𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄́ ─ 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

Daniel's mood visibily shifted at the mention of the karate teacher but still kept his strained smile. "You said you were apart of two?"

"I dance." She stated simply. Marissa pointed in the direction of the backyard. "He's by the pool?"

"Yeah, he's in the pool house," Daniel began. "I don't know you but I do know Cobra Kai and it's no place for kids. If you want to learn the spirit of true karate, have Robby take you to the dojo."

"Ok." Truth be told, Marissa didn't have anything better to respond with so she went ahead and saw herself out through the back door. Spotting the pool house was easy enough seeing as though it was a little cottage-type space detached from the main house.

She went up to the translucent sliding door and knocked on the wood surrounding it. A resounding laugh was heard through the door before it was opened. To her surprise, Sam was the one who answered the door.

"Marissa, hey." She smiled sweetly.

"Hey, Samantha. I was looking for-" she had begun before her eyes caught to the back of the room. "Nevermind. He's right there."

Sam looked from Robby to Marissa before nodding in understanding and seeing herself out. Not before sparing an extra flirtatious smile Robby's way, the latter recouperating.

"Busy?" Marissa asked shoving her hands in her back pants pockets.

"No, just cleaning," Robby responded, moving a shirt off the bed and gesturing for Marissa to sit.

She shook her head shortly, "I'm fine. I just wanted to talk. My mom and I had a fight."

"What about?"

"Her? Me? I don't know. I'm pretty sure she saw as me being upset and her not having anyway to fix it which makes me being mad at her all the more harder."

"Why were you upset in the first place?" Robby inquired, folding his arms to his chest.

"She got fired." She stated bluntly. "I don't know why but she did and then, instead of dealing with it like a normal adult, she got black out drunk on the couch."

"Crystal drunk or Bittersweet Red drunk?"

Marissa gave a telling look that answered his question. Robby knew the subject of drinking mother's better than most. His mother was a sloppy Crystal drunk and Marissa's mother, who only drank once in a while, was a sappy Bittersweet Red drunk. The former was the worst of the two.

"How bad did it get?" He asked.

"Bad enough that I stormed out. It was very...coming of age," she let out a laugh at the end of her statement. "It was like she couldn't even see what was wrong like I was upset for no reason. I mean she forgot about my audition because she forgot that life doesn't stop because you get fired."

"Your audition," Robby said in the same manner her mother had this morning. He forgot too. "Marissa, I'm so sorry."

Marissa shook her head as she looked down at her shoes. "You know, I came here because talking to you always makes me feel better. But you forgot too, or you were too busy or just didn't come." She muttered mostly to herself, "Kreese was right."

"What?" Robby asked concernedly. "Marissa, I'm sorry I forgot but you can't be that mad that you agree with anything that guy says. He's crazy."

"Is he?" Marissa asked with a new found confidence. "You do realize you haven't even told me why you missed it? So it must be pretty bad or really good."

Robby stood there, mouth open with nothing to say. "...I was with Sam training. I lost track of time, I'm sorry."

She didn't know what to say. She just didn't. There wasn't anything to be said because he had said it for her and maybe a missed audition isn't a big deal. Maybe she was blowing everything out of proportion. But it was another let down. Marissa had lived her life on letdowns whether they were her father's or her mother's but all she knew was that people never kept their promises. At least not to her.

"I'm sure you are." She turned on her heal, ready to leave, but something caused her to turn back to face him. "It doesn't even matter. It's my own fault. I should have known better than to believe promises should kept."

***

"YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND. YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?" Miguel said while laying upside down on his bed opposite Marissa who has come barging into his apartment with disappointment masked as anger demanding Carmen's famous toquitos with no explanations.

"Yes," Marissa said, wiping her greasy hands on Miguel's shirt on the corner of his bed.

"And you know that I'll do anything for you...but you're gonna have to tell me what's wrong so I can help you."

"I don't want to talk about it," Marissa said, turning to him slightly. "You'll hear from me when I'm ready, okay?"

"Okay." He sighed before asking, "So, how did your audition go?"

Marissa sat up and crossed her legs on his bed, grabbing another bite-sized snack off the plate that sat between them. "Miguel, you're my best friend, you know that right?"

"Yeah, Ris, I know."

gabbys note. a weird way to end but it all comes full circle with someone finally asking her how her audition went.

if anyone thinks that she's overreacting or she's making a big deal of out of nothing...it's not nothing to her

you guys will continue to learn the depth of where her reliance on other people comes from and why she feels like no one truly cares about her except Miguel, of course

also my love of Miguel and Marissa's friendship is UNREAL.

please don't be a ghost reader!