atelophobia 🖤 lawrusso

- 02 -

Johnny was not looking forward to that evening. He knew he was going to either receive a call or make one. There was no way out of this. Daniel was expecting him to talk, and that meant that they were going to talk.

There had been a time when Johnny wouldn't have worried so much about failing to meet LaRusso's expectations. There had been a time where he would shove that kid's face in the dirt and walk away feeling like a winner. That was when he had still trusted Kreese. Now he was afraid of the man, and even though Daniel had been known to get into fights with Johnny's friends over little things, he seemed like the most level-headed person who had approached in a long time.

Excluding Johnny's mother, of course, but he was unwilling to drop this weight in that woman's shoulders. So he settled for calling Daniel and coming up with some utter bullshit that the kid would 'solve' easily and then he'd be set without having to worry about meeting any new standards.

He entered his house with slumped shoulders, tired from his first workout in weeks and freshly sore. His bag hit the floor the second he was in his room and he changed quickly, throwing on a plain T-shirt and a pair of shorts that he would have worn to gym class, had he still been in school. Finally, he let himself fall backwards and he hit the bed. The bliss was unimaginably welcome. For a few cherished seconds he was completely relaxed.

Then he remembered the phone call, and glanced at the phone sitting on his bedside table. He could have easily thrown out LaRusso's phone number and told the kid he lost it if he ever asked, but when he got up to sift though his bag it was still there just like it had been when he put it there. He stared at the numbers intently, eyes wide. Daniel really did have nice handwriting, but it wasn't loopy and girlish. It was just crisp, and neat. It was perfect. Johnny glanced at a sticky note reminding himself to bring gym clothes and frowned at the messy scrawl. It wasn't fair. He hadn't even been in a hurry.

Johnny's gaze trailed from the paper in his hands to the phone next to his bed. He sank back down onto the mattress and stared at the device, feeling like a teenage girl waiting for her boy toy to call her up after class. After a few more minutes of thoughtful hesitation where he went over the pros and cons of each choice in his head, he decided not to call.

Then he changed his mind and began entering the number into his phone, satisfying clicks sounding every time he reached the number he was looking for. When the number was successfully punched in, he held the receiver up to his ear, anxiety bubbling up in his stomach at the dial tone. He glanced at the clock on his wall and his heart leaned into his chest as he realized that it was nearly 5:00 and any normal person would be having dinner. What if he was interrupting? But the rings were already playing and his heart started pounding as he decided to just wait it out and hope for the best.

Worst case scenario, his mother picked up.

"Hello, this is the LaRusso residence! Lucille speaking." Johnny's heart began to slow down, but with the declining pace it also sank into his stomach. What the hell was he supposed to say now? "Hello?" Lucille tried again. "I'm telling you, if this is some sort of scam, then I -"

"Hello, Mrs. LaRusso.. Umm, I'm really sorry to bother you, but is Daniel there? He told me I could call any time and I didn't even realize it was so close to supper, I was just being stupid.. I can call back later if you're busy."  He was most definitely not calling back later, but she didn't have to know that.

"No, no, please, it's fine! Daniel's getting phone calls at all hours. Usually from that pretty girl, Ali." Johnny winced, balling his hand into a fist around his covers. "He's actually not here at the moment, but I expect he'll be on his way soon. He usually eats with his karate teacher, Mr. Miyagi, but he comes home right after unless they're working on something big."