CHAPTER 7

"Alright, who starts?" Miguel asked.

"I'll start by asking you." Tory suggested. Miguel nodded and Tory thought for a moment for a question. "Okay, I got one."

"What is it?" Miguel asked eagerly.

"Okay… which did you prefer being in, Cobra Kai or Miyagi-Do?" Tory asked. Miguel raised an eyebrow and chuckled nervously. Already, Tory was digging in deep.

"Wow, you're actually asking tough questions." Miguel laughed. "Does this mean like Cobra Kai now or like Cobra Kai back when I was there?"

"Let's go with back when you were there." She said, intrigued to hear his answer. Miguel thought for a while.

"I, um… I guess I'd have to say Cobra Kai to be honest. Back then, when the rivalry with Miyagi-Do was just a rivalry and not a full-blown war… those were the days." Miguel replied. "Also, bonus, I was actually good back then. I was like untouchable. Also training was like a lot more fun."

"Wow, look who's modest." She rolled her eyes as she remarked. "Wait, so do you even like being in Miyagi-Do?"

"Woah, woah, woah, one question each, remember?!" Miguel exclaimed. "Okay, my question. If we're going to talk about Karate, how about this… did you think Robby deserved to win the tournament?"

Tory's eyes widened. Interesting question. Because Tory didn't know how she felt about the tournament. Because on one hand, Cobra Kai had won and that was all that mattered in the end of the day. But on the other, it was clear that Miguel was better than Robby, in the final at least, and the way that Robby had won was somewhat… questionable.

"I, um… I don't know what to answer that with." Tory replied. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"It's not that difficult. It's yes, or no. Did he deserve to win the tournament or not?" Miguel stated. He could see Tory's hesitancy and realised that she believed that Robby's win was just as illegitimate as he did. She just couldn't say that as someone who bled Cobra Kai black, red and gold.

"You know what? I'm not gonna answer." Tory said, standing up. Miguel raised his hands in surrender.

"Alright, you do you. Have fun in the frigid water." He laughed. Tory glared at him and ran down the beach towards the water. She screamed as she felt the icy liquid freeze her bones, but she forced herself to stay submerged for a while, before running back up the beach and over to the fire, now shivering furiously. She collapsed back in her spot next to the fire opposite Miguel, letting the flames slowly bring the heat back to her body.

"O-o-kay-y-y. That was a mi-i-i-ista-a-a-ak-k-k-ke." Tory stammered, her teeth chattering.

"Damn, you okay?" Miguel asked, laughing but genuinely concerned.

"Well I'm not going to pass on a single question after this but yeah… yeah, I'm fine." Tory murmured. "Alright, gloves are off now. I'm not taking it easy on you, Diaz."

"Bring it." Miguel grinned.

"Alright. Miguel… hmmmm… okay. Do you think people back home are looking for us?" She asked. Miguel, not expecting the question, looked at her and saw that she was curious about his answer. Miguel, not about to lie, sighed.

"Honestly… no." Miguel replied. He saw Tory's hopeful eyes drop and he could practically hear her heart sink. Out of the pair of them, even back when they were dating, Miguel was always the more glass-half-full, optimistic one and Tory was the pessimist, or "realist" as she called herself. But to not even hear any hope in his voice was crushing in a whole different way. Miguel, noticing her expression, decided to change his tune slightly and elaborate. "Look, if you asked me do I think we're going to get out of this place, I'd have said yes. Yes, I do. I think that at some point, we're going to catch the attention of a ship, or a plane, or anything like that. But do I think our people back home know we're alive and are looking? I don't, sorry."

"No, that's… that's fair." Tory murmured. "Okay, your question."

Miguel nodded and thought for a short while before plucking up the courage to ask one that had been burning on his mind for so, so long.

"Okay, um… Tory, why do you hate Sam so much?" Miguel asked. Tory choked on air as she heard the question.

"Woah, woah, woah, no way I'm not answering that!" She exclaimed. Miguel shrugged.

"Come on! It was your idea to play this game!" Miguel stated. "And who knows how long we're going to be stuck here on this island for? Might as well get to know each other better in the meantime."

Tory glared at him.

"Why do I hate Sam Larusso? Let's see… four simple words: she is a bitch." Tory replied. Miguel chuckled and shook his head.

"Come on, you've got to give me more than that." Miguel laughed. He looked at Tory, who looked extremely unsure. He then spoke in a much softer tone. "Look, I won't judge you, I swear. No matter what you say. I'm just curious to what you see in her that I seemed to miss."

"Well of course you missed it. You were in love with her." Tory commented. Miguel looked down, not making eye contact with Tory. That wasn't true. He was never in love with Sam, but he wasn't going to say that to prevent an argument. "Look, anything I say right now is just going to make me sound like a petty ex-girlfriend of yours, or a petty rival of hers."

"It won't. I swear it won't." Miguel said, his curiosity well-up now. Tory sighed and eventually nodded.

"Okay, fine. About Sam Larusso… do you know how I met her for the first time?" Tory asked.

"Um… kind of, I guess. I heard from Sam that apparently you guys met at the country club and you shoved her into a table of food?" Miguel said. It was Tory's turn to laugh.

"Right, of course she said. Guess she failed to tell you everything that happened before." Tory said.

"What happened before?" Miguel asked, curiously. Tory nodded.

"Well it started actually long before the actual confrontation. It started when Sam ditched Aisha for her popular, bitchy friends and stood by and watched as they endlessly fat-shamed Aisha. So I met Aisha and I became friends with her. And she invited me to the country club with her that day. So Sam sees Aisha there and, that day, decides that she wants to be friends with Aisha again."

"I'm sorry, how is this all relevant?" Miguel interjected.

"You'll see in a second." Tory replied. "Yeah, so at the country club, I had managed to nab a cheap bottle of vodka from the bar and went back to Aisha, who was talking to Sam. Aisha and I were about to go drink it, and I even offered for Sam to go with us. Sam then puts in this lofty expression and in the most bitchy voice I've ever heard, says that I shouldn't do that and I should put it back. I'd just met her at this point!"

"And then you shoved her?" Miguel asked. Tory shook her head.

"Oh, no, no! There's more to it." She said. "So Sam refuses to come with us and she tries to get Aisha to do the same. But Aisha comes with me, and this pisses Sam off quite a bit. Then later, like an hour later, Aisha and I are walking back through the country club. At this point, we hadn't even seen Sam in the past hour as we'd been on the beach the entire time, and who comes up to us but Sam Larusso. This time, she looks even more pissed. She starts up again in her same bitchy voice to 'give her back her mom's wallet.' She met me for less than 2 minutes and from there, she automatically has the right to assume I had stolen her mom's wallet! I had been with Aisha the whole time so no way I had stolen a wallet! But no, Sam was convinced that because I could nab the cheapest bottle of vodka in the bar, I was a felon that wanted nothing more than to steal her mother's wallet. So I tell her I didn't take it. Tell her again and again. Aisha tells her too. But Sam doesn't listen. Instead, she tries to snatch my handbag from me to forcefully look through it and find the wallet! That's when I shoved her. After she tries to forcefully seize my bag. Not before. Her fault, not mine."

Miguel listened to her trail off, his mind spinning. He hadn't heard that part of the story before. Based on all of the events that occurred after, he just went with that trend and assumed that it was Tory who instigated it. But this was a whole other story. And sure it was Tory telling it so he was unsure whether to believe her, but honestly from the look on her face, her could tell she was telling the truth. He was inclined to believe her.

"Oh, wow. I never realised…" Miguel murmured. "You should have told me, back when we were dating, when that happened."

Tory laughed mirthlessly. She was honestly sick and tired with hearing everyone talk about how great Sam was. She had heard it from Robby, Miguel, and it was angering her to no end.

"Miguel, that wouldn't have made a damn difference." She stated. "Even when we were dating, I could tell how much you cared about her. You weren't over her."

"I was, Tory." Miguel responded, shaking his head. Tory scoffed, rolling her eyes and scowling at him.

"Right. And that's why the afternoon before we started dating, you had spent hours making a video to try and get her back. And that's why the first time after your breakup she showed you she was interested you hooked up with her. And that's why almost as soon as you could walk again, you got back together with her. So over her… I highly doubt that. You dated me purely to get her attention and as soon as I was no longer of use to you as Sam was interested in you again like I was some dirty rag no longer capable of mopping up water! I meant absolutely nothing to you, didn't I? Less than dirt!"

"No, no, that's not true, Tory." Miguel tried to tell her again, but she wouldn't listen. She was seeing red now. He could say that he had end-stage leukemia and she wouldn't have heard him as she was so fired up.

"It is though!" She exclaimed. "You treated me like absolutely shit and I honestly don't remember why I even agreed to team up with you today! We should just go our separate ways and split up now because no chance we're going to be able to work together!"

Tory continued her outburst, the game now completely ignored as she exploded, and Miguel let her. He didn't say anything. He knew that she needed, she deserved, that outburst as although what she was saying was wrong, he had fucked up badly at the end of their relationship. So Miguel, his head down and not looking her in the eye, let her continue to yell at him until her voice eventually trailed off, her chest heaving and panting after spending several minutes insulting every fiber of Miguel's being. There was a long silence for a while, before Miguel finally broke it.

"Can I tell you something I've never told anyone in the world?" Miguel murmured, much more quietly after Tory's outburst. "Look, it's not exactly a secret that me cheating on you was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mistake I've made. And I'm never going to truly be able to express how sorry I am for what I did. But something I never told anyone before… when I broke up with Sam the second time, this is in February, I told everyone that it was because I needed to focus on training for the tournament."

"Yeah, that's not exactly a secret, dumbass. I heard that already. It's common knowledge." Tory snapped. Miguel nodded.

"It's also bullshit." He continued quietly. Tory looked at him, confused.

"I didn't break up with Sam because I wanted to focus on the tournament." Miguel stated. "I broke up with her because I realised I never should've gotten back together in the first place."

"Huh?" She grunted, confusion taking over the anger.

"I got back together with her because it was easy. She was there, I was there, it made sense. When I broke my back, everything changed in my life. Everything. But this was something that had some semblance of normalcy to it. But pretty soon after we got together I realised something… the traditional, basic relationship I was in was just not me. You know, going on dinner dates, going to the Encino country club… that cushy, comfortable life was just not where I wanted to be. It felt… empty, in a way. Like something was missing. And It made me realize how amazing my relationship with you really was, and how stupid I was to do what I did to bring the relationship to an end. When I was with you, we were doing everything on the edge, not knowing where we were going to be at the end of a night… that's what I loved. That's what I was truly missing. So you say I didn't give a shit about you and our relationship in comparison to when I was with Sam. You're wrong. If anything, it was the opposite. I just really wanted that life I had when I was with you back, hell I probably still do, which is why I broke up with Sam so quickly."

Tory looked at Miguel, her hatred towards him slowly began to break down slightly, her temper having gotten the best of her for a while. But a little too late. Because after the verbal lashing he had just taken, he wasn't about to sit around to take more.

"But yeah, you're right about one thing." He said. "There's no way in hell we were going to be able to work together."

With that, Miguel turned around and walked off the beach into the night…