One of my friends (who shall be known as Marcy) went to school in Georgia (I'm in New England), and one summer I flew down to visit her during her finals week.
We had a lot of fun and I got to meet her boyfriend of two years named Twitch (he was super lame and really weird, but I nodded my head and pretended to like him for her). After spending an awesome 10 days in Georgia, it was time to go back to Connecticut.
I flew down, but I was going to drive up with Marcy and Twitch in her car. It was at this point everything started going wrong.
We were going to make a stop to visit Marcy's sister in Maryland and spend a night there, which was fine - I've been there plenty of times.
As soon as we finished packing everything into her '93 VW Golf, we started talking about the driving situation. It turns out that Twitch refused to drive the car, period. This meant Marcy and I were driving him up in shifts. I didn't want to say anything, I was just the third wheel at this point.
We made our way there, slowly but surely, switching off drivers at every gas station. We spent the night at Marcy's sister's and got back on the road for the final stretch from Maryland to Connecticut.
Unfortunately, once we hit New Jersey, something went wrong - the brakes in the car totally went. Marcy was told they would last the trip up by a mechanic down in Georgia - apparently he was wrong.
We coasted into the nearest gas stop on the New Jersey Turnpike and started weighing our options. Marcy and Twitch were basically broke, and I had the most money we could spend with a little more than $150.
I figured it'd be best to call AAA first, and if we couldn't work something out we'd use my $150 to find a cheap motel. I got on the phone and they said that due to the way things worked on the Jersey Turnpike, AAA can't pick us up on the turnpike - they have to have a third party come, take us off the Turnpike, then AAA can come get us. Whatever, at this point I just wanted to go home.
However, once the tow truck pulled up, a clearly high out of his mind guy in his mid 20's steps out. He says he can't take us off of the Turnpike for less than $150. Twitch jumps at the opportunity, ordering me to pay MY money for this asshole clearly hosing us for extra cash.
It was at this point I snapped after dealing with the loser for an entire car ride.
I sharply told Twitch to shut up and go back to the Quik E Mart while I talked to the tower. I explained to the guy that there was absolutely no way I was paying that much for him to take us just off the Turnpike. We got on the phone with AAA again and, after another 45 minutes of arguing and passing the phone around, we got him to begrudgingly agree to take us for free.
He hooked up the car and started the machine. The car made it halfway up the ramp when suddenly the winch made a terrible grinding noise and released the car, which flew down the ramp and straight at us standing by until it bumped into the curb again. We backed away further, hoping we wouldn't get hit again. The guy tries firing up the winch again, and sure enough, the grinding noise comes up and the car flies down again.
The guy looks at it for a minute, looks at us, then says "Huh, I should probably get that checked out, huh?"
We are not amused.
He then tells me to get in the car and pump the brakes if it happens again. I try to explain the problem is that the car HAS no brakes, but it goes over his head and I find myself inside the car. It finally goes up on the bed without a hitch this time.
We are taken literally five minutes away from where we were picked up and promptly left with the car in a random (and very sketchy) parking lot in Jersey. We call AAA again and a different tow truck with a competent driver shows up and gets the car up without a hitch. He then looks at us and frowns.
"Oh, there are three of you...?" he asked, almost unsure of himself. When we asked if that would be a problem, he explained that he could only take two of us back to Connecticut, since there are only three seats in the car and they'd be crossing state lines.
Marcy looked at me and said, "You'll be fine here, right? You think you can find a hotel or something?"
I was so livid with both of them in that moment I told them to go without me and I'd figure something out. In all honesty, I just wanted them out of my face at the moment.
I found a really nice place 10 minutes away, called my dad who travels for business, and was lucky enough that he was going to be in Jersey for a meeting the next day anyway. I spent the night at the bar of the hotel, met up with my dad the next day, and drove home.
I didn't get a single text from Marcy saying "I'm sorry" or "Thanks for being okay with staying back".
I haven't talked to Marcy in a while.
TL;DR: I flew down to visit her, she stranded me in another state.