New Boy | Miguel Diaz

Celebration

For awhile, I noticed Miguel was absent from the table. He excused himself earlier, but after Moon mentioned his wings getting cold, I realize it's been awhile.

When I left the table, I saw him sitting by himself on a high stool chair. He wasn't on his phone, eating or drinking, he just sat there.

"Miguel, are you okay?" I sat on the stool next to him.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

His hand brushed through his hair, and he sighed before looking at me. He held my hands in his, and looked down at the table.

"Honestly... thinking about us. I mean, what happens now? I'm not with Sam anymore, we've already kissed twice... where do we stand?"

"I'm... not sure. What do you want to happen?"

"I think I wanna be with you."

"You don't too sure about that, Miguel. But, I also wanna be with you, too. Though, you just broke up with Sam..."

"I know, I know. How about we go on a date first? Just a plain, simple, meaningless date."

"Meaningless?"

"No, I mean, we just take things slow. We don't have to rush anything right now, or ever, if you're not ready. As long as you're comfortable, then I'm ready for whatever."

For a moment I thought about it. I really like Miguel. I mean who wouldn't? And besides, we're only taking things slow.

I guess we can go on a plain, simple, meaningless date."

He bit his lip from smiling, and leaned in to kiss me. Third time in the last 24 hours.

"El Serpiente, there you guys are." Hawk and Aisha walked over to the table, taking the available stools.

"You guys gonna celebrate a first place trophy like this all night?" Aisha wiggles her eyebrows.

The two boys laugh, and Miguel glances at me.

"Oh, Ava, what was it you needed to tell me after the tournament?" Aisha reminded me of what I had told her during the tournament. It took me a second to remember what she was talking about.

"Oh, right." Before I could say anything, Miguel interrupted me.

"You're gonna tell them?"

"They're gonna find out eventually. It's better they find out from me than anyone else."

I looked back at Hawk and Aisha; they both looked focused on what I was about to say. There was no reason to get into detail if I could just blurt it out.

"Johnny Lawrence is my father."

"What?" They asked in shock at the same time.

"Yeah, not long ago, I had only found out about this."

"Are you okay? I mean, you've told me and Demetri how hard stuff was for you back at home before, but I didn't think it was this crazy."

"I'm fine. At first it was a lot to process. I mean, the man who I thought was my dad wasn't and my mom kicked me out, so I moved in with Sensei Lawrence."

"She kicked you out! What a bitch." Aisha never failed to make me laugh with her rude comments about someone.

"Well, at least you're out of that hellhole. I mean, abusive, alcoholic, crazy mom, you're lucky she hadn't killed you yet."

I glared at Hawk as he mentioned abuse. His eyes widened after realizing what he said. "Um, I mean- I'm gonna go back to the table."

Aisha knew about my home life, so she stayed quiet. Miguel on the other hand looked like he was ready for answers.

"I'm gonna go back, too." Aisha hopped off the stool, noticing the awkward tension.

"Ava, you never told me about your mom being abusive." I turned my head towards Miguel who looked very concerned.

"I didn't think I would need to. I'm out of there now, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, but... does Sensei know about that?"

"Well, she hit me in front of him before, but that's it."

He shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

He cupped my cheek in his hand and looked at me in the eyes. "Well, what matters is that you're safe now."

I gave him a soft kiss on the lips, and pulled away. "I'm gonna go home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Text me when you get home." I pecked his cheek one last time before stepping off the stool.

I went over to the table with the rest of our friends and said my goodbyes. After walking for about 20 minutes, I finally made it back.

Eventually, I went to my bed and laid down for a minute. We won the tournament, Miguel and I plan to go on a date, Aisha and Hawk finally know about Sensei, and Miguel knows the truth about my mom.

Today was definitely something.