Stardom Comes with a Price

Chapter 4: Love sucks

"Are you guys sure I'm doing this right?" Marron looked at her form as she questioned the boys. "Guys?" she asked again, not receiving a response. "Hey, just because I'm wearing a spandex suit doesn't mean it gives you the right to stare at my ass for half an hour," she joked.

"What?!" They both looked up at her face, blushing profusely.

"I wasn't, Goten was!" Trunks defended himself.

"Hey, sell out!" he punched him. Marron laughed at the both of them and glanced down at her watch. She started walking towards the door and pushed the button to open the door.

"Got to go," she waved, but was stopped as Trunks hit the button on the control panel to shut the door. "Hey, open the door!" she cried pressed the button several times, finding that it was locked.

"We're not done yet, Marron!" Trunks said.

"But I'm going shopping with Bra and Pan," she whined, stomping her foot on the floor.

"Sorry, but we'll give you a deal," Goten said.

"What is it?"

"You hit Goten and you can leave," Trunks responded.

"What?! Are you insane!? He's a saiya-jin, I can't hit him, he's too fast!" she complained.

"Well, you're still not leaving until you hit him," he said.

Marron opened her mouth to protest, but quickly stopped herself and smirked. "Fine," she crossed her arms.

"What?" Goten raised an eyebrow. 'She's up to something,' he thought.

"I said fine, I won't leave. I'll just sit here and let you two explain to Vegita why you all locked him out of the gravity room," she stated and sat down on the floor in front of the door.

Goten immediately ran over and opened the door, letting her leave, "here you go, Marron!"

"Thanks," she smiled, stood up and started to walk out the door, but stopped and quickly walked back for a moment. "Oh, and Goten?"

"Yeah?" he looked back at her.

She tapped his face lightly, "gotcha." She smirked and walked out the door, pulling her hair down from the ponytail it was in.

Goten stared at her back, "how did she. and what. but she." he stuttered.

"She beat you, Goten, fair and square," Trunks laughed and dropped down into a fighting stance.

"Yeah, but you won't," he smirked and did the same, shutting the door.

~*~

"It's about time, Marron!" Pan ran up to her.

"Ew, gross, you smell, what have you been doing?" Bra asked her, shoving her into her room so she could take a shower.

"I was training," she defended herself.

"For what? The stink fest?" Pan asked and retrieved an outfit for her to wear.

"Well, anyway, hurry up so we can go the mall already!" Bra said and pushed her into the bathroom. Pan laid out the outfit consisting of a pink skirt and white blouse, which had a little star in the corner. Once Marron was dressed and prepped to go, they walked outside and jumped into the car.

Flipping on the radio, Marron started the engine, "so how long has it been since you guys have been on a shopping spree?"

"Um, last week?" Bra answered.

"Oh you guys are going to have a whole new wardrobe when we're done," she smirked and drove down the highway. As soon as they'd arrived, the girls immediately went for the boutiques.

"Oh, this dress would look perfect on you, Bra!" Pan said, holding up a red dress with golden hemming. Bra walked over and gaped at its beauty.

She looked at the tag, "but it's a size too small. and way too expensive."

Marron glanced at the tag and read it, "oh that's nothing," she waved a hand at her. "Come on, we're going to shove you into this dress if we have to, it's the only one left."

"Can I help you girls?" A saleswoman asked them.

"Yeah, could you get this dress off the mannequin, she's going to try it on," Marron said.

"That dress is a designer, maybe you girls would be more happy with another selection," she said, judging them as if they couldn't afford the dress.

"Could you just get it off the rack?" Marron asked annoyed. Rolling her eyes, the woman slid it off the mannequin and handed it to the girls.

"The dressing room's in the back," she huffed. Without saying another word, they walked in the direction the woman had motioned in and started to help Bra into the dress.

"Come on, Bra, we can do this! Suck it in!" Marron said, pulling the zipper up as she stood just outside the curtain of the room.

"Alright, alright!" she obeyed.

"It's Marron!" they heard a voice shout. Marron snapped her head over to see a worker with a look of excitement on his face. She quickly ran out to tell her friends who passed it on to several other people in the mall.

Marron let out a cry of nervousness and jumped into the dressing room with the two girls.

"What going on?" the saleswoman asked as the girls came out of the dressing room, being circled by tons of people. The blonde apparently signing autographs to several fans.

"That's Marron Chestnut, international singer, haven't you heard of her?" one man informed her.

"Oh, miss?" Marron looked at the saleswoman and shoved her credit card in her face. "Could you charge the dress?"

"O-of course," she stammered and went to ring up the price.

~*~

The trio had returned from their shopping spree, barely able to keep the bags inside the car. Marron had just dropped Pan off at her home and was now at Capsule Corp. to drop of Bra.

"Thank you so much, Marron! I haven't shopped that much in. a month!" she cried happily, climbing out of the convertible.

"No prob! We should do it again sometime, you can never do enough shopping!" she smiled.

"I love you!" she squealed in excitement. "See ya later, Marron!"

"Bye, sweetheart!" she winked and drove off. Her cell phone suddenly rang, causing her to lower the volume on her radio and pick it up. "Hello?"

"Marron, baby, big news!" her manager shouted through the phone.

"Calm down, Milo, I'm not deaf you know!" she winced and drove past a few slower drivers.

"Listen, I've got a big surprise for you, where are you right now?" he asked.

"I'm on my way back to the hotel, listen, could you call me tomorrow? I'm kind of tired," she said honestly.

"But, Marron!"

"Bye, Milo," she hung up and pulled into a parking spot and carried her bags up to her room and dumped them on the floor. Climbing over them, she flopped down on her bed. She'd reserved the penthouse suit so that she was able to look down on the city through the large windows.

Suddenly, her phone rang again. She picked it up annoyingly and yelled into it, "Milo, I said tomorrow!"

"Marron?" another voice came through.

"Goten? Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else." she yawned.

"That's okay," he whispered.

Marron heard a tone of sadness in his voice, "Goten, are you okay?"

"Well, can I come in?" he asked.

"What?" she raised an eyebrow. She was startled when she heard a tap at her window. She spun around to see Goten hovering outside, the wind blowing through his hair. She stood up and walked over, opening the window allowing him to come in. She hung up her phone and placed it on the table.

"Marron, I."

She looked at him, "what's wrong, what happened?"

"Me and Paresu broke up," he said.

"Aw, Goten, I'm sorry," she hugged him. Inwardly, she was screaming with joy, but she didn't know why.

"It's not your fault." he sniffed.

"Wait, why aren't you talking with Trunks about this?" she asked.

"Because he kissed her, that's why we broke up," he frowned.

"He what!? Ugh, why am I not surprised. he'll flirt with any pair of legs under a skirt," she sighed.

"Well, he's not as bad as he used to be." he defended him.

"Don't worry about him, Goten. You know what?" she said and led him to the couch where they sat down.

"What?" he said and laid his head on her lap, making her laugh.

"Love sucks, big time. You're always safe with friends until that so-called special someone comes into the picture then it all goes downhill from there," she joked.

"You're right, Marron. Thanks, you're a really good friend," he said as she played with his hair.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for. Being a star isn't my only talent," she giggled.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that," he grinned.

"Hey!" she smacked his shoulder playfully. He sat up and started tickling her. "Ah! Goten, stop!" she said in between fits of laughter.

"Friends forever?" he said when he'd finally stopped.

"Friends forever," she chuckled. "Secret handshake," she said as they did their own sequenced handshake that they'd made up when they were little.

"I think we need a new handshake," Goten laughed.