sweep the heart | cobra kai

cobra kai never dies

Hallie woke up to a dull headache. She squeezed her eyes open, blinking a few times to try to adjust to the bright sunlight streaming through her window. She rolled over to check her phone - 6:58 AM.

She let out a quiet groan, rubbing her forehead. She laid on her back for a few moments, blinking at the ceiling. An overall feeling of exhaustion had spread through her body, in each limb, each bone. But she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again just yet, so Hallie clambered out of her bed.

As she made her way to her bathroom door, she stumbled, hearing the loud clink of glass against her wooden floor. She quickly crouched down, picking up the nearly-empty and still sticky bottle of Pink Whitney and storing it away in her nightstand drawer.

Grabbing onto the surface of her nightstand for support, Hallie stood back up and shuffled out of her room and into her bathroom, not bothering to turn on the light. After peeing, she washed her hands at the sink and looked in the mirror.

Her eyeliner was smudged - she had forgotten to take it off. Her tangled red hair, the dark circles under her eyes... she sighed. But as she turned to leave, she was suddenly hit with a feeling of nausea. Slowly crouching down, she lifted the toilet lid and positioned her head over the bowl.

Hallie knelt there for a few minutes, waiting for vomit that never came. Eventually, the worst of the nausea subsided and she walked out of the bathroom and back into her bed. She closed her eyes, rolled to her side, and waited for sleep.

-

Some couple hours later, Hallie woke once again, this time to loud rock music blaring from outside her room, which could only mean one thing: her twin brother had his asshole friends over.

She climbed out of bed, this time feeling much less ill than before. She took a quick look in the mirror, detangling her hair as much as possible, before storming out of her bedroom. Confirming her suspicions, three disgusting teenage boys sat in the living room. Hallie's brother, Robby, was seated at the table, rolling a joint. His friends, Trey and Cruz, watched porn on the couch.

"Can you turn that shit down?" Hallie exclaimed.

Trey turned to her, grinning. "What's the matter, baby? Need me to help you... relax?"

Cruz laughed stupidly at his friend's comment. Hallie seethed.

"Go kill yourself, Trey," she glared.

"Chill, lady," he laughed. "I was joking."

Hallie turned, furious, to her brother. "I thought I told you to stop inviting them over."

Trey placed a hand on his heart to mime offense. Robby opened his mouth, but before he could respond, the door to the apartment swung open. Robby and his friends immediately stood up. Hallie whipped around to the door.

Standing there was a scraggly man, wearing dirty jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a black denim jacket. He had short blond hair and tired blue eyes that stared directly at her and Robby.

It was Johnny Lawrence.

It was their fucking dad.

Their dad, who Hallie hadn't seen in months - maybe even years. What was he doing back here? He had done a great job of staying out of their lives for the past sixteen years.

"Sorry to interrupt your circle jerk," their dad told Robby.

"What the hell, man?" Robby said. "Don't you knock?"

"Been knocking for five minutes. Guess you couldn't hear me over that trash in your boom box."

"What the hell's a boom box?" Cruz asked.