I Should Have Never Let You Go
A Karate Kid Fanfiction
Summary: Daniel attends his 20th high school reunion and reunites with an old friend. Mild language and sensuality. One-shot.
/!\ Warning: Mild language and sensuality.
Disclaimer: We own nothing!
A/N: Apologies in advance for any spelling/grammatical errors we didn't catch.
2005
Twenty years. Daniel vowed to never set foot in his old high school again, yet here he was, a wallflower hovering by the refreshments on a night reminiscent of senior prom, wondering how Kumiko convinced him to go.
"It's your twentieth high school reunion. You aren't getting any younger; go and see your old friends." Daniel scoffed. Friends? More like tormentors!
"Fine." Two hundred dollars and four hours of his life lost with a click of the mouse. You won't regret it! she told him.
A little too late for that, he wanted to say, but didn't, as she flung her arms around him and kissed his cheek. But a happy wife, a happy life, right?
As he sipped punch and inhaled the fresh lacquer, Daniel kicked a stray balloon toward its fallen brethren in a corner of the gym. Streamers festooned the walls; a banner emblazoned with "Class of 1985" hung from the rafters. Music poured from the speakers, the intermittent crackle of white noise drowning it out before receding. The sound system had been in dire need of an upgrade since before graduation, but the school never relinquished a dime. Only the people had changed.
Daniel frowned at his watch. I have to endure this for another two hours? He loosened his tie and took one last swig of punch, crushing and tossing the cup in the trash. Screw this. He was out of here! Kumiko should be glad he lasted this long. Before he could slip out the back door, a pair of hands flew over his eyes, and his nose wrinkled at the stench of nicotine.
"Guess who..."
"Uh…" That voice.
Daniel spun toward a woman with yellow teeth that dimmed what was once a megawatt smile. "Remember me?" Her name lingered on the fringe of his consciousness. No...it couldn't be - He blinked rapidly, partly because his eyes were adjusting to the light, but mostly in disbelief.
"Ali. Ali-with-an-I." He groped for words. "Um, ah...Wow. I almost didn't recognize you. You look…different." And not in a good way.
The make-up couldn't conceal the wrinkles; her dress accentuated the lumps, bumps, and bulges every middle-aged adult dreaded. "Long time, no see."
"You too."
Ali laughed to offset the nerves - more hers than his - and spread her arms. "Well, aren't you gonna give me a hug?"
Daniel blinked, emerging from his catatonic state. "Oh! Yeah, sure." He patted her back awkwardly. "I hadn't seen you until now," he said, drawing back. "Did you just get here?"
"Yeah. So, what have you been up to all these years?" Ali dragged him to a table and they both sat, Daniel kneaded the nape of his neck under her scrutiny. Every once in a while he wondered if their paths would cross again. Was she happily married to the star quarterback she had deserted him for, reveling in luxury? Doubt it.
"Well, I opened my own karate school, although that probably doesn't surprise you," Daniel said, and Ali unleashed an undignified squawk of a laugh. "It's doing pretty well. What about you?"
Ali's smile faltered. "I'm sorry. I just find it ironic how our lives turned out to be. Well, obviously, I didn't reach my full potential." She frowned. "Um...college didn't really go as expected. I dropped out and went to a technical school, made a living for myself as a medical assistant working in some doctor's office in a seedy part of town…" She rolled her eyes with a nonchalant shrug, and the smile returned. "But hey, whatever! Sometimes life doesn't turn out as expected. That's what makes it so exciting, you know?"
And tragic. "Yeah."
Ali looked away, bouncing her right leg and drumming her fingers along the table before snatching her knockoff Coach bag off it. "I could really use a cigarette right about now…" Her frenetic search yielded nothing. She tossed her head back and smacked her forehead. "Damn it! I forgot to buy more," she said, launching out of her seat. "Hey! Wanna get outta here? It's awful boring."
Daniel stood. "Uh, sure. Actually, I was just leaving before you showed up. Let's go."
"I'll see you," he said as they hovered by the door. Outside, rain poured, lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled.
"Yeah."
Daniel removed his jacket, draping it over his head as he bolted toward his Cadillac across the parking lot. He dove in and shut the door against squalls of wind and rain, tossing his sodden coat on the backseat and easing out of his spot, almost passing Ali huddled under the lintel of the door.
He sighed. I'm too kind for my own good. Cracking the window, he applied the brakes. "Do you have a ride home?"
She shook her head.
The offer came at its own volition. "Would you like one?"
Ali nodded vigorously. She jogged over, blond hair whipping in the blustering wind.
"Thanks." She slid into the passenger seat, shut the door, and fastened her seatbelt, drenched to the bone. "I haven't been in something this nice in a long time." She caressed the wooden accents in nostalgia.
The sedan peeled off the curb. "Thanks, and don't mention it. Just tell me where to go."
"Turn right up here at this light…"
They weaved through tortuous streets, past row houses with sagging facades - vestiges of dashed hopes and broken dreams. Trash choked the storm drains and shadows lingered under the aegis of the streetlights. The miasma of the slums stifled them.
The farther they drove, the stronger his suspicions became. "Are you sure we're going the right way?" The Hills in Encino were in the opposite direction. He knew Ali had fallen on hard times, but this hard?
Her eyes didn't stray from the window. "Yeah." They drove two more blocks until Ali abruptly said, "Stop."
Daniel did. He leaned forward to appraise the dilapidated rowhouse. "This is it?"
"Yeah."
"You live in Reseda."
Ali wouldn't meet his eyes. "Yeah."
He parked the car, letting it run, and together they watched the world melt outside the windshield.
"I know what you're thinking." Her laugh was mirthless. "'What's Ali from the Hills doing in a crummy place like this?'"
"Ali, what happened?" I was supposed to be here, not her.
She looked at him with hooded eyes as she pressed her cheek against the headrest. "Daniel, I screwed up bad. Real bad. It's you. It has always been you." As Ali leaned in for the kiss, Daniel clasped her shoulders to halt her advance. She frowned; no man denied her a kiss, ever.
"What?"
Daniel raked his fingers through his hair with a huff. "We can't do this."
"Do what?" Her hand slid down his leg.
He pushed it away, indicating the space he had forced between them. "This. I'm married. I have a wife." He flashed his wedding band Ali's eyes bore right through.
"You said you loved me."
Rancor clung to his words. "Clearly you didn't feel the same about me. You stood me up the night of our senior prom for a jock at UCLA." Ali had been the girl of his dreams, his first true love who wasted no more time on him once his novelty wore off.
"That was a mistake. I was a shallow, teenage girl who didn't know any better. He knocked me up three months later and was gone before I could get 'pregnant' out of my mouth. My parents disowned me once they found out. They kicked me to the curb and stopped paying for college, and I was forced to raise the baby and myself on my own. Once my daughter got old enough she married my boyfriend and they both got the hell away from me. Men have flitted in and out of my life since then." She sighed. "I'll admit I have a weakness for bad boys; they're my Achilles heel. You were and still are the only good guy I've ever fallen for. It should have been you. It has always been you."
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose, bowing his head. Why did he pity her? Her trainwreck of a life was her own doing. "Ali...the way I felt about you then isn't the same way I feel about you now. Like I said before, I'm in love with - married to - someone else; her name is Kumiko." He had fallen for Ali - hard - and it hurt. But when life knocks you down, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep on walking - a lesson she had yet to learn. "Life's too short to get hung up over the past, about what could have been."
Ali flew out the car. "Why?" Daniel wrestled himself free of his seatbelt and jumped out.
"You need help, Ali. Bad." He produced his wallet, shaking his head - I can't believe I'm doing this - extracted a few twenties, and pressed them into her palm. "Take this. You need it more than I do."
She flung the money back at him; it scattered like leaves. "Screw you! I don't need your damn charity! Go back to your wife and two point five children and house with a two car garage and white picket fence! I don't care."
"Ali, calm down!" he said, gently shaking sense into her but to no avail.
Ali pummeled his chest. "I hate you, Daniel! I hate you!" Yet she sagged against and hugged him, sobs wracking her body. The mood swings were giving him whiplash.
"I'm only trying to help."
She snapped her head up. "I don't need you or your help. I've gotten along by myself all these years. Let me go. Just let me go," she snarled with a defiant glare.
He did. Ali stumbled back, swiping an arm across her face, smearing mascara and lipstick. "Well, I guess this is goodbye."
"I guess it is." Daniel retreated to his car. He drove off and coasted to a stop at the end of the street. Although the roads were clear, he didn't turn, too preoccupied with thoughts of him, Ali, and what they could have been to notice.
His eyes drifted to the rearview mirror: Ali, a lone figure in the night, collecting fallen bills before heading inside. The screen door - followed by the front - banged shut behind her with a finality that shattered his heart. This was the end of their story; their unhappily ever after. Well, she never lost her pride.
That was his last memory of her.
The End
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please let us know what you think.