Cochlear | A Cobra Kai Fanfiction

33

"Jesse!" Demetri cried out incredulously, pulling his friend back and looking at the wide-eyed Yasmine. "She— I—?"

Yasmine scoffed angrily, shaking her head at her old friend while moving her purse up her arm. "Once a bitch, always a bitch, Park. You're goody act will fade eventually just like your frumpy highlights." She spat and turned on her heel, stalking off and leaving.

"What was that about!" Demetri rounded on Jesse with eyes wide and accusing, Jesse exhaled coming down from her high with small tremors and fog clearing from her mind, leaving her with a strange feeling of emptiness. "Did you have to be so... mean?"

"I-I didn't like what she said about you." Jesse responded, furrowing her eyebrows and trying find the regret inside of her. "She shouldn't have said that."

"Jesse..." Demetri sighed out and shook his head, putting his free hand on Jesse's shoulder and looking at her seriously. "Thank you, but that's not how I want to defend my honor, okay? Jesse bit her cheek and nodded, looking down at the books feeling properly chastised but still not regretting it completely. Curse Demetri and his ability to make her feel like an idiot.

"...so not dating and not hit by a train?" Miguel interrupted awkwardly and both teens cleared their throat, Demetri taking his hand back to run it through his hair. "What happened?"

Demetri's face fell and his eyes skirted around, looking for someone. "You've got a lot to catch up on..."

"What does that mean?"

"Oooooh, was he friends with Eli too?" Jesse inquired before looking down at the books in her hand and frowning, handing Demetri a textbook. "You have comp sci next not calc, idiot." Demetri blanched and rooted through his locker while Miguel furrowed his eyebrows. "So are you a snake in karate and in real life too, or are you normal?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Demetri and Jesse cut eyes to each other, having a silent conversation of who was going to break the news about Eli to Miguel. Demetri cut his eyes towards Miguel, hoping she would do it, but Jesse only raised an eyebrow asking if he really wanted her to do it. The boy huffed silently, hating that she had a point.

"...Hawk and his snake buddies decided it was a good idea to... gang up on us." Demetri said slowly and quietly, looking down at Jesse's hands and noticing the cuts that had were now only soft red lines, but he still could see them. "We had a fundraiser for your bills and they assaulted Nathaniel... and Jesse."

"Wait, what?" Miguel shook his head, looking down at the scratches on Jesse's knees and hands, even though she hid them, before looking in concern at her nose. "I-I thought you weren't in karate."

Jesse could taste the raw metallic liquid in her mouth from biting her cheek harshly, looking away from Miguel with a sigh. "I'm not." She responded and crossed her arms over her chest, smashing the collection of books against her.

"We decided to... dish some payback." Demetri offered as if it were reasonable and normal, shrugging it off. "Ruffle them up a little, give them a little razzle dazzle, a one-two, a-!"

"Demetri..."

"-right right." Demetri looked over at Jesse sheepishly before clearing his throat. "But uh, they ended up our numbering us, the blonde broke Jesse's nose and Eli..." he paused, the memory flying by him and almost sucking him back into the traumatic event. "No, Hawk, he... he..." he didn't want to admit it.

"Birdbrain broke his fuckin' arm." Jesse finished with a snarl, looking down at the cast and feeling a terrible mixture of regret, guilt, anger, and sadness. "That piece of shit broke the arm of the only person who would defend him, the coward..."