CHAPTER 15

"WHAT?! You're related to Johnny Lawrence?!" Daniel shouted angrily once he had gotten over his shock. Miguel raised his hands in surrender. Amanda and Sam heard the shout and ran into the room moments later.

"What's going on in here?" Sam asked, nervously.

"What's going on Sam is that your boyfriend is the spawn of the asshole who terrorised me in high school."

"Excuse me? That's my stepfather you're calling an asshole!" Miguel said, trying to stay calm. Sam sensed the tension rapidly rising between the two of them and she quickly intertwined her hand in Miguel's, squeezing it gently as a way of begging him to stay calm.

"Wait… you're related to Johnny Lawrence?" Amanda asked. She knew exactly who Johnny was. Daniel still talked about him a lot. He never got over the hatred he felt towards the man, not even 45 years later. When Miguel nodded, Amanda winced and sucked in air. "Oh boy, this is gonna be interesting."

At that moment, Anthony, who had heard the conversation so far, walked into the room.

"Hey dad, you know if Sam and Miguel get married, you and Johnny Lawrence will officially be related." Anthony remarked, causing Daniel to get even more upset and scowl even further.

"Oh my God, Anthony! You make everything worse!" Sam snapped.

"Yeah, Anthony, get out of here." Amanda demanded. Anthony reluctantly slunk out of the room, leaving just the 4 adults in the living room.

"Sam, how could you date someone related to that man?"

"Hey, I'll have you know that my step-father is a great man! If you saw him in the past 45 years since you were in high school, you'd know that! He fought for this country in the Air Force!" Miguel exclaimed.

"He did?" Daniel asked, slightly unsure.

"Well, kinda. He got dishonorably discharged for disorderly conduct a couple of months into training." Miguel murmured, blushing. Daniel nodded furiously and pointed at him.

"See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! He's a bad guy!" Daniel exclaimed.

"He's not a bad guy." Miguel growled, getting more annoyed with every second. "He just had a rough life! An abusive stepfather and karate sensei. But he turned it all around now."

"No, no, no. You need to watch out, Miguel. People like Johnny… they don't change."

"Dad, stop!" Sam cried as she noticed Miguel's face getting redder and redder with rage. "What's wrong with you?! That's his family you're talking about!"

"Yeah, Daniel, stop!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Look, Miguel, I'm sorry." Daniel sighed, his anger starting to subside slightly. "It's just… you have no idea how much that man put me through. Him and his posse made my life a living hell. They pushed me off a cliff, for crying out loud!"

"I thought it was a hill." Sam remarked. Daniel glared at her.

"Mr. Larusso, with all due respect, it has been 45 years. Isn't there any way you could put whatever happened between you and Johnny in the past?" Miguel asked. "I was bullied in high school too, by your daughter and her awful friends no less."

"Hey! Why the driveby?!" Sam exclaimed indignantly.

"Sorry." Miguel murmured to her, before turning back to her dad. "If I can forget about mine, can't you do the same?"

Daniel eventually sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, I… I guess I can. I'm sorry, Miguel." Daniel murmured. Miguel smiled widely.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Larusso." Miguel replied. "And I'll be sure to let Johnny know that because you've gotten over what he did to you, it's time for him to get over what you did to him."

Sam groaned. So close…

Daniel's faint smile immediately vanished and was replaced by a scowl.

"Excuse me?!" Daniel snapped. "What did you just say?!"

Miguel looked at him, confused.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, Johnny was definitely a pretty questionable person back then, but it wasn't like you were completely innocent." Miguel said, calmly. Although it would've been easy for him to just bite his tongue, he wasn't about to let anyone get away with insulting his step-father, even if it was his girlfriend's dad.

Sam, sensing danger, grabbed Miguel's hand and started to pull him away.

"Okay, Miguel, come on. Let's go for a walk." Sam stammered, pulling Miguel towards the door but they were quickly stopped when Daniel stood in the doorway and blocked their exit.

"Hold on! Hold on, Sam! I want to hear what the man has to say! Miguel, what did I do to Johnny?" Daniel snapped. Miguel raised his hands in surrender.

"Look, I wasn't there. I don't know exactly what happened. Clearly both of you have your… let's call them 'biases.'"

"Watch it, Miguel." Daniel growled. Miguel raised his hands in surrender.

"Look, I'm not trying to fight. Not at all. All I'm saying is look at things from his perspective. You came into town, stole his girlfriend when he and her were going through a rough patch, sucker-punched him and tried to goad him into fights several times, got an adult karate master to fight your battles for you, and then won that tournament you two competed in by using a crane kick that was, according to All-American Karate rules, actually illegal."

Sam couldn't help but hold back a laugh at this point. Miguel had rendered her dad speechless. Daniel's face was crimson-red and his mouth was opening and closing like a fish as he tried to regain his speech. He managed to regain his words moments later.

"Get out of my house right now." Daniel snarled. Miguel nodded and turned to Amanda, smiling at her.

"Thank you so much for dinner, Mrs. Larusso. It was really great meeting you." Miguel said.

"Yeah, it was awesome meeting you too, Miguel." Amanda smiled at him and scowled at her husband. Miguel had been nothing but polite. It was Daniel who had been immature, rude and selfish, ironically everything he had thought Miguel was going to be going into the evening.

Miguel walked out of the house moments later and once he was gone, Sam and Amanda both turned to Daniel.

"Well, thank God he's gone. I should've known he was related to Johnny. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?" Daniel remarked. Sam and Amanda looked at him in disbelief.

"Okay, what the hell is wrong with you?" Amanda snapped.

"Pardon me?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Daniel, you're acting like a mental patient!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Yeah, dad! Miguel was nothing but polite to you, even when you were straight-up insulting his family!" Sam added. Daniel's eyes widened.

"Are you kidding? He was way out of line, falsely accusing me of things that happened in high school!"

"He was defending his step-dad, who you were unnecessarily ripping into! But you're not mad about the fact that he brought up that stuff. You're mad about the fact that everything he said was true!" Amanda shot back. Daniel shook his head.

"Look, I'm the first to admit that I'm not a saint. I wasn't back then and I'm not now." Daniel said. "I don't have all the answers. I don't know everything. But one thing I do know is Johnny Lawrence. That man is BAD news. He shoved me down a hill and tried to kill me. But most of all, he was disrespectful and bordering on abusive towards his ex-girlfriend."

"Dad, whatever Johnny did to his girlfriend, Miguel is NOT like that. I mean, you both saw how laid back he is." Sam stated.

"Yeah, and Ali dated Johnny for two years with no problems. It was only when they got into a fight that Johnny became abusive. Who's to say that when and if you and Miguel get into a fight, he won't become the same asshole his stepfather is?!"

"Oh my God, Dad! Look, you need to sort out your issues with Johnny Lawrence! Sooner rather than later!" Sam cried. "Because whether you like it or not, Miguel and I are going to stay together. You can't pull the 'you live under my roof, you play by my rules', overprotective father act anymore. I live my own life now! I make my own money. I live in my own place. So I'm going to continue my relationship with Miguel and we're going to see where our relationship goes. I've never loved or cared about anyone as much as I care about him. We may well get married one day, and you're just going to have to deal with that."

"Well, I'll tell you from now, that's one wedding I'm not going to." Daniel snapped.

"DANIEL!" Amanda shouted. Daniel sighed.

"Look, Sam, I know you're a grown woman so I have no say in who you date, but if you're asking me to get on board with this relationship, I'm sorry but I can't. Not after seeing first-hand how rude and abusive his own father can be. I love you so much, Sam, and I'm just trying to look out for you. Good night, Sam."

With that, Daniel walked out of the room…

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Miguel pulled into his family's driveway late that night and he walked inside. The lights were all off but he heard loud noises coming from the living room. He walked over and saw that Johnny was watching Iron Eagle, a cooler of beer beside him. When Miguel trudged into the room, Johnny looked up and nodded at him.

"Hey. How was dinner with the Larussos?" He asked. Miguel sighed, taking off his necktie and dropping it onto the floor, before collapsing onto the sofa next to his stepdad.

"Well, upside is that I think Sam's mom really likes me." Miguel remarked.

"Downside?" Johnny asked. Miguel sighed again.

"Downside is that you were absolutely right about Sam's dad being a bit of a bitch. Cares more about his rivalry with you from 45 years ago than me or my relationship with his daughter. He spent 10 minutes insulting you and then when I started to defend you, he threw me out." Miguel finished, glumly. Johnny nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like the Daniel Larusso I remember." Johnny chuckled. "Well, I'm sorry buddy. You want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly." Miguel murmured. Johnny let out a small sigh of relief.

"Thank God." Johnny muttered. He HATED talking. Miguel chuckled and rolled his eyes at his stepdad.

"Just pass me a beer." Miguel said. Johnny nodded and tossed Miguel a can of Coors Banquet. Closing his eyes, Miguel cracked open the beer and took a sip. He spent the next hour and a half watching the movie intently, despite the fact that both of them had seen it about a thousand times. It gave Miguel a distraction from the world around him. Lord knows he needed one…