Psychotic Kids '-' Eli Moskowitz

It's A Wonder

“Uhh…. What the hell are you doing here?” he looked up at my dad

“I was invited” Dad mumbled “Who the hell are you?”

“Hey Anthony” I smiled, pulling away from my dad to give the kid a hug “Fuck man stop growing you’re almost as tall as me”

“I will be taller than you, don’t worry” Anthony chuckled, giving me a quick squeeze before letting go of me

Oh middle schoolers, they always have to be cool.

“Wait, are you the son?” It finally hit my dad “What’d you do, switch to Whopper Juniors?”

“It’s called a growth spurt” Anthony shot back “Dipshit”

“Still a piece of crap” Dad mumbled under his breath

“Aye, both of you” I smacked both of them up the side of the head “Behave”

Everyone walked into the kitchen to finally eat. Miguel and Sam came downstairs, Amanda and Carmen came over as well, they really seemed to be getting along. But I swear to God, if Amanda does anything remotely motherly to me, I’ll lose it.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing the two of you together” Carmen smiled to dad and Mr. Larusso

“Oh yeah. The last time these two were in a kitchen together… Well let’s just say I’m glad the stake knives weren’t out” Amanda nodded

“I’ll drink to that” Dad nodded

I chuckled, putting some food on my plate. I was feeling fine, so I took three pieces of pizza, and since dad and I had piled the meat on, it was my favorite kind. I hate happily too, I was sitting beside Miguel at the end of the table my Mr. Larusso. To be honest I zoned out again eating, until someone said my name.

“So, Halrey, Miguel, how's school going?” Amanda asked

“Uh, good” Miguel nodded

“Yeah, great actually” I nodded along, half way through swallowing a piece of pizza

“Straight A’s this semester, both of them” Carmen smiled

“Yes, a total nerd” dad joked

“With grades like that you can go anywhere you want” Mr. Larusso nodded

“Yeah, I’d uh…. Like to go to Stanford” Miguel took a breath and answered

“That’s a pretty impressive school”

Miguel and I had been talking about colleges for months now. Even before all the shit went down at Christmas. Miguel knew what he wanted to do, he had his heart set on Stanford. Me…. I knew I wanted to go to college, probably somewhere nice. 

“Yeah I think it’s like, number six in the country” Miguel smiled “The campus is beautiful”

“It’s definitely a top choice, but that tuition, wow” Carmen piped up, which instantly put Miguel off “We’re also thinking about Santa Monica college, right Miguel?” She said, more insistantly then just saying it normally “Save some money, live at home, then see where we go from there”

“Hey SMC’s heart too. It’s right by the beach, have you checked out their campus?” Mr. Larusso tried to be helpful

“No actually I- I haven’t” Miguel fumbled, getting fidgety

By fidgety I mean knocking over Mr. Larusso’s glass of wine, all over his lap.

“Oh! Oh Mr. Larusso shit! I-I- I eam I’m sorry-”

“No, don’t worry about it, please, it’s just a little wine right?” Mr. Larusso assured, whipping himself off before sitting back down “Uh, Halrey what about you?”

“Umm, well dad and I haven’t really talked about it, but possibly Yale” Dad spit out his drink when I said that. Mr. Larusso’s eyes bugged out of his head, so did Amanda’s “Demetri’s thinking about applying their too, and they have a great english program”

“Right-..... Well I mean- I’m sure you’ve got the grades for it if you keep it up” Mr. Larusso fummed, almost like Miguel had

“Honestly, with our families track record it’s a wonder she hasn’t dropped out yet” Dad joked

Dad wasn't trying to be mean, it was a joke, and I usually would've laughed and agreed. I knew it was supposed to be a joke, and…. It was also true. I guess what made it bad was that everyone else laughed, but I didn’t. I tried my entire life not to be like my dad, not to be like Robby, or mom. But that’s just what everyone expects of me. To just turn into some low end, boose guzzling crazy person. I- I mean….. How can they expect me to be something so great and so low at the same time!

“After you win the All Valley again, you can do whatever you want kid” Dad nodded, taking another sip of his wine

I gave my dad a smile, nodding my head and looking back down at my plate. Suddenly it looked like an entire mountain of food. Then it looked rotten, and the smell of it got really strong. I felt my stomach start turning, everyone was chatting away once again and laughing. Don’t fuck up the moment Halrey, these guys never get along, don’t screw it up.

“Excuse me, I just have to use the bathroom”

I gave everyone a pleasant smile before running upstairs to the bathroom. By the time I got up there and closed the door I felt like the food inside my stomach was swimming around punching at my gut. I instantly fell to my knees over the toilet….. And hacked up the pizza. I started crying, the taste of puke a horrible reminder of what everything was like before. I had been through so much, the All Valley, Cobra Kai, Evil Hawk, losing Demetri, losing my voice, training it back. This felt like a huge step back but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. 

I felt the tears drip off my cheeks and into my hair, until suddenly I felt a hand on the back of my head, pulling my hair away from my mouth as I coughed everything else out. I sniffed back my tears, whipping the puke away from the corners of my mouth before looking up, seeing Miguel kneeling behind me. He gave a gentle smile, not judgmental or anything, like he understood. I sighed, moving away from the toilet, and falling against Miguel. I stopped crying, I didn’t feel the need to anymore. Miguel wrapped his arms around me, letting me lean against his chest for a few minutes, gently rubbing my back. 

I felt better after that, but I also didn’t. It got away from the pressure for a few seconds, but then it just came right back. I knew I could talk to Hawk about it, but I didn’t want to disturb him, and Miguel had been through enough. We all had been through enough.

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Hey guys sorry about the slow updates, life is whack right now.