Psychotic Kids '-' Eli Moskowitz

Nah

After Sam helped me in the bathroom, she helped me into her bedroom, setting me down on her bed. Her bedroom was fancy, I hated it. It made me jealous, and I hated being jealous. Sam walked out of the room, I kept the large fluffy towel wrapped tightly around my body. Neither of us had shared any words, just silence, and a lot of shaking. My hands still hadn’t stopped shaking.
Sam came back into the room, holding a pair of gym shorts and a large t-shirt. They looked somewhat familiar, and I guessed the truth.

“These uh- they’re Robby’s… he’s been staying with us since his mom took off. Figured they’d be comforting” she mumbled

“Thanks” my voice wouldn’t go over a whisper.

Sam handed me the clothes before turning to face away from me. I tried to get into the clothes as quickly as possible, but I stumbled over myself a lot. After that I just sat back down, and Sam sat on her bed beside me.

“Are you-... are you going to-”

“No” I said as firmly as I could “A-and- and you can’t either” I ordered

“Halrey you have to-”

“No. No i don’t” I fought to keep myself together “You gotta promise me. Sam. I mean it. I will fuck you up if you tell, anyone”

“Okay, alright I won’t” she sighed

I watched her face, she looked sad. It’s the pity again, I knew it. God why does everyone feel like they have to be sorry for me? Why now? But she also looked like she wanted to say something.

“If y-you’re gonna say something… get it over with” I grumbled.

To say this was the most awkward situation I’d ever been in wasn’t true. I mean- Miguel had seen me in nothing but a towel… but I think this was a close second.

“I’m… I’m sorry Harley”

“Oh jesus, don’t pity me” I groaned “I’ve had enough of f-fucking pity-”

“No. I-... for everything” She looked over at me “For… years of, supid teasing and a useless rivalry. It was dumb” she nodded, looking me in the eyes “And I’m sorry”
I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Emotions had never been my strong suit. I could help people with their shit, give advice when I needed to. But my own emotions always got the better of me. Fucky buggers. I did the only thing I could think to do. I stood up, straight as a plank, facing Sam, and bowed. She gave me a soft smile in return, standing up and doing the same. I didn’t smile, but I did relax at that moment.

“Does this m-mean we have to tolerate each other now?” I questioned

“Oh boy” Sam giggled “... nah”

“Good” I nodded, trying to keep a straight face.

Sam and I would never be best friends, and I think we both knew that. Karate was the only thing we had in common, we were completely different otherwise. But, despite what we had said, a healthy… platonic pettiness, if you will, was upon us after that day. We were able to get along, which was saying something.

~~

I stayed at Sam’s for a few hours, making a shaky legged escape at the last minute when Mr. Larusso and Robby came home. I had decided to just avoid my brother all together. The less everyone knew the better it would be.

I had gotten a text from Aisha in the Cobra Kai group chat later that night. Anyone who could was going to meet at the Valley Fest and… well, crash it. That seems to be one thing Cobra’s are good at besides karate, crashing parties. Everyone was supposed to meet up and learn a fight routine, and of course, me being the idiot I was, I went and learned it. I wasn’t doing as well as normal though, and people noticed. I couldn’t kick as high, my hands shook constantly and I had zero balance.

But nonetheless, I showed up at the Valley fair with everyone else. A few of us had gone early to just enjoy the fair as the fair. I had fun, it was a nice distraction honestly. Hawk and Miguel were always good distractions from the reality of shitty ass life.

As the night got closer the performances started. Don’t ask me who or how we got this set up. It was probably Aisha. Miyagi-do karate did a performance before us, in favor of Larusso auto mechanics. I was able to see the performance from our waiting spot. I was proud of Robby and Sam, they did really well. But, we had the wow factor, that was for sure. Just as Mr. Larusso was about to do his big finale, we started our performance.

“COBRA KAI!!!” Chanting our dojo’s name had become our trademark, and we jogged to the stage, we did just that “Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai!” and so on

Everyone followed us as we got up to the stage. Loud music played, there were smoke machines and cool lights. Miguel led us in the routine, we did various tricks and cool moves. It was a lot of fun. We had a few individual fights set up that we hadn’t rehearsed. I ended up fighting against Hawk, of course we played it out as if we were in a huge dramatic movie fight scene.

One thing I hadn’t told Hawk however, was that over the summer Miguel and I had been working on a trick together. At the end of our segment of the presentation, I was sparring with Hawk, and he thought he had me. But once Miguel defeated his match. He quickly moved over to me. I jumped up on Miguel’s shoulders, standing on his shoulders. He grabbed my ankles, also standing up, it took a shit ton of balance. Then I jumped off of them, jumping across the stage, right into Hawk. I had learned how to land properly so I wouldn’t damage my feet or knees, while still wrapping my legs around Hawk’s waist, pinning him on the ground. Thank you to the plastic dummy in the dojo.

At the end Miguel and I held hands, lifting them up in ‘Victory’ standing front and center. The crowd continued cheering as we moved off stage so Aisha’s group could go and do their thing onstage. As soon as we were in the wings of the stage Miguel wrapped his arms around me, spinning me around.

“Holy shit Harles, that was amazing! We actually did it!” Miguel was so loud

Hawk walked up to us in shock, his mouth hung wide open.

“How-... how-”

Miguel and I both laughed, the three of us doing our signature handshake and pulling each other into a hug. The crowd went nuts for us. It made me forget about everything for a while. There was nothing to lose, nothing to gain. Just sheer enjoyment. Pure happiness. And… dad smashing through a few layers of on fire cement.

-'|'-'|'-'|'-