Versus 3: Eclipse

--All That You Give--

"He's living with you?" Goten asked again.

Yep, that sounded like jealousy. But there was no reason for Goten to be jealous. Nick meant absolutely nothing to her.

"Yeah, so he's living with me. What's the big deal?" Bra questioned.

"What's the big deal?" Goten repeated. "I'll tell you what the big deal is. If your mom was gonna bring someone like him in, she could have at least let me know."

"She just met the guy Saturday. Besides.... Wait, 'someone like him'? What exactly do you mean?" Bra looked at Goten strangely.

Goten sighed. "Well, he's young. And he's in a band. A band, Bra. Guys in bands are like guys in fraternities."

Man, today was not one of Goten's better days. He was really freaking out. This was so unlike him. She'd never seen him this way before. He was always so cheerful, so carefree. There was nothing on the planet that could bother him. But now things were different. He seemed to be in some kind of a panic.

"Fraternities? How so?" Bra asked.

"Come on. Fraternity guys only want two things. Popularity and girls," Goten told her. He looked her up and down. "And any guy in his right mind would do anything to be with a girl like you."

Bra blushed. She was flattered not only by the statement, but also by the way he was looking at her. It made her feel all warm inside. "Look, we're past that. I'm never gonna be able to convince my mom that this was a bad idea. We just have to work around it." She lowered her head. "I really wanted to see you this weekend."

"I wanted to see you too," Goten said quietly.

The other students began flooding into the classroom.

"We'll talk about this later," Goten told her.

Bra nodded. It was at that moment she realized that Goten might actually be feeling a little insecure. She still hadn't told him that she loved him. And on top of that, she was living with a man who was close to his age. She wished she could bring herself to say that tiny little phrase that meant so much. When you love a man, you're supposed to tell him. How will he know that you love him if you don't tell him?

As a matter of fact, they hadn't even established whether they were in an actual relationship yet. Maybe the next time they were alone, she should suggest it. A gesture like that would HAVE to prove that she loved him. Of course, he'd already said the magic words, and they weren't really even boyfriend and girlfriend. How stupid could she be? All she had to do was say three little words. It was all so simple. Then why was it so hard for her to do? She could do anything. She was the daughter of the great Prince Vegeta. Then again, it was precisely that which made the simple task seem impossible.

On her way to her seat, she noticed some of the girls giving her the eye. What was their problem? Hadn't they ever seen a person talk to her teacher before? But rather than make a scene about it, Bra took her seat and stared at the window.

Tap, tap. A finger poked at her shoulder from behind. Bra turned to face the smiling Pan. She would be yammering on about Nick, no doubt.

"Can you believe it? Local rock sensation, Nick Carnage said that I have a nice name," Pan said.

"Pan, you're acting like you don't know any famous people. Your grandfather's the WORLD champion, remember? And you're pretty popular yourself," Bra told her. Honestly, she had no business saying this to Pan. Why, only a couple of days ago, the idea of meeting someone like him had had almost the same effect on her. She was turning out to be a bit of a hypocrite.

"Yeah, maybe. But I don't play death metal," Pan reminded her with a smile. "You act like you don't know who this guy is."

"Actually, before this weekend, I didn't," Bra said.

Pan gasped. "No way! A music fan, such as yourself? Well, I guess if I coulda dragged you out of the house more often, you woulda known who he was."

"Who cares?" Bra said, nonchalantly.

"Bra, you're such a social nobody," Pan told her plainly. "Any girl in this town would just fall to pieces in your position."

Bra smirked. "Well, good thing I'm not any girl in this town." With that she turned her attention back to Goten. She couldn't help thinking about the way he moved during sparring matches. As a matter of fact, the last sparring match they had was her loss. She owed him for that too. She would really have to get on the ball with building her gravitron. She had two debts to pay and she intended to pay both in full.

--later--

The bell rang, signifying the end of class. All of the students seemed to disappear without a trace. And they were alone again. Bra and Goten. He erased the blackboard and of course, Bra sat back, admiring his movements.

This was Bra's time. If she didn't make her move now, then she would never make a move.

She stood from her desk and went over to stand beside him. "Goten, we have to talk."

Goten finished up his task at hand, then turned to look at her.

Whether he wanted to say something or not, she would have to stop him so that she could do all the talking. "I know that I've hurt you. And I'm really sorry for that. I can't even find the words to say how sorry I am that I've caused you this kind of pain." She felt tears sting the backs of her eyes. Not now. There would be no crying. She wouldn't allow herself to burst into tears. She did her best to regain some of her composure before she spoke again.

Goten only watched her silently. His expression was somewhat sad, yet somewhat confused.

"But I want this relationship to work. I want it to work because there's no one on this entire plane of existence that I'd rather be with," Bra said. It seemed she was saying everything except what she needed to say. She took a deep breath. "I want this to be official. I...want to be your girlfriend."

Goten looked at her strangely and there was a long silence. Then he folded his arms across his chest. "Well, now. It looks like we both have something we're not able to say."

Bra looked surprised. This wasn't her Goten. This wasn't her Goten at all. Something somewhere had gone terribly awry. How could he do this to her? How could he purposefully hurt her? Now, she really wanted to cry, but she would have to muster all of her pride in order to fight against it.

Just when it looked like Goten might speak again, the classroom door opened. In walked the red-headed counselor, Paris. Resilient fool, wasn't she? Now this woman had been dumped several times, yet she kept coming back for more. Bra couldn't blame her. It was all for Goten.

But that didn't stop Bra's anger, as misdirected as it might be at the time. The hatred ran through her veins like a high-speed subway through a tunnel.

"Hi, Goten," Paris said. She ignored Bra, as she always did.

"Hi, Paris. Listen, I'm sorry about how things went the other day," Goten told her. "But you and I just don't work."

Bra had lost his attention. There was no point in her staying really, but she continued to stand there.

Paris sighed. "I came all this way. I came to work at this school. All for you. But I see now that it was all in vain. You're a very special man, Goten. I just hope that whoever ends up with you knows what she has." She frowned. "I'm transferring to a children's clinic next week."

Why did this woman feel the need to tell Goten this? Was she trying to get a last minute chance at him?

"Well, good for you," Goten said. "You...seem to like kids, so that's right up your alley." He didn't sound very confident about that statement.

Paris sighed. "I'm gonna miss having you around, Goten." She went over to him and hugged him tightly.

What was this? Bra wasn't really sure if she existed. Maybe all of this really was some kind of a dream. Nothing about this day had gone her way. It was possible that the entire day was something her mind had conjured up and decided to show her during the night.

Paris let him go. Bra guessed that it was because she had received no response from Goten. "I'll just go now." She exited the room, leaving Bra and Goten alone once more.

Goten was silent. He didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. He just stood there.

Well, Bra wasn't about to say anything. Especially with the ugliness that had gone on before hand.

"Tell me this one thing. You said that there's no one else you'd rather be with. Is it because you've never TRIED to be with anyone else?" Goten asked quietly. He still wasn't looking at her.

Bra was about to speak, but stopped short. Why was he asking her this? She didn't care about other people. No one could make her feel the way Goten made her feel. Besides, she had tried to be with other people.... Well, not really.... Well, in a way she did. That had to count for something.

"Maybe we should cool things down for a while," Goten said.

That's when her heart sank. She was certain that she was as white as a sheet now. She felt cold all over. Not to mention she had a case of word-loss.

"I mean, I've been to college. I've been to school. I've met the people that you read about in books. But you. You haven't really had a chance to live your life. You haven't been exposed to the different types of people there are in the world. Maybe...maybe you should take some time out to do that," Goten suggested.

Oh, crap. Was he breaking up with her already? Had she screwed up so terribly with him that he felt he should cut their short-lived relationship?

Goten still hadn't looked at her. "I believe that maybe I did rush things a little. I don't want you to be stuck with me when you could be out meeting new people."

Bra was astounded. Why would he even think something like that? She never saw it coming. Why was he doing this? Why was he breaking up with her? Was it really because she wouldn't tell him that she loved him?

He looked at his clock. "Oh, boy. Your science teacher is really going to start wondering why you're always here during his class." He started writing out a pass to class.

This was impossible. Why was this happening? Why today? And why couldn't she say anything?

--End All That You Give--

--Hello. It's been such a long time since I last updated. I know. I'm really sorry. I'm in the middle of MOVING. Gotta love that. Unfortunately, I'm losing my main computer in the process. So, I don't know how often I'll be able to do this anymore. I'll honestly try my best to get these chapters out, but I'm not gonna make any promises that they'll be coming out as quickly as they have before. I don't even know if they'll be coming out at all. But I'm gonna keep writing them until I DO get to a computer somewhere to post them. I'm really sorry about the delay.

--Also, with the changes that have been going on in my life, the story has taken a strange turn. I didn't know that the things that were happening with me would result in such an unusual turn of events. Let me know what you think. If you hate it, say why. If you like it, say why. If you have suggestions, let me know. (I'm gonna be truthful here. I personally think that this is the worst thing I've ever done.)

--Like I said before, these episodes will probably be few and far between. For that, I apologize. Thanks for reading and thanks for past reviews.