✓ VIRTUAL AEROBICS; eli moskowitz

36. {miyagi-do}

"they snuck into the old laser tag place next door." chris informed them.

"how many?"

"four of em."

"six of us." sam grinned. "i like our odds."

gioia frowned and stepped forward. "i'm not fuh-fighting them."

sam sighed. "fine. they're still outnumbered."

"are you sure we should be doing this?" demetri questioned, the same thing gioia was wondering.

"we're not on school property, this is our chance to fight back." sam told him. she then walked forward, leading the group.

gioia pulled demetri back. "you don't have to do this."

"sam's right, don't you want revenge?" demetri asked her. "after all they did at school?"

"no." gioia replied. "not like this. eli-"

"he's not your friend." demetri reminded her. "not anymore. i thought you knew this, you've seen how he is now."

"guys! come on!"

the two shared a glance before running after the rest of them. once they arrived at the laser tag, chris shut off the main light and it gave the room a blue hue.

"what the hell?"

the five miyagi-dos, plus gioia, all stepped out.

"what do you want?"

"payback." sam seethed. she marched forward, pushing one of the guys and beginning the fight.

gioia knew it was risky to fight with her injury, as her head was fragile. but when one of the cobra kai boys came to attack her, the only thing she could think of was jack and what he had done to her.

"you were cobra kai's queen." he said to her. "but then you got soft and tory took over."

"g-good for her. but miguel almost died." gioia shook her head.

"and yet you're hanging out with the people who did it to him." he reminded her.

"no-"

he swung his fist over to her face, but she had missed the chance to smack it to the side with her hand. gioia sighed, taking in the hit, she believed there was no other way to get out of this than to fight back.

gioia pulled her arms into a fighting stance and stepped back. she twisted around and swung her body into a tornado kick, striking his cheek. the boy groaned out in pain before gioia leaned forward, yanked his arm and flipped him onto the floor.

she then slammed her fist into his chest, finishing him and keeping him down on the ground. once he grunted out in pain, gioia stepped away, bumping into someone.

"hey- sunshine?" a voice asked.

gioia pivoted around to see tory nichols standing behind her, arms crossed and face straight. she hadn't seen the girl since the school fight.

tory had only come to see gioia when she was unconscious, not wanting people to see her at the hospital. but after that, she completely iced her out. whenever gioia came to her house, waiting at the door for a good ten minutes, tory would just leave her out there.

it broke gioia's heart that she had lost her girl best friends, tory nichols and aisha robinson. they were a trio, the only girls in cobra kai.

"get out of here, gioia." tory sighed. "now!"

"i'm not leaving t-them." gioia shook her head, standing her ground.

tory made one movement with her head and one of the boys rushed over, holding gioia against her free will. the boy had a firm grip on her arms, restraining them behind her back.

"just take her away." tory ordered, glancing at her arms. "easy."

he had loosened his grip slightly and began leading her to the door.

"no! please, stop!" demetri begged. "eli, stop! stop!"

gioia tried to squirm her way out of the boy's hold, desperate to assist her friend. luckily, the boy had also stopped, wanting to see what was going on.

"it's me! don't do it!"

"do it!"

"help me!" demetri cried.

"eli!" gioia shouted, her voice drowning out with the crowd.

"finish him."

"he deserves it." the cobras egged him on.

"do it, pussy!"

"do it, hawk!"

"tory?"

"no. it's fine. i'll go." demetri continued. "i'll go!"

"eli!" gioia yelled out. "don't."

hawk finally glanced up at her, he saw the desperate look on her face. he was torn between two choices: popping demetri's shoulder, making his friends happy and ruining any chance he had with gioia. or releasing demetri and risk becoming a social outcast again.

"hawk, finish him!"

hawk hesitated, which gave gioia a sliver of hope, but he then pushed his hand down, snapping demetri's shoulder loudly. once it was done, the boy threw gioia onto the ground and departed with his friends as they cheered.

when she was finally free, the girl sobbed tears of fear. jack hadn't only physically hurt her, but also emotionally. not only did she unconsciously fear cobra kai boys, but nearly every boy.

gioia knew she was probably feeding into the stereotypes, but jack's aggression, his determination to hurt her and misogyny has genuinely affected the way she saw other boys.

but she thought eli was different, she really did. but he was the same, violent boy like the rest of them and he definitely wasn't her friend. from now on, he was nothing to her.

with tears blurring her vision, she crawled over to demetri. she looked over to see them all leaving and sam trembling in the corner. hawk didn't even look back, he couldn't bare to see her face.

"come on." she helped him into a sitting position, whispering over his loud screams.

"i'm sorry." demetri panted as she got him to his feet. "i should've listened to you."

gioia froze, that wasn't the first time someone had said that to her that month. she just wished her friends would start taking her advice seriously, so they would avoid getting hurt.

"someone help him! call-call an ambulance." gioia ordered the others. "now!"

⎯ ❃ neens speaks!

please don't be a ghost reader, it makes me lose the lil motivation i have haha <3