"So, what do you think?" Lee came out in a colorful bustier and skin-tight black skinny jeans.
Robby's eyes widened at how much cleavage was being pushed up and out. "It's um…" He blew some air out of his mouth. "Aren't we supposed to be asking people about Miguel's dad?" Johnny was asking around when Lee came up with the idea to split up. Since Johnny said she couldn't go off on her own, Robby went with her. They ended up in a boutique where Lee started shopping.
"You're the one who said it wasn't smart to be saying his name all over town if he was dangerous." She turns sideways to look in the mirror.
"I meant that we keep going to the spot that we know Miguel went to." He crossed his arms.
"Can you lighten up? Johnny is not going to leave without asking questions, so we can enjoy our time a little." She looked through the racks. "Oh." She picked up a black one-piece that had gold cutouts on one side so it was a one-piece/bikini hybrid. Robby let out a loud sigh. "Alright, alright. I'll get this and we can get you something to eat. Cause your hangry." She bought the outfit she was wearing and the swimsuit.
"I'm not hangry." He was hungry but that wasn't why his patience was running thin.
"Gracias." She smiles at the worker. She walks out with Robby trailing behind her. "What do you want to get?"
"There was that restaurant that smelled good." He guided her to the place that made his mouth water.
Walking out of the restaurant they saw Johnny walking around with a burrito in each hand, eating as he looked around. They made eye contact and met in the middle. "So how are we looking?"
"We got nothing," Lee told him.
"Me too." He nods.
"So, we should keep going." Robby walks towards the van with them following him. "I looked it up on my phone. Only a few miles to go. Looks like a lot of bars and restaurants." He showed Johnny the phone.
He took one glance at it and knew he wouldn't be able to read it. "Let's ask this guy…. Hola." He nodded at the guy that was walking towards them.
"Speak Spanish?" He asked.
"No American." He told him.
"Mexico." He pointed down at the ground. He pointed at Johnny's car and said something in Spanish.
"Thanks, I got it detailed." He smiled.
"I got this." She took out her phone to pull up a translator app. "Can you repeat it to the phone?" While she could speak to Miguel's grandma in Spanglish, she wasn't going to be able to have a conversation with anyone there.
After the phone repeated it, the man did as asked. "You're in a tow zone. I need you to move the van." Siri translated for them.
"Thank you for telling us, he'll move it now." She spoke to the translator. "Move your van, Johnny."
"It's fine, we were going anyway." Robby goes into the driver's seat.
"What are you doing?" Johnny wanted to drive.
"We need to get there and you can't read the GPS." He started up the car.
"Gracias." She thanks the man again before getting into the passenger seat.
"Hey!" He yelled.
"Get in the back before we get towed." She points to the backseat.
He begrudgingly got in. Robby took off. "I don't know why you thanked that guy."
"Because he didn't need to tell us. He could have towed your van and made you pay." She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, we don't park under signs that we can't read anymore." Robby wasn't going to make the same mistake.
"Are those shopping bags?" He looks at the bags by Lee's feet. "Did you go shopping when you were supposed to be asking questions?"
"I can do both." She defends herself. "You think I look good?" She turned to show him the new outfit she had on.
"Not as good as me." He smirks.
"Oh yeah, in your FBI shirt. You look like a creeper." She stuck her tongue out.
"If this shirt is creepy then why were you so excited to get yours." He tilts his head.
"Because on me it'll be gay pride, on you it's a neon sign that you're a pervert." She points at herself and then at him.
"We are not having another argument." Robby needs to hear the GPS.
Johnny was going to say something back when his phone rang. "Carmen?... Did he say anything?... They are going to El Hoyo Verde."
Lee typed it out on her phone. "We got to backtrack." She looks at Robby.
"Got it." He turned the van around.
"It's a club that is hosting an MMA fight." Lee looks the place up.
"MMA is a bunch of guys that can't commit to one discipline." He scoffs.
"It's 21 and over, so good thing I got the girls out." She shimmies.
"Yeah, but it will be hard to get in with Robby so we have to find a way to sneak in." Johnny nods to his son.
"I'm sorry, what do boobs have to do with anything?" He asked.
"Johnny said if I show cleavage then I won't get carded because men won't want to know that I'm underage." She pulled out a compact mirror to touch up her makeup.
"Don't tell her that kind of stuff." He scolds his father.
"I'm just being honest." He shrugged.
"Oh my god," He wonder who was parenting who.
A few fighters were coming through the back door. Johnny stopped the door from completely closing with his foot, they were able to slip in. "Look, at this MMA grab-ass bullshit," Johnny whispers to them while eyeing the fighter unimpressed.
Lee decided to walk a bit ahead of them in case Johnny got them kicked out. "Hector the Salazar, you know him?" He yelled out to the fighters.
She walks into the main room to look around. "His dad is a big deal, so…" She knew from going to events with her dad that meant Miguel would either be in the front row or balcony. Not wanting to fight her way through the crowd if she didn't have to. She looked up and smiled at the mop of messy curls. She works her way to the top of the stairs.
"No puedes entrar." The bouncer stopped her from moving past him.
"Necesito hablar con Miguel." The first Spanish sentence she learned was to ask for Miguel.
"No." He wrapped his hand around her waist to take her back down the stairs.
"MIGUEL! MIGUEL!" She yelled for her friend.
Hector got a call on his phone while Miguel watched the fight. "What's up?"
"Hector, there are some gringos here asking about you." One of his men told him.
"Gringos?" He switched to Spanish. "What gringos? Who'd they come with?"
"I think they're with the FBI." He saw their shirts.
"Son of a bitch… Listen. They don't have jurisdiction here. So keep them busy." He hangs up the phone.
"Everything okay?" Miguel thought the call seemed intense.
"Who were you on the phone with earlier?" He eyes him with suspicion.
He hesitated because it was his mom. "It was my mom. I was just checking up on her." He didn't need to lie, it wasn't like he was saying her name.
"Right, right, right, so you came to Mexico alone?" He didn't like his pause.
"I was…backpacking as I said." He stumbled over his words.
"I know what you said. Were you following me?" He yelled.
"No." Miguel shook his head. He would see that his mom wasn't lying. His dad was dangerous and now he was in a risky situation.
"Are you with the feds?" He grits his teeth.
"No. Absolutely not." He put his hands in his pockets. His dad grabbed his jacket and opened it up to look for wires. "Give me your phone."
"I don't have anything on my phone." He let out a nervous laugh.
"Don't make me ask again." He laid an underlying threat.
Miguel gave it to him. He looked at his call history to see that his last call was to his mom. He looks at his pictures: one of him with a brunette girl, him doing meditation posing in a shopping cart, of a dirty blonde girl pushing him in the cart they both had ear-to-ear smiles on their faces, the blonde girl in a red prom dress blowing a kiss to the camera. Miguel held his breath because he knew the next picture was of him in his tux with his mom. "MIGUEL! MIGUEL!" They look to the side to see Lee waving her arms around.
"Lee! What the hell?" He was going to get her when Hector put his arm out.
"Let her through!" He ordered. The bodyguard let her go. She rushed over to her friend.
"What are you doing here?" He grabs her arm to pull her closer to him than his dad.
"Don't take that tone with me. You take off in the middle of the night. I call you and you block me. Me!" She pointed at herself.
"So, girl troubles are what brought you here. I can relate, kid." The older man laughed in relief.
Lee took the phone from his hand, recognizing it as Miguels. She unblocked herself from everything before handing it to him. "Block me again, and it's your balls."
"Lee, did you come here by yourself?" He searches for familiar faces.
"Yup," She didn't want Hector to know about Johnny and Robby.
"Are you crazy? You… I need to talk to her alone." He dragged a few feet away. "Lee, you have to keep looking mad while we talk, okay?" She nods while keeping her glare. "He's not a good guy. We're going to leave the minute we see an opening."
"What happened?" She narrowed her eyes.
"We can get into that later. Is anyone else here?" He asked again.
"Robby and Johnny." She told him.
"Robby?" He sneers.
"It doesn't matter. We should get back to him. Tell him that you agree to leave with me." She grabbed his hand to walk to the railing where Hector was watching them.
"I'm going to leave with her at the end of the night." He swung their joint hands out of nervousness.
"Fine that…." He looked over the railing when he heard screaming to see the FBI men fighting on the ground level. "Before you leave I'll treat you to dinner."
He led them into a closed restaurant. He went behind the counter and pulled out a large tequila bottle. "We should get you home. I could drive you home. I could drive…" He was more nervous now that it wasn't just him he needed to worry about.
"No. No. No. We gotta lay low for a few days. Maybe a few weeks." He got three shot glasses.
"We?" She rubs her bare arms.
"If Miguel wants to stay." He shrugged.
Miguel took off his jacket and gave it to her. "What about Marie and Luis?"
"They'll be fine. They're only after my money anyways." He took a shot.
"What makes you say that?" He thought they looked happy together.
He opened the register to take all the cash. "Have you ever heard about Icarus, kid?" Instead of waiting for an answer he went on. "My dad used to tell me the greatest stories. That was his favorite. Fly too close to the sun, Chiquito, and you'll burn your wings right off. What you don't learn until you're older is that the sun isn't the government, it's women." He gestured to Lee. She pulled Miguel's jacket tighter around her. "You fly too high, they come and bring you down." He gulped the bottle. "People will always come after yours." He took a gun out of his waistband and put it on the table. "They want you to sleep with one eye open. I can't even go back to my home in Ecuador. Can you imagine?"
"What happened in Ecuador?" Miguel asked.
"Success… Success happened. That woman I told you about. I was particularly your age when I got married. Hey! Hey! Hey!" He yelled when he noticed Miguel side-eyeing Lee. "Don't make that mistake. She couldn't stand me doing my business. Her mother is even worse." He switched to Spanish. "They tried to fuck with me, a successful man. The corrupt son of bitches in Ecuador, they did the same!" Lee grabs Miguel's hand. "You know what I regret?" He asked in English.
"What?" Miguel asked.
"Nothing." He shrugged.
"Nothing?" He didn't know about Miguel, but he didn't regret losing his wife.
"That is the cost of doing business. That is the cost." He slammed his hand down on the counter. He put his head down and took a few deep breaths. "Sorry. I got myself all worked up. I know what we need. You want chicharron?"
"No. I'm not hungry. I should get going actually." He looks at his dad, sick to his stomach.
"Alright, you?" He looks at Lee.
"I go where Miguel goes." She squeezed his hand.
"Okay, chicharron for one?" He shrugged. "Take care of yourselves, kids." He went into the kitchen.
"Come on." Miguel pulled her outside. They walked down the street before Miguel pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call my mom."
"Okay, I'm going to call our ride." She texted Robby that she was with Miguel and dropped their pin.
She rubbed his back. He tried to talk to his mom while sobbing. "Miguel!" They turn to see Johnny standing in front of the van.
"I'm okay, mom. I'm coming home." He hung up to give Johnny a tight hug.
Lee parks the van in front of the beach. She left the windows cracked while she went to buy four huevos rancheros from a restaurant. She walks back to the van and opens the sliding door. "GET UP!" The men jolted awake, looking around for what danger was approaching them. "I brought breakfast." She hands out the plates.
She got back into the driver's seat. "Thank you," Robby said for the others to echo.
"You're welcome." They eat their breakfast in silence. They were hungry because none of them had dinner. Lee rubbed her stomach when she finished eating. "I was thinking we should spend the day at the beach." She nods to the windshield.
"What? No, we have to get Miguel back to Carmen." Johnny shook his head.
"Not the whole day but a few hours. Come on, we need to get one relaxing memory from Mexico and a good picture for Instagram." She is thinking about her new swimsuit.
"I think that would be nice." Robby looks at the beach. "We know the drama we got at home, when are we going to get another moment of peace like this."
"I probably will be grounded when I get home." Miguel looks over at Johnny.
"Fine three hours tops." He put up three fingers.
"Five tops, great." She grabbed her shopping bag to go into a changing tent that was on the beach that was popular with tourists.
Robby cursed while grabbing his trunks from his backpack. "Wait." He ran to catch up with her so he could stand guard while she changed.
"So they got close." Miguel watched him glare at the men that were walking by the tent.
"Yeah, it's great." Johnny's large smile made Miguel have to fight the jealousy of Robby fitting in so perfectly with them.
The smile stayed on Johnny's face as he drove the teens home. They were laughing together while looking at the pictures they took of each other. The beach was a good idea, it made the tension between Robby and Miguel melt away as they bond over Lee bossing them around. "Can you send me the picture of Lee on my shoulders?" Robby looks at Miguel.
"Sure." He sent the picture of Lee on Robby's shoulder, one hand on her hip with the other in his hair. He was holding her thighs. He posted on his Instagram with the hashtag sibling bonding as an inside joke between the three of them because that is what Johnny kept saying.
Miguel posted a video of him holding Lee's wrists while Robby was holding her ankles. They throw her into the ocean. He captained it, giving the sacrifice to cipactli.
Lee posted a typical thot picture of her on the beach in the sand. She was kneeling while playing with her hair. Miguel had to take a side profile picture to showcase her ass and chest. She posted another picture of her laying on a towel with Miguel and Robby fanning her with large leaves. She captioned it, it's not a vacation if there are no cabana boys.
After posing their phones started chirping. Friends wanted to know what was going on. Robby's texts questioned what he was doing with Eagle Fang. Tory went nuts because she didn't know that Lee was going to be there. Miguel's texts were expressing happiness that he was okay and questions about Robby being there. Lee's texts were of compliments. Eli texted her how good she looked. Yasmine was upset that she wasn't invited on the vacation. "How about we turn off our phones and watch some Fire Force." She pulled her laptop which was full charge and the large power bank out of her backpack.
"Is that another anime?" Miguel asked.
"You know it." She moved to sit in the back where three seats were connected. She pulled up crunchy rolls to pull up the downloaded series. She figured at some point in this road trip she would need to kill time.
"Why not?" Robby shrugged and sat on one side of her while Miguel took the other.
Johnny pulled up at Cole's house. "That's Silver's car." Robby read the quicksilver license plate.
"What?" Johnny glarest at the 1965 Shelby Cobra.
"It's fine. He is probably here for business. He'll be in my dad's office. I won't even see him." She opened the sliding door.
"Are you sure?" Miguel got out to grab her duffle.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Now, get to your family." She grabbed the bag. "Bye, guys." She waved to them before opening the front door. She walks into the living room to see Silver and her dad watching her fight from All Valley.
They turned to her when she entered the room. "Presley, what the hell is this?" This was his second time watching this. Lee watched as Johnny pulled her off of Piper. She was screaming like a maniac while he carried her backstage.
"You came here to snitch?" She scoffs at Silver.
"I came here to check up on you. After that behavior I was concerned." He found it odd that Cole wasn't there at the All Valley. He knows how much pride the man put into his daughter. He spoke about her at some point in every meeting he had with the man. He figures he visits his friend to see if he knew at all about the violence she had been up to.
"I can explain." She took her glare off Silver to look at her dad.
"You have a lot to explain. You didn't tell me you were doing karate or that you would be competing in the All Valley. How many secrets do you have?" He stood up.
"Can he leave?" She didn't want to discuss this in front of the enemy.
"This does seem like a family matter. Think about what I said Cole, Cobra Kai would help with her discipline." He smirks at the girl as he walks out.
"Dad, I…. Can we turn that off?" She sat down next to him on the couch. He turned the tv off. "I didn't tell you about the All Valley because then I would have to explain why I started to learn karate." Her dad suggested learning a few times for self-defense reasons but she wasn't interested. She knew if she told him she was starting, he would want to know why she changed her mind. "Piper was bullying me and …"
"You were being bullied. You should have told me. I could have called the school." He didn't know why she would take on the problem herself.
"Because that does nothing, dad. Eli and Demetri have both tried that route. The most the school does is give them detention for a few days. It makes everything worse, your bully gets angrier and you label a snitch so more people hate you." She has seen that play out before.
"Still you should have told me?" He didn't want her going through something like that without him.
"Why? So you have to worry about me? No, dad. I tried to take care of it myself and I lost control. I'm not going to let the anger consume me again." She had been learning to meditate from Moon.
"Why was she bullying you?" He was looking for signs of bullying when his daughter started taking an interest in anime and other nerdy things. He was angry with himself for not noticing.
"She was Moon's ex. She was convinced that I was the reason they broke up." She shrugged.
"Were you and Moon a thing?" He thought of the girl that was coming around a lot.
"For a little while, we're just friends now." She didn't want to go into how she overlapped with Eli.
"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend." He was shocked by another secret she was keeping.
"Because she wasn't my girlfriend. I'm not going to introduce flings to you." She knew her dad wanted an open dialogue between them but something you just don't tell your parents.
"Okay." He nods, taking it all in. He didn't tell his mother about his flings. She'd have his head if she knew many had been through the house while Lee was home. "I know sometimes our roles get twisted. You clean up after me more than I do you, but you should never worry about making my life easier. I'm your dad, no matter how bad things get I'm going to be by your side helping you through it."
"I love you, dad." She hugged him. She was happy to have an understanding father. Some would ground her and send her to her room, not giving her a chance to explain. But, he always took the time to listen to her. That was something Silver didn't take into account. She wanted to maim him for trying to ruin her happy home.
"I love you too." He was happy to have her safe in his house.
