CHAPTER 65

The morning, Miguel awoke, still deep in thought from the day before. The whole day, he was becoming more and more unsure of whether he wanted to remain with Cobra Kai. With Shawn's recruitment and riling up of the students was terrifying enough, and then seeing old friends like Tory represented remnants of Miguel's old life that he wished he could get back. And then that conversation with Robby… as much as Miguel HATED to admit it, things had made a turn last night in their rivalry. For the first time… well, ever, they had made somewhat of an upward move in their rivalry, rather than continuing to spiral downhill. It wasn't much, but it did leave them at a crossroads. There were two ways the future between them could go: it could continue to improve in the near future until they both reached a point where they could almost tolerate one another. Or… it could go the exact opposite direction. That this was just a fluke and sooner or later, another incident would occur that would have them at each other's throats and they would be pushed back further into the arms of their respective dojos. There was just one thing though. Miguel didn't want to be pushed further into Cobra Kai. At least, not anymore…

Miguel didn't have training today. It was a day off after a week of hard work, so he decided to enjoy it. He slept in, only rising as the sun hit its peak in the sky. It was nearly 12:30 when he finally left the house, and given that he had absolutely no plans today, he decided to go fill his bike with petrol, and then go on a long ride up the coast. For about the millionth time since he moved here, Miguel's breath was stolen by the sheer gorgeousness of L.A. Somehow, beach and big city had come together in a way so incredible that it must have been kissed by God Himself. It must have been. That was the only explanation. Miguel lost track of time, weaving through both the crowded streets and the tranquil coast, exploring the beauty of his city, before nearly 3 hours later, he finally came to a halt. It was 4 o' clock at this point, mid afternoon, and the sun was already beginning to fall from its perch. Miguel wanted to go home and eat dinner with his family, as he hadn't had that much time to do so lately, but first he decided to pop into a Starbucks. Big mistake. A Starbucks in the middle of L.A, as expected, had a pretty long line. Miguel found himself standing in front of someone and he raised an eyebrow. The perfume she was wearing was vaguely familiar. Her height and build too. He couldn't see who she was as she was wearing a jacket, but Miguel felt like for some reason he knew her. He did know her indeed. And he found out when she got to the front of the line and faced the employee who was taking her order.

"Hello, what can I get for you today, ma'am?" The Starbucks worker asked.

"Hi! How are you today?" The person asked, and when Miguel heard the voice, his eyes widened. He knew that voice from a mile away.

"S-s-sam?" He stammered. The girl in front of him spun around and sure enough, it was indeed his ex-girlfriend, who was just as shocked as he was to see their ex there.

"Miguel? What are you doing here?" She asked, shocked. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Um… I don't know, what does it look like I'm doing?" Miguel remarked while waiting to buy a coffee. Sam smiled faintly and nodded.

"Right. Dumb question. Sorry." She murmured, before ordering her drink and paying. Once she received her beverage, she stood slightly to the side, lingering around and not leaving immediately, as she was still shocked to see Miguel there and she kind of wanted to talk to him. Miguel, however, as having a bit more trouble buying his drink. He didn't bring his wallet with him on the bike ride as he kept his license in a small slot he had attached to the side of his bike, and he didn't want to carry a whole wallet in his pocket and risk it falling out while he was on the road. So instead, he had a collection of coins in his pocket, coins that he was struggling to amount to the cost of the coffee.

Miguel rummaged through the pockets of his jacket, pants and shirt, desperately trying to find his cash, but he kept coming up short. After a few seconds, just as he was about to give up and leave the store, he saw someone put a 5 dollar bill on the counter in front of him, and he looked up to see Sam.

"Oh, no, you don't have to…"

"Just take it." She said, pressing the note into his hand. Eventually, Miguel nodded and looked at her gratefully.

"Thanks." He murmured, paying for his drink, collecting it and stepping out of the line, before facing Sam. "Thank you." He said again. "I owe you."

She shook her head.

"It's nothing. Don't even worry about it." She replied. And for a few moments, the two stood face to face with one another. They hadn't seen each other since the night of the party and although that had only actually been 5 days ago, it felt like a lot longer. It had felt like an eternity since the last time they had been in the same place and as they both thought about the events that had occurred last time. Things hadn't gone well at all they both recalled silently, and they stood opposite one another, extremely awkward, as neither knew how to start a conversation with the other anymore.

"Hey, um… do you want to sit down, catch up for a bit?" Miguel asked. Sam smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, sure." She replied, and the two headed to the two seats at the corner of the coffee place. They sat down and once again, there was another long silence between them. It was unimaginably awkward being in each other's presence, but not dating nor being friends anymore. They now understood why it was incredibly difficult to be friends with an ex. When they had been dating, they had been so vulnerable and shared such intimate details about themselves. However, now that they had broken up, it was just… weird to be in each other's presence.

Seconds dragged by, lasting an eternity, as they both surreptitiously glanced at their watches, begging God to speed up the Earth just this once. Neither really wanted to be in this situation right now. Miguel eventually decided to be the one to break the silence and attempt to break the ice a little.

"So… how have you been?" Miguel slowly asked, not even looking Sam in the eye. He stared down at his coffee cup, his eyes seeming very interested in the cup label.

"Um… good. Good. Yeah, things are, um… things are going good." She replied, quite obviously lying. Things weren't going well. She had lost the tournament for her team, which meant that Miyagi-Do were under more threat than ever. And above that, she missed him SO much. But of course, she couldn't tell him that. She had to pretend that she was just fine. The issue, the massive issue with talking to an ex, was that Miguel knew her well enough to see through that. "How are you?"

Miguel shrugged, attempting to be nonchalant.

"Um… fine. I'm uh… I'm doing pretty well." Miguel responded, also pretty clear lying. However, Sam didn't need to know Miguel to know that he was lying. His worryingly bruised and cut up face spoke plenty.

"Clearly." She remarked, vaguely gesturing to his face.

Miguel blushed and looked down again at his coffee cup. To say that Sam knew nothing about what had happened the past 5 days would be a lie. Her father had told her this morning about the incident between Hawk, Robby and Miguel. Daniel had been deeply shocked and angered by the actions committed by Hawk, and Sam was inclined to feel the same way, despite her dojo alliance to Hawk. Miyagi-Do didn't start ambushes. Didn't start fights. That was shit the other side did. And now that Hawk had started a war, who knew who Cobra Kai would target next? Well, if anyone knew that, it would be the boy sitting opposite her.

"Hey, um… I want you to know that I had nothing to do with what Hawk and Robby did to you two days ago." She said. Miguel's head shot up and he looked at her, surprised.

"What? How did you know what happened?" Miguel asked, shocked.

"Heard about it last night." Sam replied simply. "I want to apologise on behalf of Hawk for…"

"If he wants to apologise, he can come find me and say it to my face like a man." Miguel interrupted her in a low but hard tone.

Sam sighed, staring into Miguel's eyes and seeing the pain and anguish filling them. He was hurting SO much, in so many ways. Sam could practically feel the internal agony radiating from him, and it was awful for her as well to see someone she cared about, and still did care about, so much, no matter what emblem was emblazoned on his karate gi.

"Miguel, I, um… the other day, I, um… found out why you joined Cobra Kai." Sam murmured. Miguel raised an eyebrow at her slightly.

"Oh yeah? You did?" He asked, once again taken aback. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, my mom told me." She said. Miguel nodded. Yeah, that made sense. He had told Amanda, and it was a fair assumption that she had told Daniel and Sam about their conversation.

"Right." Miguel murmured, honestly not knowing what to say to this.

"I, um… I'm really sorry for the way I acted when I found out." She said. Miguel shook his head.

"You had every right to act the way you did in the heat of the moment. I don't blame you for it. Trust me, I've been put through worse reactions. It's fine." He replied, pointing at the bruises on his face. Sam, however, shook her head.

"No. It's not fine." She stated. "As much as I hated, still hate, Cobra Kai, that shouldn't take away the fact that you're just about the smartest person I know. And you've been through Cobra Kai before. You wouldn't join without a valid reason. And by the sounds of it, you did actually have a valid reason."

Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, I did." He murmured. "Problem is I'm finding it harder and harder to justify that my valid reason is enough anymore."

Sam raised an eyebrow, her heart momentarily soaring in hope as she heard this. Was he serious? Was he actually having second thoughts about joining Cobra Kai?

"What do you think I should do?" Miguel asked. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? You can't guess what my advice would be? Maybe community college is the right place for you after all." She joked. Miguel rolled his eyes.

"Come on, seriously." Miguel murmured, his voice dead serious. "You know me pretty well. You know what's at stake for me if I stay or leave Cobra Kai. What would you do if you were in my shoes?"

Sam thought about this for a moment. What would she do? Honestly, racking her brain for nearly a full minute, she couldn't think of an answer. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Miguel. I honestly don't know." She replied, truthfully. "I wish I could tell you that you should come back to Miyagi-Do. That's what I genuinely want to tell you. But I'm blessed and I'm lucky enough to not have to worry about the thinks that you're worrying about that are pushing you to join Cobra Kai."

"So you think I should stay in Cobra Kai?" Miguel asked. Sam again shook her head.

"I didn't say that either." She responded. "I think that at the end of the day, you're the only person who can make this decision for you. You need to truly look inside and see which place you want to be. If it's Miyagi-Do, I guarantee that we'll all be waiting for you with open arms. And if it's Cobra Kai… well, I respect that."

Miguel nodded, smiling faintly at Sam. She was always so good at guiding him. At helping him. She didn't even need to tell him what to do. She just needed to do what she did now, as it helped Miguel take a step back and see the full picture.

"Thanks." Miguel eventually murmured.

"No problem." Sam replied, smiling faintly at him.

And for the next 15 minutes, as the two drank their coffee, they caught up with one another. Though they only broke up a month ago, they hadn't actually spoken much to each other since that night of the prom. Sam told Miguel about the tournament, about the new dawn at Miyagi-Do with their new sensei. Miguel could tell part of it was a sales pitch trying to recruit him but he didn't care. He was just happy to see Sam so passionately talking about something. Little things: the way her ocean-eyes sparkled, the way she involuntarily bit her lower lip as she paused for breath, the way her smile lit up the room. Small things that sent pangs of longing through Miguel's chest. And in turn, Miguel told her about what he had gotten up to in the past few months. She had been really interested to hear about Mexico so Miguel had reluctantly shared some of the non-violent stories of his time in Juarez. His father had "trained him" he had told her. The word "abused" and "attempted murder" didn't dare slip out his lips. Miguel also told her about the latest between him and Robby that had happened the night before. He didn't want to bring up the Tory of it all as he didn't know where her and Sam stood right now, but he mentioned that him and Robby had reached an unforeseen height in their rivalry, a potential for their rivalry to one day subside, something Sam had been happy to hear. This time it was Miguel's turn for the sales pitch, trying to convince her to do the same with Tory. And like Miguel had, Sam merely shrugged off the persuasive speech.

After they both finished their coffees, they finally stood up and walked out the Starbucks, before facing one another on the sidewalk.

"Well… I guess this is it." Sam said, as they walked over to their respective vehicles. Sam had been surprised, and a little worried, to hear that Miguel was riding a motorcycle. But she didn't say anything. She didn't have the right to anymore. She lost that right when she broke up with him and she knew it.

"Yeah, guess so." Miguel quietly replied.

Just as Sam began to turn towards her car, Miguel spoke up.

"Hey, um… wild thought." Miguel suddenly said. Sam turned around to face him again.

"Yeah?" She murmured.

"Do you think that enough time has passed for us to begin to be friends again?" Miguel asked. Sam couldn't conceal her smile as she heard this. She had been hoping that he'd ask, but didn't want to ask herself as she had been the one to break up with him in the first place. She figured it once again wasn't her place to ask him.

"Yeah, I'd love that." She replied.

"Awesome! That's great." Miguel's smile widened to match the size of hers. "Well… see you around, I guess."

"Bye, Miguel."

As Miguel watched her retreating vehicle vanish in the distance, he looked down and made an oath to himself. He was going to stay with Cobra Kai for now, that was his decision, and for as long as he was there, he would make sure that no one there dared lay a hand on Sam. Even just sitting opposite her for one conversation, it had become pretty damn clear to him: he still loved her. The feelings he used to have for her were never gone, but were merely buried deep within him. And all it took was seeing her for 20 minutes to have those feelings return. He would make sure that Sam remained safe. He swore to himself that she would…