3 Years Earlier -
On a school night, 18 had sneaked out of her bedroom to go see the show of one of her best friend's brother, he was in a band and tonight he was playing at a club. Her friend was waiting for her, parked a block from her house so she wouldn't get caught. She jumps out the window without anyone noticing and sneaks her way across the neighbor's yard to get to the other side of the block. Her friends are waiting for her already.
"Yo! 18, over here!" Shouts a fresh-faced, 15-year-old Goku waiving his arm in the air so she can see him. He's wearing a sweater that says 'freshman' on the front, torn jeans not by style choice but because he couldn't afford a new pair, and brand name sneakers that formerly belonged to his older brother.
"Hey guys, sorry I took so long my Dad took forever to leave to his study." A young baby-faced 18 with long, straight blond hair entered her friends old beat up car. She's wearing a black, vintage leather jacket, torn jeans, and chucks.
"Nah, it's cool. I was running late anyway." He responds carefree and gets back in the car.
"Sup Vegeta." She greets the secondary passenger, he simply acknowledges her by a nod.
18 gets in the backseat but grabs onto the cushions of the front seats and pulls herself in-between the two, "Goku are you aware that your sweater says freshman on it?" She tells her friend.
"Oh, shoot. Really?" He quickly looks down, "Oh yeah, I guess you're right. I'll take it off before we get there."
"Cool." She says and rests her head on the headrest.
Goku reaches out to the center of the console and turns the volume up on the music. Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is playing.
"I fucking love this song!" Shouts 18, bobbing her head up and down, jamming.
"My brothers doing a cover of it tonight!" He said to 18, smiling. He was proud of his cooler, older brother.
"That's fucking rad!" She replies, still shouting.
"Yeah, my brother Raditz," Goku responds.
18 giggles, "No you idiot! I mean RAD, like cool."
"Oh, yeah. He's the best!" Responds Goku gleefully.
"Kakarot, don't act like this around Raditz, or he won't let us in." Warned a young, brace-face Vegeta. He decided to wear a simple black polo because he thought it would make him seem older, paired with the usual: (secretly) ironed jeans and designer sneakers.
"No, I'll be cool. I'll be super cool. I promise." Says Goku, keeping his eyes on the road, a little embarrassed he has to restrain his happiness.
"Hey, you think your brother is going to hang out with us? He's so cool." Said an infatuated 18, she had a huge crush on Raditz and was hoping tonight she'd finally be noticed by him.
"Well, I don't see why not?", answered a naive Goku.
Vegeta scoffs, "YEAH, RIGHT."
-At the Show-
Raditz, who played bass for the band, was in front of the stage to the left. He was currently doing a solo 'shredding', and the crowd was going wild.
18 kept jumping trying to make eye contact with him, but it was no use, the crowd was wild. "GOKU PUT ME OVER YOUR SHOULDERS!" she screams in the middle of the rock-show, to her friends' ear.
Goku nods and leans down, tapping on his shoulder so she can get on.
Once on top of her friends' shoulders, she has the upper hand over all the other girls trying to get Raditz's attention. 'Now, how else can I get his attention?' 18 thought to herself. "HEY RADITZ YOU LOOK SUPER HOT!" she cupped her hands and yelled at him while waving.
Raditz had just completed his solo, he looked up while tilting the electric bass to the side in one arm, and the other arm in the air holding the guitar pick. He saw the cute blonde desperately waving at him, he smirked and said 'hey' with a quick nod. His little brother was holding her up, he wondered if she was his girlfriend, she was really cute.
18 playfully smacked Goku in the chest, "DID YOU SEE THAT?! HE SMILED AT ME!"
Goku looked up at her while holding onto her legs, awkwardly smiling, but annoyed at all the smacking. "Yep, he did."
-After the Show-
A swarm of girls around Raditz and his band blocked 18 and her friends from getting close to them. "I have to talk to him!" She says to both Goku and Vegeta.
Goku looks at the number of girls and gives 18 an apologetic look. "I think… We should just head home, he looks really busy."
"Yeah, why would he want to talk to you? Some random freshman girl." Said a cranky Vegeta, sleepy and tired from all the jumping around.
"Whatever! I'm going to go talk to him!" Said a determined 18.
Goku yawns, "Well hurry up, we really need to go before my mom gets home from work."
"That's okay, I'll get a ride from someone." Says 18, she was not about to miss this opportunity.
"With who?! You don't know anyone." Says Vegeta, as-a-matter-of-fact.
18 shakes her head, "Just leave. I'll find a way home!"
Goku shakes his head, "No 18, that's dumb. You're going to get stuck here all alone."
18 crosses her arms. "What if I get Raditz to give me a ride home? Then can both of you chill out?"
Goku and Vegeta exchange glances, Vegeta shrugs.
"Um," Goku scratches the back of his head. "I guess that would be alright. Go ask him first though."
18 grins victoriously and jumps with happiness, "Hold on!" And runs to the stage and elbows and pushes her way to Raditz.
"Um, Hey Raditz." She says, literally pushing all the girls out of the way so he can see her.
Raditz chuckles at her boldness, "What's up? I saw you earlier, in the crowd."
18 beams with excitement. "I knew you were smiling at me!" She tucks her long locks behind her ear. "Um, listen Raditz, I'm friends with your brother Goku, over there." She points at Goku. "And he has to leave before your mom gets home… But I wanted to stay and hang out with you." She says, putting her hand on his bicep. "Is that cool?"
Raditz looks at the way 18 is touching his bicep and laughs then licks his lower lip, "Yeah, that's cool." And starts putting away his electric bass guitar in the case.
18 looks back at Goku and gives two thumbs up, and a giant grin. She doesn't wait for Goku's response, she simply turns around and wraps her arms around Raditz's bicep. "You were way cool tonight! Your solo was so awesome Raz, can I call you Raz?" She says glowing with excitement to finally be hanging out with Raditz.
Raditz looks at her, 'Damn. She's really annoying but so damn cute.' "Yeah, call me whatever you want."
18 beamed with excitement. 'OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS FINALLY HAPPENING. THIS IS SO COOL.'
Raditz finished packing his things, even with an eager 18 hanging from his bicep. "Listen um…?"
"18!", she finished for him.
"Thank you, 18, I'm going over to my buddies house for a kick-back, come with us?" He asked knowing damn well her answer would be yes. 'Damn, she wants it bad.' He thought.
"YEAH! Let's do that, cool!" Said 18 securing her arms around Raditz even more.
-The next morning-
Raditz is dropping off 18 at her house, she's wearing his shirt. He parks in front of her driveway. "This was fun."
18 fidgets with her hands in front of her, "I'm sorry I was so awkward. I'll be better next time!" She says, embarrassed she didn't really know what to do on her 'first time'.
Raditz smiles, "It's cool. Don't worry about it, I had fun."
18 melts with infatuation. "Well, do you want to hang out this weekend? I'm free." She tries to hold his hand.
Raditz becomes stiff and looks out the window. "Yeah… I'm turning 18 this weekend. So, it's going to be awkward hanging out with you after. You know what I mean?"
18 let's go of his arm, realizing what was happening. "Um, no, not really. Do you want to hang out tomorrow? You'll still be 17 tomorrow." She says, with a hint of sarcasm.
Raditz looks uncomfortable, "Listen… this was fun, but I thought this was a one-time thing. Like, is that cool? Are we cool?" He said turning his face back to her, looking at her in the eye, brushing his hair back.
18 purses her lips to the side. "Yeah, it's cool. I get it."
Raditz being completely tone-deaf gave her a smoldering smile and kissed her cheek. "Okay, I gotta go." And reached over her and opened the door for her, "You can keep the shirt."
"Uh gee, thanks." She says sarcastically as she exits. She felt angry and used and wanted to get the hell out his car, his clothes and take a shower.
"Ugh, don't be like that." Says Raditz, annoyed at her sass. "All... bitchy and clingy."
18 was done being polite. "Fuck off, Raditz. You fucking jerk." She snapped, slamming the door to his car.
"Whatever." He scoffed, dismissively.
"Don't say anything about this to Goku, alright?! Or I will murder you." She said while gritting her teeth.
"I don't even talk to my brother, he's a fucking loser. Whatever, as far as I'm concerned this never happened." He said, turning his face away from her.
"He's not a fucking loser, YOU'RE THE FUCKING LOSER!" She shouts, her temples throbbing, and her fists at her sides.
"Damn, if I knew you were going to be such a psycho bitch, I wouldn't have invited you over." He replied, completely annoyed by her.
"Hey Raditz," She yelled, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY DRIVEWAY!" She kicked the side of his muscle car leaving a deep mark.
"You little shit!", he shouts as he peels out of her driveway.
18 stood there in her driveway for a full minute trying to gather her thoughts, processing what had just happened, she began to walk back to her house, but her hands were still balled up into fists.
-Later at School-
18 walks into class, looking somber and throws her bag pack on the ground next to her desk.
She takes a seat and crosses her arms and lays her head on her desk. 'That was really stupid, 18. That was really fucking stupid.' She kept thinking.
The bell rings and as the teacher Mr. Beerus was about to shut the door, he frowns and opens it up again for an incoming tardy student. "Goku, do I need to have a word with you about your poor time management again?"
Goku comes rushing through the door holding his backpack straps, "No, no! Sorry, Mr. Beerus it won't happen again!" He smiles apologetically and jogs to his assigned seat next to 18. Goku sits down and lets his bag pack fall on the floor.
The teacher Mr. Beerus, "Today we're going to watch a movie about science. You all better pay attention and take notes there's going to be a pop-quiz on everything." He says as he slides down the overhead projector and clicks 'play' on the monitor. He goes back to his desk, puts his feet up on the desk, leans back on his chair and closes his eyes for a nap.
Goku looks at the screen and scratches his head. "He's making us watch that stupid movie about lasers again."
18 doesn't respond, and like Mr. Beerus she was hoping to nap the morning away.
Goku, "Hey did my brother take you home at a decent time last night?" He wondered.
18 opens up one eye but closes it up again. "Yeah."
Goku leans closer, "What did you guys do? Did you have fun? Where'd he take you? What is Raditz like when he's with his friends?" He bombarded her with questions.
18 immediately gets up and gets really close to Goku's face, "Goku I NEVER want to talk about last night, EVER again. You understand?"
Goku backs his face up a little, uncomfortable by the closeness. He examines his friends face and asks, "Did Raditz say something mean to you? I know he can be a dick sometimes."
18 responds harshly, "I said I don't ever want to talk about it EVER AGAIN."
Goku leans back on his chair, he didn't mean to be nosey but if his friend was troubled, he wanted to help. "Are you sure? I know you like him and all of a sudden you hate him? Why? Did he do something to you?"
18 knew he was just trying to be nice, but she was being honest she never wanted to talk about that night ever again. "I will NEVER like anyone ever again, and I NEVER want to speak about last night again. OKAY?"
Goku decided to respect her wishes and let it be. "Okay. I'll never bring it up again."
18 turned her face to the opposite side and laid her head on her desk again, this time covering her face with her arms. 'I'll never let myself feel anything for anyone, ever again.'
-Present Time, Kame-House-
ChiChi and the super tall handsome guy had just kissed and Goku had stormed out of the house. 18 felt responsible for the mess, but at the same time felt it was best to just them resolve everything for themselves. She was done meddling.
"Hey, 18!" a melodic voice greets her from behind. She turns around to find Krillin standing there smiling sheepishly. "It's midnight, so I wanted to wish you a happy birthday! It's your birthday, right?"
18 gives him a sweet smile, it wasn't actually their birthday tonight it was on Monday, but her brother decided Friday would make a better day to celebrate. "Thank you, it's actually on Monday but that's really nice of you." She said, her heart filled with warm, fuzzy feelings.
Krillin becomes red like a tomato and hides an object behind his back. "Oh, Duh! I'm an idiot."
18 looks suspiciously at whatever Krillin might be hiding, "What'd you got there Krillin?"
Krillin backs up, "Oh it's stupid, It's nothing."
18 takes a step closer, "Well what is it? I want to see." She leans over, she's much taller than Krillin so she has easy access. She takes the paper from his hands. "Is this a birthday card?"
Krillin, red-as-a-tomato, nods. "Yep."
18 is overjoyed. 'He was thinking about me?' She wondered if he gave one to her brother 17 too, or if this was just for her. "May I read it?"
Krillin nods nervously, "Yeah, of course, it's yours!"
18 crinkles her eyes at Krillin and tucks her short straight hair behind her ear. She opens the envelope and carefully takes out the card. An illustration in the front of a little egg it says, 'Happy Birthday, to the best mom ever.'
Krillin quickly explains himself, "It's an inside joke! You know because of our project and how we were a family for a week, and we had a little egg as our kid? Remember?" He really hoped she would get the joke and think it was cute, but now it seemed silly and maybe she thought it was stupid.
"Well, how could I forget? We were the best family there ever was." She said in a serious tone, jokingly.
Krillin gets a little flirty and tries to keep the banter going and responds, "Well you were only the best mom in the world. I mean you made the best pancakes."
18 laughs, "And you were only the best husband and dad in the world, you took us camping on the weekends haha!"
Krillin laughs, "And how can I forget about the times when you took care of us when we were sick?"
18 smirks, "Or the time you took me out to dinner and hired a baby sitter for the night."
Krillin completely out of words, 'Is she flirting with me?', "Yeah, that dinner… was something else…"
18 decided to get a little bit riskier, "It sure was, Mom and Dad needed alone time."
Krillin's jaw dropped to the ground. He was suddenly feeling extremely thirsty, he pinched the fabric of his shirt and pulled it up and down to fan himself. "Yeah… alone time…is uh…. Important … for… uh … and…" He couldn't finish the words, even less the sentence.
18 found this extremely adorable and she couldn't help herself, she leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. 'Why can't you be mine?' She asked herself.
"UM WHAT?!", Asked Krillin in shock. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
18 realized she had actually said that out loud, she covered her mouth in embarrassment and tried to think quickly about something that would cover up her lie. However, she was burned out for the night, she'd used up all her lying energy for Goku and ChiChi, and she was tired of covering up mistakes with lies.
"I said… what I said." She decided to face it with courage.
"… 18 I have a girlfriend." He answers, bringing everything back to reality.
She felt heartbroken by his response. She smiles politely. "Excuse me." And walks out of the kitchen where she was talking to Krillin, and then exits Kame-House. She sees ChiChi getting in a car with Piccolo and Goku and thought that might be a good sign.
She crosses her arms and looks at the skies, "Fine Kami, you win. I'll never let myself feel anything for anyone ever again."
Goku's House –
Goku was having pretty much the worse night of his life, he removed his dress shirt and pants. After he removed his shoes, he chucked them across the room feeling stupid having spent all his savings on them, for nothing. He decided to take a hot shower and let some of the steam undo the stress he'd felt. After he got out of the shower, he put on some comfortable gray sweat pants that went down to his calves. He was drying his spikey black hair with a towel while he checked his phone.
No new messages, no missed calls. He felt sad and disappointed, he was hoping she had called. But, why would she? 'Maybe I should call her?' He thought. He started dialing her number but before he pressed the green button to dial out, he changed his mind. He still liked her so very much, that never changed. Even now when he was thinking about her, he felt a twinge in his stomach. He opened up the gallery of pictures on his phone and stopped at a picture of her on her desk, smiling at him. He loved her, he LOVED her. He couldn't see the picture anymore and laid on his bed, put the phone against his chest with her picture on the display screen facing down.
He'd dozed off for a few minutes, but something woke him up. A noise disrupted his sleep, something kept hitting against the crystal of his bedroom window. He got up to check it out, he threw the phone on his bed. He saw a rock lightly hit his widow. 'What the hell?' He thought.
He looked out the window, to see who was throwing the pebbles against the glass.
He was on the second floor, so he had to squint to see who was down there, he decided to lift it open. Leaning outside the frame, he looked straight down, and he saw her, ChiChi.
ChiChi was standing barefoot on his backyard, directly underneath his window. Her pink cruiser-bicycle was right next to her on the floor, explaining how she got there. She was still wearing her pink satin dress, minus her shoes.
In shock, Goku shouts, "ChiChi! What are you doing here?!"
ChiChi opens her arms to her sides and gives him a longing look. "I AM SO SORRY!"
Goku stomach flutters with hope. "Hold on, I'll be right there!"
AUTHOR NOTES:
My writing muse is back so I'm trying to write as many chappies as possible! :D
PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW!