at Jody's accusation and tilted his head sympathetically. "I don't either, it just happened," Troy excused.

"It just happened?" Jody accused, laughing sharply once. "It didn't just happen that you caught her that night…that you just happened to be building a team and gave her a place…that's more than an accident," he pointed out.

Troy shrugged. "Maybe it was, maybe it was fate…but I didn't plan any of this," he defended as the tall brown eyed guy got angrier.

"Right….You didn't plan to seduce her and drag her back to twinkle town…just like you didn't plan on taking her away from me and Dex and causing all that trouble…"

"Jody, I thought you were cool with all this?" Troy puzzled.

"Well I guess I'm not anymore…" he glittered, standing.

"Hey…" Troy began to appease the man's grievance, but he spoke again, just as icily.

"Just know this, Bolton. I'll be here to pick up the pieces when you break her heart." He stated, and then walked out of the diner with a powerful push to the door that set it rocking on its hinges.

"Not a morning person," Delilah tutted of Jody's exit as she laid Troy's bacon and eggs before him, hash browns on the side.

Troy smiled wanly at her. "Not a 'me' person more like," he derided.

She smiled at him bemusedly. "But you're the damndest cutest boy I ever met."

He blanched at her use of the word 'cute'. "Thanks, Delilah."

She nodded in agreement and turned to go, leaving Troy to ponder over Jody's threat.

/

"So you never got the girl, then…"

Solo Marlade grinned at fresh bait- the appearance of Jody Johnson in the breakers yard, seeking the unfindable find for their race-car, just the same way Solo was.

"What?" Jody questioned irritably, thinking he didn't need Marlade on his back about Gabi right now.

"Gabriella Montez," Marlade drawled her name.

"The one who knocked you out?" Jody arched, smiling to himself as that barb faded Solo's smile.

"Yeah, that's the one," he carried on regardless, chewing his gum as he perched on the hood of a wasted car. "The one you've been secretly in love with since you were at school…"

"Whatever," Jody muttered, stalking over to a new pile of junk, trailed by the goading Marlade.

"Only it's not so secret," Solo told him, folding his arms. "Everyone can see you're madly in love with her."

"She's not madly in love with me though is she?" He asked back, annoyed. "I'm sure you can see that much, too."

"What she sees in that has-been Bolton, I'll never know…" Solo watched closely for Jody's reaction, seeing him stiffen at Bolton's name.

"Yeah, well…"

"He took her innocence and that makes me real angry…" Solo described.

Jody looked over his shoulder at the man and squinted, not expecting to agree with the guy that hurt just about everybody Jody knew.

"You don't think she chose to be with him?" He offered, a flash of humanity contrasting his own deep-seated anger at Troy's introduction into Gabi's life.

Marlade merely grinned devilishly. "What do you think?" he turned it back round, intimating Gabi had been forced.

"I think things were fine until he came along…" Jody shared his disappointment.

"I can help you get rid of him," Solo shared, pursing his lips as the air stilled in his lungs, expectant of Jody's answer.

Jody for his part, hesitated. "No, its okay," he sighed.

"Come on man…one little brake line…one little cut…if we convinced him to get on that track, just for one lap, we could lose him for good…"

Jody bit his upper lip and looked at his conspirator. "She'd be too hurt, I couldn't do it."

"She wouldn't know," Solo laughed.

"I mean, if he got hurt. It would kill her." He explained.

Solo shrugged. "Whose shoulder would she cry on?"

Jody squinted. "You're sick." He turned to walk by the man he had come to hate.

"Don't pretend you're not tempted," Solo goaded. "I see it in your eyes. You hate Bolton being here as much as I do…"

Jody turned, two feet past where Solo was standing. "That may be so but I won't hurt Gabi. No matter what else I feel."

"Oh little boy lost," Solo teased. "Mustn't hurt Gabi's feelings…"

"I may not like Troy being here…but I'm not going to be responsible for hurting another human being. And neither should you."

"You're not the only one who wanted her, Johnson." Solo called as Jody turned to face forward again, then was forced to swing back round at Solo's confession. "I'd planned to sink my iron into that tight virgin and show her what having a real man is about…"

Jody grimaced and stalked back toward his adversary, his eyes glowing with anger. "You are one sick, disgusting fuck-up, Marlade," he managed, fighting down his urge to hit the man.

Marlade merely snickered. "Is that so? So you didn't once think about fucking her senseless?"

Jody didn't wait any longer to pull his arm back and land a solid punch to Solo's jaw, sending the man staggering back until he stumbled and fell. He watched him hit the ground with a satisfying smirk. "That's a hat-trick, Marlade. Don't come by again."

And with that, he walked away.

/

"Whoa, dude, why the swollen knuckles?" Dex asked his friend eagerly as he came in cradling his hand.

"I punched Marlade," he hissed out between clenched teeth.

"In the face?" Dex o'd his mouth. "That looks pretty bad…"

"I think I broke his jaw," Jody relayed as Dex sat him down and went to fetch ice which he applied very gingerly, watching Jody wince.

"Sorry dude," Dex apologised softly.

"Damn, it hurts," he sighed regretfully.

"All three of you have knocked his lights out now; you think he'd learn…"

"He just knows all the right buttons to push," Jody lamented.

"Gabi?" Dex asked knowingly and Jody nodded, all brown eyes. "I knew you took it bad, man," he said of the news she was going away.

Jody sighed. "I just feel like she's slipping away…"

"So do I," Dex agreed. "But it's right that she is. It had to happen."

"She's like a different person with him…" he complained.

"She loves him," Dex stated. "I guess he brought out the best in her."

"She was fine when she was with us." Jody sulked.

"No, she wasn't," Dex argued, able to admit that now. "She wasn't happy. She wanted to race and you know she will always be grateful to you for supporting her on that, but Troy gave her wings. And now she's flying."

"Why couldn't I give her those wings?" He beseeched sadly.

Dex smiled softly and hugged his arm around his best friend's shoulders. "I don't know, buddy."

"I hate that he's with her." He added.

"You need to stop," Dex instructed. "The guy is actually kinda cool…"

"I don't want to hear that right now," Jody grumbled.

"Well, you're going to. Because it's true. I wouldn't let my sister date any old fool, right?" he checked and Jody smiled and nodded.

"Right."

"He really cares for her."

"So do I."

"And she cares about you, too, but not in the same way. We've all seen them together and none of us can reason it, but it's there. They're in love."

Jody dipped his chin to his chest and sagged. "So I just bust up my hand for no reason?" he joked.

"Dude, wiping that smug smile off Marlade's face is reason enough…" Dex cheered as he man-hugged his friend before checking the damage. "You're so gonna get a sympathy hug from my sister for that…"

/

"Jody, what happened?" Gabi's tone was not as sympathetic as Jody had hoped. As he raised his big brown eyes to her from his sulking place on the sofa, her almost tired-toned question hurt him.

"I hit Marlade. I'm part of the club now." He joked.

"Was it about me?" She asked.

He smiled out of the corner of his mouth, just a bare rising of his lips. "Pretty much."

"Look, I know it freaked you out about me going to LA, but I thought we talked about this…I thought we were okay?" She stood before him and folded her arms uncomfortably, making him wince at her awkwardness.

"We are."

"Then why did you hit him?"

"Because the guy cannot seem to mention your name without turning into some kind of prick," Jody smarted and she irked her brow.

"Do you know what I think?" she asked and he didn't answer, so she went on regardless.

"I think that me going to LA is actually a good thing for us. This just isn't working…" she sighed.

Jody ventured a look up. "I can't help how I feel…"

"I know. But being friends is not working out," she argued. "Maybe this time apart will do us both good."

"Are you telling me to get over you?" He squinted in shock.

"I'm saying we can't be friends while you feel this way," she amended and he frowned in regret at what he had done.

"Gabi, I promise you-" he began.

"Let's just see how things are in a week, okay?" She cut him off.

"Gabi…"

"Goodbye, Jody," she smiled sadly and turned to leave.

"I love you," he whispered to himself.