Cochlear | A Cobra Kai Fanfiction

50

The words fell over them like a blanket and Jesse could only stare at the table wondering where those words had come from. Even years later Jesse found that building others up left a weird taste in her mouth, but it wasn't unwelcomed. There was a power that came with words that she recognized could bring down even the strongest of men and women, and those same words could be used to make the weakest of them all become royalty.

Did she deserve forgiveness even if her words had changed to those of building up rather than tearing down?

A foot kicked hers and Jesse looked up at Demetri, breaking out of her self examination to stare at her best friend.

"Stop acting like I made you eat McDonalds again." Demetri ordered with a roll of his eyes. "We've been over it, I don't care that you're Jessica Park. You're the reason that I kept fighting and trained so hard for Eli."

"W-what?" Jesse blinked and cocked her head to the side, Demetri looked away and scratched his cheek almost sheepishly.

"W-well, when I realized you were... Jessica I had a long contemplation period." Demetri admitted and Jesse nodded, already familiar with the distress he had went through. "My end conclusion was that if Jessica Park, the girl who made a teacher cry-"

"Don't you pretend like he didn't deserve it!"

"Oh, no. Mr. Perkins was definitely some sort of predator and deserved it." Demetri agreed, nodding and continuing his train of thought just as Jesse was about to go off on a tangent. "Don't interrupt me!" He mocked her earlier statement, holding up his own tomato threateningly.

"...sorry." She mumbled, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Like I was saying, before someone rudely interrupted, if Jessica Park could have a redemption arch then anyone could, even Eli Moskowitz."

"Especially, Eli." Jesse corrected with a roll of eyes. "Eli, the kid who cried in fourth grade when the butterfly we released got eaten by a bird like three seconds later. He's a bleeding heart." She scrunched up her nose at the thought and shook her head playfully. "It's disgusting."

"It's better than laughing."

"I cried later when I got home." Jesse admitted with a shrug.

Demetri chewed on his cheek a little, nodding his head in agreement while he played with his food. Jesse took a few bites of her own before narrowing her eyes at the familiar look of thought on her best friends face.

"Okay, what's got you thinking so hard?"

"Do you like Eli?"

Jesse's mouth opened at the question and she closed it, ready to deny vehemently that she liked the boy at all. After all, she made it clear that she only tolerated his presence right? She still made fun of him and annoyed him at every chance she got, tripping him occasionally and he did the same.

But she couldn't get the denial out.

"I mean, I don't... hate him." Jesse settled on and almost panicked at the frown on Demetri's face, hoping she wasn't saying the wrong thing that would make him hate her. "I-It's just, uh, I don't..."

"No you nitwit," Demetri scoffed and rolled his eyes, translating with his hands the signs that matched his question. "I mean do you like him."

Jesse's brain took a moment to process the question, her eyes wide and staring where his hands had been signing the question. It processed in sign and English and then translated into Korean before finally getting through to her and hear flushed over her at the implication.