CHAPTER 111

A few days more passed and things in the Valley continued in the very weird phase they were currently in. February 5th, just about 4 months until the Taikai, and they were beginning to reach a bit of a standstill from both sides. Cobra Kai had retreated back into the shadows, now without the massive presence of their male champion, unable to really put up a challenge to Miyagi-Do for the time being. And Miyagi-Do were more than happy to capitalize on that time to improve themselves and stay away from Cobra Kai. It was weird. Right now, it almost felt like the Valley was a whole different place. The entire "war" going on between the dojos had almost faded to the background, both sides licking their respective wounds in the aftermath of the monumental brawl in the canyon.

This was the case also for Sam Larusso, who still wasn't quite over the events that occurred that night. She couldn't bring herself to move past it, not after what she had done. She had tried to look for Sarah at school to apologize to her, but it turned out that Sarah had transferred pretty quickly after the brawl to a private school in Bel Air, and Sam didn't quite know where, so she wasn't able to apologize.

That changed though, that afternoon, as her and her family walked into the Encino Hills Country Club together. It was time for the traditional Country club annual party, and despite everything else that was going on, her parents still firmly believed that they should go. Sam wasn't about to disagree with them, still feeling a certain level of guilt towards them, for the way she had let them down, the shame that she had brought upon Miyagi-Do when she had attacked Sarah in the way she had. She wanted to somehow repay that moral debt, not even to try and get back onto the Sekai Taikai team, but just to relieve some of the weight she felt on her shoulders in the aftermath of her actions.

Almost as soon as they walked into the country club, the family pretty much went their separate ways. Daniel and Amanda had their friends. Anthony had a few of his. Sam didn't really have any - without Aisha around anymore, there was nobody else she really spent time with in this crowd - so she decided to just walk around, taking advantage of the fresh air. She deliberated calling Miguel to come and join her, but a small part of her told her not to. She didn't know why, but whatever it was, it led her to putting her phone away.

Eventually, Sam found herself moving down a path away from the main country club and further towards the beach. With every step, she could hear the sound of activity from the club diminishing further and further, until all she could hear was a faint buzz. By this point, she was pretty far away, on a path she had never set foot on before. It wasn't even a path at one point. Her toes dipped into the sand, cold water tickling the bottom of her feet every few seconds. She neared the water, but before she could walk further into its depths, something caught her eye in the distance.

Around 100 meters ahead, there was a hill that Sam had never seen before. There is no way you could've possibly found it from the country club, as they were much too far away. The only way you'd be able to find it was if you had explored the beach fully, which the majority of the rich members of the club didn't bother doing. Having seen it now, Sam decided to make her way over to it, interested to see the view from the perch that overlooked the entire pacific ocean. However, when she made it to the top, she was surprised to see that she wasn't alone anymore. Somebody was already there, sitting on the edge of the hill, staring out into the distance. And as Sam drew closer, her eyes widened as she realized who it was…

"Sarah?" Sam asked, shocked to see the back of the head, the dirty blonde hair of the girl who she had most recently come to blows with. Hearing the voice, Sarah's head whipped around and she shot to her feet as she saw Sam there. However, just as quickly as she had done this, Sarah's entire body seemed to deflate of all of its energy, and her face filled with exhaustion as she looked at Sam.

"Sorry. I can leave." Sarah murmured, beginning to turn to walk away. Sam quickly gathered her thoughts and tried to stop her.

"Stay. I've been looking for you for a while now. I wanted to talk." Sam said. Sarah shook her head.

"Yeah, I, uh… I transferred out of West Valley, back to my old school." Sarah admitted in a quiet, alarmingly broken tone. "Look, we don't have to do this." Sarah said, trying to walk away again, but Sam stopped her once more.

"Please. Just 5 minutes. I know you don't owe me anything. But just 5 minutes. Then you can leave and not see me again until the Taikai." Sam told her. Thinking about this for a moment, Sarah eventually relented and sat back down at the top of the hill, gesturing to Sam to sit opposite her.

The Miyagi-Do student obliged. Sam took a deep breath before speaking up again.

"Sarah, I'm so sorry." Sam told her. The first words that came out of her mouth were an apology, a deserved statement after what Sam had done to Sarah at the canyon. "I'm really sorry for what I did that night. I went way too far."

And Sam told Sarah everything. She gave the girl a summary of everything that had happened between her and Tory over the past year, and how much of an effect that had had on her. How it had upturned her entire life, filled her with such horrible feelings and emotions that she didn't even know existed. She talked about how even with Tory back on Miyagi-Do's side, those feelings never really went away, but instead were buried in a shallow grave, trapped in chains like a monster, threatening to break free. She told Sarah about how those feelings had managed to get the better of her that night at the canyon, and how she had gone further than she thought possible.

"I know it's not an excuse." Sam said. "I'm not trying to justify what I did. No matter what the context, there are no excuses. I am truly, truly sorry, Sarah."

Sarah was silent for a while after Sam had finished speaking, unsure of what to say really. In all honesty, that fight in the canyon had been the last thing on her mind the past little while. Marcos leaving had made her forget about everything else that had happened. She didn't really care about what Sam had done as it had been insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This apology was more for Sam's benefit than her own, but Sarah didn't mind. Her mind was in a place where she honestly didn't care much about the things and people around her. She had been deadened inside, the one thing she cared about more than anything in the world having been ripped away from her.

"It's fine." Sarah eventually replied. "Really. Don't worry about it. I wouldn't have gotten into the fight in the first place if I wasn't prepared to get hurt. You didn't do anything wrong. Don't overthink it."

Sam nodded, relieved, feeling like a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The stress of the guilt of what she had done had been heavily weighing on her, and the simple act of apologizing had done wonders to lessen the overwhelming feelings that had been consuming her.

"Thank you." Sam murmured.

Sarah nodded, and the two girls sat in silence for a while, staring out into the distance. From their viewpoint at the top of the hill, they had a view of the entire horizon before them. The sun was beginning to set, creating a unique landscape like no other, the amber skyline being reflected by the gentle waters beneath.

"Wow. This place is beautiful." Sam remarked. "How'd you find it?"

Sarah's face darkened for a moment, before she looked down at her feet once again. As Sam saw the heartbroken look flash across Sarah's face, she already knew the answer before the girl replied.

"Marcos and I found it once by accident. We would take food from the club and then have our own picnic away from anyone else." Sarah recollected. Even that short memory was enough to cause a lone tear to trickle down Sarah's cheek, forced to remember all of the incredible memories she had shared with the boy who she would probably never see again.

Sam noticed, and she placed a comforting hand on Sarah's arm.

"I'm so sorry." Sam said. "I can't even imagine what you're going through. Having the person you love taken away from you, going from seeing them every day to just a phone call or text every…"

"I can't even call him." Sarah interrupted her in a hoarse whisper. Sam glanced at her, confused.

"What?" Sam stammered.

"I can't call him. Or text him." Sarah stated. "I tried once. He's already disconnected his American phone number, so I'm guessing he has a new Brazilian number. I can't call or text that number."

"Sure. But there are always social media apps, right, that you can use to call each other?" Sam suggested. Sarah slowly shook her head.

"Marcos doesn't have any of that. His laptop is so old it can't really operate anything but Google and Microsoft Word without breaking down. And his phone isn't even a smartphone. He can't afford one so he uses a 10 year old Blackberry keyboard phone. All it can do is call and text, neither of which I'm able to do. I have literally no way of contacting him anymore. Ever."

"I know. I'm sorry. I know." Sam whispered comfortingly, but the other girl shook her head.

"No! You don't know! You don't know the feeling of knowing for a fact that you're never going to see your soulmate ever again! You don't know the constant fear, knowing that he's probably going to be returning to one of the poorest, most dangerous areas of the city, and he could get killed at any moment without me even knowing! You don't know the way he and I left things for almost a month before any of this happened! I dumped him! He was getting abused by his piece of shit father, silently begging for help, and not only did I completely ignore and not notice the cries for help, but I pushed him away! He needed me and I pushed him away! How am I supposed to live with myself knowing that I let him get hit, that I didn't do a thing to help him, and now he's suffering even worse than ever! He probably still hates me, and is probably going to hate me for the rest of his life! He deserves to hate me!"

Sam's heart broke for the girl, trying to imagine what it would be like if it were her and Miguel in that situation, but unable to do so as the mere thought was too painful. The fact that this was reality for Sarah was devastating. Sam had no idea what to say, no idea what comfort she could possibly give the girl that wouldn't just make her feel worse, as Sam had no way of relating to the situation at all.

"I… I don't know what to say. I'm really sorry. It's not fair." Sam admitted to Sarah, to which the blonde chuckled hollowly.

"You're telling me." Sarah responded, another tear trickling down her face. "Not on me, but on him. He didn't do anything wrong. He shouldn't be the one suffering the most."

"For sure." Sam agreed. "Look, if there's anything I can do, anything at all. I don't care how big or small it is. Please tell me." Sam said. "But can I point something out?"

"What?" Sarah murmured.

"You said that he probably hates you for what happened. I disagree. People don't fire guns to protect people they hate. They don't risk everything to save people they don't care about." Sam remarked. "He loved you. A lot. I didn't have to spend much time around either of you to notice that much. Anyone who can't see it, including you, is blind."

Sarah nodded and for the first time since Marcos had left, the faintest of smiles graced her face.

"Look, I wish there was something I could say that would make things easier." Sam murmured. "But I know that no words will be able to do anything to make it easier."

"You've actually done quite a lot." Sarah told her. "Thank you…"