always you || eli moskowitz

03

Right now I'm awkwardly sitting in my living room with my dad's stepdad, Sid, and his caregiver watching TV. They came over because Sid is very rich, and he bailed Dad out of jail after last night's incident.

Sid is looking through our fridge when Dad walks inside. Sid says something to him about our meat being spoiled, which doesn't help my Dad's bad mood.

"What the hell are you doing in my house Sid?" He asks, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, that's some 'thank you'." Sid says, still by the fridge. "Who do you think bailed you out? Again." Sid finally closes the fridge door.

"I never asked you for anything." Dad says, walking away.

"I think that incident at Applebee's would've taught you to keep your hands to yourself." Sid says to him.

Not wanting to hear them argue, I get up and walk out of the apartment. I go over to Miguel's and knock on his door. A lady, who I'm assuming is his mom, answers the door.

"Hi, I'm Cassie, I live next door." I say with a smile.

"Hi Cassie, I'm Carmen." She says to me with a friendly smile.

"I was wondering is Miguel was here?" I ask her.

"Oh yes he is." She says. "Miguel! Cassie's here for you!" She yells back into the apartment.

"Coming!" Miguel says, and a second later he appears at the door. As his mom walks away, he steps outside and closes the door.

"So, whatcha doing here?" He asks me.

"I don't know, I was just bored. Wanna walk to the corner store with me?" I ask him.

"Yeah sure." He says, and we start walking.

"So, your Dad knows karate?" Miguel asks after a little while of walking in silence.

"Yeah. He used to be really competitive in high school, that's why he doesn't like Daniel LaRusso, the car salesmen guy. Apparently they hated each other because of karate. I know he was amazing in high school but I had no idea he still had it in him, given that he hasn't done it since high school. He told me a little about it but not much more then that." I tell him.

"Why hasn't he opened a karate dojo? When I saw him this morning I asked but he didn't give me much of an answer." Miguel asks me.

"I don't know, I've mentioned karate to him before, asked him to teach me, but he always refuses." I say, and we arrive at the store.

"We should try to convince him to, it's really help me out when school comes around." Miguel says as we walk around the store, me occasionally picking things up.

"I mean we can definitely try, I don't know if he'll agree though." I say as we walk up to the register. I put my stuff down for him to count.

"Your total is $5.49." The cashier says to me and I hand him 6 dollars. He gives me the change then we walk out of the store.

"I think he'll agree, given that he just lost his job." Miguel says to me.

"He what?" I ask him confused. He never mentioned that to me.

"Yeah, he told me earlier." Miguel says to me.

"Oh. Maybe he will actually say yes then." I say, now kind of wanting him to make a dojo. I mean it'd be pretty cool to know how to beat people up.

"See, it'd be awesome wouldn't it." Miguel asks me with a smile.

"Maybe a little." I say, laughing. We both walk home talking about karate and if he'll agree or not.

"Ok," I say to Miguel as we get to our apartments, "I'll see you soon."

"Ok, bye Cassie." Miguel says with a wave and I walk into my apartment. Dad is just sitting on the couch watching TV and drinking a beer.

"Hey, where'd you go?" He asks me.

"The store with Miguel." I say to him while walking to my room.

I stop before I go inside my room and look at my dad, "Y'know, I think you should consider opening a dojo. Who knows, you might love it." I say to him and walk into my room before he could respond.

~~~

I wake up to my dad knocking on my door then walking in.

"I'm going out." He says to me.

"Where? Also did you go somewhere last night? I heard the door open and close." I ask him.

"Yeah, I went on a little drive. When my car was parked a car bumped into it and left so I am going to go try and get my car back." He says to me.

"Ok, bye dad." I say with a yawn

"Bye kid." He says and leaves. I check my phone and see that it is 11am, so I get up to eat.

I get a bowl of cereal and go to watch TV, but I realize it's broken.

"What the hell?" I say under my breath. I sit on the table and prop my phone up and start watching stranger things on some illegal website.

Apparently I was watching TV for a while because my dad gets back and I'm still in the same spot.

"Come outside Cass, I gotta talk to you and Miguel." He says and walks outside, me getting up and, following behind him very confused.

"Are you sure you guys are ready? Cause once you go down this path, there's no turning back." He says to us.

"You're gonna be our karate teacher?" Miguel asks, excited.

"No. I'm gonna be your sensei."