Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

133 - Reflection

You're smart...

You're effective...

But your facade is slipping...

You think you're strong enough to carry your whole world on your shoulders...

But you're not even strong enough to break stone...

Wake up, Parker...

Wake up, Parker.

"Wake up, Parker," someone says next to me, and my eyes shoot open as the image of broken stone and Silver's face flashes before my eyes and phantom pain shoots through my hand. Gracias a dios... it's just Robby... "Do you want anything to eat or drink?"

"I- yeah, I'll have... I'll have the pretzels and a Ginger Ale, please," I say to the flight attendant, who promptly fulfills my request, "thank you."

"Of course," she responds, then moves on to the next row- where Eli and Demetri happen to be.

"Everything okay? Even asleep you looked stressed out," Robby asks as I start snacking on my airplane pretzels.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just... a bad dream," I say. Wasn't anything new. Just reliving the night I broke the stone for the millionth time.

"Another one?" he asks. I nod. I had one last night after I finally managed to fall asleep. It was bad. The nightmares, however, are the closest I've seen to come to feeling anything in the past twenty-four hours, unfortunately. "I'm sorry babe... do you need anything?"

I appreciate and love him dearly, but I don't think there's anything he can do right now.

"I'll be okay," I say, partially trying to convince myself as well, "the view's pretty at least."

"Yeah," Robby says, smiling at me, "it is."

I roll my eyes- mainly to cover up the fact that my face is now hot- but smile back at him. I intertwine our fingers, pressing a kiss to the back of his hand before looking out the window. The world looks so small. Insignificant... puts things into perspective, I suppose. Up here, the problems of the world down below seem minuscule. When people in airplanes fly above LA, I'm nothing to them. I bet there are people below us that are going through problems just like mine, if not worse... but to me..? They're just part of the intricate little world we live in. Just more chess pieces on the elaborate board that is life.

I catch a glimpse of myself in the window, cringing ever so slightly. Of course, as I was just thinking about chess pieces. I shut the window, holding Robby's hand a little tighter as I rest my head on his shoulder and try to tune out the rest of the world once more.

———

Barcelona is absolutely gorgeous. There's so much sightseeing I want to do while we're here. I hope there'll be time for it.