Forbidden Things || Cobra Kai

135 The Pain

For the second time in two months, Hawk was scaling the side of a teacher's house. He pulled himself on top of the garage as he asked himself how he got into such situations, but the answer was far easier to come by than it was to find footing on the wall of the house. It was for Penelope.

He was climbing up to her window to finally see her. It had been three long days without any contact with her and it ate away at him. Simply not knowing if she was okay killed him inside. All he needed was to see her.

They had not ended things on the best of terms Friday night either.

The heated battle in the laser tag arena still waged on in his mind, taking him back to the moment he had Demetri on the ground. It always came to a stop at that moment, in that arm lock, and he asked himself the same quest. Had Penelope not been there, what would I have done?

The answer sat heavy at the bottom of his stomach, like a stone weighing him down. He walked with it, dragging it around as he knew that without intervention, he would have hurt Demetri.

He would have hurt Frankie's boyfriend, who she quietly but fiercely loved.

He would have hurt her unborn baby's father, and then what?

She would have never forgiven him had that happened.

He was thankful that Penelope was there, though he'd wished she didn't have to be. At the end of the day, she had the purest heart out of them all: she'd do good no matter the means. Even if it hurt her.

He knew that wasn't the reason she was stuck in bed, though.

"Dude, what the Hell?" Robby asked harshly.

Hawk had pulled him down a hallway from the one he'd previously been walking with Frankie and Demetri. Now they were in a little hole in the wall, leading to two separate classrooms. Robby looked bewildered, then angry, then just plain annoyed.

"Where is she?" Hawk asked, tired of waiting. He was on the edge of losing his mind with worry over Penelope, ready to throw up because of it.

No response, no answer. At some point her phone was turned off or died because nothing went through. He got the idea that she wanted to be alone, that she needed to be alone. But loneliness was a fickle thing and he didn't want her to be so alone.

He hated to be alone. It was a friend that was never welcome.

"Penelope?"

Hawk ground his teeth. "Who else?"

"She's at home," Robby told him, taking Hawk's hand off of his chest and throwing it down. He was clearly a little agitated, but it melted away with the thought of Penelope.

"Is she okay?"

"Uhh..."

Hawk's throat tightened up and he swallowed hard. Images of her alone in her room, locked away, penetrated his thoughts and made his stomach twist in worry. It made him feel sick.

With a low, downtrodden voice, he asked, "Did I do this?"

"No." There was no hesitation. "You didn't do this."

Hawk was quiet and averted his eyes, looking at the floor. For days, he felt like it was his fault. What happened at the arcade, it was all his fault. He'd hurt her by making her fight, by making her have to decide what to do. He thought that it was all his fault.

But if it wasn't his fault...

"Then what is it?" he asked.

Robby took in a sharp breath. His next words came out with it and it sent chills through Hawk. "It's been a year since her parents died."