Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

22- Walk on the Beach

TW: talk of abuse

"¡Hola Señorita Diaz!"

"¡Hola Parker! Entra, entra (Hello Parker! Come in, come in),"

I can't help but grin as I follow her inside. I love the Diaz ladies.

"Hey Parker! Thank you for letting me take another look at your knee," Ms Diaz says.

"No, thank you. I can't really afford to have it checked out, so it means a lot," I say. She gives me a smiling, though sympathetic look. It's true. I don't know enough about health insurance to risk having to pay big bucks for a brace or anything like that. I should probably look into that sooner rather than later...

"I'm happy to help. I'll be right back," she says, and with that, she walks off to get something. She's amazing, bless her heart. Miguel told me she was asking to check it out and asked if we could hang out afterwards, like last time. I agreed, but only to repay the favor to his mom.

Ms Diaz comes back, Miguel walking out behind her. I subconsciously clench my jaw a little. We don't really talk much besides him checking up on my knee on behalf of his mom, and the occasional 'how's life', and the air was kind of cleared between us, but after what happened at Valley Fest... things just feel a little more tense again.

"Hey," he says, smiling as he walks out from behind his mom, "ooo are those the cookies from last time?"

"Mhm. I hope they're okay- they've been sitting in my car all day so they got kind of melty," I say, extending the container out to him.

"Even better, you're the best," he says, taking it in his hands. Not really but the validation is great.

"Thank you, you're too kind. Just have a seat at the table and if you could take off the previous tape, that would be great," Ms Diaz instructs. I give a small nod, then take a seat at the table, taking off the KT tape. Thank goodness I shaved and everything. I watch her face fall. What- oh.

"What happened corazoncita?" She asks, her voice flooded with concern. Damn it... I should've thought about the scars... I wore shorts and all, but I should've taken it into consideration gosh dang it. My whole body gets a little hot.

"Just some accidents in karate," I say, trying to sound sincere. Miguel laughs.

"Yeah right. Do you even hit each other at Miyagi-Do?" He says. First of all, go to hell.

"Miguel," Ms Diaz says, giving him a pointed look. I guess it was kind of a stupid excuse, but still. Too much audacity.

"Fine, you caught me, they weren't from karate. Kicking out windows is a lot harder than they make it seem in movies," I say, my voice getting quiet at the end. I don't really want to go into details about how I had to escape my own dad.

"I'm glad you're okay. Glass wounds are nothing to laugh at. I mainly wanted to check up on your knee because they're usually healed around this time. Have you been feeling any pain in the last week or so?" Ms Diaz asks.

"Not nearly as much as it was at the beginning, but here on the inside it still hurts when I put too much weight on it or shift it wrong. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but I do know that I did a lot of training on it when I probably shouldn't have," I explain. She nods.

"Doing karate on an injured knee was not a very smart idea," she says, "but I understand. Karate is everything to you people."

I smile a little bit, but my face is hot. I know it was an awful idea, but right now, it feels like there's one thing that helps me take my mind off of things and that's martial arts.