CHAPTER 6

So as Tory went off on a hunt for food, Miguel was rendered pretty much useless, sitting around. He paced up and down the beach, his mind filling with worry about Tory. For all he knew, while she was in the jungle, she could be attacked by another predator. The sun was starting to set so they were quickly losing light, which meant that there was no telling what was behind all the foliage. As the concern made his heart begin to pound, he realised something. This worry… it hadn't been this evident towards Sam when they were dating and fighting against Cobra Kai. Hadn't been evident towards the rest of his Miyagi-Do friends over the past year. Hadn't even been evident towards his family. So why Tory? Why a girl he had spent the past 6 months hating? But did he even hate her? Miguel thought… Robby, Kyler and the rest of Cobra Kai, he all believed were bad people, on the inside rotten at the core. But not Tory. Despite Sam, the Larussos and the rest of Miyagi-Do's strong feelings towards her, Miguel had trouble buying into the whole "Tory was a psychopath" song that they were always singing. He had dated her, seen a side of her that no one else had. She wasn't the bad person everyone made her out to be. She was misguided, sure. Had she made mistakes in the past year? 100%. But who among them hadn't? They had all done things wrong in the past few months. But Tory was someone who was working multiple jobs to support her brother and sick mother without batting an eye. She didn't cringe at the corny video he had made for Sam all those months ago, and instead gave him honest advice. She actually stuck by Aisha while she was being bullied unlike many people, including Sam. When her and Mitch were sparring under Kreese's guidance last summer, Miguel remembered when Kreese had told her to finish him, she stopped and didn't want to. Though she had started a lot of fights including and after the school fight, Miguel knew that these were mistakes, mistakes that could have been avoided had she been under better guidance.

Why was he thinking this way? He was confused. He hated most of Cobra Kai with a burning passion, but what made Tory so different? Did he like her romantically? It was a confusing question for Miguel. As he had broken up with Sam 4 months ago and hadn't dated anyone since, he could unbiasedly say that Tory was far and away the hottest girl he had ever been with, not that there were many to begin with. But did he have feelings for her? The two of them had broken up so quickly, they never really got the closure Miguel would have wanted. Their meeting at the sushi restaurant came close, but it all ended so quickly, before they could really talk. Sam was kind, sweet, caring. Tory was fun, dangerous, fiercely loyal. Which relationship was more traditional? Sam's. But who did he have more fun with? Tory. Because Miguel knew that he didn't want some traditional, boring relationship. He didn't want to go out on boring dates, do what everyone thought was the "normal" high school boyfriend/girlfriend experience. He genuinely loved his time together with Tory. It was on the edge, extremely enjoyable, but the end of the day, he knew that she cared about him deeply and would always have his back if necessary. If only he hadn't betrayed her that night at Moon's party. If he hadn't, who knew where they'd be now? Who knew where the entire Valley would be? His mind was spinning with confusion. He had no clue what exactly his feelings for Tory were. For now, they were not even friends, but reluctant allies. Nothing more than that. And for now, he wanted to keep it that way. They were going in the right direction to finally becoming friends again at some point, and he didn't want to mess that up in any way…

Soon, Miguel grew extremely restless and decided that he needed to do something, anything, that could help. So he decided that there was one job that was mandatory that he could do: building a fire. There might still have been a bit of sunlight left in the sky, but there wouldn't be for much longer. Soon, not only would the amount of light come screeching to a drop, but the temperature in the air would too. They needed a fire to keep warm. So Miguel decided to march up and down the beach, collecting any and all wood and other crap he could find, creating a massive pile in front of the lighthouse, where they would create their fire. This lasted about a half hour before Miguel finally deemed he had enough, but to his surprise, Tory wasn't back yet. He wasn't exactly surprised, but he was still pretty worried. So he decided to diminish his worries by putting himself back to work, walking back to the lighthouse and opening the emergency survival kit. He looked through all of the contents, examining each and every one of them. There was not only a first aid kit, but there was also a box of matches, a makeshift fishing line, a swiss army knife, and a lot of other useful items that would definitely come in handy for their survival on the island.

Miguel decided to take two items out of the box - the matchbox and the fishing line, and he walked back out the lighthouse and over to his massive pile of logs. Miguel opened the matchbox and within seconds, he had a massive fire blazing. Thank God, because the sun was starting to well and truly go down, and Miguel had started to shiver. Now that he had the fire started, he had decided to try his luck with the fishing lines. He wasn't a fisherman, by any definition of the word, but honestly… how hard could it be? Miguel didn't have a rod, so he had to literally throw the line with bait at the end as far as he could into the ocean. After he had done that, all he could do was sit on the shore and wait, letting the gradually increasing tide wash over his legs. He looked at the horizon in the distance and sighed. He thought about the thing that he wouldn't let his mind go to since he had gotten here… was there anyone looking for him? Did they all just think he had died like the rest of the dojo and not even bother searching? He knew that whether he liked it or not, it was a legitimate possibility. So if nobody was searching, how could he make sure that people found them before inevitably the elements claimed them? He didn't know. He didn't know. That was the worst part… the not knowing. Not only did he not know whether they'd be found, but he also knew very little about how to survive in the meantime. What they had done so far was pretty much all Miguel knew about survival.

Miguel continued to think, until finally, his fishing labors were rewarded. He actually was able to catch a decently sized fish, and managed to catch a second shortly after. He smiled as he pulled in the second one. Not bad for someone who hadn't fished in years. After that, he quickly grabbed two twigs from a nearby tree and skewered the two fish, before bringing them back to the campfire and placing them over the fire for them to grill. Once again, he was left with nothing to do, but this time not for long. For a few minutes later, Miguel looked up to see Tory walking over to him, her arms full with a massive leaf, that she was using as a makeshift bag. Miguel's worry about her whereabouts immediately faded, and he smiled at her as she walked over. Her jaw dropped as she saw the fire Miguel had made.

"Wow, you were busy." She said. "What happened to sitting around looking pretty?"

Miguel shrugged.

"What can I say? Got bored. I don't know how trophy wives do it honestly." He replied.

"Platinum credit card probably helps." Tory remarked. Miguel laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, probably." He replied.

"Wait, you got food too?!" Tory exclaimed, noticing the fish on the grill. She whistled. "Damn, remind me again why I even went to go find food?"

"Oh, yeah, what did you end up finding?" Miguel asked curiously, pointing at the parcel in Tory's hands. She shook her head.

"Not much, to be honest. It was wildly unsuccessful. But I did find these…" She said, opening the parcel and placing it on the sand, the leaf underneath preventing it from dirtying. Miguel looked down and saw about 20 strawberries, all ripe and juicy. Miguel's mouth watered.

"Damn those look good." He said. Tory nodded.

"Maybe, but these 20 are all I found down the all outer strip of the jungle so we're going to have to search deeper in the jungle to find more."

The two then spent the next half hour ravenously devouring the two fish that Miguel had caught. Surprisingly, they didn't actually taste that bad. In fact, after being smoked on the fire, they were actually pretty good. To be honest though, anything they ate would've tasted good given that they hadn't eaten in the 30 hours that they had been stuck on the island for. It had felt like so much had happened in the 30 hours, and that only compounded their hunger.

Eventually, they finished eating the fish and turned to look at the strawberries. By the time they had done so, the sun had completely hidden itself for the night, and the moon had taken its place. They looked up and saw stars brighter than they had ever seen back in L.A. It was absolutely gorgeous, and they admired it in a comfortable silence for a while, before Miguel eventually broke it.

"Hey… do you want to play a game or something?" Miguel asked, staring up at the night sky.

Tory looked at him and raised an eyebrow. She wasn't tired, and entertainment was few and far between here, so she felt like there was nothing better to do than to play a game with one another. To be honest, her feelings towards were still extremely mind-perplexing. On one hand, she was still obviously pissed at him for cheating on her, for getting back together with Sam, for everything Miyagi-Do had done. But on the other… as Tory had spent the afternoon on her food hunt, she had realised something. When things were really bad for Miguel like they were in the gator lake, she hadn't hesitated to dive in there after him. She had felt genuine concern and worry about his wound as she helped fix him up. That meant something: that despite everything, she didn't hate him. In fact, she had even missed having him not necessarily as a boyfriend, but as a friend at least.

Tory, who was lying on the soft blanket of golden sand, sat up slightly and turned to him.

"Sure, what'd you have in mind?" She asked. Miguel shrugged.

"I don't know. Not exactly that many options." He said. "Maybe truth or dare or something?"

Tory raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly many dares available to us now either." She remarked. Miguel nodded, before an idea suddenly came to him.

"Okay, how about this?" He said. He looked down at the strawberries and quickly counted them. "There are 18 strawberries right now. Why don't we take turns asking each other questions, any questions? If you answer the question honestly, you get to eat a strawberry. If you don't…"

"You have to run into the ocean and back." Tory suggested. Miguel's eyes widened.

"The ocean… it's night time! It's going to be fucking freezing!" He exclaimed.

"That's why you answer the questions." Tory laughed. Miguel shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Make that the forfeit." He said. Tory, still smiling faintly, looked at Miguel, who was being illuminated by the warming fire.

"Sure, let's play…"