Drowning

Tourtament Pt. 1

After a solid 6 hours of sleep at Anna's, Finley was headed home to get ready for the All Valley Karate Tournament. It wasn't until the afternoon, which gave her plenty of time to figure out how karate worked... and to not think about the way Hawk was with Moon last night. As her mom drove her home, she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Miguel, wishing him good luck at the tournament. The message sent, but he didn't respond. Finley clicked off her phone and stared out the passenger side window. She hadn't heard from him since they dropped his drunk butt off at home last night, and she was beginning to worry about him. Last night was rough for him, between getting drunk, seeing Sam come to the party with another guy, and accidentally hitting her. She wasn't positive, but she was guessing they were broken up. Which meant Miguel was going into a tournament with his heart broken and his head all messed up.

She checked her phone 5 times before they finally got home, and still nothing from Miguel. A sigh escaped her lips as she flopped onto her bed and opened her laptop. Her eyes drifted to her phone and she bit her lip. Should she call him? No, no that was stupid. She'd see him in a few hours. And if he wasn't texting her, he sure as heck wasn't gonna wanna talk to her. But maybe he'd talk to someone else... She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Aisha.

Finley
Hey have you heard
from Miguel? .

A few minutes later she got a text back.

Aisha
He's a bit agro from
the breakup but he'll
be there today

Finley let out a breath. She wasn't sure if aggressive was better than depressed, but at least at a karate tournament he had an outlet for it.

Finley
Gotcha. Good luck
today! .

Aisha
Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, Finley's mom dropped her off at the All Valley tournament. Her eyes widened slightly at the amount of people that were there, the large banners hanging from the ceiling, the number of vendors, this was so much bigger than what she was expecting. Sure she knew it was a tournament, but this was a full on sport competition.

Considering she had about a half hour of time to kill before the tournament started, she decided to walk around the concourse a little. The smell of churros and French fries entered her nose as she walked past the food stalls. A smile crossed her face as a kid stuffed a giant glob of blue cotton candy into his mouth and grinned, blue sugar coating his mouth and a good portion of his face. Oh that kid was gonna have a major sugar crash tantrum.

The food faded behind her and she was walking past the registration tables. She kept her eye out, but there was no sign of Miguel or any of the other Cobras. A couple of the dojos still milled around the area in their gis, all of them looking intimidating. Her left hand flexed by her side in nerves- a tick that had begun a few years ago. Whenever she was nervous or felt the need to be more confident, it was always her left hand, that's where her dog's leash would be and she was always confident with Koda beside her.

But there was no dog to calm her nerves. And those nerves spiked drastically when she got out of the registration area, and the tables to the sides began holding merchandise instead of clipboards. Her eyes caught on the boy walking towards her and her left hand flexed as a lump formed in her throat. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Just say something to him.

The smallest of smiles made its way onto her face as the distance quickly closed between them and his blue eyes landed on her. She slowed down to a stop in front of him.

"Good luck today."

A genuine smile came onto his face. "Thanks."

Her cheeks tinged pink, and the butterflies in her stomach from that dang smile froze when she heard a voice call out.