CHAPTER 56

That afternoon, at midday, Robby finally got to make his long awaited return to the Valley after his 4 month stint at juvie. He was able to go home with his mom, who was long out of rehab and was actually, despite the odds, doing much better for herself. She had removed herself from her partying ways and was instead readying to be a more stable mother in Robby's life. Robby also got to see Johnny and Daniel, both of whom came with Shannon to pick Robby up from juvie. They had gotten to catch up with Robby throughout the course of the early afternoon, just in time for Miyagi-Do training that evening. Daniel and Johnny had offered Robby to come with, but Robby decided that he would sit this one out to rest. He didn't need rest though. In reality, he was anxious to return to training, especially given what Kreese had told him. Had Miyagi-Do turned into just Miguel's All-Valley training team? Would there still be equal treatment for every student? Because Robby knew that if it was true and Miguel had become their golden boy, he needed to make his statement quick to remove that from their minds.

In addition, another thing weighing heavily on Robby's mind was that although things were better between him and Daniel and Johnny, the same couldn't be said between him and Sam. She had tried to email him a little during his first month in juvie, but had not come to visit once and the messages had ended towards the end of November/December. According to Robby's counsellor in juvie, the lack of closure they got after their breakup (if you could even call it a breakup given that they never literally broke up) would be a massive source of depression and anger in Robby's life until he managed to learn for sure where they stood in their relationship. Were they still together? Had they broken up? Did Robby still want to be with Sam after what she had done?

His mind was an absolute mess when it came to that part of his life, and the whole thing just made his mind spin and feel all foggy. He hated the feeling, so he decided to go for a walk in the Valley to clear his mind. He walked all afternoon and evening, long into the night. Soon, the sun set and the stars instead lit up the sky, but Robby kept walking. After being held captive in juvie for so long, breathing in the fresh moonlit air was so liberating. He walked for hours but it seemed like mere seconds to him as he relished in every moment he got to spend freed from that cage.

Eventually, Robby found himself in the canyon. As he walked over to the edge of the canyon, his mind pulled him back to that time all those months ago when he had met Miguel for the first time, and their confrontation. Just the thought of Miguel at that moment sent fury ebbing through his veins. That point had been the start of his endless feud with Miguel and he honestly couldn't believe how personal it had gotten since then. He loathed Miguel with a passion he had never hated anyone with before in his living. Not even Johnny! Robby's life had peaked last year, but everything that had gone wrong, had gone wrong for no reason but Miguel. His relationship with Johnny had been sabotaged by Miguel. His relationship with Sam had been sabotaged by Miguel. His freedom had been taken away when he had been sent to juvie because of a 50-50 fight with Miguel. And now his spot in Miyagi-Do had been apparently taken by that boy… Robby wanted revenge on that bitch for ruining his life. Juvie's counselling had done absolutely nothing for his anger issues, so he couldn't see the forest from the trees and realise how far the feud with Miguel had gone. And unfortunately for both of them, that enmity was only going to get more and more toxic…

As loathing thoughts filled Robby's mind, he hardly noticed the people sitting at the bottom of the canyon. Standing hidden in the trees, eventually, Robby heard them speaking loud enough for them to snap him out of his train of thoughts and drag his eyes over to them. When he saw who exactly the two people sitting down there were, he had to do a double take and blinked several times to make sure he wasn't imagine it. But when he realised he wasn't, his jaw dropped. Sure enough, at the very bottom of the water was none other than his arch enemy Miguel!

As soon as Robby saw Miguel, who was at the bottom of the canyon seemingly hanging out with a girl, his fists curled into balls. All of his loathing towards Miguel rushed through his body once again and he was about to charge down Miguel for their overdue fight when suddenly, something stopped him. He saw a rustle in the trees a couple of meters away from him and when he turned towards it, he saw a pair of deep blue eyes staring down at Miguel and the girl. As Robby instantly recognised who it was also watching on in the darkness, fury boiled up inside him once again. He tiptoed over to the person who was also hiding, and he snuck up behind her...

"You going to make a move for him yet, or are you going to wait until you're dating someone else?"

The girl leapt into the air in surprise and spun around to

face him. When she saw it was him, she relaxed a little, before surprise, nervousness and a little fear set into her face.

"R-r-robby?" Samantha stammered, in shock to see him standing before her.

"Hello, Sam." Robby uttered, gritting his teeth in frustration as he stood before her.

"W-what are you doing here? When did you get out of juvie?" Sam asked.

"This afternoon. Couple of hours ago actually." Robby replied, before glancing obviously at Miguel and then back at Sam, and then at Miguel, and then back at Sam, waiting, entertained for Sam to see and come up with her excuse. Sure enough, a couple of moments later, Sam realised what he was doing and blushed furiously.

"Oh, it's um… it's not what um… um… it looks li…" Sam started, but Robby held up a hand to cut her off.

"Save it, Sam." Robby snapped. "So this is why you stopped messaging me in juvie, huh? You're just chasing after Miguel again?"

"Robby, I…"

"You just cast me aside, didn't even have the guts to break up with me, and used the fact that I was locked up to keep chasing after the guy without me knowing?!"

"Robby, it's not like that!" Sam exclaimed.

"Then how is it like then?!" Robby shouted, loud but thankfully not loud enough for Miguel and the girl to hear them. "Did you just expect me to forget we ever happened when I was in juvie? Did you expect me to just assume you'd be chasing after other guys without even dumping me first? Did you just assume I'd be okay and well in juvie without writing to me for months? I needed you, Sam. I went through hell in there, and I needed someone I could talk to. Someone I could trust. Instead I had my dad who I hadn't spoken to for 16 years and my ex-girlfriend's dad. And meanwhile you had just cast me aside the second I got locked up."

"That's not true!" Sam cried, tears threatening to spill over her lashes.

"Is it not? Because here's what happened…" Robby began, his voice deadly calm. "You, Sam, are a spoilt little rich girl who for her whole life, has had everything she could possibly want. Then came Miguel, who you knew your dad would never approve of. You knew he was out of bounds, and you wanted what you couldn't have so went for him anyway. Then when you were dating him, you turned towards me, once again knowing that I was out of bounds, but you went ahead anyways. Then when you were dating me, same thing happened with you and Miguel. And now, stalking Miguel with another girl, knowing he's out of bounds… are you noticing a pattern here?"

"Robby, that's… that's… not true!" Sam stammered.

"Oh yeah? Then why'd you stop writing when I was in juvie?" Robby challenged.

"I stopped writing because you stopped writing back!" Sam exclaimed. Robby scoffed.

"Yeah, well it was kinda hard to write in between getting my face busted in." Robby growled.

"Well… well… that's not really my fault." Sam said quietly. Robby chuckled mirthlessly and nodded.

"Of course. Here it is. Typical Samantha Larusso. Playing the victim card and absolving yourself of all blame by just dumping it on someone else." Robby snarled. "Well, maybe if you put yourself in someone else's shoes and just empathised for once, you would see what I was going through! Or better yet, maybe you could've come and visited me in juvie to see the bruises on my face and realise what was going on?! But no! Of course not! Because Samantha Larusso only does what Samantha Larusso wants, to hell with the world around her!"

"Robby… this isn't you talking." Sam whispered in an extremely small voice. Robby shook his head.

"No, Sam, this IS me talking. I was blinded for so long but I can finally see the truth now. You know, my counsellor said that I needed to get closure between us if I wanted to be able to completely move on. To be honest, I didn't really understand what she meant at the beginning but looking at you now, I realise. Sam Larusso, I'm breaking up with you. I'm breaking up with you and I have no intention of ever, ever, ever getting back together with you for so long as I live and breathe. I used to think that I didn't deserve you. Honestly, I was right. I just didn't realise then that I deserve much better. Go be with Miguel - the two of you deserve each other. I'm going to stay in Miyagi-Do, ONLY because I still have some respect for your dad and for Johnny, the two people who actually stood by me in juvie, but other than that, I'm done with you in my life. Good night…"

Sam stood there in silence, tears streaming down her face as Robby left her there, walking off into the night…