Chapter 9~

"Really?"

"Yeah, Marron and I were in Pepper Town at the time," Valese said as she lifted her shirt, exposing her stomach, "the birds represent freedom, Marron has the same thing but it's across her back."

Goten looked down at Valese's stomach to see a large tattoo of birds flying across her stomach, but the thing was, he didn't remember seeing it when they were together. 'Probably don't remember because of all that alcohol,' he thought. He also thought it looked really pretty on her, it suited her well too. She was free and independent...it's one of the things he liked about her. "It looks beautiful."

Valese put her shirt back down and took a sip from her coffee. They were sitting down at the coffee shop for a little date before Goten had to go back to work at the restaurant, they ate small snacks and talked about anything, and they both loved it. "Thank you," she said, "anyway, I've been meaning to ask you, how's Trunks doing?"

Goten sighed and looked down at his muffin, he told Valese that Trunks and Naomi had broke up and it wasn't pretty. It had been a couple weeks since it happened, Trunks wasn't taking it well at all and Naomi and John were starting to show up in the tabloids.

"Not well honestly," he admitted, "Trunks really loved that girl and it really broke him after what she did..."

"Aww," Valese said sadly, "I feel so bad...I don't understand how someone could do that, lie to the person you claim to love and do that behind their back. Did you try taking him out to get his mind off it?"

Goten shrugged, he tried many times to take Trunks out on a night on the town, but the guy just didn't feel like going anywhere. He would stay in his apartment, he'd only leave to do grocery shopping or go to work. Goten stayed a night over once and let Trunks say what was on his mind...and it wasn't good. He was angry and sad...and he kind of regretted not letting Naomi speak when she came home that night.

"I tried, but he doesn't wanna go anywhere," Goten said, "every time he would say that he didn't feel like it, he didn't even seem like he wanted to talk much either."

Valese huffed, "he sounds like Marron when she broke up with her last boyfriend. It took her a little while to get over it, but I forced her to come out of the house so I could see a smile on her face again."

"I can't really force Trunks to do anything," Goten admitted, "his family tried that already and look where he is now, out on his own, nobody could force him to do anything."

"Well...he'll come around soon I guess," Valese sighed, "I just hope he'll be okay."

The red head walked into Marron's apartment and began to look for the blonde. Valese had a key to the place so she could come anytime she wanted, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie from the cookie jar before looking for her friend again.

"Marron!" she yelled as she munched on the treat.

She walked into the bedroom and heard the shower running in the bathroom, she didn't hesitate to open the door and walk in, not like they haven't seen each other naked before. Marron heard the door open and poked her head out of the shower curtain, she was a little surprised to see Valese here. Her best friend sat up onto the sink and finished her cookie.

"What are you doing here?" the blonde asked, "don't you have your sociology class today?"

"Yeah, but I didn't feel like going," Valese yawned, "I was gonna skip it to take a nap, but then Goten called and asked if I wanted to meet him at the coffee shop."

"How's that going so far?" Marron asked as she pulled the shower curtain closed.

"It's going great actually," Valese said happily, "taking things slow is a lot better honestly."

Valese and Goten had been going out on dates frequently and they were getting to know each other a lot better. The red head discovered a lot of things about him that, she either didn't remember, or it was brand new information to her. She felt right with him, and she wasn't gonna screw it up this time.

"Wow," Marron chuckled, "and here I thought Valese Elwood couldn't be held down."

"Oh shut up!"

Marron laughed as she turned the water off, "you two are cute, and I approve."

Valese made a face as soon as the words came out of Marron's mouth. "Oh yeah," Valese said sarcastically, "I just need to get approval from you on the guys I date."

"Hey, you always say you have to approve of the guys I date," Marron said defensively as she stuck her hand out, "hand me my towel."

"No offense Mar, I love you but you make horrible decisions in guys," Valese said as she grabbed a towel from the hook and handed it to her.

Marron wrapped her body in the towel and stepped out of the shower. "Really?" she said, "name one."

"I can name three."

"I've only had three boyfriends."

"Exactly," Valese exclaimed, "your first one was alright at first, but then his true colors came out and that's why I talked you into keying his car. The second one was cool, but then he made the mistake of insulting you while you were drunk, then you kicked him in the nuts, and let me tell you that was the funniest shit I've ever seen. And don't even get me started on the third one, he was just a complete asshole."

Marron leaned against the wall and smirked. "You do realize that you approved of all of them right?"

"...shut up they were cool at first."

Marron chuckled and walked out of the bathroom, Valese following her into the bedroom. The girl laid on the blonde's bed as she walked into her closet for something to wear.

"You wanna study for that test we have later this week?" Valese asked as she picked up Marron's phone.

"Val, studying to you means watching movies and eating ice cream," Marron said as she grabbed a tank top and pajama pants.

"That's fine too," she said as she scrolled through Marron's music files, tapping on one of them to listen to it.

Marron slipped on her clothes and walked out of the closet, she sat down on the bed next to Valese and stared at the red head. "What are you doing with my phone?"

"Looking for a good song," she responded, "all you have is chill music though." Valese kept scrolling til a message popped up on the screen. "Trunks just texted you," she said, "he said that you forgot...your pack of cigarettes on your window sill?" Marron's eyes widened as Valese glared at her. "When the hell did you start smoking again?" she yelled, "you promised that you would stop!"

"I know, I know," Marron sighed, "I only had two though I swear, the first one I had when Trunks and I were on the roof that night and I had one a couple of nights ago on the fire escape."

"That doesn't make it any better Mar," Valese shouted, "you're not doing it anymore, you know it isn't good for you. Hell I'll even help you make more cookies so you could have one every time you have the urge."

Marron sighed, she knew she couldn't win with Valese so she just decided not to say anything. "I'm telling Trunks to keep it," Valese said, "and speaking of Trunks, have you talked to him about the whole situation?"

"The whole situation?" Marron repeated, not knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"The whole Naomi thing."

"Oh," Marron sighed, "well, that night that I decided to have a cigarette on the fire escape, he was on the fire escape too...I didn't know though, I literally just hopped through the window and I saw him sitting on the other side near his window. He was surprised to see me too, and I think he was crying...he was wiping his face when he saw me."

"Aww," Valese pouted, "I'd deck Naomi in the face if I knew Trunks better."

"I sat down with him for a little while and I started talking to him about other things so he could get his mind off her," Marron said, "turns out he's a movie nerd, just like me, and we were going on and on about all the different movies we've seen. I'm glad it helped him though, he actually smiled a couple of times."

"Really?" Valese said surprised, "Goten told me that he tried getting Trunks to go out and he didn't feel like doing anything, he said he didn't seem to want to talk either."

Marron shrugged, "I'm just glad he got his mind off it."

"Somebody needs to force him to go out," Valese said, "staying in there all the time isn't going to help him,"

"You're right," Marron agreed, "hopefully it's soon."

AN: I graduated high school and I got accepted into college! My apologizes for not getting this chapter out earlier. I've been busy and I had all of this written for a month now, but there was supposed to be another part at the end.

But after weeks of trying to write with a writer's block, it didn't work it. So I decided to leave it for the next chapter and make the part longer. (Better for you guys honestly!) I hope you guys enjoyed this one, get ready for comfort and fluff in the next one! Review and tell me what you think!