Part 4



Driveway of Marron's House . . . 

"Keunai! Give me back the game! It's not mine!"
"Whose is it then?" 
"It's my friend's! Give it!" He ran around the yard now, keeping the game away from Marron.
"Which friend?"
"Goten, okay? Will you give it back now?" But at the sound of the name Goten, he broke the entire CD case into two pieces. Marron gaped at him. He threw the pieces on the lawn and took off without saying goodbye. 
"That brute!" She said. She brought it inside and showed her dad, Krillin. 
"I'll make him pay for it, okay?"
"You can't just make him pay! There was so much data saved on that one disk! How could he have been so mean? I thought he loved me!" Marron whispered harshly into the air. Krillin went to stop his only daughter from running to her room, but Juughachigou, Marron's mother, put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Let her go. She needs some time." Juughachigou said.
"No, that's not what she needs at all. She needs Trunks back. He always made sure she was happy. He'd never do anything harsh or cruel to her. I think this Keunai character would though." He finished with a glance at his wife.
"It's her choice who she wants to be with. Even if Trunks was better for her, we can't force her to love him." She said. On the stairwell, Marron was sitting and crying silently. She listened to her parents talk about her. She didn't love Trunks anymore! It was almost nine weeks ago she had left him for Keunai. She felt a missing spot in the pit of her stomach. Either it was Trunks or the fact that she hadn't eaten for hours. She decided it was the lack of food and tiptoed upstairs, eavesdropping on the rest of her parent's conversation.

A long stretch of time has passed, about three or four years . . .
Brief's House, Upstairs hallway . . .

Trunks was carrying a glass of water and he had just swallowed an Aspirin whole,
like the bottle said. A sharp pain came to his side and Trunks grabbed it and the 
glass fell to the floor. It broke, even though it landed on the carpet. Bra came out of
her room to see what the thump had been. She gasped at the sight of her brother 
lying of the floor in pain. He rolled over and moaned. 
"Arrrrrggghh!"
"Trunks!" Bra ran over to him and knelt down.
"Arrrrgh!"
"I'm getting mom." Bra announced, running down the hall.
"No, wait!" Bra turned and walked back to him. She towered over him.
"Tell mom the glass broke." He said leaning on the wall for balance as he stood up. He still clutched his side. 
"What?" She asked confused.
"Tell mom, the glass broke." He repeated.
"What about your side?"
"Don't tell mom about that." He said firmly. 
"Why not?" With all Trunks' might he went Super and got in Bra's way as she tried to run past him. 
"STOP IT! YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF!" She hit his chest and he fell backwards and out of his Super Saiyan strength. She knelt down beside him.
"Are you okay?" She asked, propping his head up slightly.
"No. Don't say anything. She has enough on her mind to worry about. Promise me Bra." She looked down.
"Promise me! Bra, promise me you won't tell mom or dad about this."
"What does "this" mean? What's wrong? Tell me first." 
"I have a kidney stone in my kidney. All right? Now promise you won't worry mom's sweet mind." Bra's eyes had been focused on his and now they were on the floor. 
"I . . .I promise. When are you having the surgery done?" She asked him. She was so worried.
"In three weeks."
"Three weeks! That's a long time to wait for a surgery like that when you're in that much pain already, Trunks." Bra had volunteered at the hospital many times on the weekend and she considered a job as a nurse or maybe a doctor. She really wanted to be an eye doctor. She had had that dream since she was very young. 
"It was the best I could get." Bra walked down the hall and turned down the stairway. She returned with Bulma.
"Trunks, that was my favorite glassware."
"I know mom, I'm sorry." Bra eyed the floor and her toes nuzzled it. 
"Bra, you seem awfully distracted and you haven't been yourself lately. Why don't you have someone over tonight?" Bulma suggested as she cleaned up the glass on the ground. 
"What do you mean?"
"You know . . . maybe Marron or Kaia can sleepover."
"I guess." Bra agreed.
"Who do you want to come over?" Trunks walked up the stairs with the portable vacuum. 
"Marron." Trunks dropped the vacuum cleaner; it clunked and clanked down the stairs. Bulma and Bra peeked their heads around the corner.
"What is it with you today, Trunks? Your dropping everything your hands touch!" Bulma told him.  'Why did you do that? You're not still in love with Marron are you? No, no no no no!' Trunks scolded himself. He went down the stairs and brought it back up, He cleaned up the glass that was still in tiny pieces, on the hallway floor.

Later that night after Marron arrives . . .

"That's not the color I chose, Bra!" 
"Oh, sorry." She replied, finding the right color and going over her mistake. She was finishing the first coat of metallic orange nail polish onto Marron's right hand.
"What's on your mind? You look stressed."
"Kind of."
"Tell me. I'm your friend, maybe I can help."
"Not if you can perform surgery and then whip Trunks out of love with you." She'd said too much. She covered her mouth and her eyes got wide. Marron's mouth hung open as if she were a rag doll with no movement.
"He's still in love with me? That was almost four years ago!"
"But the time you spent together was magical and Trunks still doesn't want to let go. He's convinced you'll become "unclouded"." 
"Unclouded? What's that supposed to mean?"
"He says it's how to overcome this . . .disease."
"What? I don't have a disease!" 
"He says it's mental, not physical. He thinks that Keunai is the disease and to make your relationship stronger you have to fight the disease."
"I have to fight Keunai? He's so much stronger than me!" Bra smacked her forehead. 
"I mean like mentally. You can't cuddle, you can't be together, and say no if you break up and he wants you back."
"But I love him!"
"That's not what you have to do. That's what Trunks wants you to do!" Marron felt the empty spot in her stomach return. 
"Gosh I'm hungry!" 
"You too? Let's go eat then!" They raced down the stairs together. Bra won.