CHAPTER 17

"Mr. Lawrence!"

Johnny's head snapped up and he immediately scowled as he saw one of his substance rehab facility's nurses standing in the doorway. He was nearly halfway through his program and it wasn't going well at all. He was hating every moment of it: the dumbass meditation exercises; the stupid socialisation activities; and worst of all, not being able to drink a drop of alcohol. Although he hadn't had a drop of alcohol for the majority of his time at the facility, his sobriety hadn't been because he didn't want alcohol. In fact, he wanted alcohol more than ever. After each day of utter hell, all he wanted at night was a drink to take the edge off. It was like a vortex, a black hole wanting nothing more than to suck him back in. He tried to fight it off. He tried to keep his head floating above the water but eventually, it all had become too much for him…

An hour ago…

Johnny threw himself onto his bed and practically screamed into his pillow. Day 14 of rehab and he felt like he had been there for an eternity. He had struggled with every moment of rehab, his motivation of becoming sober for Miguel and Robby shifting further and further to the back of his mind as the need for alcohol in his system increased with every passing day. Before he knew it, he was reaching under his bed and pulling out a couple of 6-packs of Coors. During his time at the facility, Johnny had learned that rehab was, in a lot of ways, similar to prison: there was always at least one patient who, for the right price, could hook up the patients with anything their hearts desired. Whether it be drugs, cigarettes, alcohol or otherwise, hand over the cash and he could get it for them within 48 hours. For the most part, Johnny had tried to stay away from him as he knew that he would be tempted to ask for some alcohol but a couple of days ago, he gave in. He asked the man for some Coors and earlier today, the man had provided him with it. Johnny had had enough. He was done putting himself through the torture of not having any alcohol, having to feel all of his pain not numbed by the glorious beverage. He was done with being treated like he was some weak-ass hippie who needed the help of all of the infuriating nurses. Taking a deep breath, the blonde man eventually popped over the cap of the first bottle and poured the golden liquid down his throat.

Johnny had lost track of how many beers he had drank by the time he had ran out. His brain, all woozy from drinking alcohol for the first time in a while, couldn't remember how many beers he had bought from the dealer. The whole room was spinning to the extent that he had to lay back on his bed and close his eyes. After what seemed like a long time due to his drunkenness but was actually only a matter of minutes, suddenly a voice cut through the air…

"Mr. Lawrence!"

Back to the present…

"Mr. Lawrence, you have a visitor." The nurse said again, oblivious to the fact that Johnny was drunk. Johnny avoided making eye contact with anyone and merely just laid in his bed face-down. He knew that if the nurses caught him drunk, he would be forced to repeat the course and would be stuck in the facility for another month. So he waited until the nurse had left the room to finally look up and see who had visited him that night. He had gotten visits from Bobby and Jimmy already so he assumed it was one of them but who he was looking at made his jaw dropped: it was Miguel's grandmother, Rosa!

Rosa looked at Johnny for one second and immediately noticed the cloudiness in his eyes; the unsteadiness of his head. He was clearly drunk. Rosa sighed. Unfortunately, she had had a bad feeling that this would be the case.

"You are drunk." She commented, not accusing him, but just bluntly stating a fact. Johnny didn't respond, and the observation hung in the air for several moments.

"You know what? YEAH! YEAH, I AM!" Johnny shouted, not realising that his voice had raised to a bellow. He had reached a boiling point that day, and all of his frustration and anger was finally erupting. "I'M DRUNK, AND I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! I'M DONE WITH THIS SHITTY PROGRAM! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Johnny panted as he finished his outburst, his drunkenness causing his complete, unbridled fury to finally be let out. After he was finally done yelling, the room fell silent for several moments as Rosa looked at him and he reluctantly glared back at her. But Rosa wasn't looking at him with anger. Not at all. Instead, it was sympathy and concern that filled her eyes. Neither moved for several more moments, before eventually Rosa broke the silence by reaching into her bag. She dug through it for several moments before pulling out a large thermos and handing it to Johnny. Johnny, confused, took it and looking inside, the divine scent of chicken broth wafting up his nostrils.

"Here, eat this. It's sopa de pollo. Ecuadorian chicken soup. It's like Ecuadorian penicillin. You eat this, you get some sleep and tomorrow, you try again."

The warmth in Miguel's yaya's simple instruction really pierced through Johnny's thick, angry skin, and caused his mind to temporarily forget about his drunkenness, and his want for alcohol. Without these thoughts burdening his mind, he remembered Miguel and Robby, both in their own personal hells. They both needed him, and he owed it to them to be well. He needed to try again. Not just hide his slip-up from the nurses and fly under the radar for the last two weeks of rehab. He needed to start the whole program again, a new mindset.

Johnny closed his eyes and thought back to his high school days for a moment. Although now he was probably the least horrible version of himself he had been for almost as long as he could remember, he still missed those high school times. They were so… simple. He wasn't an alcoholic. He didn't have one kid in juvie, one kid in physical rehab, and all of his students corrupted by the monster, Kreese. How had things gotten so fucked up?

Before he knew it, for the first time since the school fight nearly two months ago, Johnny felt tears begin to roll down his cheeks. His petrifyingly strong emotional defenses had been ripped apart, and he felt every inch of the pain he had been avoiding for so long. He hated crying - as his step-dad had always said, "only bitches cry" - but he couldn't help it. He couldn't control his emotions and hold them in anymore. Johnny soon began to cry harder, nearly sobbing, and he then felt Rosa's arms around him, comforting him gently. It took Johnny several minutes to nearly cry himself dry before the tears finally stopped, and he vaguely felt Rosa stand up and put a blanket over him in his bed.

"You can do this, Johnny. You are strong. Very strong. You can get through it." She whispered, tucking him into bed, turning out the light, and kissing him on the forehead like he was a little kid. Because that's what Johnny felt like right now: a small child, emotionally defenseless. And Rosa's words echoed through Johnny's body even after she left the room. She was right. He COULD do this. He was going to get through this, go home, regain Miguel and Robby's trust and rescue all of his students from Kreese's clutches…

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1 month later…

"Come on, guys! Push! Push! Push! Last 100 meters!"

As the trainer barked out encouragement, Miguel, George and Mary stumbled to a halt, collapsing on the ground after running an exhausting 15 kilometer run. After the three teenagers made a vow to help and push each other to recover, they had made miraculous progress in regaining lower body motion and strength. Every day, all three of them made gigantic leaps in recovery and one month later, they had somehow fully recovered and were leaving the facility that afternoon. They were stronger, fitter, faster than they had ever been before. Almost as soon as he could walk, George had been training non-stop in the facility's hockey rink. Miguel had been fighting punching bags and trainers galore to the extent that he was probably better now at Karate than he had been before his injury. He couldn't feel any back pain anymore, a stage he had not even dreamed he would reach when he first arrived at the facility a month and a half ago. Mary had been also training super hard on top of all of the straight-A schoolwork she was doing as she was technically in her senior year of high school. And the best part about their friendship was that they all helped each other. George taught Miguel and Mary how to play hockey, a sport that Miguel had to admit that he absolutely adored now. Miguel taught George and Mary karate. Well, he had taught George anyway. Mary, as a self-proclaimed "pacifist", was not a fan of the sport, but George had taken to it like a house on fire. Mary also helped the two boys with all of their schoolwork.

The three of them had built an unbreakable bond, and they had quickly become Miguel's best friends in the world. They were different to any of Miguel's old friends. They were more… genuine. Maybe it was because drama wasn't their priority as they were in the facility, but George and Mary seemed like much more sincere people, people who didn't get involved in drama so easily.

"Great job, you guys!" The trainer exclaimed as George, Miguel and Mary stumbled to their feet and looked at him, their chests heaving as they tried to catch their breaths. "I'm so proud of all of you. Recovering in such a short time… it's incredible."

"We have you to thank for that, dude." George remarked to the trainer, but the man shook his head vehemently.

"No! This was all you guys! So when do you leave?"

"This afternoon." Mary replied. "We finished packing our stuff last night so we just need to shower, change and we're out of here."

"Oh, well, in that case I guess I won't see you guys again." The trainer replied, slightly down-hearted. He had absolutely loved working with the three teenagers as he had never met 3 patients in his career with such a fierce work-ethic but such kind, likable personalities too. "It's been an absolute joy to work with the three of you over the past little while."

"Yeah, thank you so much for everything, man." Miguel replied. "Everything you did for us… we couldn't have recovered without it."

"It was my pleasure." The trainer responded, hugging the three of them before walking away and leaving George, Mary and Miguel standing outside in the lush grounds of the hospital. Maybe it was because he could walk again, maybe it was because he had found friends here, but for Miguel, the hospital didn't feel like a hospital anymore. It felt like a second home to him, and he was going to miss it so much. He was going to miss it all: hockey and karate with George; movie nights and card games with the now-full boarding house; pranking and being pranked by one another; staying up super late and just chatting and getting to know George and Mary. It was all coming to an end now. Although Miguel would probably still see George regularly as George lived in L.A, was planning to transfer from private school to West Valley, and was also planning to join Cobra Kai, Mary lived in San Francisco so they wouldn't be seeing her nearly as much anymore.

Around about an hour later, after saying goodbyes to all of the members of boarding, education and medical staff in the hospital, the three of them rolled their suitcases down the steps of Lionsgate Hospital, turning around and taking in the gorgeous facility for the last time. It had been their home, a massive chapter in all of their lives, and now that they were leaving, they all felt a massive nervousness about getting back to the real world.

Before going to their respective parents in their cars which were all parked a couple of yards away, the three turned to each other, a cocktail of emotions etched across all of their faces.

"Well… I guess this is it." Mary murmured, taking a deep shaky breath to hold in tears. She had always been a bit of a nerdy outsider, never really having had many friends, and meeting George and Miguel had changed her life. After 8 months with 0 progress in recovery, her hopes of ever walking again were extremely slim, but making friends with the two guys had helped her complete a miracle and walk again. Mary was devastated about them moving back to L.A as neither would be in the same city as her, so she was taking the goodbye the hardest.

"Well, I know how much we all dislike the mushy, emotional crap but I've gotta say it." Miguel said. "You guys pulled me out of the darkest time in my life. You gave me a will to live again. You're my best friends in the world and I love you both so, so much."

As Miguel said this, the scars on his left inner arm pricked slightly. He hadn't cut himself since that night him, George and Mary had made their vow, but the cuts still hadn't healed yet, a couple of them probably never would due to the deepness of them. Feeling the prickliness of the cuts rubbing against his long sleeve shirt only highlights to him how much Mary and George had saved his life. He had no clue where he would be right now, if he would even be alive, if it wasn't for them.

"Argh damn it! There goes trying not to cry!" Mary exclaimed, tears starting to leak out of her eyes. The three of them hugged each other tightly for several moments, none of them wanting to let go. They were about to go back to their respective lives, the lives that had gotten them put in the hospital in the first place, so they were apprehensive.

But eventually, they did let go of each other, and Miguel walked over to his mom's car, embracing Carmen for the first time in nearly two months. As he sat in the passenger seat of the car and gazed out the window, Miguel truly began to think about what was next in his life. He was actually kind of excited to be going back to L.A. He would get to go back to school, go back to Cobra Kai, basically restore some normalcy to his extremely weird past couple of months. It was going to be exciting times for him. He had no idea the state of the Valley after the school fight as he hadn't really talked to anyone since he arrived at San Francisco. For all he knew, Robby had gotten out of juvie and was waiting for a fight. Miguel was okay with that though. Heck, he was excited. He felt stronger than ever before due to Kreese's generous funding of his rehab fees, and he knew that combined with training under Kreese when he got back would easily give him the skill necessary to stand up for himself against Robby. Robby and Miyagi-Do didn't know what was about to hit them…

Hey! I'm back! I'm sorry for being away so long, but between final exams and personal problems, I just haven't had any time to write lately. But I'm back now, and I'm going to try to get back into writing.

As some of you might notice, I completely skipped writing about Miguel's month in rehab and just skipped to when he has recovered. Don't worry, I will be talking a lot more about that month in the form of flashbacks and conversations with George and Mary (who do become relatively large characters in the story). I just wanted Miguel and Johnny to get back to the Valley ASAP to make the story more interesting.