Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Lost Love ❯ Searching ( Chapter 5 )

A Lost Love

By Karete-chan

Chapter 4:

The party was a buzz with talk about the `frightening' incident for about an hour afterwards. When it got to the point that rumours were saying someone was killed, I stopped finding them amusing. By that time Goten had wandered off so Frame and I were walking around, giving ourselves a self-guided tour of the inside of the building.

So far we had discovered, the kitchen (industrial size), several more rooms for entertaining, a gym and the room that housed the Briefs' home theatre. It may seem to you that we were being a little too nosy for our own good but in each and every room there were at least twenty other people and it seemed to become more and more likely to me that the whole of West City had decided to attend tonight.

Eventually we found the stairs. It took us at least five minutes to climb one story, as we had to pick our way over the drunks lounging on them. Frame wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Do people have no self control?" she muttered from behind me. I shrugged in answer as I delicately kicked one of the drunks for trying to look up my skirt.

At first upstairs seemed to be no different from down. It was all living area and once again filled with partying people.

"Every seat in this whole place is taken," Frame grumbled. "I bet the only place left is the roof."

I smiled at that thought, seeing as I was the only one who would be able to get up there.

"And just what do you think you're doing?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Frame jump slightly in her boots. Slowly, and plastering the biggest smile on my face as I could, I turned around.

"Floss!" I exclaimed over excitedly. "Wow, how great to see you! I didn't know you were going to be here!"

Her stupid, makeup plastered face darkened considerably. "I told you not to come, freak."

"Is that what that conversation was? All I heard were grunts."

Three of her friends appeared behind her. I wondered vaguely, as she yelled in my face, if they really thought it was worth it. But then they possibly didn't have enough brains to think about it. All of them wore the same identical look, a sneer; the kind that you use only when you're trying to be intimidating but not really thinking about it. I focused my attention back on Floss. The girl was almost foaming at the mouth.

"Are you quite finished?"

"Are you quite finished?" she mimicked me, in a high squeaky voice. "Don't talk posh at me, freak. Where do you think you're from? Central City?"

"So now I'm a freak because I use proper manners? Really Floss, you do need to straighten out your thoughts before you open your mouth."

"Zen…" Frame hissed from beside me.

The blonde bimbo's eyes narrowed even further. I wondered if I looked blurry to her yet. "You be careful, freakazoid."

"Or what?" I asked, leaning in towards her. "You'll slap me silly with those dopey ponytails of yours? Don't make me laugh."

Her face turned bright pink at the insult. That and her chubby cheeks reminded me for a moment of one of the men my father used to work with; my real father that is.

"Anything the matter girls?"

"Oh, Bulma-san!" Floss exclaimed, turning to face the woman behind her. "We were just discussing that awful fight from before. I can't believe anyone would treat your hospitality that way!"

"Neither can I," the blue-haired woman replied somewhat dryly. "Could I ask you girls to do me a favour?"

"Oh, anything Bulma-san!"

"Good. There are a few boxes down in the basement. Could you take them to my father for me?"

"Of course! We'd be happy too!"

Bulma smiled at them. "I knew I could count on you. You're such responsible young girls."

Floss and her cronies smiled back at her and dashed from the room on their little quest. Bulma turned to us.

"They weren't giving you any trouble were they?"

Floss and I shook our heads.

"Good. Now, neither of you would happen to know where my son is, would you? He's been trying to keep away from those four all night."

"Let's hope he's not in the basement then," I replied.

Bulma smirked. "Oh, he can't be. We don't have one, only warehouses. By the time they figure that out though the party will probably be over." She shifted the box she was holding to one hip and stuck out her hand. "I'm Bulma Briefs, nice to meet you." Frame and I shook it in turn, introducing ourselves. "Well, at least you two seem to have your heads screwed on straight. I have to run but if you see Trunks tell him I need to speak to him. Ja ne!"

Bulma hurried off down the stairs we had come up kicking the same man I did, but a lot more viciously.

"You know, I have this sort of pleasant feeling now that I know someone like the great Bulma Briefs thinks the same of Floss and Co. as we do," Frame said dreamily beside me.

"The feeling that you were right all along? You don't need to be a genius to figure that out. Anyway let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

"To find Trunks of course."

"Why? Bulma said `only if we see him'."

"Yes. And we're going to see him when we find him and thank him for the nice party that he's thrown tonight."

"And why do we have to do that?"

I looked at her quizzically. "Because we are courteous guests. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No," she answered a little quickly.

I folded my arms. "You still aren't over that crush thing yet, are you?"

Frame turned red.

A few months ago Frame, quite contrary to her usual character, had suddenly gone all mushy on me. As it turned out she had finally become afflicted with a disease that was sweeping the school, and no, I don't mean that teenagers inside were turning to mush, at least, not literally. How she of all people had managed to develop a crush on the schools star athlete, smartest pupil and all round popular boy, was something that was beyond me. She had always been the type who said we should never conform to what others think just to fit in, we should all be individuals and do our own thing, we need to be independent and so on, and a few months ago these arguments were just as strong, except for when she spotted Trunks Briefs. Then she would taper off into whispers and end up muttering whatever she was trying to say. I thought she had gotten over it. I was obviously wrong and, as I stood there watching her face go red, I hoped that nothing like that ever happened to me.

I rolled my eyes at her as I grabbed her wrist and led her through the party.

Trunks turned out to be extremely elusive. I hastily deferred Frames attempts at wanting to search downstairs, as I had not seen him and believe me, Trunks Briefs is not someone you would miss. No matter who you were. So we searched the rest of the level. When nothing turned up there either, I pulled Frame up to the next.

By that point even I felt that we were being a little too snoopy for our own good. The third level was almost deserted. As we walked down the corridor voices wafted out of a brightly lit room ahead of us. A quick glance around the corner revealed several adults, one of whom was obviously Goten's father and another as Videl Satan, the daughter of the Worlds Strongest Man. It didn't surprise me that the Briefs hobnobbed with the best of them but why would someone of Videl's influence be at an end of term bash?

"Kami! That's Videl Satan, Zen," Frame hissed in my ear.

"I know," I whispered back. "But who cares? We have to be quiet. I don't think we're supposed to be up here."

Silently we slipped past the room and into the rest of the curving corridor.

"Shouldn't we have just asked Goten where Trunks was?"

"Why? So you could hide in the furthest corner away from him? Besides don't you think that Bulma is smart enough to have asked him first? And then Floss would be sure to find out and we would never hear the end of it."

"What is her problem anyway?"

"The one that afflicts all bullies everywhere. The need to belittle everyone they can't control, in order to feel good about themselves."

"Low self-esteem? You've got to be kidding."

"I'm completely serious. It's what psychologists have been saying for years." I peeked inside a darkened room. Nothing. Turning back to Frame, I found her leaning against the wall, her arms crossed against her chest.

She scowled. "He's not here. So can we give up and go back down already?"

A breeze blew a strand of hair across my face. I thought nothing of it until I remembered that we were in an enclosed corridor on the third floor. I turned towards the end of the corridor, which was encased in darkness.

"Hey, Zen. Are you listening?"

I looked up when I reached the end, to see stars glinting in the dark sky above. I smiled. Well, there was at least one person at this party that thought in the same way we did.

"Frame?"

"Yeah?"

"Still want to know if the only spare seats are on the roof?"