OMG 40 chapters?! I think I'll faint if I get to chapter 50! Or more!

I read a couple of chapters from some people, and when somebody writes 'Camero' instead of 'Camaro', dude, I just wanna strangle them. HOW CAN U POSSIBLY GET IT WRONG?! It's my fave car! (and I'm sure it's your's too)

And thanks so much for the reviews, they mean a whole bunch to me. I honestly hadn't expected this many, and you sure warmed my spark with the reviews that carried answers in them.

*Special thanks to Bee'sgirl813 for the excellent idea. If you can give me an idea, PM me, and I'll give you credit for your effort. Thank you.

Well, anyways, here's what you've been waiting for

A friend is one of the most valuable treasures you will find anywhere and there are a few loses greater than the loss of a friend.

In my experience, losing a friend to death, as painful as it is, is more bearable than losing a friend to a fall-out. Even in death, at least you still have their fond memories, you remember how much they cared and you never have to worry about where they are or whether you'll ever see them again.

Losing a friend to a fall-out, on the other hand, is much worse. It's as if a hole has been cut into your heart, and even when everyone tells you you're better off without that person, it doesn't make you feel any better. It's worse when you've known that person for a considerable amount of years and you've grown to love and cherish them.

You don't regret meeting them or having them as your friend. Your only true regret is that it had come to this, that something so beautiful and precious has crumbled into pieces.

With that said, I… you know what? I don't know what was going through my head. There were many things, and there weren't many things. It was like I wasn't sure what I was doing there anymore.

We… broke up. But I can't embrace the fact, because I know what my heart and feelings still say.

I manually exited the truck, not even closing the door behind me. 'Manually' because I was doing things almost subconsciously. Just doing things like a mindless drone. Not caring about whether people were watching.

But I knew one thing was true. I was damn furious. Why, you ask? The idiot just broke up with me, all because of an accident and even after I said I was sorry, he didn't forgive me. Perhaps it was my fault. Perhaps it wasn't.

I wasn't going to wallow and be left to rot in my despair, no. I got into the dorm, knowing that Nic and Bee were watching me curiously. I felt cold tears drip down my cheeks, leaving small salty traces on the floor. As I got into the bathroom, I locked it and sat on the toilet, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.

There wasn't much I could do. If he wasn't going to forgive, then… then I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'm taking this too easy? Well, I'm certainly not going to be a drama queen over this.

My long hair, all unkempt and knotted, I didn't even know I had a pony tail that tied it halfway. I needed to vent out. I had all of this pent up anger inside me.

I quickly stood up from the toilet and searched through the cabinet in the bathroom, searching for scissors. I pushed through some bottles, perfumes, deodorant, I don't even know what I did, but random things fell from the cabinet and onto the floor. Some breaking, some bending, some not receiving any damage at all.

I finally found them, putting my hands down on the edge of the sink, I looked up at myself, again. I hate these dark circles under my eyes. This unknown face staring at me. The ruined hair. This whole damn situation.

I aggressively took the pony tail, flung it over my shoulder and without even thinking, in one swell cut, half of the tied up hair fell on the floor, along with the pony tail.

As I cut through the hair, the tears slid down my cheeks, hot tears, my chest pained, my head pained, and I couldn't take this anymore. I fell down on my knees, trying to see through my blurry eyes. My hair, my once beautiful hair, now on the ground scattered, in immense quantities.

I took my cut hair into my palm and cried over it. Or over Ron. I didn't know.

But next thing I did now, that after my moaning and loud sobbing in the bathroom, Bumblebee came blasting through the door. I screamed at the unknown and wild action. He came down by my side, putting a warm hand on my back and the other on my leg. "Melissa, what… what is this?" he took the hair from my hand, assessing it. "Come on, get up." He said, trying to help me up, but my legs refused to cooperate.

I was under so much stress and pain, I couldn't recognize these legs as my own. I felt so weak now. Insecure. Without my stick, I couldn't walk. The 'stick' was a metaphor for 'Ironhide'.

Bumblebee helped me get out of the bathroom, and I was, quite literally, dragging my feet behind, the tears falling down on the floor, unstoppably, as my head was bent down. I felt like a mess.

Suddenly, Bumblebee quit walking as I felt a weak grip on my shoulders. I brought my head up, only to see a totally shocked and… almost going into shock, Nicole. She touched my face, the black bags under my eyes, my cheek and then my short hair. "M…" she tried to say, but nothing more than an 'M' came out.

"Just say it. I'm so fucking ugly." I said, as another tear traced down the cheek and onto her palm.

"N… W… H…" she tried to muster something, like, 'no', 'why', 'how', and so on.

"Admit it, I fucked up real bad." I swore. I was never one for swearing, but I think I'm allowed that, considering what I've been though.

"Bee… couch." Was all she could say as Bumblebee moved me to sit on the couch. I hid my face with my hands, they were holding scratches from the explosion that occurred just days ago. Nicole put my hands down gently. "Mel…" she looked like she wanted to cry. And nothing happened to her. "What happened?"

I covered my head as much as I could. She brought my hands down again. "It's…" I started, but I didn't know how to formulate the words. Or sentences.

"Take it easy. There is time." She drew circles into my cheek, wiping the crusty tear traces. "First tell me, why did you do this?" she took what was left of my hair. Once almost butt length, now it was just at the shoulder. Such a drastic change.

"I… Ironhide." Was all I could say as I brought up my face to look at her, right into her eyes. "Something happened and he's never going to forgive me."

"Ironhide? What did he do?"

"It's not what he did, it's what I did. And Sam."

"Melissa, you're scaring me." She seriously said. God, do I wish that I was a kid now, carefree and without this lovesick crap.

"No, it's… you and Bee made a mess in the bedroom. Sam and I were hopping over the clothes. I couldn't fucking stand on one leg and Sam tried to catch me."

"And?"

I sniffed, "Long story short, we fell on the bed."

"So? Big deal." She huffed.

"It wasn't just a fall. He... I… Shit, our lips touched." I blurted out.

"…Your lips what?" she looked at me wide eyed.

"They touched. There was no tongue involved. Ron seemed to see it and now, he hates me."

She stood silent for a moment, turning her head to the big window in the living room and looking out into the parking lot, where Ironhide was parked. She turned back to me. "I'll go have a talk with him." She tried to stand up, but I pulled her down quickly.

"No. You're not going to do anything. You can't fight my battles. My fights are mine and mine only."

"I don't care, Melissa. I don't care. If you explained it to him, and clearly, this is not what you intended, because you love him, then he needs to see the truth and face it."

"You're right, but that doesn't make it any easier."

"I'll have a short talk, okay? You wait here." She said, before going out of the dorm.

I was alone again. I was alone. Like I always was. No matter if I had Bee here with me, on the other side of the room, I still felt alone. Abandoned. With no one to go to.

I slowly raised my hand up and touched the soft ends of my short hair. What have I done to myself?

What I once read all the way back in high school, when a when a woman lost her brother, she cut her hair, her symbol of beauty.

Right now, I didn't care if I was ugly or beautiful, knowing I was definitely not the latter, but I miss being told I was beautiful, even at times when both Ron and I knew I wasn't. But, then he'd always say that whatever I looked like, I would be beautiful to him.

Which made my eyes water, my lips tremble and made me inhale sharply through my nose, even though my mouth was a little bit open.

Was I ever going to be told that I was beautiful, in this condition? Or whatever condition?

Right now… more than anything, believe it or not, I wanted to die.

Yes, to die. To forget. To forget this never happened to us. To forget the kiss with Sam. To forget the fights. Just… forget. But, I knew I couldn't.

I silently prayed to God that I forget all of this commotion. To be free of stress. Is that too much to ask?

Nicole emerged from the entrance to the room, quickly grabbing my hands and going with me to the bedroom. Don't ask me how it was clean, because I don't know. "What did you say?" I asked.

"We're going to a café. I'll rent a car, and we're going alone."

"Why?" we entered the bedroom.

"Because we need to talk about this and get you and 'Hide back together. You're meant to be."

"Okay, but why aren't we going with Bumblebee or Ironhide?" my chest pained at his name.

"They can hear, and trust me when I say this, everything. It'll be for the best if they aren't with us there."

"Alright. I'll get changed, and… you get the rent-a-car vehicle. How are you going to pay up for it?"

"Don't worry. I still have Galloway's credit card." She smiled.

"Can't he, like, track the transactions?" I asked, recalling a familiar lesson from class and numerous books I had had to read.

"I could care less." She smiled. "I'll grab a Smart coupe. You stay here. Bee will tell you when I'm back. You get ready by then."

I always loved Nicole's happy-go-lucky attitude, where she could bring up the downiest of spirits. Maybe, her words weren't very encouraging, but they get the job done. She makes me smile and that's what a real best friend does. Makes you smile, brings you up and is there for you.

So where the hell is Amanda?

Never mind her. She should be out with Josh and Clara and Lana. Not that I care, and honestly, the less people know what's going on between me and Ironhide, the better.

Nicole got out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her, leaving the clothes and silence to me. Right now, I hated the silence. I was just smiling, a mere moment ago, and now I'm back to that groggy, hurt Melissa.

Well, not today.

I immediately went to the closet and carefully selected my clothes. We were going to a café, not a theater. So, everyday clothing, check. I got in the bathroom to brush my teeth. Just as I filled the brush with toothpaste, I looked up at myself in the mirror.

This wasn't me. I always had long hair, normal tanned face and didn't have these ugly black bags.

I quickly finished brushing my teeth, and got all the make-up from the cabinet. I was going to hide all of these ugly marks, because seriously, who wants to go out looking like a homeless lunatic?

I finished and put back the make-up in the cabinet, and looked at the shoulder length hair. Whatever should I do? I mused from a movie. Screw movies, Mel, this is real life.

So, unfortunately, this was real life. I took a hair brush from the cabinet and started to brush. Seemed like all day this morning I was brushing, cutting, putting something. It's ridiculous. So after I managed to brush the hair, it was weird. I was used to my long hair and long pulling and whining, but now… nothing.

It was fairly easy to brush, it was also a really quick action.

"Well, at least I look human." I noted. I bit my tongue there. Crap. Well, really, look at my life. When do you ever meet and alien, mechanical in nature, who you get to be romantically involved with, and now… now you're not even with him and it seems like everything is just starting to fall apart.

XxXxXxXxX

"Ironhide, we need to talk." Nicole Witwicky said as she opened the door of the Topkick, sitting in the passenger seat. The truck just closed the door. "Will you turn on your holoform?"

The holoform of Ron appeared. "Yes?" he said exhaustedly. Nicole immediately noticed that even he wasn't taking this well, but he was taking it better than Mel. Like, he had all of his hair on. Or whatever.

"Why are you so cold to Melissa?" she asked him.

"Will you not interfere? It is none of your business." He crossed his arms.

"I will interfere! She's my best friend and I don't want some alien here, hurting her! Damn it, Ironhide, do you know what she did to herself?!"

His eyebrows joined, "No. What?"

"She… you should see for yourself. Look, point is, Melissa is the most loyal person we know. She'd never betray you, she'd never do that and you know it."

He stood silent, listening to her when it was Melissa as the main topic, "And now… she's heartbroken, Ironhide. And she loves you. If a girl still loves you even after you've broken her heart, then you know that she's the one. Don't lose her over something as stupid as this. She's too good to be lost this way." She sincerely said.

"What do you suggest?" he openly said, knowing far well if he didn't do something with Melissa, Nicole would follow him to the Pit and back just to bring them back. He was open for suggestions. Nicole always had some.

"I suggest you apologize to her." she said. "It's the least you can do."

"Understood. Is this all?" he asked, as his holoform fuzzed out.

"Yeah. And listen to me, just do as I told you, and everything's going to be alright. Think about how you're going to do it." She patted the dashboard. "I'll see you 'round Ironhide." She said, getting out of the truck.

XxXxXxXxX

Someone knocked on the door. I unlocked it and opened it. Bumblebee was just outside. "Nicole's here. She says you should come." He smiled and I smiled in return, something I've been doing since I've known about myself. Just smile back. Always.

I got out of the bathroom, out the living room, out the door and into the parking lot.

Among a lot of vehicles that the other students owned, the Camaro and Topkick always stood out. I wanted to cry when I saw the Topkick. It wasn't proudly standing, like it always used to be. The truck had 'proud' written all over it, whenever we were together, he looked menacing and looked like he could go through an oak tree without blowing a gasket. Now, it wasn't as 'proud' as much.

I heard a honk behind them, so I had to walk between the Camaro and Topkick. Even though they had a one meter distance span between them, I had to walk past that Topkick. As I got past the front wings and hood, I got to the side mirrors. I stopped there and sighed.

I looked to the ground and then to the Topkick. God, do I miss this Topkick, its massages, it's plain presence. I hugged the huge mirror, with my both arms and kissed it. The truck made a noise and it sounded like the truck sighed. He was relaxed now, as much as he could with this situation.

I kissed the clean mirror again. I just wanted to tell him what my heart feels, what it says and this was the shortest way I could have formed a sentence. "We may have our ups and downs, but know this. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Ironhide. I still love you." I whispered to him as I let go. I got behind the truck and saw a Smart vehicle behind it.

It was very bright pink in color and a very happy Nicole was in it. She really was the heart of the party. She would always smile and encourage people. She's just like that. Just by being herself.

"Ready?" she asked as I opened the door.

"Ready." I said as I closed it and looked inside the funny interior. Alright, it wasn't funny, but to me, it was very different. I buckled up myself as she slowly moved out of the parking lot. After another turn, she drove slowly on the main street.

"They're not following us?"

"Nope. Don't worry. We'll be in the café for some time and then head home."

"I can't really go out for a very long time." I said.

"Why?"

"It's too early. I mean, with everything going on and I don't know what Ironhide's reaction was, there are just so many things in my head now, I need time to assort them all."

"Understood."

She turned on a corner once more as she stopped in front of a café we would always go through the years. As she stopped the car in the café parking lot, I unbuckled myself and we exited the Smart.

The rest of the day was spent in thinking about what to do when we got home. The café was not really full. More like half empty. So we talked and talked until it was night time. That was the time, when I decided I was exhausted and that this was too much for me. Today was one hell of a day, and not in a good way.

We got back in the Smart and Nicole drove us home. I had a great time, even though I felt like crying down in front of the half full café, Nicole managed to bring my sprit up, once again.

As she drove slowly home, I felt at ease. Telling something important to someone who is your best friend and a great listener at that, really feels good, but it also eases you. "So you think I should tell him?" I asked her.

"Totally. We talked about this. He knows it. But, just take it easy." She patted my hand as we drove slowly in one direction. "Be calm." she gave me smile.

She turned once more and got up on the parking lot. She parked a couple of parking spots next to Bumblebee and then turned the engine off. We silently got out of the car and into the dorm. I kept looking at the black truck. Taking it easy and taking my time was essential, as Nicole said.

Actually, I wanted to continue the chapter, but I'd most definitely go to + 8.000 words, so I can't write it, you can't read it, so it'd be best if we put two chapters. As I said, I have a lot of things in plan. Read and Review, please! :D