It's Time to Rock the Dragon

Life began to slowly return to normal after the whole situation. Jess, Videl, Gohan and I returned to school on Tuesday. No one thought anything when we all said we were ‘sick’ – nobody but those close to me knew about Gohan and I, so it wasn’t suspicious at all. People just assumed it was a bug going around.

Tea, Tristan, Yugi, Joey, Marik and Ishizu went back home, and promised to keep in touch regularly. I even promised to go visit them at Domino on my breaks.

It felt nice to finally have closure, and be at peace with my old life. Pretending to be someone else was a quick fix and felt good for a while, but nothing was better than fixing everything once and for all.

I was still angry with Gohan. I was avoiding him, because I didn’t want to be tempted to forgive him. No, he could approach me later on when this would be completely blown over.

“It’s halfway through lunch now. Wanna skip now before the bell rings? We have less of a chance getting caught then.” Jess asked me, out of the blue as we finished the last bites of our lunch.

“I uh…what? Why would we skip?” I asked Jess, screwing my brown paper bag into a ball and throwing it into the bin, missing the bin slightly.

“Because I have things to do tonight, but I don’t want to break my tradition of talking to Marik everyday.” Jess winked.

I just shook my head and smiled, afraid of saying a smart-ass comment. Just because my relationship wasn’t working out, doesn’t mean I have to hate on a new one blossoming.

“Feel free to do that. But I think I should go to class, might take my mind off things, besides it’s bad to miss school…” I trailed off.

“Fine suit yourself. Have fun in health class learning SEX ED with Gohan.” Jess grinned, jumping up and walking to her locker.

I jumped up just as quickly, hot on her heels.

“What do you mean sex ed in health today?” I asked Jess, standing next to her at her locker.

“The whole baby project was the introduction to ‘mature sex ed’ or something.” Jess explained.

“Wait…what? How does sex ed get more mature? You can’t go much further than explaining ‘when a mommy and daddy love each they want to take their clothes off, and daddy puts his penis into the mommy’s vagina.” I explained, keeping a straight face.

Jess couldn’t handle it though, and burst out laughing.

“I know. I learned everything normal sex ed taught me when I was in middle school. I think it’s to try and convince us to study instead of have sex. But yeah. Have fun doing that stuff with Gohan.” Jess winked.

“Oh wait. Cough cough. I’m still sick. It’s so contagious I need to walk out of school right now instead of going to the nurse’s office. Come on, let’s go.” I giggled, grabbing my bag out of my locker before following Jess’ pace through the hallways.

We casually walked to the school gate, but then bolted to the first side street and then collapsed panting, in a fit of giggles.

“Well we live in opposite directions. You okay to get home from here? I have things I need to do, as I stated.” Jess asked me.

“Ya, I’ll be fine from here. I heard teachers patrol the side streets at lunch time to pick up people like us, but in reality I think they sit in the staff room and bitch about students.” I replied.

“Ha, yeah, so true. Anyway, later.” Jess smiled, waving at me.

I waved back and then turned my back on her as I walked in the opposite direction. I put my headphones into my ears, and blasted my music as I began the trek home.

My trek home was usually boring. I went through side streets and never really saw anyone but retirees tending to their gardens.

Which is why I was a little suspicious when I saw a limousine speeding down the side street at this time of day.

Thinking it was just someone with too much money for their own good, I shrugged and continued the short walk home.

Well, I was correct. When I got home I knew the person in the limousine was someone with too much money for their own good. However, it was not someone I expected to see outside my house.

“Seto? Hey! What are you doing here?” I asked him, greeting him.

“I was in the neighbourhood on business. So I decided to stop by.” Seto greeted, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Right. So you had a meeting in Domino, it finished early, so you decided to come visit me?” I joked, putting the key into the door.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Charlotte. I had business with Capsule Corp. Both Dr. Briefs and Bulma have decided to collude with Kaiba Corp and make the Duel Disk more portable by introducing a capsule version.” Seto stated, his smirk twitching into a smile.

“Well congratulations, you beat Pegasus to a Capsule Corp deal. This opens up many new doors.” I smiled, being genuinely happy for Seto.

“So are you going to invite me in? I am a guest.” Seto asked, nodding to the door.

“Oh! Right. Yeah sure, come in.” I shrugged, walking into the house.

***

Here’s a situation I never thought I’d be in, especially not since the ‘break up’ with Seto.

We had a business channel on the TV, but it was turned down low as we caught up. He was speaking to me like a human again. Hell, he was speaking like a human again. I hadn’t seen this side of him since we were going out. Even then, it was an act. This was real.

“Are you and that dweeb back together again?” Seto asked me.

“Me and Gohan? Nope, not yet. I think it’s too hard to forgive him for what he did, at least not now. I’ll forgive him when I’m ready.” I stated.

“Yes, it was foolish what he did to you. I’d never let that happen to you, let alone while you are my girlfriend.” Seto agreed.

“Yeah, but Gohan was my real boyfriend. That makes it even worse.” I joked.

Wow, that was the first time I’ve had the strength to invite Seto to speak about what we were. I even joked about it. I guess I’ve moved on quite a lot more than I thought.

“You were my real girlfriend. I was your real boyfriend.” Seto informed me.

“Really? Because I remember we broke up because you said we weren’t together because you liked me, we were together because your PR guy said it would look good for you.” I quietly replied.

I could feel the formation of tears. Nothing threatening to spill, but I knew if I didn’t get a hold of my feelings soon that lump would form in my throat, and soon hot tears would appear on my face.

“I guess the beginning of our relationship was based on what you’d refer to as a lie. But I chose you for a reason. I held feelings stronger for you than any other girl I’d met, even if it was a platonic sense. Soon I began to fall for you. When you told me you loved me, I knew I loved you too. But I felt so much guilt and remorse for what I’d done to you, I just had to set you free.” Seto explained.

So much for getting my act together. The lump was now in my throat, and I knew if I spoke up, I’d cry.

“I’m sorry I hurt you, Charlotte. I did the wrong thing and I recognise that. I shouldn’t have used your feelings in my favour.” Seto apologised.

“I um…I guess it’s okay. We had a good run while it lasted. Ignorance is bliss, right? If you didn’t I wouldn’t have had such a good time. I also learned a lot, and got to experience love. I wouldn’t have gotten that experience if you didn’t do your selfish deed. So I forgive you.” I smiled, wiping the tears falling down my face.

“If I spent more time around you, I could easily feel those feelings I felt about you. You truly are extraordinary. But, I know not to waste my time. I’ll refrain from falling for you all over. You and the Gohan kid are meant to be right now.” Seto smirked, and I could see a little bit of hurt in his eyes, even though he hid it now.

“I don’t know…I mean we’re not even together anymore…” I trailed off.

“But you’re not ‘not together’ if you didn’t still have strong feelings for him, you would have called it off instantly.” Seto explained to me.

“I do still have strong feelings. But what he did was pretty bad…” I stated.

“You just forgave me for what I did to you. I used you. What I did was worse. Gohan forgot about you, but he went to save the world and had to recover.” Seto informed me.

“Are you…trying to convince me to go back to Gohan?” I asked Seto, cocking up an eyebrow.

“No. I’m just stating to you the facts. You’re the one interpreting them as convey that you and Gohan should be together.” Seto shrugged.

I sighed and slumped back into my chair. This was information overload. Seto loved me, and still might have feelings for me? Not only did I have the decision to forgive Gohan or not, I had the option of perhaps picking things back up with Seto.

I had a lot to think about tonight.