"Good morning, miss Martin! How do you do?"

"Phoebe, sweetie! How do you do? You grew up to be so pretty and feminine and... beautiful! Come give me a hug!"

Isaac's mom said she would drive us to the airport. They came to pick me up at 10:30. Our plane was at 15. I haven't seen her in about half a year. Lately, she has been traveling around with Isaac's stepfather in his business trips. She had to leave for work at 11, but she promised she'll help us find a place to wait for the plane. Isaac obviously called me at midnight again to remind me what an important day this will be. We chatted all night on skype. We were both so anxious we couldn't sleep. Anyway, as I hugged miss Martin, Isaac mimed from behind her a sickened figure that was ready to throw up on all this fake cuteness of his mom's It made me chuckle.

Isaac helped me lift the trollers in the trunk, putting them over his, pushing them in. The 2 other bags sat next to me in the back seat.

"What'd you do with Benny?" Isaac asked, putting his seat belt on.

"I left him at Thalia's. She has a boy, Ryan, who offered to take care of him."

"Cute. I thought you sacked the poor thingie, because you are such a heartless evil queen. Kidding."

Isaac puts his sun glasses on and turns the volume to the maximum. His mom scolds him for doing such a thing but she gives up eventually, saying that you travel with your best friend to America only once in a lifetime and that you have to make a special day out of it.

"TALK DIRTY TO ME, TADAM DAM TADA TADADADAM!" Isaac started imitating Jason Derulo, who was currently filling our ears.

"Phoebs, sing with me! ...BUT YOUR BOOTY DON'T NEED EXPLAINING WHEN. YOU. TALK DIRTY TO ME"

"I got lipstick stamps on my passport.." I mumble, not knowing the order of the lyrics.

"NO! IT'S FIRST CLASS SEAT ON MY LAP, GIRL."

Jason Derulo was, in fact, singing something else, neither of us being right about the order.

"At least you tried, kids." Isaac's mom said, laughing. "Phoebe, is he always so cheerful?"

"Nah, I think it's because of the fresh air."

We stared at Isaac who was doing some sort of Macarena in his chair with the seat belt and his sunglasses on. And Isaac was no good dancer, so the whole movement made him look like a worm. Or like Stephen Hawking, somehow.

"Women, I am the one living the life here! You are so tensed! Just, YOLO. God, feel free! I understand, mom is old. But Phoebs!"

"Isaac Daniel Martin, your mom is not old, she isn't just as young as she used to be!"

We giggled and than realized we were there, in the parking lot. The next second, Isaac jumped out of the car like a king and screamed: AMERICA, WE'RE COMING! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!

"He doesn't do drugs, does he?" His mom asks me quietly as he inspires profoundly the air.

"I'm pretty sure he is just awfully happy."
I jump on his back, taking him by surprise and he plays along, pretending to be a plane.

"Crash, crash, there's a monkey on board!" Isaac said, referring to me. His mom took a picture of us in that very moment.

"I will send this to both of you. You look so nice! Just the same as when you were little!"

Me and Isaac checked the picture out. His light green T-Shirt highlighted his green eyes and also illuminated my medium-length black hair. I was wearing a pair of light blue jeans that covered my legs all the way right above my knees. A pale pink T-Shirt, the pale pink bag I bought with Haley and a black pair of Converse completed my look, giving me the freedom of feeling truly comfortable, knowing that I will be traveling for 14 hours.

"Let's go and have you two prepared to go."

Miss Martin came with us until the first checkpoint. She told us to be very careful out there, to have fun and to be just the way we usually are. She hugged us both-torture for Isaac, I bet-and than she waved goodbye as we disappeared from her visual range.

"Hmmm, Phoebs...? We are now on our very own."

***

The passengers of the flight 251 destination New York are asked to present theirselves at gate number 4.

"Isaac, wake up!" I shook Isaac strongly. He told me he will have a nap until the plane comes because he was really tired.

"What...?"

"We have to go at gate 4!"

"Oh hell yeah!"

When we got on the plane and made sure that we were on the right one, we were pretty bored of waiting and doing nothing. Obviously, the first thing we did was check out how many facilities our seats had. There were little tvs on the backs of the seats in front of us and we also had about four plugs and all sorts of places under and above the chair where we could put our stuff. Isaac was jubilating. He had a lot of space to move and he was a bit refreshed after the sleep.
After about 10 minutes, we took off. I have always been scared of taking off so Isaac held my hand tightly. I had the window seat and I tried badly not to look down.

"Phoebs, we're flying." Isaac gave me a small bump, making me open my eyes.

"Now. Let's do that movie marathon we planned." I say, taking out my laptop from my bag.

Isaac and I decided upon downloading a few movies on our laptops and watching them on the plane.

"I downloaded some older movies like V for Vendetta, Lady in Black-with Daniel Redcliffe love of my life, Pretty Woman-although we have already seen it, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, both parts."I inform him, scrolling through the list of recent downloads.

"How's V for Vendetta?"

"I dunno. Haven't seen it."

"I know the others. I have downloaded tons of movies, mainly more recent ones, that I wanted to see but haven't. So, I got Pompeii, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rise of the Guardians, Big Hero 6, Love, Rosie(the main characters are played by Lily Collins and Sam Claflin I've heard), I also got Ella, Sex Tape, The Millers, American Hustle..."

We put our headphones on and connected them to a little device that made it possible for us to use one pair of headphones each and still listen to the same thing.

***

"My back hurts like hell, fuck this shit..." Isaac says, waking up.

"You kept snorring for the past 4 hours!"

"Eh."

"Come on, pack your things. We're landing in half an hour."

***

"Hello, nice to meet you, children!"

Miss Tushman was waiting for us at the airport, a paper that read "Phoebe Phillis, Isaac Martin" held in her hands. She was very nice. She was blondie and I thought she'd be older. The name 'Tushman' inspires something old to me. In fact, she was about 30. And she had... Curves. Isaac checked her up immediately, I saw it.

"Hello, you must be Miss Tushman. Nice to meet you!" Isaac kissed her hand very politely, but I almost bursted into laughter. You ridiculous son of a stepfather.

"Just call me Monica. I hope I am not such an old lady already!"

"Nice to meet you, Monica. What are we doing, then?" I asked her.

"Well, we're heading to the hotel, there's a cab waiting for us and we'll be solving some administrative issues like who you will be sharing rooms with and signing a few papers and so on... I haven't found out the number of girls and boys so that we can split you in rooms for two, but I have been informed that you two have been friends since childhood, so sharing the room wouldn't be a problem, would it? Anyway, we'll see when we get there. All the other pupils have arrived today, but the rest of the day and tomorrow is reserved for rest and accomodation with the time zone, I know it's basically upside down for you so we decided to give you some time for this. There will be a programme pinned in your room for this week, you will be informed if anything changes, you will have it updated every Sunday morning when the cleaners tidy your room and all. Now, darlings, I am going to be responsible for what you do, so don't be shy if you have any kind of problem, we can totally figure it out, just come and tell me."

We smiled at her, nodding. She was really polite and kind.

"You are tired, aren't you? How did you travel?"

She helped us with our luggage as we got it into the cab. When we reached the hotel, the reception was filled with students our age and older. I caught Isaac's gaze and the same thing could be read in his eyes: he was really nervous, just as I was. The hall was beautifully decorated with colorful vases of fresh flowers and the walls were covered in paintings and inspirational quotes. Everybody was talking different languages. A couple of girls were speaking a flawless French, other boys were mumbling in German, and the adults were all speaking a movie-like American English. Although we were living in Ireland, Isaac and I kept our Sheffield accent. Isaac's voice is slightly influenced by Irish, but my accent is still English.

"So you're the guys from Ireland we've heard were coming later! Welcome, I'm Skyler and this is Katie." Two pretty girls came to Isaac and I while we were waiting for Monica to confirm our arrival at the reception.

"Hi, nice to meet you. You are from England, aren't you?" Isaac asks, immediately identifying their accents. Well, how couldn't he identify them, after all?

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Phoebe" he says, bending his head towards me, making me mime a quick 'hi' to the girls "...is from Sheffield. We were best friends in childhood and we still are but I moved in Ireland when I was 7 and she came in Ireland two years ago. I get to here a perfect English accent a every single day."

"That's so nice, you reunited after such a long time!" Katie says, sounding like a squeaking seal.

Isaac and I smiled and he invited them to sit on the couch next to us. I could see everyone-mostly girls, to my surprise- looking at us. Well, at Isaac. Skyler and Katie were just as attracted as the rest were. They just built up the courage to come and talk to us. Well, they ignored me. The hot shot strikes again.

"Ok, everyone, quiet please!" A tall man was now standing in the middle of us, forming a circle around him. "Now that we're all here, we have to split you in rooms. And by the way, dinner's at 7. The wi-fi password in each room is happiness and the room number. I know you are thankful for telling you. My name is Jake and you can find me at room 786 any time of the day. After you take your key, please take your luggage and go to your rooms, so that we don't get all mixed up. We have 11 girls and 7 seven boys. So that makes 5 rooms for girls. Come here, 10 girls divided in pairs. Get your room key and sign your name on this paper here." Katie and Skyler left to that guy there to get their room key and than flicked the number, for Isaac to see, as they disappeared in the hall.

"Very subtle." I whisper, making him chuckle.

"Ok, 6 boys in pairs, come here, sign your name, grab your key, off you go."

After everyone else gathered in the elevators, Isaac and I remained the only ones without a key.

"Now, you tell me. Separate rooms or you don't mind sharing with the opposite sex?"

"We have been best friends since childhood so don't worry, sir." Isaac assures him, winking at him.

"Fine, Irish. You're passing this time." He threw him the key, smiling.

"I'm English, you idiot." He whispers as we get in the elevator, pressing the button for the 9th floor.

"Everyone seems to be very nice and friendly around here." I say, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, indeed." Isaac answered absent-mindedly, just staring at the phone in his hand.

"Are you waiting for a call or something?"

"No, I am just very very tired. I need to sleep and eat."

The doors opened and we carried our bags on the slightly crowded hallway. I noticed some other students that were in the lobby as well. Their eyes were baggy and they were just quietly chatting to each other from their rooms' door frames. 'Chillin', would that look like. I just keep right behind Isaac, checking the rooms' numbers we pass by. 919, 920, 921... 922!

"Need help ya guys?" a handsome boy walks over to us, offering to help us carry our bags in. My goodness, he looked like those perfections from tumblr. I felt as if I were drooling. I hope not.

"No, thank you, we're good, man." Isaac answers before my brain scratches for a reply.

"How come you two are sleeping in the same room? Lovers or somethin'?"

"No, we're just best friends. Since childhood." I reply, trying not to faint at the guy's beauty. His hair was exactly my dark color and his eyes were blue. Could it be any better?

"Right. Well, I am Jill and my roommate over there is Jared. We're at 916 if you need us. Oh, you're the Sheffield besties who are currently studying in Ireland? Phoebe and Istacs...?"

"It's Isaac, dumb ass. And stop staring at Phoebe's ass, she ain't interested, you American slag."

I was totally blushing, I bet. And absolutely shocked. How on earth did Isaac say that? On what principles did he reach the conclusion that Jill was looking at me? I moved aside a bit, so that I would be almost hidden by Isaac's body.

"How'd you know?"

"I am not blind. Step away now."

Jill looked at me disappointedly and blew a kiss but I just sticked my tongue out, realizing by his kiss blowing gesture that Isaac was right. American slag, obsessed of sex. We lock the door behind us and check the room out. It was more like a flat. We had a huge bedroom, one wardrobe for each one, two little desks in the living room, which was equipped with a tiny leather sofa and a coffee table, along with a flat screen Tv and a mini bar in a corner. Our hallway had a coat hanger and some sort of shelves close to the floor to put your shoes on. Thank God, we had two little bathrooms. I was worried about sharing the bathroom with Isaac because I usually leave my stuff sprawled around and I wouldn't have this privilege if I had to share it with him. Thankfully, I can take my time with this one. We chose the bathrooms and the bed sides. I got to sleep on the left side, because Isaac can only sleep on the right. We saw a colorful paper pinned on a remainder board on our bedroom wall, but we just set our alarms at 6:30 in order to get ready for dinner and jumped in bed, exhausted. Excited as children on Christmas morning, but exhausted as the poor Jews in camps.

***

I wake up to the classic iPhone alarm. Ughh... God damn it.. We've been sleeping for only 4 hours. Isaac doesn't even hear his alarm joining mine, now. He is sleeping like a log. I roll on the side and turn my phone off than bend over Isaac to do the same with his.

"We have to fucking wake up." I whisper, stretching lazily.

"Although I'm starving, I choose sleep over food this time." Isaac mumbles, covering his head with the thin sheet.

"So you are not coming?"

"I don't think so."

"You have to eat! Plus, who will I share my table with?"

"Hey... Make some friends..." Isaac mumbles, sticking out his eyes, fluttering them open.

"You sound like Hazel's mom."

"God damn it, Phoebe, you sometimes seem to have social anxiety."

"I hate talking to people I don't know. So better get up and stay with me, otherwise I will kick your ass and drag you there."

"Why you so violent..? Fine, I'm up, my stomach is on strike.."

"Yeah, come on, get dressed."

I texted my parents and Thalia to assure them that we're ok. I would have called them, but we don't have much time anyway. Plus, I think it's hardly 7 in the morning there. I am not sure, I haven't figured out the clock differences yet.

At five minutes to seven, Isaac and I lock the door and take the elevator. We asked the lady from the lobby where the dining room was.

"To the right. Enjoy your meal!"

"Thank you."

Isaac and I could hear roaming teenage voices who were gathered at two and four people tables.

"Phoebe, I know you're freaking terrified by new people, but honestly, I don't give a fuck how much you are going to curse me now."

He put his arms around my shoulders and immediately dragged me to Katie and Skyler, who were talking energetically in a corner.

"Hello, ladies, do you mind us joining you?" Isaac asked, putting his arms on the back of a chair, leaning closer to them. They were smiling like turned on cows.

They said they would be delighted to have us here, but I know it was mostly because of Isaac. I was not their type. They werefashionable and all, their make-up was perfect, their hair was hanging in curls down their shoulders. They were wearing proudly their tight tank tops. Their boobs were the ones taking the attention first, not their faces. Isaac was playing it cool, acting like prince charming. I was just munching tiredly on the pasta they have just brought us. Than, in my visual range appeared the well-known silhouette of...

"Alex Turner?!" Skyler gasped in surprise." I know they would be performing at VidCon in exactly 6 days but I didn't know they would be in our hotel!"

I was looking at Isaac, my eyes asking him for help. Even if that pasta was delicious, I felt like throwing it up. I prayed Alex wouldn't see me. I was watching the other members of the Arctic Monkeys shuffle in as some other guy I didn't know was talking on the phone. Alex immediately made eye contact with me, took of his sunglasses and bent his head a little, miming a salute. A cheeky smile and wink accompanied his gesture. This made Katie and Skyler fangirl, while it made me freeze. Fortunately, there was a reserved huge table for them, pretty far from us. As they installed, I couldn't see Alex anymore from where I was standing. A little ding on my phone almost made me drop my fork.

Your eyes are red. Don't worry, they're gorgeous anyway. Hi . I looked up from my phone and spotted Alex again. He was lifting a few fingers, waving at me in slow motion. I turned my head away and discreetly showed Isaac the text. He took action.

"Ladies, thank you for your hospitality. We'll see you around tomorrow." He got up and kissed their hands, exchanging numbers, waving goodbye. Little dork. I wished them goodnight, forced a smile and darted off from the room, Isaac behind me. Or so I thought.

As I passed by the Monkeys' table, I noticed Isaac stopping and changing a few words with the guys, shaking hands and all that. I was worriedly watching from round a corner when someone touched me on the shoulder. I turned around, raising my leg, clenching my little fist, ready to punch. It was just Jake...

"Woah, take it easy, I wasn't going to rape you. Watching closely the hot shots, aren't you? Heeeeey! IS THAT YOUR IRISH GUY OVER THERE?! MARTIN! STEP AWAY!"

"It's alright, sir, I know him. Best friends in childhood." Alex kindly defended Isaac.

"Wait, you're English, Martin?"

"I hell am, sir. Just for a long time in Ireland." Isaac replies, shrugging.

"That means Alex knows the girl with the funny name that is also Isaac's best friend from childhood?"

Funny name?! I know both of my names start with this 'fee' pronunciation, but come on, idiot.

"Phoebe Phillis. Yes. I do know her." Alex answers, watching me distracted. I was somewhere behind Jake so he had to look past him in order to see me.

"I think I lost her around here, I shall see where she is... See ya around, Alex, guys.... Good night!"

A short round of goodbyes and nice to meet yous bursted from their table, under everyone's close peeking, supervising, overhearing and so on. I can already imagine most girls jumping around Isaac(not only Katie and Skyler now), having a proper reason for starting a cheeky conversation with him which would mainly go something like: 'hi, I love Alex Turner and I've seen you've known him since childhood... But you know, you are just as sexy and funny and talented as he is, so just get in my room and let's make out.' Trust me. I've witnessed similar stuff before. A girl who is only sexually attracted by a guy is like a ray of sun. A ray of sun that takes your eyes out with her naivety and sudden brainwash. A girl like that loses her mind and acts really dumb. A dumb that is so dumb it even becomes cute. I know it's awkward, but it's how I feel about this.

"Good night, Jake." Isaac says, walking away.

Isaac than joined me and we waited for the elevator.

"So you're boiling mad at me." He says, apologetically.

"No. I'm boiling FRUSTRATED."

"Frustrated?"

"They are even staying at our freaking hotel. I kinda feel stalked."

"Stalked..." He repeated, unlocking our room door.

"Yes. Fucking stalked. He is everywhere."

He started chuckling and giggling quietly and I decided to install. Isaac seemed a bit more awake now, so he did the same. As I was unfolding my blouses and neatly organizing my Tees and underwear, I noticed behind the wardrobe...wait for it... An ironing table! Boom. No horrifying thing this time. We kept chatting about all sorts of stuff.

"Phoebe, he loves you."

"I can't deny it."

"Than why the hell don't you get back with him?"

"Isaac, he isn't with me and he can't. That manager he fired was right. His life is in London, not in Ireland. And until I finish high school there are two more years. I have told you before, I can't handle having another person I love and care about chatting with on skype and not face to face. I can't do anything about it. Not until I start college, when I might be moving back to England at least. And till then, he will be dating another top model, maybe even prettier than his last conquers... He will have long forgotten about me."

"But he truly loves you."

"I said I can't deny it. But if I allow myself to love him, I am afraid I will suffer."

"I said he truly loves you, Phoebe. Someone who truly loves someone else is capable of giving up lots of things for that person."

I chose to block myself a bit, so I arranged my laptop, a few notebooks I took with me, a spare agenda, the bunch of stationery I had, a few books to read this summer arranged on the above shelves. All these were now neatly put in place. I had two plugs near the desk and two plugs near my nightstand, enough for the laptop and my iPad on the desk and again perfect for my phone and iPod. I always needed the last two closer to me, just in case.

In just an hour, you could already make the difference between what side of room was whose. My side was almost fully filled with my stuff, clothes in place, shoes sprawled on half of the floor shelves from the hallway, my desk nicely organized with everything I need to survive, my bath ready, steamy. Isaac? His clothes were just neatly put in the wardrobe-mostly because of my punishing tone- but the rest was everywhere: electronics on the bed and on the floor, bath products in bags, Doritos and muffins in trollers, books and notebooks on the floor. But do you know what Isaac was doing? He was texting the girls. Or shall I say, sexting.

"Ugh... You are a mess, where are you even going to sleep tonight?"

"I will tidy everything up, promise."

"Fine. I will go take a bath. You need to have this done until I come because I wanna go to sleep. Something you should do, too."

I grabbed the last thing from my last troller and took it in the living room. The white framed picture with my best friends made a corner of our coffee table feel like home now.