Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Change of Heart ❯ A Bad Ending to a Night of Partner Switches and Soggy Hot Dogs ( Chapter 13 )

Several days later Pan said, "This isn't going to work." before Bura flicked her on the forehead and picked up the tub of hot wax, smearing some over the bottom of Pan's brows with a popcicle stick. Pan had just gotten out of bed the previous evening. For some reason her temperature had kept the same rate and then suddenly, once Bulma came to check it, it was perfectly fine. Bulma had shook her head and walked away mumbling; "Did Trunks read this right?" Pan took in a sharp breath as the hot wax hit her skin.

"Of course it will, Pan. It isn't that hard. You just excuse yourself for various reasons every few minutes. It's not a hard plan." Pan groaned, and Bura stuck a piece of cheesecloth on her brow over the wax.

"How in the heck am I going to excuse myself every five minutes for a two hour movie? I can't go to the bathroom six times. I can't run out of soda six times. I can't go blow my nose, or fix my hair six times. I really should call one of them." She sat up, and Bura pushed her back down, ripping of the cheesecloth. Pan yelled, and slapped a palm to her now-reddened brow. "That hurt!" Bura pushed her back down and started on the other one.

"Really, Bura, Pan has a point." Marron pointed out from her seat in the butterfly chair, a magazine in her lap. Bura shook her head and ripped off the second piece of cloth. Pan gritted her teeth, and took the ice pack Bura offered. "I think she should just call one or the other and cancel." She looked back at her magazine, and gave a whistle. "Maybe I should subscribe to Martial Arts Source?" She asked. "The guys are way hot!" Bura giggled, and Pan rolled her eyes.

She sat up, and picked up the phone. Bura turned to her quickly, and Marron looked up, excited her friend had taken her advice. But it was not to be. Bura leapt off the bed and snatched the phone.

"You can not cancel." She said loudly, and Marron went back to her magazine. "Can you imagine if you did? No. No friend of mine is going to go chicken on me." Pan shook her head and sat back down with a groan. "Pan, Marron and I will be right with you the whole time."

"Wha?-" Marron started, and Bura looked at her. "Hey, girlio's, I have a date tonight." Bura's mouth dropped.

"You have a date?" Bura asked, speechless.

"Well, you don't have to act that surprised." Marron said, looking back at her magazine once more. "So, yeah, I can't be there tonight. Besides, Pan doesn't need me." She pointed at Bura. "You're the mastermind. I'd just get in the way."

Pan nodded, agreeing, and signaling to Marron that that was ok, she didn't mind. Pan smiled then, and turned to the sandy-haired girl in her purple chair.

"So, who's your date with?" She asked excitedly, and Marron shook her head. Pan raised a now clean eyebrow.

"No you guys don't. I'm not telling." Bura folded her arms and "hmmphed." "I'm serious, I'm keeping this one a secret."

"Figures." Bura said, plopping down on the bed. "So first she bails, now she won't tell us who with." Pan smiled at Bura's act of being mad. "Fine then," She said suddenly, pulling out both a curling iron and a straightening one. "We won't tell you who Mark McIverson is dating then." Bura winked at Pan, who suddenly-upon being winked at-looked mysterious.

Marron shook her head and laughed. "You aren't gonna get me that easy. By the way," She stood up and sat the magazine on the computer desk. "He's dating Patricia Fellings." She smiled. "I'll catch you girls later." And with that she left a laughing Bura and Pan.

Two hours later, Pan stepped out of Larkin's car onto the soft grass, her thick heels not sliding into the ground like her spikes would have done. She was glad she didn't follow Bura's council and wear the stiletto's. She took Larkin's offered arm, and they headed towards the concession stand.

She kept a close eye out for Ron on the way, but did not spot him until Bura waved frantically from behind a bush, flapping her arms like a flight attendant in Ron's direction. She smiled, and leaned in to Larkin.

"Could you excuse me for a moment?" She asked shyly, and he smiled. "Go ahead and pick something out for me." She smiled demurely and walked away when he nodded. Bura grabbed her by the arm when Larkin was out of sight, and swished Pan around to speak to her.

"I'm gonna go talk to Larkin, stall him and stuff. You go get Ron and get him settled in your car." Pan nodded, then raised a brow. "Use the excuse that you want to get some munchies to get back to Larkin. You got it?" Pan nodded stupidly, and got shoved towards Ron's direction.

Bura ran her fingers thorough her hair and straightened her back before heading to the food section.

Pan wobbled going down some steps towards where Ron was, her thick heels still too high for comfort. She stopped with a click behind him, and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled.

"Hey there." He said, and for a brief moment, it was the cleverest sentence in the world to her. She smiled, and grabbed the wrists of her sweater. She nodded towards where her car was, the moon casting a sheen upon her face. Her skin was the exact same color as Goku's, her eyes just as dark.

They started heading towards it, and when he saw it she noticed his surprised but awed expression. She grinned to herself, opening the driver's seat and sitting down, pressing a small button that soon caused the large moonroof to open. It was almost the size of an actual convertible top.

"Nice." He said, sitting down too. "And definitely something I didn't expect." He smiled again, and she felt the water in her body boil for a split second. She turned to him and grinned, at a loss for anything to say, than smacked herself internally at how dorky that must have seemed-and looked.

"Hey, I'm gonna go grab some munchies-eats-uh…yeah. Do you want anything?" She got up and out, then grabbed her wallet from under the seat, smacking herself internally again. He shook his head, then a quick expression caught her eyes, an expression as if he had just-she laughed at the thought-remembered that he left the bathtub on.

"Oh, I can come with you." And he started getting out. She must have had a complete giveaway expression, but she was thankful he wasn't looking. She searched her mind for something to say desperately, coming up with only dumb answers like, "I like being alone." Or, "It's ok, I do this all the time." Why hadn't she and Bura thought he'd want to come with her? `Idiots!' She screamed in her head, then realized she had said it quietly externally.

He raised an eyebrow, and she was thankful there were no lights on to catch her face that looked as if she was nine and had just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. He leaned his head forward, and tilted it slightly to the side, as if to ask, "Excuse me?" Instead of that, he thought of another way of saying it.

"Say again?" She licked her lips and opened her eyes wide, hoping she didn't look too obvious. But, come to think of it, the only thing she'd done that he'd seen was say `idiots' out loud. She had to work with that.

"Oh, I meant…" She groped for something to say. "the idiots at the food counter." He drew one corner of his mouth up. "They'll take forever. No, it's ok. You wait here and I'll be right back."

"Oh, I got you. Um, some cheese fries would be great. And with a cherry seven-up it would be that much better." He grinned, somewhat cheesily, but none the less perfectly, and she scrambled from that section of cars.

She shuffled in her high boots and cranberry gypsy skirt, complete with an off the shoulder black sweater, her hair down in loose curls. She saw Bura talking to Larkin, the food just fixed and in his arms. She caught Bura's eye and waved, and she saw Bura politely excuse herself.

Bura walked up, panting, and Pan noticed why. Her boots must have weighed a ton, complete with real metal accents-which didn't make much difference to these already leaden shoes.

"Those things, how much do they weigh?" Pan asked in pure astonishment and curiosity. Bura took a deep breath, and the two of them crouched low behind a conveniently located bush.

"Never mind how much they weigh." Pan tilted her head to the side with an unpleased expression. She folded her arms. "Ok, fine, they're supposed to weigh a lot so that when they click, they click deeply." Pan shook her head and laughed.

"And I thought that Marron was the shoe nut and collector!" She smiled. "You should go into the business. One day those'll be a collector item." She giggled, and Bura stood up and pulled Pan with her, then shoved her towards Larkin.

"Cheese fries!" Pan called behind her back, and Bura ran to the concession line and stood waiting to order. She winked at a cute guy, then gave a pouty face, remembering she had a boyfriend. She giggled. `Boyfriends not here, and I'll never see this guy again.' She thought to herself, and flashed a signature Bulma and Vegeta spawn smile that kept guys and girls heartbroken.

Pan broke to a halt and almost slipped down the steps. She steadied herself and searched for Larkin's car. She saw it and made her way, making sure not to look hurried. She found his dark red car-almost the color of her skirt-and let herself in.

He smiled when she got in the car, and she saw the opened windows, and his trying to hook up the speakers. So far his car door was too thin, but he was making good headway. She just liked Larkin. He was nice, honest, fun, interesting, dressed good, and was just an all around good guy. How could she not be in love? She smiled to herself and picked up her hot dog, taking a sip of her Cherry Coke. She made sure he wasn't looking, then spit some back onto her hot dog bun. She quickly made everything look a lot more casual, and gave an audible groan, looking to make sure he heard it loud and clear. Larkin looked back at her curiously.

"You ok?" He asked, the speaker drooping, then falling to the ground. He didn't notice, and still looked back at her. She shook her head noticeably, then presented the hot dog. She pulled a corner of her mouth up for emphasis.

"They got my bun soggy as all get out." She laughed, thinking she might have been overly dramatic. "I'm gonna go get a new one, `kay?" He nodded, and she could tell he was relieved that was all it was. He gave her a reassuring smile, and she hopped out of the car. She looked at her watch and was thankful the movie didn't start for a while.

She stepped on it, and raced up the stairs three at a time, thankful she had the luck not to slip. She was thankful to see Bura standing with her back against the concession stand wall, popping bubble gum, a huge pile of food on a cardboard tray in her hands.

Pan ran up to her and without words Bura took the soggy hot dog and handed Pan the tray. Pan thought she screeched a `Thank you!' but as she thought of it while she ran to her own car, she couldn't really remember. Like trying to remember how loud you said something to someone. The more you thought, the more it got knotted up and confusing, and the more the memory slipped away.

She found her car and she slowed down, taking deep breaths to even them out. The screen flickered to life, and she hopped into the car quickly as a car honked at her. Not before sending a death glare first though.

She adjusted herself in the seat, getting comfortable, and passed him his munchies-er, eats. She settled into her seat more deeply, food in hand, and the started watching the movie.

Time passed, and-with shock-Pan noticed ten minutes had passed by. She quickly sat down her thing-or, halfway down she noticed how obvious it looked, and set it down slower. She stretched, then turned to Ron who was intent on the movie. The conversation had just died down a few moments earlier as the plot thickened drastically.

"My leg's asleep." She said, implying a kind of amusing to herself embarrassment. "I think I'm gonna go walk it off."

"Are you ok?" He asked, and she shrugged it off. "No worries. Just want to get rid of it before it gets worse." He smiled, nodding, and she stepped out of the car.

As soon as she was out of sight of her car she bolted into a run and stopped. Looking around quickly, she touched two fingers to her head and reappeared next to the concession stand where she had last met with Bura. Luckily for her-not so much for Bura who it scared the crap out of so much she dropped her own soda-Bura was there and handed her the hot dog quickly before Pan whooshed off to Larkin's car.

He was intent on the movie as Ron was-it was an action thriller by the way-and he nodded when she sat down.

"Man, the line was awful." She said, using the easiest, most predictable excuse in the world. "Sorry about that." He turned to her with a gorgeous smile and a breathtaking expression on his face. Man, he was gorgeous!

"It's alright." He black hair blew with a breeze coming from the open window-he had fixed the speaker she noticed-and his even darker eyes seemed to pierce her thoughts. She found herself just staring, so she smiled and asked how the movie was going. She nodded at the right points in his explanation, not really worrying about the plot; there was too much going on to catch a moment of the movie. Several kept looking at her watch, waiting for ten minutes to come. When it finally did, she rubbed her leg and turned to Larkin.

"My legs asleep." She said with a sigh. "I better go walk it off." He looked at her, concerned, and gave a concentrating nod. "I'm fine." She said, noticing his expression, and gave a reassuring smile.

She opened the door and booked it back to her car at the other side of the drive-in theater. She was out of breath when she got there-in about five seconds-and swallowed hard before she got in the car with Ron.

"You been following the movie out there?" He asked as she sunk into the seat. She absentmindedly nodded and said `Yes.' They talked until the snazzy club singer got murdered followed by her boyfriend and then Ron was drawn back into the plot.

Just when Pan was getting into the plot she looked at her watch in time to see she was a little late. She blew a strand of hair off her forehead and tried to grasp the memory of her next excuse.

"Ron, could you excuse me for a moment?" He turned to her, and she was surprised to see he didn't look shocked at her third exit. Apparently, from the smile on his face he thought she was primping up. She realized that was it exactly; he was used to the preppy little blonde cheerleaders who primped every half an hour on the dot.

She took off at a run to Larkin's car but was stopped by the sight of him near the concession stand. Thankfully Bura had jumped on him and was talking excitedly about something. Pan got into costume and limped ever so slightly.

"Hey Larkin." She said walking up to them. Bura looked behind her at some convertible and waved at the two guys inside. They waved back luckily, because apparently Bura didn't know them.

She acted like she did though when she turned to Larkin and Pan and excused herself saying that those guys wanted her to come over. She strutted over and began talking to them and Pan turned to Larkin.

"I wanted to come see if you needed anything." He said, hands in pockets, shoulders in a shrug. She caught herself wearing an "Awww!" smile and quickly turned it to just a cute one.

"Thank you so much, Larkin. That was so sweet, I appreciate it. Actually, I think I'm just gonna grab something to drink-I think I drained my other one pretty bad-so I'll meet you back at the car in a sec?"

"Sure, that's great." She smiled and caught herself touch his arm while she nodded before leaving towards the concession stand. When she turned the corner Bura was there, and she shoved her up against the wall.

"Big trouble, chica, big trouble." Pan looked at her questioningly, and Bura took a deep breath. "Can't talk, but if I were you I'd go back to Ron for a few." Pan nodded, taking it all in.

"Ok, got ya'. Be right back!" And with that she took off towards her own car. She started climbing the steps and started sprinting at the top. She turned a corner and smacked her body against someone else. She fell to the ground along with the other person. She shook her head and stood up. "Excuse me." She said and then took a double take. Her lip dropped as she stared at Trunks dusting off his bomber jacket.

"Pan? What are you doing here?" She put a hand on her hip, somewhat offended that he asked her what she was doing in a perfectly normal place, but it soon subsided when she realized Bura's warning to hurry to the car.

"Trunks, can't talk right now I gotta run, bye." She started going around another corner and ran into Ron. "Oh, hey there." Ron had his hands in his varsity jacket, and he looked confused.

"Who were you talking to?" He asked, looking at the tall bush that Pan had just come around. He cocked his head to the side, and fiddled with her hair nervously.

"Oh, just a girl friend I ran into." Suddenly Ron's head was straighter, and he was looking behind Pan. Her mind reeled, and she dreaded the worst.

Trunks walked over and offered his hand to Ron. Ron took it and looked curiously at him-or more like them. Trunks gave his signature Vegeta-like smirk, the one he got when he was amused.

"Hi," Trunks said. "I'm the girlfriend she bumped into." Pan braced herself physically and dared not to look back at the two of them. She grabbed her braided hippie belt and started twisting it in her fingers.

"So you lied and said this was your girlfriend?" She cringed and turned around. She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off. "What exactly is this? Is he the reason you've been leaving so much during the movie?" She tried to defend herself but it was useless. "So you've been meeting during the whole movie? Why didn't you just cancel our date if you wanted to come with him so badly?" He took his soda and tossed it on the ground. The puddle reached her boots. "I thought you were an awesome girl, Pan. Apparently I was really wrong." He started walking away backwards. He lifted both his arms. "Shame on me." He turned and left, shaking his head.

Pan's thoughts were interrupted when she heard the clicking of some high heels, and she looked up from the puddle of cherry seven-up.

"Trunks?" The woman asked, and Pan recognized her as the waitress from Tin'aco. The one that shamelessly hit on him. She walked over to him and looked at Pan. "It's miss daiquiri! Hey there, chica." Pan looked at her from her strappy red high heels, to her little red dress. This was what Trunks wanted, not her. Pan forced a smile at the girl. Apparently there was some good qualities to her. She had said hello to another girl. A genuine hello, not a, "I have to talk to you to be polite. But I'm just going through the same drill I do with everyone." kind of hello. Then Pan smiled genuinely.

"Excuse me, but I have to get going." She said, smiling at the both of them in goodbye, and turning the corner. She stood in the shadows until she saw them pass. Trunks was laughing about something the girl had said.

Pan sunk down onto the ground and brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around them and leaning her head down. Her shoulders started shaking. She tried to stop it, but she couldn't.

She didn't know how long she had sat there, but tears were still pouring when a hand touched her. She looked up, expecting Bura, but instead she saw Larkin. She covered her mouth and stood up, trying to compose herself.

"No, please, it's ok." He said, lifting up a hand. She shook her head, wiping tears from underneath her eye. She was sure mascara was running, so she wiped vigorously, hoping he wouldn't notice in the dark.

"But-" She started to protest as he led her by the hand towards his car. He shook his head and actually smiled as he interrupted her.

"Bura told me all about it." She watched her feet as she walked, not wanting to look up, too embarrassed to face him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she felt the urge to cry and fall apart on the spot. "It's ok, we're going to get you home."