CHAPTER 54

That night, Miguel drove Kenny to Golf n Stuff. It wasn't an inconvenience at all as like most evenings, Miguel wasn't exactly doing anything. He had pretty much lost all of his friends and he wasn't dating anyone, which meant all of his nights were free. He didn't mind at all borrowing his mom's car and driving Kenny over to the familiar location. Once Kenny had made it, Miguel immediately left him and his date alone, and he decided to go for a walk around the park. It was a beautiful evening, with the sun beginning to meet the golden horizon and the stars beginning to glitter in the dusk sky. It had been so long since he had last been to Golf n Stuff, nearly two years ago to be more precise. It hadn't been since his very first date with Sam that he had gone to the amusement park. After they had gotten back together last Christmas, they had tried to make an effort to go back for another date there, but things just hadn't seemed to work out. Whether it be their insane training sessions, bad weather or other reasons, their plans just couldn't seem to stick. Oh well. All that meant was that the memories Miguel had of this place were still only the amazing ones he had from that evening.

And for the next hour and a half, Miguel walked around the park, taking in every inch of it and just reminiscing. Breathing in. Breathing out. Basking in the calmness of the quiet evening. It wasn't overly busy at the park, despite it being a Friday night, and in fact it was closer to empty than full. That gave Miguel a chance to be alone with his thoughts, something he was doing more and more of late with his much calmer schedule. He could just relax and ponder life. Ponder the future. And it was the same debate in Miguel's mind 24/7… was this all worth it? Was joining Cobra Kai and all of the sacrifices he was making for it worth it? What would the future look like with Cobra Kai and what would it look like without it? Were the negatives worth the positives?

As Miguel thought about this, he found himself walking through all of the various attractions in the same order he did them with Sam. He didn't exactly play any of them. It would have been pretty boring to do all alone. No, all he did was walk around them, thinking about how amazing it had been with Sam. He missed her. He truly, truly missed her. Even just thinking about her brought an aching pain, a steely grip around his chest. She had gone from being a massive part of his life to just not being around at all. And he knew that he was in Cobra Kai to help with his future, but what about Sam? She had been a part of his future too? Or at least he had wanted her to be. He had thought that they were going to be together for a long time, if not forever, and now in the blink of an eye, it had changed to him doubting they were ever going to be together again.

It was a pretty sucky thought that was stuck in Miguel's mind as he walked by each and every hole on the 12 hole mini golf course. Following that, he moved into the arcade session at the park, smiling faintly as he spotted the air hockey table, basketball shooting drill and even the ice ball game where he had won the tickets that they had bought that furry 8 legged stuffed toy. He even walked over to the photo booth at the other end of the park, going inside and sitting down in the blue seats, not getting any photos done, but just closing his eyes and thinking about the last time he had gone here. Miguel nearly fell asleep there in the photo booth. He was definitely exhausted, a fact that he figured out by whenever he'd turn around, in the far distance, a short, brown crop of hair seemed to follow him wherever he went. It almost seemed like… No, he was seriously going crazy. What would he even be doing here anyway?

After Miguel exited the photo booth, the feeling that he was being watched increased slightly, with the hair on the nape of his neck rising slightly. But he shook the feeling off pretty quickly. He needed some sleep, as he was definitely starting to go crazy. He just needed to get through tonight then he could curl into his bed and have a nice long sleep as training began in the afternoon tomorrow. He had been woken up way too early this morning by Amanda, and he was paying the price for it now.

The last place Miguel decided to pop into was the prize booth, where him and Sam had bought Senor Octopus that night. It was pretty quiet when Miguel walked in, silent in fact as there was nobody there but the lady running the stall. She looked up as Miguel walked in and nodded at him.

"Can I help you with something sir?" She asked him. Miguel shook his head.

"Nah, I, uh… I'm not here to buy anything, sorry." Miguel murmured, starting to turn towards the exit. The lady gave him a knowing smile and nodded.

"That's good. I'm not sure we have any octopus toys left. You'd have to settle for a kangaroo instead."

Miguel slowly turned around, his eyes wide, as he looked at the lady manning the stand.

"You… you remember who I am?" Miguel stammered, in shock. The middle-aged lady smiled widely and nodded at him.

"Of course. You came with that pretty brunette girl and got the octopus toy." She stated. Miguel was astonished.

"W-what? What? How do you remember that? It was like a year and a half ago?!" Miguel exclaimed. She must have seen so many people since then, and it wasn't like Sam and Miguel had been particularly memorable. They had just come in, gotten their prize, and left. No more than that.

The lady chuckled at Miguel's flabbergasted look.

"Yeah, well of course I'm going to remember the people because of whom I nearly lost my job." She remarked. Miguel looked at her, confused.

"Um… pardon me?" Miguel mumbled, perplexed.

"Well you guys ended up getting the octopus toy? Do you know how many tokens you needed for it?"

Miguel shook his head.

"I don't know. 200?" Miguel remarked. The lady shook her head.

"No, no. You two gave me 200 tokens. It costs 2000."

Miguel nearly choked on air when he heard this.

"The manager found out that I had given it to you for that little and nearly fired me for it."

"Oh, I, uh… I'm really sorry. I didn't… I didn't know." Miguel stammered nervously, but the woman didn't seem angry at all. She merely chuckled and laughed, shaking her head.

"Don't be. It was a while ago and I'm still here so no harm done, right?" She replied. "Besides, it was me who chose to give you the toy. Not like you had a gun to my head or anything."

Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, um… if you don't mind my asking, why did you give us the toy?"

The lady shrugged.

"You two seemed like a cute couple." was all she responded. "You seemed nervous. Can't blame you to be honest. Beautiful girl."

"Yeah, she is." Miguel mumbled quietly, his mind being dragged back to thinking about the ex-girlfriend who seemed to have a permanent occupation of his thoughts and daydreams.

"Where is she by the way? You know I figured if I ever saw you again, it would be the two of you together."

Miguel chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head.

"Well I'm really sorry to disappoint you but I'm afraid we, um… we broke up."

"Oh, no! What happened?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Miguel chuckled to himself. What was he supposed to say? I fled town looking for my gang member father, rejected the offer to come home and for that reason was dumped, and then when my father nearly killed me so I did come running home, I can't ask her out again because I joined the karate dojo that had made her paralysed with fear for so long.

"Oh, um… just different interests I guess. Interests we couldn't work through unfortunately." Miguel replied, not really wanting to elaborate further. The lady looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

"Can I make a comment?" She suddenly asked. Taken aback, Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, um… yeah sure." Miguel replied.

"You know, I've been at this job for nearly 20 years. You can't imagine how many couples I've seen coming through this stall. Hundreds of hundreds of first dates. Not one other have I risked my job for."

"Well, um ma'am, I'm flattered, but uh…"

"I put my job on the line because in all my years working here, I haven't seen a couple with such love in their eyes for each other, especially for one on their first date. Reminded me of my husband and I. We've been married 37 amazing years."

"Oh, wow, that's great ma'am." Miguel remarked, not sure what else to say in this situation.

"And you know something kid, marriage isn't easy. 37 years of marriage, 4 beautiful children raised together… there are bound to be different interests and different opinions on issues."

Miguel nodded, starting to understand where the woman was going with her comment.

"So if it truly was different interests that pulled you and, uh…" The woman hesitated and Miguel realised what she was waiting for.

"Oh, uh… Sam. Her name's Sam." Miguel said. The woman smiled and nodded.

"You and Sam have issues… just remember how you felt about her in that moment. How much you cared about her even just having met her. And I know I don't know either of you very well, but from the looks of things, it seems you care about her pretty damn much. Are you really willing to lose that over something as trivial as different interests?"

This provoked thought from Miguel. Was she right? Did she have a point? Was all of this worth them being apart? Miguel knew that if Sam cared about him even a fraction as much as he cared about her, it wasn't…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Meanwhile, across the park, a hooded figure stood in the distance, one eye on the prize stall and one eye on his phone.

"Come on. Come on. Where are you?" He murmured quietly and impatiently. A few seconds later, as if on queue, his phone rang. He picked it up immediately.

"Hello." The voice on the other end stated.

"Hey, where the fuck are you?!" He snapped. "You were meant to be here half an hour ago!"

"Hey, relax man. Traffic." A lazy voice replied.

"Traffic? I came on time and I didn't face any traffic." He remarked.

"Okay, fine, I fell asleep dipshit." The other person replied. "Is he there?"

"Yeah. Just like you said he would be." He responded, guilt creeping into his voice.

"Snapchat Snap Maps. More powerful than the fucking government." The other guy remarked drily. "Look, just stay where you are. Keep watching him but stay out of sight. I'm on my way…"