CHAPTER 8

Shelter. That's the first thing I need, Miguel told himself after he left the camp. He still had in his pockets the fishing line, swiss army knife and matchbox and as he had no plans to give them back to Tory, he would be just fine for food and water, but it was a safe shelter that he needed to find ASAP. He had two options that would ensure himself safe from predators. The first was for him to get back to collecting wood and use it to build another fire. However, Miguel quickly ruled that option out as it was pitch black; there were no streetlights obviously so the only light available was the little provided by the moon and the stars. No way he would be able to see well enough to be able to find enough wood for another fire. So that left him with one more option…

Miguel walked over to the outskirts of the lush jungle and looked up at the towering trees before him. If he managed to climb to a high enough branch to be out of reach of predators, it may be really cold and uncomfortable but it would get him through the night safe. So Miguel walked over to the largest tree he could find and, taking a deep breath, began to climb it. He reached for the lower branches, praying that they wouldn't snap under his weight, and pulled himself up onto them before reaching for higher ones. He didn't dare look down as he felt himself going further and further up, until he found a branch large enough that he felt confident it wouldn't snap under his weight for the whole night. He dragged himself onto it and slowly sat down on it. Quickly, he decided to take off his belt and wrap it around his legs and the branch, tethering himself to it and preventing himself from falling in the middle of the night if he rolled off it. Once he was done, he sat back and relaxed slightly. Now that he was safe and all he had left to do was sleep, he could finally let his thoughts wonder to his earlier conversation…

He wanted to hate Tory. He honestly did. She had spent so long insulting him that night, but also so long terrorising his friends back at Miyagi-Do in the past 6 months. He wanted to hate her so much but he just… he couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to loath her with the same passion almost everyone he knew did. And a small part of him knew why. It was something he had been thinking about quite a bit throughout the day and he had even admitted it at one point during his response to Tory's outburst. "I just really wanted that life I had when I was with you back, hell I probably still do." That's what he had told her. It had been something he hadn't wanted to admit, but he had honestly really missed his relationship with Tory over the past year after they broke up. And if granted the opportunity, he would probably jump at getting that life again. Because no matter how much hate Tory had for him, he still loved her. Yup, he loved her. He had loved her from the night they got together and he hadn't stopped. But he had been so scared to confront the feelings for so long and it had cost him so much. He had been so scared of his feelings that it had pushed him into kissing Sam that night at the party, causing the school fight that had nearly killed him and affected so many others. He had then lived in denial of his feelings for the year after, the unresolved feelings causing him to hurt Sam once again. He hated himself for all the pain he had caused the people he loved all because he was too much of a coward to confront his own feelings. But he was confronting them now. He couldn't deny them anymore. No matter what Tory did to him, no matter how much he suffered because of her disbanding their alliance, he would still love her, because she was a part of him. A better half of his whole. He never loved life more than during the time he had spent together with her and he would literally open a vein in his arm to be able to live some of that time again.

Miguel was dragged out of his thoughts as something caught the corner of his eye. He looked out at the ocean and in the distance, he saw something unusual amongst all the waves. He squinted and sure enough, the weird object in the water looked like a ship's mast! Curiosity immediately filled Miguel. Where the hell had the ship come from?! The mast didn't look like anything that came from a modern ship, so when had a ship clearly sunk into the bottom of the ocean? Was there even a rest of the ship connecting with the mast? Physics said there had to be or the tip of the mast wouldn't be sticking out of the water and not being pushed by the current, right? What was on the shipwreck? Miguel's eagerness to figure that out soon took over and he decided, as soon as the next morning rolled around and the sun shone brightly in the sky once again, he would swim out to the wreck to explore it. That was the last thing he thought of before, shivering from the cold, he let sleep overtake him…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

As Miguel disappeared into the night, Tory's anger eventually slowly dissipated and she sat back down next to the fire, also deep in thought. What Miguel had said had really caught her off-guard. She had always thought that Miguel had just used her to get back at Sam. But if Miguel truly cared about her more than Sam… she had gotten it all wrong and she felt horrible. Normally, if anyone else had said that to her, she would have just shrugged it off and not believed them but if she remembered one thing about Miguel was that he never, ever lied to anyone. He was proudly a man of his word, so Tory was actually inclined to believe him.

As Tory thought back to what he had said, before she could help it, a small smile spread across her lips. It was weird, but hearing Miguel say that about her… it made her happy and she didn't know why. Why did she care so much? Could she possibly still have feelings for him too?

Tory was so, so confused. I mean on one hand, all over the drama that had happened over the past year between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do had caused so much extra animosity between them. But on the other… Tory had honestly never been happier than during the time they had been together either. Life had been so much better back then. Not only had it been so much fun during the time they had spent together, but Miguel had also become such a huge part of her life. He had met and gained the adoration of both Tory's mom and her brother and had helped her out so much with caring for both of them. He didn't judge her for her flaws, but rather embraced them and loved them about her. He never made her feel like shit for not being a normal teenage girl like everyone else. Never made her feel like he was better than her, even though in her eyes he definitely was.

As Tory thought more and more about it, her heart clenched in excruciating pain, thinking about everything she had and had lost because of inciting the school brawl. Had she not done that, first off Miguel wouldn't have broke his back. Secondly, Kreese wouldn't have taken over Cobra Kai and things wouldn't have been as violent as they were now. Not that she was aligned with Miyagi-Do's views in any way. No, no, not at all. She just much preferred how it used to be when Sensei Lawrence ran the dojo and their awesome rivalry with Miyagi-Do was just that… a rivalry. It wasn't a full-blown war with casualties being tossed aside left and right. Not only this, but Tory also felt horrible about her outburst to Miguel. Not for the first time, she had let her anger cloud her better judgement and it had resulted in Miguel being alone on the island, at night, at risk from not only the harsh elements but also from predators that lurked within the jungle. Tory was right by the fire on the relatively safe beach so she was warm, but she knew how cold it was and knew that Miguel was probably freezing.

Tory tossed and turned that night, unable to sleep in her worry about Miguel, so it felt like an eternity before the sun finally reclaimed its spot in the sky and perfect timing too, as the fire was just starting to dim down due to lack of wood. The island soon regained its warmth as the sun beat down on them once again, and Tory stood up. She had decided during the night… she was going to spend the day searching for Miguel. Despite her ego screaming otherwise, her brain realised that she was wrong to push him away. She missed him, and she was going to do something that her independent, feminist side would massively object to: she was going to apologise for everything, extremely sincerely, and if that went well, she was going to ask him to get back together. Truth was she missed him, she loved the time they had spent together last year, and on this island, for all they knew, each day could be their last. Knowing all that, why wouldn't she want to capitalise on each day and live every day to its fullest with no regrets?

So Tory set off, and to her surprise, it wasn't long before she found Miguel. She had expected him not to venture too far into the jungle, especially given that he was alone, and she turned out to be right. A couple hundred meters up the way, she saw Miguel walking away from the outskirts of the jungle and onto the beach. She began to jog to try and reach him but weirdly, Miguel seemed like he was in somewhat of a rush. She watched as he walked all the way down to the water and suddenly, he dived right in and began to swim out into the ocean. Tory was confused. What the hell was he doing? Was he trying to swim all the way back to civilization? No way! They were in the middle of nowhere and Miguel knew that, so there was no way he'd be able to swim that far. Tory didn't really care where he was going though. All she knew was that she needed to catch up with him and follow him. Without thinking twice, she also dived into the water and began to swim after her ex-boyfriend…