Forbidden Things || Cobra Kai

85 Gap in Reality

The school library was mostly quiet, a few low conversations being held among friends and peers alike as they worked or lounged. The librarian was unbothered, sitting behind her desk as she typed on the computer, occasionally looking up in case someone needed assistance. The room was peaceful, meaning there shouldn't be a reason for Demetri to be unable to focus on his school work.

Unless of course your name was Francine Harris and you'd taken his hand away to play with his fingers, effectively making it hard to do anything.

Demetri and Frankie had been sitting in the library a while during their study period. At first, the plan had been to help Frankie with her work, but it was a lot harder to get her motivated than he'd initially thought. She gave up on the school work a lot faster than he liked, but he wasn't going to force it onto her. So he'd switched over to his own assignments, but she didn't seem to like that anymore than the original plan.

So they'd talked the whole time, getting no work done whatsoever.

"Wait, she can't hear out of her ear at all?" he asked, a little puzzled.

Their conversation had shifted to Penelope, though he didn't mind it so much. He hadn't been allowed to go see her yet since she was being kept in the hospital for further testing and observation. He couldn't begin to imagine how much that sucked.

"No, she can hear out of it, just not as well as before," Frankie explained, twiddling his fingers absentmindedly. When she slipped hers between them, he gently squeezed her hand. "The doctor said she could regain some or all of her hearing in that ear, or it'll stay as it is if it's too damaged."

"Damaged from the fall? But she didn't hit her ear."

"He said the temporal bone is connected to the inner ear or something." She gave a quick shrug, looking up at him. "I didn't really get it."

He nodded a bit. "It's a complex system."

"Yeah..." She sighed, resting her head on her knees. She had her feet pulled up onto her chair and her knees hugged against her chest, compact but seemingly comfortable. If anything, she looked extremely tired. "I mean, he said they wouldn't know everything until she woke up, but now that she's awake, it's like they don't know what to do."

"It's a process," he assured her. He rubbed his thumb over her hand gently, sitting back in his chair and stretching his legs under the table. "Once they figure it out, they'll know what to do. They want to make sure she's good and well before letting her go. It's just a waiting game."

"Yeah, but that's all we've been doing is waiting." Frankie closed her eyes, yawning. "I just want her to come home already."

"She'll be home soon enough."

"I hope so."

That felt like the end of the conversation, as Demetri thought Frankie might fall asleep like that with how tired she looked. It had only been two days since Penelope woke up, but there was a constant question around what was going to happen next. The buzz around school was a lot of questions surrounding the idea of whether or not Penelope was coming back, if she should come back. Her family was just hoping no other health issues were going to pop up.

"I think you and Sam should come see her," Frankie suddenly continued. She opened her tired eyes, the light purple shadows under them bright in the fluorescent lights. "It'll make her feel better, you know? She's kind of bummed out that she can't leave the hospital yet."

"Oh, yeah," he let out a little awkwardly. He nodded to her. "I can ask Sam if she wants to go up there later."

"Who's going where later?" a bubbly voice asked.