A/N: I really like this chapter for Robby! He needs to hear these things, even if they aren't all the easiest.
Robby's face was bruised and his lip busted up. He was laying in his hard bed, face down, trying to pretend to be asleep, but there was no way Robby was getting any sleep tonight.
The guys who had been taunting him his whole stay at the center decided to give him another beating today for trying to stand up for this poor soul who got in Shawn's way. The guys tried to bash the kid's head into a table when Robby swooped in and roundhouse kicked Shawn in the face.
Big mistake, Robby thought. His nose twitched from where it had been slammed with the back of a metal chair. Robby thought he could take all those guys no problem, but he wasn't ready to be picked up and tossed around the way they did with him. He managed to fight back considerably, but being severely out-numbered made it impossible to walk away unscathed.
It wasn't even curfew yet, but he didn't want to be up anymore. He was tired of existing. The constant looking over his shoulder and mewling around for some type of activity to take up his time was more draining than physical labor. At this point, he would much prefer to be in the Miyagi-Do backyard, waxing-on-and-off one thousand cars than put up with another week here in the detention center.
With all of his efforts trying to do community service, he managed to take off a week of his time, leaving him with about a week-and-a-half to go. Just a little bit longer, he thought. He'd like to say it would go by in a flash, but, really it wasn't.
The phone rang in the hallway outside his group bedroom. Phone calls rarely came, he noticed, but when they did, it was often in the evening hours. There was a very small window of time for phone calls to be allowed through, which made it even more difficult for people to coordinate their daily schedules with the call times.
The guard on duty picked up the phone. She walked into the bedroom where Robby and a few other guys were. Robby's ears perked up a bit when he heard her footsteps come in. He tried to not get too ahead of himself. He wasn't the only one in the room and so far everyone he knows has ignored him during his stay. Although, it was nearly impossible to not let his mind wonder too much at the possibilities.
"Keene?" The guard said, making Robby's head shoot up to make sure he heard her right. "Robby Keene, there is a call for you."
Robby got up from his bed and started toward her. He had to hold himself steady by gripping the cinderblock wall as the blood all rushed to his head and he was reminded of the painful black eye and bruised jaw he was sporting. Walking off a bad knee, he limped over to the phone that the woman held out for him.
"You have 15 minutes," she said, handing him the phone.
Robby took a deep breath and put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"
"Robby," Sam breathed on the other end of the call.
His head spun and he felt flutters in his stomach when he heard her voice. The remembrance of their time spent laughing on the floor of the dojo or sneaking kisses in the corner of the LaRusso kitchen came rushing back to him with the sound of her voice. For a second, he forgot about the pain from his beating earlier.
"Sam," he responded with a loss of words. "It feels really good to hear your voice. You have no idea," he said.
"I know," she sighed. "I am so sorry I haven't been able to call or visit you like we said. Apparently only parents or guardians can visit, and then if we want to come, we have to go through this whole process and wait on this really long call, and my dad has tried, but he just gets a machine that tells him to wait for his turn and he's caller, like, 67, and — I'm really sorry," she rambled.
Robby laughed at her long-winded explanation. "That's alright, I—I didn't know that, but I'm glad that you weren't just blowing me off," he admitted.
"No, we wouldn't do that, Robby," Sam said.
That's what everyone says, he thought. His track record with people saying they will be there for him and then not showing up has been pretty poor. It's hard for him to believe that he is worth anything to anyone.
"I would understand if you didn't want to come visit. I've really screwed up," he admitted quietly.
"No, Robby, we all screwed up, trust me," she huffed with some form of a laugh. Robby could hear her inhale a deep breath. "I should never have gotten that drunk at the party, and I should have listened to you when you were just trying to take care of me, and that kiss with Miguel…" her voice trailed off. Robby could hear her getting worked up, and he imagined tears forming in her eyes. "That kiss was a mistake. I never wanted to hurt you." She finished quietly.
Robby took a moment to digest. He wished he couldn't feel their time together ticking. 15 minutes was barely enough for a brief update, nevermind a heartfelt resolution.
"Sam," he sighed. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still hurt by your kiss with Miguel." He ran a hand through his hair, cringing when he felt the egg-sized welt forming on the side of his head. "But I know that I'm not innocent in this either. I lied to you about Miguel returning the medal of honor because I was afraid you would choose him over me. He gets everything; he had you first, he has a solid home and parents; he has my dad," his voice rose by the end. He hated that he got so worked up by this, but he couldn't help the emotions as they came. "I didn't want him to suddenly redeem himself in your eyes because then he'd have one more thing that's important to me." He realized how pathetic he sounded, whining about his dad and broken home life, but his emotions were coursing through him like he was writing in his journal. The fact that he couldn't look Sam in the eye while talking likely helped.
Sam was silent a moment, trying to gather her feelings on everything he said. It angered her to be thought of as just a tally mark in his competition with Miguel, but she also knew how much deeper his feelings were. Robby had been ruined by years of disappointment and neglect. Of course that would be a fear for him.
"And now he has nothing, do you feel like you've won now?" Sam asked before she could stop herself.
Robby's eyebrows scrunched up. Was she really defending him? He thought. "I didn't want to hurt him, Sam. Not like that. Is that really what you think of me?"
"No, I know that, I'm sorry. But can't you see how damaging this competitive mindset is? You don't have to one-up Miguel. I liked you for how you made me feel, not because of anything to do with Miguel," she said.
"So then why did you kiss him?" Robby asked, a little more harshly than he wished. He wished this conversation could be happening in person instead of over the phone. When they were together, he could sense her feelings. It was an instinct they both developed from training together so much. She went left, he went right; they always knew how to balance each other out. At the moment they felt out of sync.
"I don't know," she said quietly. "I'm still trying to figure that out," she answered honestly.
It hurt Robby to hear that. His hopelessly optimistic side was willing to believe that the kiss was Miguel's fault. Sam was drunk and couldn't read the signs, and then he kissed her. This way meant that she might have wanted to kiss him. Robby didn't want to consider what it meant for them if she actually willingly kissed Miguel.
"5 minutes," the guard warned.
Robby sighed, "Look, we only have five minutes left, I don't want to spend the remainder of our call arguing. I'm not mad at you, Sam, I'm just hurt. I would rather finish talking about this when you have a better grasp of your feelings and I can be there with you in person," he said.
"Me too," she said relieved. "So, how much longer do you have to go?"
"About a week? A week and a half? I have some community service hours coming up and I think I can get it down to a week."
"Oh, that's not bad," she said, hopeful.
Robby chuckled lightly, "Yeah, try to tell that to my broken face," he joked.
"What?" She asked, concerned.
He sighed, wishing he said nothing. "There's some guys here, they — seem to have it out for me for some reason. I've suffered a number of beatings," Robby tried to keep his voice low and look over his shoulder.
"Oh Robby," Sam gushed. "That's not fair. I'm really sorry, I wish I could help you somehow." Her heart ached for the boy she cared so much about. For everything he went through, he still didn't complain.
"You can, actually. Just, keep writing to me? I can't always answer because my time to check my emails is short, but I like reading them. It helps me remember the light at the end of the tunnel," he smiled, for the first time since he's been here.
"You got it," she smirked back. Sam sighed. "Take care of yourself, Robby. We're all looking forward to when you come back," she said,
"Thanks," he said. He opened his mouth to speak again when the guard came over and told him his time was up. "I have to go now. Thanks for calling, Sam. I hope I can see you soon."
"Me too. Bye," she hung up.
Robby inhaled and ran his hands through his hair as he leaned back against the doorframe. He didn't want to think about anything other than how good she made him feel when they talked, and how much he missed just sitting next to her, staring into each other's eyes. Except his mind couldn't shake the way she defended Miguel from him. Or her vagueness when he asked about her feelings. Caring about him doesn't mean she still wants to be with him, and if he was her, he wouldn't want to be with some screw up either.
"And now he has nothing…"
That's not true. He has everyone's sympathy; his dad is probably standing vigil at his bedside every night, which is why he hasn't shown up for Robby yet. Robby is made out to look like the monster karate student who tried to kill someone, whereas Diaz gets to be the innocent underdog, who, against all odds, manages to recover and walk again. He'll win the girl and come out of it all with his dad on his side.
Robby shook his head.
"Can't you see how damaging this competitive mindset is…"
Sam was right, if he wanted to do better, he had to stop comparing himself to Miguel. That is what got him into this mess, and it would just keep eating him alive unless he could make things better for himself.
Robby headed off to take a shower. Hopefully he could scrub some of the blood off his face and soothe the muscles that ached.
When he got back, it was close to curfew and another guard had come into his room to read off the itinerary/chore list for the next day.
"...finally, visitation list for tomorrow morning: Silva, Landry, and Keene. You all have visitors, be in the general activity center for 9 am sharp."
Robby's head snapped up. "Wait, does it say who is visiting me?" He asked the guard.
The guard looked down at his clipboard. "Lawrence, John."
He walked back to his bed, dazed. I can't believe it, he thought. His dad showed up.
A/N: His dad showed up! Points to Johnny. Now let's see if he can execute...
