Before I Forget

Chandelier

Sky poured herself more tequila and emptied the cup with one gulp, before filling it again. The music that filled the house was loud, she felt the bass beat resonating through her ribcage, a call to join the swarm of teenagers dancing their butt off in the next room—

But Sky had forgotten how to dance. The emptiness inside her wouldn't be filled with music or laughter or dancing. It might be filled with alcohol, though - at least she could try. She didn't bother to mix the tequila with anything - the more it burnt the less she felt. And she needed oblivion like never before.

After the hospital, after spending two weeks in the silence of home in sweats and T-shirts, everything here was too much. Too loud, too frantic, too scary. She could see people giving her weird glances, some girls were snickering and pointing fingers - some pretty cheerleaders, the classic mean girl type and she shouldn't have cared, but she did.

Turning her eyes down, she poured herself some more tequila. Kat would tell her to forget about those bitches, to drink more, to go dancing - but Kat was gone and Sky was alone and the only thing she could do was to drink.

She had hoped to find her friends as soon as she walked in, and had relied on their help to get her through this night, but Moon was busy being the hostess, Aisha, Miguel, or Sam were nowhere to be seen, and Demetri—

Demetri was in the living room, talking with Hawk.

That sight had hit Sky right in the heart like a wrecking ball, and it kept hurting, kept sucking the air off her lungs.

Hawk.

He had been sitting on the couch, in a red tie-dye hoodie and jeans, his mohawk sharp and spiky and vicious, looking so tough and untouchable that Sky could barely look at him. His blue eyes had followed her every move, but she couldn't read the look in them, they were like a mirror, like a surface of a lake, revealing nothing. But still - just the sight of him had made Sky weak in the knees, against all her will. She hated him for what he had done, hated his lies and her own stupidity with a fiery passion, but—

But it was absurd to think that love would die just because they had broken up. She knew she would always love him, that every time she laid her eyes on him her heart would turn towards him as a sunflower turns towards the sun. This hurt, this torture, would never go away.

She filled her cup for the third time and downed the tequila, ignoring the glances those pretty cheerleader girls were giving her as they mixed their pretty, pink drinks.

Yeah, well. She wasn't going to care. There was nothing pink in her life anymore, nothing pretty. She was ugly and raw inside and out.

She was just about to fill her cup for the fourth time - already beginning to feel the blissful effect of the tequila, when someone stumbled into the kitchen, pushed past the cheerleaders, and snatched the bottle from the table before Sky could grab it.

Tory.

The tall girl looked annoyed, upset even, as she filled her cup and downed the drink in one angry motion.

Sky hadn't seen Tory in weeks. Of all her friends, she was the only one who hadn't visited her. Not that Sky blamed her for that - they weren't that close. Tory had only joined Cobra Kai after the Valley Fest, and not long after that Sky had traveled to Italy. There hadn't been that much time to get to know each other, and now there never would be. They weren't teammates anymore.

"Hi," she said nevertheless. "Everything okay?"

"Just that stupid bitch, Sam." Tory rolled her eyes. "She thinks she owns the whole fucking world."