always you || eli moskowitz

10

"He's not a bum. He's my sensei." I hear Miguel saying as I walk into the bathroom.

"Oh, who's the chick?" Kyler says as he see's me walk into the bathroom. "You paying her to hang out with you or something 'Rhea?"

I was about to respond before Miguel kicked Kyler down.

Shit. Bad idea.

"You're gonna pay." Kyler's friend says, pushing him into the wall. Before the others could come I punch that guy in the face, making him stumble.

"You bitch." He says, holding his face where I punched him. Two other guys pushed Miguel into the wall, I pushed one guy away and kneed him in the dick. Kyler quickly pushed me into a locker, making me fall to the ground, but before I hit the ground my head hit the side of a bench.

I am now laying on the ground, I try to stand but it doesn't work. Slowly, I drift into unconsciousness from my head hitting the bench. The last thing I hear is the sound of my best friend getting beaten up in the background, and there's nothing I can do about it.

~~~

I wake up with a pounding headache. I look around and see that I am in my bed, but I don't remember getting here. Slowly, I get out of bed to change out of my horribly uncomfortable halloween costume and into clothes I can wear to school. When I walk out of my room, I see that I am home alone. But, thanks to the thin walls, I hear voices outside. I grab my backpack off the counter before going outside.

When I walk outside I see Dad and Miguel talking.

"What's going on?" I ask them, causing both of them to look at me.

"Sensei says he's closing the dojo." Miguel informs me.

"What?" I ask, confused. "Why?"

"Miguel's not allowed to train anymore and I don't want either of you getting hurt again." He says, looking at us. "I gotta go." And with that, he gets in his car and drives off.

Miguel and I looked at each other for a second before I talked.

"Ok um, do you wanna walk to school together and deal with this later?" I ask Miguel, it's too early in the morning to deal with this right now.

"Yeah, sure." He says.

"Ok." I say, and with that, we start walking.

~~~

"So that's it? No more karate?" Demetri asks Miguel and I. My small friend group is currently sitting in the library working on homework. I'm sitting across from Miguel and Demetri, while Eli is on my right.

"Yep." I say, popping the 'p'.

"It's probably for the best. It was starting to boost your confidence." Demetri says, directing the last part of his sentence to Miguel.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Miguel asks Demetri.

"No? What had confidence ever gotten anybody except for a black eye and their backpack thrown in the trash?" Demetri says, making me scoff.

"Well, I thought it was kinda cool how you stood up to Kyler. Both of you." Eli says to us.

"Thank you Ei." I say, looking back to Demetri.

"Are you insane?" Demetri asks. "Let me ask you. What is the best superpower anyone could have?"

"Super strength." "Telekinesis." Miguel and I answer at the same time.

"Wrong." Demetri says to us. "Invisibility. A distant second would be super speed to run away fast."

"I run away from who." I hear a voice say. I turn around to see Kyler standing between Eli and I. We all look at each other for a second before getting up to leave.

"We were just leaving." Miguel says to them. But before we could go, Kyler grabs Eli.

"Hey, where you going? Look at this freak." Kyler says, grabbing Eli's chin.

"What kind of girl would ever kiss this shit?" Kyler says, him and his friends laughing.

"Piss off Kyler." I say to hi with a scoff.

"Yeah, leave him alone Kyler." Miguel says.

"Whatd you guys say?" Kyler says, walking up to us.

"Haven't had enough? Did y'all learn nothing last night?" Kyler asks us, neither of us responding to him. "Get the hell outta here." Kyler says as he pushes on Miguel's head, causing him to stumble.

The rest of his friends start to push us out, but when someone tries to push me I grab his arm and push it away and walk out myself. As I'm walking out, I hear Kyler throw Demetri's bag into the trash.

I almost went out to help him, but I heard him walking towards us.

When I look at Miguel and see that he looks pissed, and I have a feeling if Kyler does something again, Miguel won't hold back.

~~~

As I'm sitting on my couch, I hear knocking on my door. I get up to see who it is, and when I look through the peephole I see Miguel. I open the door and see how excited he looks.

"Um hey?" I say, slightly confused on why he's so happy.

"My mom said I could train again!" He says, talking fast."No shit, really?" I ask, getting excited too.

"Yeah, is Sensei here?" Miguel asks me.

"No, I think he's at the dojo actually. Do you wanna go there?" I ask him, ready to start training again as soon as possible.

"Yeah." He says, and I nod and walk out of the apartment.

After what seems like forever, we finally arrive at the dojo.

As we walk in, I see Dad walking out of his office. He looks at us, confused on why we're here.

"My mom said I could train again." Miguel says happily.

"She did?" He asks, sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah," Miguel says, looking between us both, "I mean, if we still have the dojo."

"We do for now." He says, walking over to us. "All right but I need to know, are you guys ready to take things to the next level?"

"Yes Sensei." We say at the same time.

"You guys both got your asses kicked because you didn't have any defense," He says, circling around us like a vulture. "So I'm gonna teach you the best defense that you can know. And the best defense," He pretends to punch me in the face before finishing his sentence, "is more offence."