CHAPTER 61

Emily lay on her bed that evening, just staring up at the ceiling, not moving an inch. She wasn't crying. No, she was more numb than anything else. She couldn't believe it. She had lost what could have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot of happiness with an absolutely amazing guy. And the worst part was that it was ALL her fault. Miguel had tried so hard to break past her emotional barriers and be with her but she had flat out refused. She had hesitated with her feelings for far too long for such a trivial reason and it had cost her everything. And she knew that now that Miguel was with someone else, he probably wouldn't be single again for a while. Even from just her friendship with him, she knew that he was the kind of guy who treated his girlfriend like she was a queen and no girl would be so stupid as to pass that up. Well, no one but her.

And what would happen now to their friendship anyway? At least when both her and Miguel were single, it had become a lot easier for them to hang out together and they genuinely enjoyed each other's company. However now that he was dating Sam, would he still want to spend so much time with his ex? Would Sam be comfortable with that? Emily knew that if it came down to that, she would have to step back and stop seeing Miguel and even just the thought of that sent a throbbing pain through Emily's body.

Just as she was thinking about Miguel, suddenly her phone buzzed with a notification. She looked at it and her eyes widened. Sure enough, it was from the boy who had been running through her mind all night. He said…

Hey Emily. If ur not doing anything rn, would u be able to meet me at the canyon? M

Emily saw the message and her eyes widened. Why was Miguel texting her? Wasn't he supposed to be on his date right now? Was everything okay? Emily quickly typed out a response, before getting into her car and driving over, not caring about the late hour one bit.

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Emily made it to the canyon a short while later, parking at the canyon and seeing Miguel sitting there, back resting against the hill, his eyes closed. He looked pretty… worn. Like he had had a pretty long night, which was weird as he was supposed to be on a date right now. Emily was guessing things hadn't gone too well for the date, but she forced herself not to smile at that fact as she walked over to him.

Hearing her footsteps, Miguel's eyes snapped open and when he saw her, he couldn't help but smile. It wasn't something he controlled at all. It was just whenever he saw her, a smile always crept onto his face, even if he had been having the toughest of days.

"Hey." Miguel murmured as he looked up at her. As she stood over him, she looked like an angel, her hair gently blowing in the wind and her smile practically illuminating her face in the night sky.

"Hi." Emily smiled back at him as she sat down beside him on the sand.

"How are you doing?" Miguel asked her quietly.

"Alright. What about you? How'd the date go?" She asked casually, but secretly nervous to hear his answer. Miguel sighed and shook his head. Emily put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder but secretly, she was elated. "That bad, huh?"

"Worse." Miguel said. "She walked out on me."

"Oh, no, I'm so sorry." Emily lied. She wasn't sorry at all. She was thrilled!

"Eh. Truth is it was never going to work." Miguel said, looking Emily right in her piercing eyes. Miguel had always thought that Emily's eyes looked like she could X-ray right through him and read his mind, but right now, Miguel prayed she couldn't as he was terrified about what he was about to say next.

"Oh yeah? Why not?" Emily asked. Miguel took a deep, shaky breath. This was it. His chance. Now or never.

"It was never going to go well because I still have feelings for someone else and I think you know who it is." Miguel said, looking right at her. Emily's heart skipped a beat. MIGUEL STILL HAD FEELINGS FOR HER! Emily was over the moon, and she opened her mouth to say something back, but before she could, Miguel stopped her.

"Miguel, I…" She started, but Miguel raised a hand to cut her off.

"Wait, please. Before you say anything, I just need to get how I feel off my chest first." Miguel said. "You know, when we first met, I was so confused about how I felt about you. Here was this girl I didn't even know very well, and yet you were the first thing I thought about every morning and the last thing I would think about at night. Then we started to spend more time together and realised that any day I didn't get to see you just turned out to be a shitty day. Whenever I see you smile, it makes me feel better about myself. Like no matter what, everything will be okay. But recently I realised what those feelings were exactly. They're one simple word really… love. I love you, Emily. And I know you don't feel the same way but I also know that if something awful happened to me tomorrow, I wouldn't want to go without you knowing that. I love you."

After Miguel was done talking, his voice trailed off. At that moment, eternity seemed to slow down for Miguel. In his mind, he started seeing every one of the million outcomes to the situations. However, the one that came true was the one he expected the least. Without warning, Emily leaned in and kissed him. Miguel reacted quickly, kissing back until the two broke apart for air.

"I love you too…"

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Miguel was on top of the world. He was floating on air. For the first time ever, every single aspect of his life was at its peak. School, karate, he had finally gotten together with Emily… it was all lining up for him. The next ten days absolutely flew by for him and before he knew it, it was the night of the Valentine's Day dance. And sure enough, George was right. Miguel's prior hatred for the night was purely because he had never spent it with someone he cared about before. Now that he was with the girl of his dreams, he was thoroughly looking forward to the whole thing.

Miguel started getting himself cleaned up for their big night around four. As someone who up until last year was the nerdiest of the nerdy, he had never properly done this kind of thing before so he was nervous. Johnny had lent him a tux and a silver tie. When he came down the steps that night in his tux and saw his mom in the kitchen, Carmen was speechless. He looked like a model, with his black tux with a white shirt, and a silver bow tie.

"Oh my…" Was all Carmen could say as she looked at her son from the top of his perfect hair down to his shiny black shoes. "I am so proud of you. Emily's going to be blown away when she sees you."

"Thanks." Miguel murmured.

"You nervous?" Carmen asked him.

"A little." Miguel replied honestly. "Emily's a lot more used to these kinds of things than me so I just don't want to make a massive fool of myself."

"I'm sure you'll be okay." Carmen said as Miguel made his way for the door. " Ask Emily's parents to take lots of pictures of the two of you together and I want duplicates!"

Miguel nodded and left the house shortly after, driving over to Emily's house. He parked his car and ran the doorbell, before Emily opened it. When Miguel saw her, his heart skipped a beat. She looked drop-dead gorgeous. She was a vision in silver. Her dress was a long strapless mermaid style dress that accented her curves perfectly. A slit in the side showed off her perfectly tanned left leg and her sparkly stiletto heels. Miguel had never seen someone so beautiful before, and he was momentarily speechless.

"Wow… you look… you look… you look…" Miguel spluttered, his mouth gaping open and shut like a fish. Emily, noticing his expression, giggled.

"That bad, huh?" She joked. Miguel shook his head.

"You look gorgeous." He eventually gathered himself enough to say. They got in his car shortly after, and began to drive to the school for the dance…

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The night went by in a flash. It was absolutely awesome. When they walked into the school gym, where the dance was taking place, they were immediately greeted by booming loud music and teenagers dancing all over the dance floor. However, they eventually saw George and Mary at the other side of the room and made their way over to them. They spent the whole night with their friends, either dancing or just hanging out. They spent a bit of time with Miyagi-Do, but it was mainly just the four of them. It was an absolutely blissful night, and it seemed to soar by. Before they knew it, it was the final song of the night, a slow dance of the song I Won't Give Up by Jason Mratz. Ironically, it was the exact same song Miguel had heard Emily sing in the diner the first night they met. They both immediately remembered this and it only amplified the love they had for each other now. That night had eventually, in an extremely roundabout sort of way, brought them to where they were now, and neither would have it any other way.

As they slow danced together, time seemed to slow. Miguel and Emily… they were in their own world. There was no one else on the dance floor. There was no one else in the entire sports hall. It was just them, their bodies intertwined in the dance. Miguel, with Emily in his arms, was completely at peace for the first time in forever. He felt… free. Lighter. Like a huge weight had been lifted from his chest and he could breathe much easier now.

The two were in comfortable silence for most of the song, before Emily decided to speak.

"Hey? Can you promise me something?" She randomly asked, her head still resting against his chest. Miguel looked at her to see Emily's gorgeous eyes staring up at him. He nodded.

"Sure. Anything. What's going on?" He asked, curiously. Emily looked at him and took a deep breath.

"Look, I know you're fighting on the front line of this Karate battle. You're target number one of Cobra Kai and you're relishing that challenge and I would never ask you to change that about you. It's just… promise me, if things escalate even higher and there comes a time where your life is genuinely on the line, don't sacrifice your life for this fight. If there ever comes a time that you have to choose between the fight or your life, please pick your life. Because I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

Miguel looked at her and saw the genuine love and concern in her eyes. Outside his family, nobody he had ever met had cared about him this much. He would do absolutely anything for that girl, so of course he nodded.

"You're never going to lose me." He replied softly into her ear. "At the end of every fight, I'll always come back to you. You have my word."

Emily beamed at him widely.

"Good." She smiled, resting her head back against his chest. They were in comfortable silence for the rest of the song, and then at the end, watched as the Valentine's Dance came to a close. Everyone started to shuffle out of the hall, Emily and Miguel included, when Emily said... "You know, speaking of coming back, my parents are out of town for the weekend so would you like to come back home with me?"

Miguel's eyes widened. He knew exactly what Emily was asking, and he was nervous. Though this was far from his first time getting physical with a girl, he knew that this was Emily's first time, and in a way, it was kind of a first for him too. It was his first time with a girl he truly loved. All of his previous partners had been people he had met at parties and had never really seen again. So Miguel was nervous, but more so, he was excited.

"Say less." He joked, taking her hand and pulling her towards the exit of the school. Emily giggled and the two raced out the school together, practically diving into Miguel's truck and speeding towards Emily's empty house. As they drove, their hands remained intertwined, and Miguel looked sideways and gazed lovingly at her. Maybe for a second too long. Long enough for him to not see the car speeding towards them as they began to drive through an intersection. The car on their right sped towards them, Miguel and Emily not seeing it and realising the trajectory it was on if it didn't stop.

Sure enough, moments later, they heard a sickening CRASH! as the car t-boned into their side. Then they felt the immense pain and both blacked out…