─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"your room is so peaceful." mickey grinned, throwing her bags on gioia's floor and gently climbing into her double bed.
gioia's bedroom was painted a very pale yellow colour, the room decorated with vines, flower pots and CDs - a typical teenage girl's room. posters of harry potter, taylor swift, stevie nicks, and the maze runner were littered around with smaller pictures of pretty flowers accompanying them. unsurprisingly, the girl had post-it notes of inspirational quotes around the room, but you'd only notice them if you looked closely.
the floor was completely spotless, her shoes fitted into the rack, clothes folded and her desk arranged to t. on her neatly made bed, her blue elephant and teddy bear laid down, snuggled into the yellow bedsheets.
"my room is my s-safe space." gioia explained to her, moving mickey's backpack to the corner and placing her tote bag beside it.
"that's cute. you're adorable." mickey gushed, making her blush. the girl reached into her backpack and pulled out the eponymous tragedy, othello. "so i'm thinking for the project, we make a character profile for each character."
"sounds good, don't want to overdo it." gioia agreed, sitting beside her on the bed. "for each character we can give them a colour and explain h-how it links to them. for othello we could use green since jealousy is his hamatia and-"
"jealousy is the green eyed monster!" mickey exclaimed, completely loving her plan. "you're brilliant. miss wood is going to love this."
"thanks."
"and you sound great, your speech has improved an insane amount."
"yeah." gioia nodded. "they think it was miguel being in a coma and the un-uncertainty of him being okay that made me shell up. but now he's okay and-and he's walking and doing some non-physical contact karate, things are looking up."
"his recovery was insane!" mickey exclaimed. "you're both so strong and brave. seeing both of you recover makes me want to be a physiotherapist even more."
"that's so cool."
"thanks, it's been a dream of mine since i was a small. my dad was one at our local hospital back in california." mickey continued. "do you mind if i tell him about you guys?"
"that's fu-fine with me. i'm sure mig won't mind but you should probably ask and find out."
"will do, will do." mickey hummed.
"i need to talk to him too." gioia sighed.
"everything okay?" mickey quizzed.
gioia took a deep breath. "for part of my recover, i went to see tobby at his juvie, we t-talked and i said i'll forgive him when miguel does. but i'm scared what miguel would think i-if he finds out i went to see the boy."
"gioia, miguel has to understand that you were suffering. and if seeing robby was recommended to help you then that's completely valid." mickey reassured her. "do you think it helped?"
"i think so." gioia muttered. "but robby put miguel in a wheelchair. miguel is bound to hate him. and i'm his best friend so i have to hate him too."
"you don't have to do anything." mickey shook her head. "you and miguel's recovery are going to look different. besides, i thought you said you weren't allowed any hate in your heart."
"i'm not."
"then that's it." mickey concluded, "you're not obligated to hate him. you can strongly dislike his actions though."
"good point." gioia agreed, getting under the covers.
"speaking of hate." mickey began, "i hope it's not a sore subject and i'm just curious. demetri goes on about how you used to be close friends, but now you finally see he's a jerk. so what are your feelings on hawk?"
"if you're asking if i hate him, i-i don't. i don't think i ever could." gioia explained. "but after what he did to demetri? i don't know, he scares me. he's not the same person i met on my first day of school."
"and what about before?" mickey interrogated, "you liked him before, didn't you?"
"mickey-"
"sorry!" the girl held her hands up in defence, "i'm being nosy."
"it's fine." gioia laughed, "i should've known it was coming."
"so..."
"yeah, i liked him. a lot." gioia admitted. "but then he got a girlfriend when i finally realised i did. and then i was ill and i left the city. when i came back, he was single and i thought i had a chance."
"how come you didn't?"
"well, i don't know. i mean i talked to moo-moon about it at her party and she gave me the green light." she shrugged. "and then, we almost kissed but-"
"you did?!" mickey beamed with excitement.
"yeah." gioia forced down the smile that she could feel rising. "we've been through a lot. i thought he was really feeling something, because i was." she explained. "but after everything that went down, he chose cobra kai over our friendship - so maybe he just really doesn't like me."
"that's impossible." mickey reassured her, "i will admit, hawk is becoming an asshole. but the way your face lights up when you talk about him, you miss him, gioia. and it's okay to."
"i don't miss him." she denied. "i-i miss who he used to be. i miss when he was my chemistry partner, i miss the movies and shows we used to watch in his room or the music we use to dance to in mine. i miss sparring with him at the dojo and going out for donuts after i had beat him. i miss the bets we use to do and how much debt he's in with me, i miss-"
gioia finally stopped herself, she saw the look of sympathy mickey had on her face. how could she just lay there and ramble on about a boy, eli moskowitz? unless she-
"i think i was in love with him." gioia whispered. it broke her heart to say it out loud. she had never told anyone how strongly she felt for the boy and there was no point now, seeing as their friendship was over. but the conversation with mickey has rekindled past emotions and it was overwhelming.
"awh, baby." mickey frowned, "come here." she pulled the blonde girl into her arms, allowing her to softly sob. "you don't think you love him anymore?"
"i can't." she hiccupped. "just being around him makes me uncomfortable. when-when he broke demetri's arm, i realised he was no different from jack. they're all the same."
"but you have to know they're not." mickey tried to convince her, "not all karate boys are aggressive, miguel and demetri for example. but it's fair that you feel that way, seeing the traumatic experience you went through."
"mickey, you're a really good friend." gioia sniffled.
"thank you." the girl beamed at the compliment, placing a kiss on her forehead. "would you like to watch something?"
"the vampire diaries?" gioia suggested.
"first, stefan and elena or damon and elena?" mickey asked her.
"stefan and elena in the first two seasons but n-neither after that." gioia spoke honestly.
"i'll take that." mickey nodded, reaching for the remote.
─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"oh they are going to lose their minds when they find out what you've done." gioia whispered to the boy.
along with the other members of eagle fang, miguel had invited gioia to a 'christmas party'. after a lot of grilling miguel confessed it was less of a party and more of a discussion.
"i'll deal with them." miguel sighed, pressing the doorbell.
not even seconds later, samantha larusso opened the door and they all stepped inside, one behind the other.
"what? oh, dude."
"what the-"
"no way!"
the miyagi-do students got up from the couch and stood face to face with the members of eagle fang.
"no way!"
"oh, hell no!" chris shook his head, facing his ex-best friend mitch. "you gotta be kidding me."
mitch looked disgusted. "what the hell are you doing here? this isn't a keg party." the boy turned to miguel in anger. "i bought this hat for nothing?" he removed his elf hat and threw it to the floor.
"wait." demetri finally realised, "you parent trapped us? why?"
"look, i know we haven't always gotten along, but cobra kai is the bigger threat now." sam announced. "to all of us."
"we think we'd stand a better chance against them if we joined forces." miguel added. "two dojos are stronger than one."
"this is ridiculous."
"i know, right?"
"look, i know we've all done shitty things to each other."
"yeah, like breaking demetri's arm." chris scoffed.
"you guys started that fight." mitch rolled his eyes.
"after you almost got me fired!"
"i hate your stupid face so much." bert seethed at his old friend.
"if you died, i wouldn't even attend your funeral." nate shot back.
"you guys are being d-dramatic, it's only logical that we work together." gioia finally spoke.
"you were there, gioia." chris reminded her, "you were there with us and you saw what they did to demetri."
"yeah, i was there. and hawk broke demetri's arm, not them." gioia pointed out, "i mean mitch can barely break a wooden board-"
"okay! i think he gets it." mitch cut her off, "why are you coming for me?"
"so what if mitch didn't do it? he was still there with them."
"this isn't gonna work." miguel sighed.
"it has to." sam said, "we have one last chance to make things right. alone, we're nothing. but if we work together, we have a shot. if we can't get over the past, the fighting will never end. we have to confront our enemies. this rivalry has to stop, one way or another."
⎯ ❃ neens speaks!
i live for female friendships. gioia really needed a girl in her life to help her with the way she feels about boys and i couldn't have written a better person than mickey to help her.