Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any of its characters. Believe it or not, that has not changed since Monday.
Disclaimer 2: Wow, this site won't let me end a sentence with a question mark and an exclamation point; they just change it to an exclamation point. Or name the site within the disclaimer. Wish I had known that before. Live and learn, I suppose. This is pretty ridiculous. I think if I ever write anything else I'll post it elsewhere.
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I look at my watch. Trunks is about to pick me up and then we're going to his place for the New Year's party! I'm so excited. I'm going to get to see him, and ... well, his mom and sister, and Marron, and... well, that's about it. But still, I get to see Trunks! That's good enough.
Losing myself in anticipation, I am brought out of my trance by the familiar voice telling me "Hop in, 'Ten."
I smile and do so. "Hey Trunks!"
"Hey! How have you been?" he says, starting the car and backing up.
"Good, good. And you?"
"Good, good. Marron and I have been hanging out a lot."
"Ah, that's cool," I say, turning my gaze to the window.
"Yeah," Trunks says, trailing off toward the end, and looking back ahead of him.
Followed by silence. After a few minutes of this, Trunks turns on the radio, and we continue not to talk to each other for the majority of the car ride.
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We arrive at Capsule Corp. and can hear the music blasting from outside the building.
"All right, here we are!" he says.
I look at my watch. It's 10:38 PM. One hour and twenty-two minutes left till the new year.
I enter the building and the large room where everyone is sitting. I immediately set my eye out for the people I recognize.
Trunks walked in before me and he's over with some group of people that look about ten years older than he is toward the center of the room. There's Bra, sitting on the couch with some pink-haired girl. Marron... oh, there she is, over in the corner, talking with Trunks's mom. Trunks and Marron's relationship is being kept a secret from his mom, so I can't imagine what they're talking about. Maybe she wants to get to know his mom even without her knowing that she's her son's girlfriend.
Well, not really "girlfriend," just... "make-out buddy." Something along those lines. Trunks's only girlfriend ever was my niece.
I hope I'm not in denial. I hate not knowing.
Bra's friend leaves and as Bra casually looks around the room, I wave and her eyes light up. She waves me over to sit next to her, and so naturally, I do so.
"Goten! How are you?"
"I'm all right. How are you?"
"Oh, wonderful, now that I'm with you!"
"Oh, that's good," I reply, noticing her cheeks tinged with pink.
"Hey, Goten?" she says, sloppily slapping her hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"You..." she says, punctuating the word by pointing at me, "should get a drink."
"That's not a terrible idea, actually. Where are they?"
"In the kitchen. But come right back, okay?"
"All right," I answer, getting up.
"Okay?" she screams.
"All right, Bra! I'll come right back after I get myself a drink."
"Good," she smiles contentedly.
"Good," I reply, put off by her behavior.
I go into the kitchen to find Trunks's mom there. She gasps when she sees me, "Goten!"
"Oh, hi, ..." I pause and then awkwardly say, "Mom."
"How are you? I haven't seen you since my baby was sick!"
"Oh, I've been all right. Just, you know, college, and then I went back home."
"Wonderful! Do you want something to drink?"
Oh shit, I wanted something with alcohol but I can't let her know I'm drinking underage.
"Uhh... that's okay."
"You sure? You don't want a beer or something? Come on, it's New Year's Eve!"
"Well, umm... yeah, okay," I say, still unsure that that's the answer she's looking for. Maybe she's just joking about giving me a beer.
"Here ya go," she says, handing me a familiar and disgusting "light" beer. I was going to come in and make myself a daiquiri. But that's probably not the impression I should give Trunks's mom. Whatever impression is associated with me getting a daiquiri.
"All right, you have a good time tonight, you hear?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"All right," she says, walking off. Her cheeks were pink, too.
I walk back into the main room and begin to slowly examine the room.
I think I'm the only sober person here.
I'll fix that, I say, popping the tab on the beer and attempting to down a good deal of it, but only drinking about a sip before making a disgusted face and setting it aside. I return to the kitchen and make myself a daiquiri. I'm glad I know how, not that it takes a lot of skill.
With clear-plastic cup full of alcohol-heavy blueberry daiquiri at hand, I return to the room. Above the general chatter in the room, though I don't see her, I hear Bra's voice saying, "There you are!"
I wade through the crowd of thirtysomethings to find her, looking angry at me. "Where were you?"
"I was just getting something to drink..."
"Ooh, what is it?" she asks, instantly forgetting her anger.
"A... blueberry daiquiri?"
"Ooh, lemme try," she says, snatching it from my hand and sipping. "Mmmmm..."
"You like it?"
"Yeah, it's good."
"It has a looot of alcohol in it."
"Oh, that's okay, I've already had a looot of alcohol tonight so I can't tell. It just tastes like candy to me!" she laughs, taking another sip.
"All right, that's enough," I say, taking back the cup.
"Oh, come on..." she pleads, wrapping her arms around my back.
"No, mine!" I say, reaching my arm around her and downing the remainder (almost the full cup) in one gulp.
"Aww, you're mean," she says, releasing me and sitting back down on the couch.
"Haha, I win," I say, sticking my tongue out at her and then sitting down next to her.
"That's okay, Goten," she says smoothly with a growing smile. "I'll let you win this time."
"Good. Hey, I'm going to go hang out with Trunks and Marron now, okay?"
"Wait!" she stops me.
"What is it?"
"Stay here with me!" she pleads.
"I can't stay here with you all night, Bra."
"Why not?"
"'Cause I came here for Trunks. He's the one who invited me."
"Oh, I get it," she says, growing redder. "This is because of that stupid crush."
"Not so loud, Bra!"
"Oh, shut up, Goten. I should scream it for the whole party to hear and you'll be so embarrassed that you'll have to leave and never come back. You should get down on your knees and beg for me to keep my mouth shut. But I'll do it for free, 'cause that's just the kind of girl I am."
She's so drunk.
"Please, Bra, let's just drop this. I'm going to go hang out with Trunks and Marron now."
"All right, but you owe me. Big time."
"Okay, Bra." She's not going to remember this in the morning. That doesn't even make sense. What do I owe her for?
Marron and Trunks are still actually in separate parts of the room. Saving the best for last, I'm going to hang out with Marron first. She's a lot of fun to talk to, really. I'll give her that.
"Hey, Marron," I greet.
"Oh, hey, Goten! How's your break been?"
"It's been all right. How about yours?"
"Oh, totally crazy. First, my dog died," she says.
"Aww, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, thanks. So we had to bury him and it was so sad, and that was, like, the day before Christmas. But it was still pretty okay, y'know? We still had a good time."
"Yeah, yeah," I say, sympathetically.
"Oh," she says, planting her palm into her forehead. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Really, it was okay. That's not proper party-talk at all, is it? What did you get for Christmas?"
"Hmm, not much. My brother got me a book and that's about it."
"Aww, well that's still nice. I got an iPod and some CD's, which, of course, I'm going to rip and put onto the iPod."
"Right."
"Hey, have you had anything to drink?"
"Yeah, I had a daiquiri."
"Oh, good. I was going to say, it's not a New Year's Party unless you get painfully drunk."
"Have you had anything to drink?"
"Yeah, I've had a bit but I have a pretty high tolerance."
"I see."
"Yeah. Hey, have you seen Trunks around?"
"Oh yeah, he's right over there," I say, pointing toward the center of the room where he's been all night, but find that he is not there now.
"Where?"
"Hmm, he was there a minute ago. Not sure."
"Maybe he went to his room," Marron suggests.
"Why would he--" I begin before Marron has left and is going up the stairs to Trunks's room. I follow.
When we arrive, Marron forcefully kicks open the ajar door and, sure enough, Trunks is there on the bed.
"Trunks!" she yells, pouncing on the bed. I don't think her tolerance is as high as she claims.
"Hey, Trunks," I say, staying in the doorway.
"Goten! What's up?" Trunks asks, escaping Marron's clutches and walking up to me, as she sits up.
"Oh, not much, just hanging around and chatting."
"Yeah, I hear ya..."
"Trunks... are you drunk?"
He pinches his thumb and index finger together and shows them to me, indicating, "a little."
"Yeah, I had a blueb--" I'm interrupted by screaming downstairs.
"TEN! NINE! EIGHT!..."
"Excuse me a second, Goten," Trunks says, changing his fingers to a "one second" formation as he returns to the bed.
"SEVEN! SIX! FIVE!..."
Trunks takes the same finger and puts it underneath Marron's chin, raising her gaze to his eyes.
"FOUR! THREE! TWO!..."
I leave the room.
"ONE!... HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
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