I'd had one of the worst days of my life, and slamming the door shut behind me to my dorm room, I flopped onto my bed and buried my face in my pillow, trying to keep myself from crying. I'd been kicked out of class for something I didn't do, pushed down some stairs, and had my lunch stolen when I'd turned my back for an instant. I didn't even get up when it was time to go to my next class.
After a few hours of moping, I jolted when I heard a key in the lock on my dorm room. My roommate, Adam, walked in and dropped his things to the floor, sitting on the edge of my bed.
"Hey…what's wrong Mandy?" he said, using the nickname I refused to let anyone else call me by.
"I had the worst day in a long time…" I said, sitting up and hugging my knees to my chest. Adam gave me his trademark half smirk.
"Go get cleaned up and put on something pretty." Adam said, going over to his dresser himself and digging through his drawers. I looked at him incredulously.
"Uh, why?" I asked. Adam turned and smiled at me, his bright blue eyes soft.
"I think you need to take a load off, let's cut class just for today. Besides, this is the last class anyway, it's like almost 5 o clock." Adam said, pulling out a polo shirt before stuffing it back in his drawer. I rolled off my bed, sighing, and crossed to my small closet next to the bathroom. Our dorm room was actually a small apartment, so we had most of the comforts of home.
"How pretty? I mean, where were you thinking?" I asked, browsing through my clothes. Adam smiled.
"That's a surprise, but you don't have to wear a cocktail dress or anything." he said, selecting a long sleeved dress shirt and grabbing the only tie he had brought with him to college. Smiling, he started to undress in the middle of the floor and I turned my attention fully to my closet, feeling my face heat up. I snatched a green blouse from the rack and ducked into the bathroom, sort of in disbelief that Adam was doing this for me.
When we had both changed, Adam led me to his car and we sped off into the sunset…Or, that's how it went in my mind anyway.
….
A few hours later, we were back on the road, full of seafood and I honestly was a bit tipsy since Adam insisted on buying me drinks. He hadn't had any, he had to drive, and it was a good thing he hadn't since the storm clouds that had been building all day took the opportunity to split open and pour rain. Adam nonchalantly turned on his wipers and glanced at me, smirking. I, on the other hand, was clutching the door panel of his Grand Am so hard I might've broken it. Adam knew what was wrong, and he subtly turned on the radio to distract me.
I have a terrible fear of thunderstorms, spiders, heights, and I'm moderately OCD, I get made fun of for these things a lot, but Adam is one of the few who understands.
"Hang in there Mandy," he says with a smile, "campus is only like fifteen minutes away." I nodded curtly, the storm taking the dull edge quickly from my senses. A rumble of thunder was audible in the black sky and I shuddered, curling into a tight ball. Adam reached to turn up the radio louder and that's when everything went wrong. He took his eyes off the road, I could see that, but what he didn't see was the eighteen wheeler that lost control on the rain-slick road in front of us and drifted into our lane. It may be cliché, but everything went into slow-motion then.
I screamed Adam's name, and he snapped up his gaze to see the front grille of the semi that was bearing down on us. Adam jerked the steering wheel, attempting to swerve out of the way.
The passenger side of his car, the one I was on, smashed into the side of the truck and Adam lost control, his car fishtailing. I saw everything, even though pain washed over me from unknown injuries. The Grand Am slid off the road, and Adam tried one last time to regain control. Instead, the car jackknifed and rolled down the embankment on the side of the road. I was screaming, though almost not of my own accord, and just caught a glimpse of a tree before I heard a bone-shattering crash and my vision blanked out. I felt a wave of tearing pain rip across my body before everything melted away.
...
Yeah, this was a plot bunny that's been bugging me for a really long time, so I really wanted to get this out. Who knows how far it will go, but let's see!
Next time: Mandy will get her first look at the Autobots, along with a very interesting surprise….