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"are you sure you want to do this?" fredrico barbusca asked as he parked his car.
"yes."
"i mean, your mother isn't 100% about you being here." her father continued.
"that's wh-why i asked you." gioia said as if it were obvious.
fred smiled. "i'm not going to be your accomplice to your crimes." he joked.
how ironic he was talking about crimes. "i know." gioia deadpanned as she climbed out of the passenger's seat.
"i was just joking, kid." fred followed after her.
"okay." gioia nodded.
"so... do you know what you're going to say?" fred questioned as the two walked to the entrance.
"i wrote it all." gioia told him. "incase."
"hello miss, how can i help you?" the receptionist queried.
gioia leaned onto the desk, a notepad in her hand. "i'm here to v-visit."
"are you over 18?"
"my dad." gioia spoke, pointing behind her.
fredrico barbusca looked up from his seat, waving at the lady.
"okay." the receptionist nodded, the keyboards of her computer clicking loudly. "who are you here to see?"
"keene." gioia stated, clearly. "robby keene."
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"what are you doing here?" was the first question the boy asked before he even sat down.
fred sat at a different table, using his phone as the two kids chatted. there was a guard standing at the door, in case robby acted out. there were a couple more juveniles in the room, their families or friends coming to visit them.
"i need to talk." gioia started.
"is... miguel okay?" robby sighed, he clearly felt guilty.
"he's awake." gioia nodded. "i just-just..."
"are you okay?" robby questioned. he was pretty unsure of what the girl was doing there, but he was a little pleased to have someone other than his deadbeat dad visit him.
gioia placed her notepad on the table and opened it up to the first page.
"i had a head injury, temporarily affected my speech." robby read out. "head injury? how?"
"uh, j-jack o'malley." gioia explained, his name was like toxins in her mouth. "he here?"
"no." robby shook his head. "look, gioia. i didn't do it on purpose. i wasn't aware of where we were and i was so blinded by rage... he had kissed my girlfriend. i just wanted to finish the fight."
"you finished it." gioia agreed.
"i didn't want to hurt miguel... or you." robby continued. "it was an accident."
"okay." gioia said, flipping the page of her notepad and sliding it over to him.
"my therapist suggested that to help me get my voice back, i should confront my past... face my problems. make amends." robby said. "how is this going to help?"
gioia flicked the page.
"i'm not sure how this would help." he read, cracking a small smile. "but i don't want to hate you.... i don't want any hate in my heart. it's not good for my recovery."
"yeah."
"miguel is... my brother." robby couldn't help but frown. he had always wanted a relationship similar to miguel and gioia's - they had been friends since day one. they always had each other's backs. "and that day, when i saw him lying on the stairs as if his heart wasn't beating, i thought i had lost the ability to breathe because of the shock."
gioia nodded while he read as if she hadn't written this herself.
"but i looked up and saw you. that look on your face. i knew that you felt regret, guilt. it was an accident. a fatal accident." robby uttered. "it ruined you both, just in different ways."
she turned the page.
"the second miguel forgives you for what happened to him, know that i will too." robby finished. he glanced up at the girl, nodding at her. "thank you."
gioia's got to her feet, picking up her notepad and closing it. "papa." she called out to him. "you n-need anything?" she offered the boy.
robby shook his head. "i'm good."
fred stood up, approaching the two. "come on." he shifted his attention to robby. "stay out of trouble, kid."
"thanks."
as the father and daughter started walking to the exit, robby called out again.
"hey, gioia!" he yelled, making her turn around. "i'm sorry."
gioia gave him a small smile and a curt nod before she shifted back and left the room, her father by her side.
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"where are they?" sam rushed over to chris. behind her were demetri, gioia and two other members of miyagi do.
demetri had sent gioia a text asking for help, but he didn't mention anything about sam or the others. she was initially going to hang out with miguel at the hospital, but then she saw the 'SOS' message from her dramatic friend.
"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