A loud crash of glassware awoke Melise in an instant. The rush to nearly speed out the window was fresh as she blinked, her axles getting cold in the darkness of her suite bedroom.
Brown eyes traced a line to the white lights, twins in motion, moving about under the doorway, no voices accompanying them. Melise reached around her for the hard feeling of her phone, the texture of her own coverlets only turning up.
She climbed off the mattress, alert bright on her features. Her headlights turned on, the aqua-tinge color in the settled darkness burned her eyes.
With the light source, Melise could hear some new shuffling in her suite. She caught the sight of her designer Lightyear tires thrown in the corner, and pulled the a single heavy tire near. She had to be prepared.
The door was tossed open, four headlights shined with a gasp as the racing tire was thrown in desperation. A crunch of metal dinged in the silence as the Benz fell on her undercarriage, she held her tires to her grille, doubled over in pain.
"Oh my gosh! Melissa? It's just us!" The orbs of glowing undercarriage LED lights turned on. The frame of a red, shimmery Camry was in Melise's sight.
The convertible turned her lights to the light blue modern Benz coupe recovering from her mishap.
"Remember? We spoke before the show?" the Camry explained, "You know, the one your 'mentor' ruined?"
With no recognition on the Honda's face, the red coupe pulled forward, turning on the room light.
"It's just us both," she repeated, seeing the stunned convertible staring.
"Emla and Merina, remember? Calm down."
Merina glanced to her side, seeing the white-ringed Lightyear, "She totally threw a tire, Oh my gosh, that really hurt!"
Emla turned to her pal, quick to examine, then guide her to the bedroom washroom with a close of the door.
Melise could feel her cab shaking slightly. She was glad for the imminent fear of death out of the equation, but the reality of cars roaming her suite as she slept merely a room away was something unfamiliar.
The two scuffled in the bathroom, Merina briefly cursing as she demanded her friend not touch her emblem three times. There was a thud, and some muffled arguing back and forth between the pair.
Melise exhaled deeply, she turned on the lights for the main room, finding the array of cherry cans and empty tubes of ice cream finished earlier in the night cleared away. The tiny kitchen was sparkling.
Perched on the end table previously littered with outdated magazines, a bouquet of yellow roses and a box of sweets.
Her eyes turned back to her bed, seeing the tube of ice cream she fell asleep eating missing. The floor scrubbed and shiny where it once sat. She sighed.
Melise hesitated for a moment, then knocked on the bathroom door, silence ensuring.
"Hey, I'm... " she opened the door, seeing a silly mess of paper towel stuffed in Merina's grille as Emla separated more tissues with her tread.
"Really sorry!" Melise squeaked. Emla blew a sigh.
"Honestly, I thought you were gonna throw another tire at us," she joked.
"Bu— why are you here!?" Melise spaced out her tires, emphasizing the suite she was supposed to be alone in.
"We just..." Merina grimaced, cowering in reverse as her grille stung. Melise rolled toward the Benz, ready to help her when Emla pulled forward, "We just wanted to check on you."
"That ugly Jonah guy you're with," Emla continued, her grille basting disgust. "Has he hurt you?"
Melise shook her hood, "He's not here."
"Oh, good. But he hasn't caused any trouble besides that B.S he pulled at the show?"
Melise remembered the event, lucky to be uninjured by their antics. She could still hear their voices as they swooned over one another in the general ward.
"No, nothing more than some bickering between us."
Melise could see Emla driving daggers at her, prying her eyes for signs of dishonesty.
"I don't mean to get into your business," Melise said, "But what else has he... done?"
The red Camry sighed, ready to turn the tables on the Bentley once again.
"He's always chasing around the younger girls in the industry, and making promises with them just so he can get his lugnuts wet."
Melise cringed, caught of by the blunt comment, a simple explanation. She was warned of this before, never catching the details until earlier in the hospital.
"That girl he was with, Jin, she's just trying to get as close as she can to fame."
Emla stiffened, remembering some tales of her own.
"I started rim modelling when I was eighteen," Emla explained, "He was my coach."
"All her did was blackmail and blackmail. If he wasn't making fun of my red glitter, he was sneaking into my room at night to watch me sleep. He would take candid pictures and try to implicate that he was capturing a 'relaxed expression we should wear on the runway'. Just excuses."
Melise was growing discomfort. She kept her sight focussed on Emla, still explaining.
"It was the end when he told me he wouldn't sign my successful photos to a junior magazine because I wouldn't go to his beach house later on."
Melise's lips remained up turned in in a frown.
"And he loves working with racing brands but hates race cars. What a loser." Merina remarked in nasal congestion.
The Honda thought for a moment, she looked at the two, confusion on her hood.
"So you were checking on me, without asking me first!?"
The Camry and Benz exchanged sheepish glances with another.
"We couldn't find you anywhere after you left the show! We decided to just surprise you instead!" Emla remarked, a grin on her grille.
"You looked so upset, and even lost, we just wanted to make sure you were okay! And you left your door unlocked."
Merina glanced to Emla, she nodded as she turned back to Melise.
The convertible's expression suggested she had never relied on such compassion, likely sheltered away from other cars in the world.
"Well," Melise drove into the suite's main room, braking as she rolled over the miniature living room mat. "I don't really know what to think or say right now..."
"I bought microwave popcorn," Merina suddenly said, she quickly cringed at the sting of her battered grille, "We can have a slumber party and talk all about it, huh?"
Melise could feel her resistance against the idea rising. She didn't know these girls, even if they were being friendly. She glanced to the clock, reading two hours past midnight. This was crazy. Still, she bit the inside of her cheek, reluctant to dismiss them.
"We can talk about our lives all night long!" Emla grinned between the door and Melise idling.
With a glance to her bedroom, Melise headed into the space, "I brought raspberry teabags from home, would you like a quart?"
She could hear Merina squeal in delight from the hallway, quickly shushed by Emla.
Melise stretched her stiff axles. Tonight was something else— the entire day was. But this was different, a kind of night she was sure she could remember.
Her thoughts fell on the grey eyed, livery race car rilling up her RPMs. For a moment, she wondered if these two girls knew a thing about him. Better yet, how to get over him.