CHAPTER FOUR
you carry the same kind of temper too
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𝐓he hospital looked the same as it did the last time Raegan came over, which honestly was just a day ago. Now, she was back, in the middle of the afternoon, with only her school backpack and a brown paper bag in her arms. Fruits peeked out from the bag, apples, oranges, grapes━if she could, she would've probably ended up buying every edible fruit in the world.
Her footsteps were light and there was a tiny warm smile on her face that greeted every kind nurse on her way. Even her heart was racing a little. Probably from joy and some excitement. It wasn't even a few weeks and she already missed him.
"Hello, my love," Raegan said, faking a British accent as she entered his hospital room.
She peeked behind the paper bag and found her boyfriend smiling at her from ear to ear, his cheeks popping and the corner of his eyes crinkling. Yet even from the way he smiled, there was something lost in his eyes. Like hidden troubles. A heaviness. Or unspoken regrets.
"Hey, babe," Miguel said softly, closing his eyes as she left a kiss on his forehead that never fails to make his heart warm. He looked over to the paper bag she placed on the table. "What are those?"
"Oh, I got you some fruits." She plucked one beautifully ripe apple from the bag and offered it to him. "Thought you'd like some."
Miguel took it from her and realized something. "You had time to buy these for me?"
"You know I always have time for you, Miggy."
"I do, too, but right now..." He gestured to his state, chuckling weakly. "I'm kind of incapacitated."
Raegan sat beside him, the latter scooting over to give her space. She slipped her hand around his arm, holding him dearly, and placed her head against his shoulder. Then she whispered, "I missed you."
"I know." He pressed a light kiss on her hair. Then smiled faintly, trying to hide the fact that he was frustrated, even scared, that there was a possibility he could not walk again. "I'll be out here before you know it."
"You better."
"I will."
Raegan had lunch with Miguel at the hospital, accompanying him until it was time for her to go, and by the time she got back to school - something had already gone wrong. By wrong, as in Samantha and their friends had already cooked up another reason for bad blood. I mean, they already have that, but apparently, Hawk just had to provoke them earlier at lunch when she was gone.
And here she thought their little encounter would get through their thick little heads.
"I wish we could do something about those cretins."
"We can."
Raegan slammed her foot on the bleachers in the field and looked at her sister incredulously. "We can?"
"Oh━Raegan. " Demetri almost choked when she appeared and masked his surprise with a nervous laugh. "Hello? You're here."
"Yeah, I am here," Raegan said then frowned at Samantha. "And how are you even going to do that?"
"Yes, and Counselor Blatt will give us detention just for breathing near them," Demetri said, tying his running shoes. Most of them were dressed in their P. E. clothes since it was time for that.
"I don't see her anywhere, do you? Besides, what's a soccer game without a little physical contact?" Samantha smirked and the boys shared looks with each other. She crossed her arms adamantly. "They think we're doormats. Let's prove 'em wrong."
"Sam," Raegan said lowly as the others began to run towards the field.
She stopped and looked back at her, feigning innocence. "What? It's not like they don't deserve it."
"Doesn't mean you have to do this," Raegan said frustratedly, but Samantha merely rolled her eyes.
"Whose side are you on?" She asked exasperatedly.
"There are no 'sides', Samantha." Raegan frowned. "Haven't we learned our lessons?"
This time, Samantha didn't speak. She didn't even look her in the eyes. She merely bit the inside of her cheeks, turned away, and ran towards their group of friends. Raegan sighed and sat down on the bleachers with the sun glaring at her face as she watched the match begin. Hawk and Samantha. Her friend and her sister. Another fight blossoming once more.
As the match went on, the subtle hitting and kicking became worse. Raegan tried her best to slip away from their hits and tried her best to play normally, but eventually, she had to duck and block. Soon enough, the Coach caught on to their little scheme and called the game off━and the students involved to the Principal's office.
Raegan was not having a good afternoon.
After Hawk exited the Principal's office with Counselor Blatt, she'd announced he and his friends were free to go. But not them. Naturally, it sent an angry flare towards the former group, well, more on Samantha, however, even Raegan was a little caught off guard. Like, they let them off that easy? Sometimes, she really hated school.
"Unbelievable," Demetri muttered.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Samantha exclaimed. "What about us?"
Counselor Blatt looked over them like they had the audacity to speak. "The rest of you will be receiving rehabilitative, not punitive, Saturday detention."
"Detention?" Demetri said incredulously. A tissue in his nose to keep the blood from dripping. "Oh, great, there goes another blemish on my permanent record."
"This is bullshit!" Samantha cursed.
"Sam." Raegan tugged on her shirt, but the damage was already done.
"Miss LaRusso! That is not how we express ourselves here," Counselor Blatt reprimanded. "I think you need two weekends of rehabilitative detention."
Samantha gasped slightly in disbelief and suddenly slammed the lockers with her fist. "This school sucks!"
Then she walked off in anger.
"I don't know her that well..." Demetri tried to lie, but the guidance counselor didn't buy it. So he just turned in defeat and left with the three of their Miyagi-Do friends.
Then there were two.
Raegan clenched her jaw and looked at the counselor. "Honestly, ma'am, with all due respect, you are all doing a really crappy job at whatever... this thing, you're going on about. Open your eyes. What you see isn't always the truth... ma'am."
Counselor Blatt gaped at her as if she just punched someone in front of her. "Miss LaRusso! That is not now how you talk to your superior."
"Yeah, whatever." Raegan rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath. Her annoyance finally got the best of her. "Give me another detention or whatever that rehab thing you're saying━but that doesn't change the fact that you're all turning a blind eye to what's really going on."
And that is how she got four weeks of detention. How lovely. A turn of events, really. However, that didn't mean she'd let the ruin her day any more than it already was. Besides, there was something, or rather someone, that could always make it better, even at least for a while.
Before Raegan could even enter Miguel's hospital room, there was a loud thud that came from inside. She immediately rushed over, and what she found made her brows furrow with indefinite confusion.
"Why are you on the floor?" Raegan asked.
"Yeah," Johnny cleared his throat, shifting uneasily on his feet as he stared at Miguel sprawled on the ground. "Why are you on the floor?"
She looked at him, then back at her boyfriend, and raised her hands up. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask."
"Oh my God." Miguel threw his head back in back in disbelief. "Just... help me."
Raegan and Johnny looked at each other, and then the latter yelled, "Nurse!"
Clearly, Johnny Lawrence's idea of therapy was different from theirs. Raegan was eating a bag of chips by the dining area when the man walked inside Miguel's apartment, talking about some 'rented mule.' His words trailed off when his eyes landed on Miguel lying in the middle of the room with a guy stretching his legs.
"Hey, Johnny." Raegan raised a hand to wave then went back to munching on her chips and watching Miguel get his physical therapy.
He sent a nod at her then looked back at Miguel. "Sorry. I thought you said 10:00 that you'd be alone."
"I'm sorry, my mom gets free physical therapy from work. And this was the only time Brayden was available."
The therapy guy smiled at him. "Mohalla."
Johnny only looked at him. Raegan tried to stifle her laugh.
"Be done soon if you wanna wait," Miguel said, not sensing the tense atmosphere between the man and his mother.
"Now, if you're feeling any pain, hermano, let me know," Brayden said calmly.
"Still no feeling whatsoever," Miguel muttered.
"No worries. Positive thoughts, remember?" He said, trying to uplift his spirit, the boy's mother smiling reassuringly. "You're doing great."
"At what letting you lift his legs?" Johnny retorted.
Miguel and Raegan let out an accidental chuckle, the two sharing a look at each other from across the room. She put a finger to his lips, widening her eyes as if warning him not to make any further sound of amusement. He pursed his lips to hide his smile.
"Johnny," Carmen exclaimed. "Brayden is a specialist in this field. He knows what he's doing."
"Slow, deep breaths," Brayden said, showing how it's like as he exhaled very loudly, Miguel imitating him, his eyes closed. "Inhale joy and love."
"You gotta be shitting me?" Johnny said incredulously, getting tired of the therapist's theatrics.
"Johnny..." Carmen sighed. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Raegan took that as a sign to move away from them and she went around to stand over Miguel. She let the adults talk, exchanging words with her boyfriend as he relaxed, Brayden throwing in some strange words here and there. I suppose for once it was a perfectly normal day for the lot of them.
It didn't take any longer than an hour before his therapy session was done. Now Raegan stood outside the complex, behind Miguel sitting in his wheelchair. Brayden packed his stuff, throwing the bag inside his car.
"Great job today, jefe." Brayden turned to them, extending his arm for a fist bump. "You crushed it."
Miguel returned it, clearly unsure. "Really? I didn't feel like I did much of anything."
"Hey, no negative thoughts. Just positive energy."
"I'll, uh, keep that in mind."
He clicked his tongue and threw them gang signs as he left. "Watch out for him, hermana. Go out, do couple things. Have fun."
Raegan sent him a flimsy finger gun. "Uh, right. Bye... hermano?"
Miguel pressed his lips together, suppressing his incoming smile. He placed a hand over hers that touched his shoulder, watching the therapist get into his car. As he left, Miguel tapped her hand to signal her to leave and Raegan turned him around to return to his apartment when all of a sudden something blocked their way.
A magazine with a woman in a bikini on the front page hung in front of Miguel's face.
They both looked up and found Johnny holding a fishing pole. Miguel furrowed his brows. "What's this?"
"This is a collection of the tastiest babes of 1988. And you're not gonna get to see 'em unless you grab it."
Miguel glanced at Raegan and then back at the magazine, a little confused. His girlfriend urged him. "Go on."
"Okay." He began to reach for the copy.
Johnny pulled it up. "Nope, you gonna have to try harder than that."
"You know I can just find these pictures on my phone, right?" Miguel said then quickly taking back his words even though Raegan probably didn't care. "Which I will not do... at all. Never."
"It's not the same. Chicks are hotter on the page," Johnny insisted, which made the boy sigh helplessly. "But you won't know unless you get off your butt. Or you can just keep getting foot rubs from that pansy-ass therapist."
"But I don't really want this," Miguel told him.
Johnny sighed defeatedly. "Alright. Then maybe you'll want these."
His eyes widened when he saw the familiar scrapbook now hanging in front of his face. He tried to reach for it. "Where did you━"
"Uh-uh." Johnny snickered. Miguel furrowed his brows and made a grab for it once more. Raegan now standing at a safe distance from him. She didn't agree with this completely but Johnny was going to do it either way. "Weak! That all you got, Diaz? I thought you were the All Valley champ?"
That seemed to fuel the teenager. Raegan watched uneasily as Miguel began to stand up from his wheelchair. He placed one hand and stretched his other to grab their scrapbook as Johnny continued to raise it higher from the second floor of the apartment complex.
But just as he was about to touch it, he fell off the wheelchair and sprawled on the ground with a pained groan. Raegan rushed forward, helping him up from the ground, Johnny appearing not long after. He pulled Miguel back to the wheelchair, the boy looking less fired up and more depressed.
"You okay?" Raegan asked.
Miguel nodded quietly but it was obvious he wasn't. He silently picked up the scrapbook they'd made together from the ground, carefully dusted the cover which showed 'Miggy and Rae' on the cover, then placed it on his lap.
"All right, gimme a minute, we'll go again," Johnny said. "I think I still have my Vanna White Playboy, that'll get you going."
"Don't you get it?" Miguel snapped. "You could dangle anything in front of me, I still wouldn't be able to stand up." Then he rolled away on his own.
"I got him," Raegan gulped slightly, a sad look in her eyes. Then she walked after her boyfriend, not knowing what else to do to make him feel better. But one thing for sure, she would never leave his side no matter how hard it gets for either of them.
The couple was watching Johnny fire up the grill when Raegan felt her phone vibrate. She grabbed it and checked what it was, only to see a message from Samantha telling her that Chris had been ambushed at his work. Her brows furrowed.
"Hey, um..." She frowned, her eyes not leaving her phone as one text after another came. All about the same thing. She placed her hands on Miguel's shoulder and planted a faint kiss on his head. "I'm gonna be back. Have to take care of something."
"Um, okay," Miguel muttered, sending her a tight-lipped smile. "Be careful on your way."
"Where you going, LaRusso?" Johnny asked, however, very much focused on tending the fire.
"Duty calls." Raegan shrugged and then left without another word.