CHAPTER 54

"Ugh, man. You know, you could've taken it a bit easier." Miguel remarked to George later that day, wincing as he slowly tried to move his shoulder. Him and Demetri had made it to the final 2 pairs along with George and Sam, but they got absolutely dominated by George and Sam. While George and Sam were an absolutely chaotic team and had no collaboration with each other whatsoever, they were still 2 damn good fighters and easily managed to beat Miguel and Demetri.

"What can I say? You just weren't good enough." George laughed. "Be stronger next time."

Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? Rematch, right now?" Miguel challenged. George chuckled.

"You're on. Just call Sam and Demetri, get handcuffs, and the fight's on." He replied. Miguel shook his head vehemently.

"Never mind. NO WAY am I fighting cuffed to Demetri again!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Oh, no! Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" George laughed. Miguel shook his head.

"Worse." He grumbled in reply. "Like you wouldn't BELIEVE how much that guy complains even during his fights!"

"Yeah, I noticed when we were fighting you guys. I mean come on, did he really expect us to pause the fight so he could tie his shoelace?"

Miguel groaned and put his head in hands as his mind flashbacked to the fight an hour ago and the various bruises all over his body flared in pain.

"Ugh. What a shitshow. Scary part though… he's the third best fighter in Miyagi-Do right now."

It was George's turn to groan.

"I'm sorry, remind me why we're teaming up with them again?" George grumbled. "Like they're supposed to be all about defense, but NONE OF THEM HAVE ANY DEFENSE! I swear to God our defense is honestly better than theirs!"

Miguel shrugged.

"I don't know man." Miguel murmured.

"Honestly, at this point, I feel like Johnny's only using them for their dojo!" George exclaimed. "Because without them we'd be training in the park with no equipment so we'd be pretty cooked for the All-Valley."

Miguel nodded.

"In fairness, Miyagi-Do do have some decent defense at times." Miguel remarked. "This is just Miyagi-Do's shittiest roster in well… ever."

"What do you mean?" George asked. Miguel shrugged.

"Well, Robby might have been a dick, and I was definitely a better fighter than him…"

"Clearly more modest too." George commented sarcastically. Miguel rolled his eyes, ignoring the remark.

"But…" He continued. "To his credit, it was hard to land a punch on him. It would take a while to land a hit so clearly his defense was all right."

"Damn, you're actually calling Robby good?" George asked, surprised given how ruthlessly Miguel had spoken of him in the past.

Miguel shook his head.

"Look, don't get me wrong. The dude has a glass jaw. One hard punch that lands and he's down. He's like a weaker you with worse offense but better defense."

"I don't know about weaker men. Think about it. He's been in juvie since September right? So that's like nearly 5 months of fighting with proper hardened criminals. He's bound to have gotten stronger."

Miguel nodded.

"True, but so have I. He hasn't been fighting against the people I have."

"Jee, you mean you've been fighting Demetri? I'm sure he's quaking in his boots." George laughed. Miguel rolled his eyes.

"Come on, you know what I mean. Kreese took me to fight some actually terrifying guys. I'm not scared to fight Robby at all."

"Good, because chances are you'll have your chance quite soon, what, with him rejoining Miyagi-Do when he gets out of juvie." George remarked. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"Huh?" Miguel grunted, confused. George shrugged.

"Well Robby's getting out of juvie pretty soon, eh? And given that Sensei Larusso and Johnny have been visiting him pretty often, he'll probably be rejoining Miyagi-Do, right?"

Miguel's eyes widened as he took in this information and realised his friend was right. He groaned.

"Ugh, you know what? I think I really need that drink now. That offer still standing?"

George laughed and nodded.

"Sure, let's go."

So the two got into George's car and quickly sped to George's. They grabbed two six packs of beer and then drove down to the canyon. It had become their spot over the past year. Sitting up on the ledge, overlooking the water, was where they had spent countless evenings just hanging out. But the one problem with the spot was that although it was secluded, it was also pretty well-known, especially to other high school students. They would sometimes come, only to find that other people had already claimed the spot for the evening. That was the case today too. As George and Miguel pulled up to the canyon, they saw that another car was already there, with two people sitting on a picnic mat in front of it. Strangely, Miguel and George recognised the car. It was a car that they had seen a lot a couple of days ago, when they had gone to help Mary unpack all of her stuff. It was for sure Mary's car - the make, model and license plate told them that much - but what was Mary's car doing there? Well, little did they know that during Mary's first day at West Valley, she had gotten to know the student ambassador who had mentored her for the day, and the two had become fast friends. They had decided to go down to the canyon to hang out and get to know each other better.

So George and Miguel parked anyways and walked over to the picnic mat, where Mary and the girl who they couldn't yet see as her back was to them were sitting. For some reason, as they walked over, Miguel could feel a sinking feeling in his chest. Like somehow he knew something was about to go wrong, but he didn't know what. Well, he was about to find out.

"Hey, Mary." George said as they walked over.

"Yeah, hey." Miguel said. Mary turned around and smiled at them, kind of shocked but happy to see them.

"Hey, guys!" Mary exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

But neither Miguel nor George answered, as both of them had been rendered temporarily speechless. Miguel had also gone deathly white, as at that moment, the girl with Mary had turned around, and Miguel had immediately realised who it was. It was someone who he had last seen 72 hours ago and had, until this point, assumed that he would never see again. The girl was equally shocked to see Miguel there, and her face was also pale enough to rival his.

"M-m-miguel?" Emily stammered.

"Hey, Emily…"

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"Well…" George released a single word, it being sliced immediately by the tension that was palpable in the air. "This doesn't have to be awkward if we don't make it be awkward."

Neither Miguel nor Emily spoke. They merely scowled, not necessarily at each other, but at the awkwardness of the situation they were in. Miguel's heart pounded as he looked at Emily. He still had strong, lingering feelings for her - it wasn't something he could just turn off - but he knew he wasn't about to act on those feelings any longer. He just wanted to get out of here right now. But he couldn't yet, so instead he was forced to just stand there, facing Emily and Mary in silence.

"Okay… now it's awkward." George remarked, trying to ease the tension but failing miserably.

"Awkward? You want awkward? Imagine being told by a guy's ex about how he cheated on her, less than 15 minutes after the guy said he had never done something like that before." Emily commented wryly.

"I'm sorry. I'm confused. You know each other?" Mary asked, completely clueless to Miguel and Emily's history. "Wait… Emily, the guy who you said you went on a date with and turned out to be a total jerk… that was Miguel?"

"Jeez, I'm right here!" Miguel exclaimed indignantly.

"Wow, that's… um… really awkward." Mary admitted.

"Exactly. Which is why they're going to leave now." Emily stated. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, we are. Come on, George, let's go." Miguel said. George shook his head.

"Nah, come on man let's stay!" He exclaimed. "It could be good for the two of you to get over your issues with each other and at least be friends."

"Haha. I don't see that happening very easily." Miguel remarked drily. "It would take a miracle."

"And miracle I have with me." He replied. "We brought beers. They brought beers. With 4 of us, 3 of us can get wasted. Alcohol always brings people together!"

"Um… no. Alcohol makes people make bad decisions." Miguel shot back.

"No, it brings people together. And sure maybe, sometimes, that leads to bad decisions, but it's the bringing people together part you should focus on."

Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Not making the compelling point you think you are, buddy." Miguel remarked. "Look, I'm just going to go. You guys can stay."

"No, you stay. I know you guys are friends and I guess I have 50% of blame for making things awkward right now. I'll go." Emily volunteered.

"No, come on!" George exclaimed. "Look, I will literally volunteer to be designated driver and the three of you can drink your asses off if you want. Just no one leave please!"

Emily and Miguel looked at each other, shrugged and then smirked.

"You know what? Deal."

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So for the next couple of hours, Mary, Emily and Miguel drank, the latter two especially. As the sun went down and the stars came out, Miguel and Emily drank more and more until something strange happened… they began to get along. Really well. All four of them were in complete harmony with each other, like they had been friends for years. Miguel and Emily were no longer enemies. Emily's animosity towards him forgotten. Miguel's romantic feelings towards her forgotten. The alcohol had successfully melded the four into an amazing friendship, while they were drunk at least.

Eventually, as the night wore on, their drinking finally slowed to a halt. Miguel, Emily and Mary were wasted to the point they could barely think straight. George, the sober one, managed to eventually pile them into his car and began to drive to Encino, where Mary, Emily and George lived. Miguel would just be crashing at George's place that night so they were all headed in the same general area.

They made it to Encino 15 minutes later, and the first place George pulled up to was the address Emily had given him for her house while she was sober. He looked into the back of his car and saw Miguel and Emily, leaning against each other as they dozed, completely oblivious in their drunkenness about their supposed disliking towards each other. He couldn't help but smile. Those two were definitely going to get together at some point, and Miguel deserved that. He wasn't the same dumb, brash person he was 6 months ago. He had been to hell and back and had come out stronger so he deserved all the happiness he could get.

"Hey, Miguel?" He asked. "We're at Emily's house right now. Mary's house is further down the street and mine is a couple of minutes behind. So could you please go drop Emily home while I drive Mary home, and then I'll swing by and pick you up on the way back?"

George didn't need to do that. Frankly, it would probably make things take longer more than help cut time. But he was just trying to push Miguel and Emily together in a not-so-subtle way. Luckily, both of them were too drunk to notice, so Miguel obliged, helping Emily out of the car and stumbling himself as the two hobbled towards Emily's front door. Miguel looked up at the mansion before him and his jaw dropped.

"Wow, you live here?!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Yeah, why?" mumbled Emily.

"Bro, your family is loaded!" Miguel slurred, his drunkenness damaging the barrier of what he should be saying to Emily. Luckily, Emily was also too drunk to care.

"We're… decent." Emily remarked in reply. The two stumbled onto the front porch and feeling their heads spinning, they both collapsed onto the front porch and sat beside one another as they talked.

"Nah, dude, you're RIIIICHHHH come on!" Miguel commented. "But if you're so rich, why'd you get that diner job? No offense, but a singing job during the ungodly hours of the night seems like it wouldn't pay that well."

Emily shrugged.

"I don't know. I love to sing." She replied. "And also, I don't want to like rely on my parents credit card my whole life, you know? I wanna be me, I wanna be Emily, not just the Cahill's rich daughter. That starts from now. Spending their money just feels wrong to me."

"Wow, that's awesome. You're awesome." He slurred.

"Haha, thanks. Right back at you." Emily replied. "Tonight was a lot of fun, you know."

Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, it was." He replied, and silence overtook them once again. They were both thinking about the same thing: how at ease they both were now that they weren't on a date anymore and they were just friends. But neither said that for several moments, before Emily was brave enough to voice her opinion.

"See, why couldn't things be this easy and uncomplicated when we went on our date, huh?" Emily remarked drunkenly.

"Think it might be the alcohol." Miguel joked.

"You might be right there." Emily giggled. Miguel shook his head.

"Jokes aside, you know what it is though? I blame dating." Miguel declared loudly. "So many friendships in this world have been ruined or not formed because of it. Like look at us. We're AWESOME friends, but we almost never that because of post-dating awkwardness. So let's make a pact right now. You and I, no matter what, never get together so we can always be friends."

Emily smiled and nodded.

"Great idea." She replied, both of them too drunk to realise how dumb of an idea that was.

"Awesome, so vow?" Miguel asked, holding out a hand. Emily shook it.

"Vow."