Stardom Comes with a Price

Chapter 6: Confession

Marron winced as the man in a white jacket placed his hands on her ankle and felt to see what was wrong with it. As a child, she never enjoyed visits to the doctor's, another reason for her avoiding making an appointment for her injury. She never really got injured, and if she did all she had to do was put ointment and a bandage on it. Never really anything serious.

"Well, Marron," spoke the man, "I'm afraid this isn't a pulled muscle. But I have to get X-rays. Let me go see if the room is empty."

The second the doctor had left; she'd immediately dressed and opened the window. There was no way she was going to have proof that she couldn't perform. She was going to sing in that concert if it killed her. Hopefully, that wouldn't be an option.

She looked out the window, luckily she was only on the second floor and she would be able to make it out to her car in no time. She climbed out the window and grabbed onto a branch from a nearby tree and swung down, landing on her good leg and snuck over to her car. She started up the engine and drove off before anyone had a chance to stop her.

"Shit," she cursed to herself, "I can feel it, it's a damn fracture!"

Concentrating on the road, Marron drove speedily down the highway and back to the studio where she planned to practice until she could drown out the pain. She'd always been stubborn, just like her mother, and one little fractured bone wasn't going to stop her, not by a long shot.

Sure, her friends may be concerned if they saw her in pain or noticed a limp, but she'd simply tell them that she was sore from rehearsal. They'd buy that, they'd never doubted Marron, and she'd been the truthful one. If she lied, which she rarely did, they obviously didn't notice unless she wanted to. But she didn't want them to know about this, otherwise they could pull her out of the concert and make her wear a ridiculous cast. No daughter of an android and the strongest human was going to be stopped by a cast. At least that's how she thought it to be.

But then there was Goten, she couldn't lie to him, she wouldn't. He was the one who'd told her to see a doctor; there was no way around that. He already knew that it was something serious so "a pulled muscle" or "sore from rehearsal" wasn't going to cut it.

As she thought this through, she pulled up to the studio and walked in. She knew that no one would be using most of them so she was safe, for now. She walked in and faced the mirror to see her movements clearly as she began to practice the routine.

~*~

Goten flew through the air after locating Marron's ki, finally he'd be able to talk to her. The night before he went looking for her for the same reason, but her injury had distracted him and he'd forgotten what he was actually there for. But this time he knew what he was going to talk to her about and he'd be able to say it now.

Coming within viewing distance of the studio he began to slow down and hovered in the window of the studio Marron was rehearsing in. He tapped lightly on the glass and waited for her to open it.

Marron stopped what she was doing and turned her head to the side to see where the sound was coming from when she realized it was from the window. She spun around to see Goten levitating in the air. Walking over and opening the window, she stepped back, careful on her ankle, and allowed him access.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"First, did you go to the doctor's?" he asked, knowing his priorities.

"Yeah," she said solemnly, "he said I just twisted it and it would be fine for the concert."

"Good," he said. "Marron, there's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Do you remember when we'd said we were going to be friends forever?" he looked up at her nervously.

"Y-yeah," she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Goten was acting strangely, he was nervously fingering his shirt and didn't seem to want to make eye contact with her.

"Well, I…" he took a deep breath, "I want to be more than friends with you…"

"What!?" she screamed and jumped back away from him. All of a sudden, out of the blue, he confessed his feelings for her. When had this all happened? Why did he suddenly say this? Was it because he was lonely from just breaking up with Paresu? Was it because he was on the rebound? When did he start having feelings for her? Was it because she was now famous?

These were several questions that ran through Marron's mind as she tried to comprehend what was going on. He'd startled her with this sudden affirmation. Before she had a chance to reply, Blitz burst into the room and grabbed her arm.

"Marron, where have you been?" he dragged her away from Goten. "We've been looking all over you! Come on, Shyster's waiting!"

"But…" Marron started and glanced back at Goten who stood there in confusion.

"We don't have any time to waste, Marron, let's go!" he pulled her out of the studio and towards the car.

"Marron…" Goten whispered, not knowing if she felt the same about him or if he'd just been rejected.