•~3rd person P.O.V~•
"Why didn't you tell me he was awake?!" Hawk shouted as Rachel pulled on a shirt.
"Because I wasn't worried about you for once." Rachel pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and then her red converses.
"Would you hurry up? I know you wanna doll yourself up for him, but I haven't seen him in three weeks." Rachel glared at Hawk.
"Shut the hell up." She picked up her bag before she and Hawk climbed into Hawk's bright red car. Hawk wasn't wrong, she did wanna "doll herself up" for Miguel. So, that's exactly what she did. She did her makeup in the car, she brushed her hair in the car, and she sprayed her perfume in the car. Although, Hawk wasn't too happy that his car now smelled like Strawberry Poundcake from Bath and Bodyworks.
"So, where even is his room?" Hawk asked as the two got out of his car. Rachel pulled the bag onto her shoulder as she slammed Hawk's car door close.
"On the third floor, room 328." Rachel heard Hawk sigh.
"Has anyone come to visit him besides you?" Rachel shrugged, the two entering the hospital through the automatic doors.
"I dunno, my dad visited him yesterday." Hawk's head quickly whipped to the side. They had just entered the elevator and Rachel was quick to click the third-floor button. As soon as she hit it, a light yellow glow appeared behind the black number three printed onto it.
"Your dad? I thought you said he like, disappeared." Rachel shrugged.
"Apparently before that, he was looking for Robby with Daniel LaRusso." Hawk saw the article this morning about Robby. Boy Who Injured Karate Champ, Miguel Diaz, Caught and Arrested; it read. It said he'd been in juvie for about three months, and maybe even less if he had good behavior. It pissed Hawk off because Robby had almost killed his best friend.
"Did you see him? O-Or talk to him?" Sure, he was a part of John Kreese's Cobra Kai, which Rachel didn't approve of on bit, but that didn't mean he didn't care about Johnny anymore.
"No, the fucking asshole will talk to anyone but me." Suddenly, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. "C'mon, Miggy's probably dying to see you." Rachel realized she probably shouldn't have put Miguel and dying in the same sentence, but she ignored it as they hurriedly ran down the halls.
"El Serpiente!" Hawk smiled, but it quickly fell as Rachel and Hawk saw Sam. Rachel felt her breath hitch in her throat as she looked from Sam to Miguel. Miguel saw Rachel, his heart fluttering as he saw her. He'd read the letter about forty times in one night, he couldn't believe that Rachel had actually written it. Or if she just lied because she felt bad.
"I'm gonna go," Sam mumbled to Miguel, but Miguel didn't respond. His eyes were stuck on Rachel.
Every day since he met Rachel was grueling. Why was it grueling? Because everything about her made him like her more, and he couldn't do anything about it. When he was with Sam, it was easy to say "I don't like Rachel" when he wasn't near her. But when he saw her, he couldn't believe the statement, no matter how many times he said it. It was that way with Tory too.
To be honest, he didn't know why he kissed Sam. It sorta just happened, and he felt terrible about it. He felt terrible because he betrayed Tory and Rachel. He didn't know how he betrayed Rachel, but that's what he felt. It was almost as if he had cheated on her.
Rachel couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take staring at Sam and feeling Miguel stare at her. She couldn't stand the anger that radiated from Hawk beside her. She quickly turned on her heel and walked away. She didn't know where to go, but from what she'd seen it was obvious that he either didn't read Rachel's letter or didn't care.
"Rachel!" Sam shouted, by this time Rachel was already outside of the hospital and walking down the sidewalk. "Rachel, please." Sam grabbed her arm, and something inside of Rachel flipped. It wasn't the impossible switch, it was something that ignited fear within her.
It was a switch that hadn't been flipped in six years. She immediately pushed Sam away, causing her to stumble backward. Usually, Rachel would pull away from people's touch and simply tell them not to touch her. But this time, she was scared. Not scared of Sam, but scared of someone who had grabbed her that same way.
"What the hell was that about?!" Rachel gulped, she could feel her hands shaking and her heart pumping violently.
"I've told you not to touch me, Sam." Rachel's voice wavered and even she could hear the fear in her voice.
"That's no reason for you to push me!" Sam shouted, Rachel, clenched her jaw. How many times had she told Sam not to touch her? How many times had she asked her nicely?
"You blow off the boundary I've set every time, I'm not being nice anymore!" Sam scoffed.
"You've never been nice, you've always been an asshole! Hell, you're just like your dad, you're both assholes!" Sam spun around, but Rachel couldn't take it anymore.
"I was so close Sam, so close! Every time I think I'm slightly going out of the friend zone with Miguel, you show up and push me right back in it!" Sam furrowed her eyebrows and slowly turned to Rachel.
"You like him?" She asked, almost sounding as if Rachel liking someone else besides her was impossible.
"Yes, I've liked him since the first day of school, before you even knew him." Rachel watched as Sam stared at her, it was obvious that her thoughts were rapid and she was trying to listen to all of them.
"So, the whole time when I dated him when Tory dated him, you liked him?" Rachel nodded. "And you didn't say anything?" Sam asked as her shoulders fell.
"What was I supposed to say? Hey Sam, I'm in love with your boyfriend!" Rachel scoffed. "No! I just wanted everyone to be happy and to stop fighting. So I shut up, I'm not like you, I don't go around messing with other people's boyfriends." Sam tensed up, her jaw clenching as she folded her arms.
"That was an accident, I was drunk." Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Being drunk is no excuse."
"Miguel kissed me too!" Sam yelled.
"I never said he didn't! It's hard to be mad at him because he almost died, and Robby's my brother! I know what he did but he's still my brother and Tory's still my friend I don't know who to bad mad at because everyone in this stupid situation is in the wrong and in the right." Rachel put her face in her hands and sighed.
"What is wrong with you?" Sam looked Rachel up and down. Her shoulders were tense and she radiated the word uneasy.
"Nothing, nothing's wrong, alright? I'm just gonna go back inside and if Miguel asks about dating you again then I'll just agree with whatever he says." Rachel ran back inside, and by the time she got back to Miguel's room, Hawk was still there.
"Rachel," Miguel announced as she walked into the room. "Sorry, Rach." He corrected himself, shaking his head slightly.
"Hey, Diaz." She flashed a smile at him, but he frowned. Then, Hawk's phone pinged and he pulled it out of his pocket to read the text he'd gotten.
"Don't call me that." Rachel furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side. Miguel always thought Rachel was beautiful, but the face she made when she was confused was so adorable.
"I gotta go, I'll see ya later Miguel." Hawk shook Miguel's hand and then looked at Rachel. "Stay safe, Rach." She smiled and rolled her eyes.
"What do you want me to call you?" Rachel asked after Hawk had left.
"Miguel or Miggy, but not Diaz," Miguel muttered as Rachel sat in the chair beside him.
"Okay." She shrugged, an awkward silence filling the air.
"Rach, I wanna talk about the letter." Rachel gulped and stared at the ground.
"Can't we just forget about it?" Miguel shook his head.
"No." She sighed. "Rach, c'mere." Miguel scooted to the side of his bed and patted the spot next to him. Rachel furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at him, but, despite her confusion, sat beside him anyways.
"What'd you wanna talk about, Miggy?" He felt a small smile form on his face, Rachel wasn't calling him Diaz and that meant he was in the clear.
"I'm sorry I kissed Sam, I know you deserve an explanation on why I kissed her but I don't have one. I'm not even sure why I dated Sam, I guess I dated her because I thought she was pretty and I had more of a chance with her than with you. Or at least that's what Hawk and Demetri told me. And Tory was more like you than anyone else, and you were still making it clear that you hated me and I thought that by forcing myself to like them then I wouldn't like you anymore. But I was wrong, it didn't happen like that at all, Sam and Tory deserve a person who likes them and isn't trying to get over someone else." So Miguel liked her this whole time? This whole thing could've been avoided if they'd just admitted they liked each other.
"So if I just got over the shit with you and my dad then this stuff wouldn't have happened?" Miguel watched as Rachel put her face in her hands, he didn't realize she was crying until her shoulders started to shake.
"Rach you can't blame yourself." Rachel looked up at him, her eyes were watery, and it reminded him of the only other time he'd seen Rachel cry. When her mom died.
"But I could've prevented all of this. If I told you that Tory knew, we could've prevented the fight. I could've gotten between you and Robby. If I had just told you that I liked you then you would've never dated Sam and you would've never hated Robby." Miguel put his hand on top of Rachel's, he found it sort of odd that Rachel never let anyone touch her except for Miguel, not even Sam was allowed to touch her.
"Rach, no one blames you, none of this is your fault. Me and Sam shouldn't have kissed, me and Robby shouldn't have joined in the fight, Tory shouldn't have cut Sam's arm. No one was in the right here." Rachel chuckled a bit.
"That's what I told Sam." Miguel smiled as Rachel wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"Rach, when I get out of here, I wanna take you out on a date." Rachel shook her head.
"You kissed Sam not too long ago-"
"Just give me a chance, please, I don't have any feelings for Sam or Tory. I've liked you all along, since the first day I saw you at school I liked you." Rachel chuckled slightly.
"You liked me even when I was a bitch to you?" Miguel laughed.
"Yeah, I mean, Hawk told me that you were puzzled at your dad and taking it out on me." Miguel looked into Rachel's eyes before he spoke again. "Hawk said wanting someone you can't have is one of the most bittersweet feelings you can have." Miguel watched as Rachel's cheeks glowed a light pink color as she brushed a string of hair behind her ear.
"Okay, I'll go on a date with you, Miggy." Miguel smiled happily, he never thought he'd ever get to go on a date with Rachel. He never thought he'd have a chance.
~
Later that day, Rachel went home to try and scrape together some money to give to Miguel's family for his big surgery. She still had to save some money for the rent, but she save three months' rent and give the Diazs the rest.
As Rachel kneeled on the floor and pulled out all her money from her "money drawer", and counted it, she heard her front door open. Of course, she had forgotten to lock the front door and her worst dream was about to come true. She was gonna get kidnapped, or robbed, or killed, who knows?
Rachel grabbed her bat from when she played softball and slowly crept out of her room, she didn't see anyone but she knew someone was there. That she heard someone opening the cabinets as if they were looking for something. Jokes on them, the only thing she and her dad had valuable was the TV. Then she heard fast footsteps, she quickly held up her bat, ready to swing. Then she heard the man gasp.
"Jesus Christ, Rachel!" Rachel dropped her bat as she saw her dad.
"You scared the shit out of me!" She shouted, her dad pushed past her and into his room. "Where have been?! I haven't seen you for like three weeks now." She watched her dad rifle through his room, looking for something.
"Jail, looking for Robby, and meeting with Bobby so I can fix things." Johnny found a couple of cents and put them in his wallet.
"I heard you visited Miguel." Rachel watched her dad shrug. "Why didn't you call me or text me or talk to me? You just disappeared." Rachel heard her dad sigh. As Johnny turned around, it was easy to see that Rachel had changed.
She was easily readable. Before, you couldn't tell how Rachel felt. Except, for anger. You knew when Rachel was angry. But Johnny could feel Rachel's emotions and see them as well. It was something that Johnny had taught Rachel never to do. If someone could see or know your emotions they'd use that to their advantage.
"I-I don't know, Rach." Rachel knew when her dad used her nickname he genuinely felt terrible. He loved Rachel's name and didn't understand why she wanted a nickname for it.
"You don't know?! I-I was at my lowest, Dad! And you weren't there for me! I'm always there for you but you never return it!" Rachel tried to gulp down the ball of tears forming in her throat.
"I know, I'm sorry Rach." Rachel shook her head as her dad tried to touch her.
"You can't just leave, I need you dad! B-But I can't rely on you when you keep disappearing." Johnny pulled Rachel to his chest as she cried, he slowly stroked her hair and thought for a moment.
"Bobby's helping me turn everything around. He's helping me get a job and he's trying to help me mend my relationship with you and Robby." Rachel looked up at him as she brushed a tear from her cheek. "What's your therapist's name again?" He asked.
"Ms. Sandra?" Rachel answered, confusion laced within her voice.
"Yeah, her, she called me and told me about the party she was having for your one year sober, and I'm gonna go okay? I promise you that I'll be there." Rachel smiled.
"Really?"
"Yes, really." Johnny laughed.
"What were you looking for?" Rachel asked as she pulled away.
"I'm trying to scrape together as much money as possible to give to Miguel's family for the surgery." Johnny chuckled a bit.
"Me too, how much do you have?" Rachel asked and then her dad shrugged.
"I dunno I didn't count yet." Rachel nodded and went back to her room and gathers up all of her money and put it in a bag.
That night, she went to the hospital and gave the bag to the receptionist. She told her not to tell the Diazs who it was from, because Miguel wouldn't accept money from Rachel. Especially since he knew that she needed it.
~
"Rach, today is your day, you shouldn't let your dad's absence ruin it." Rachel shrugged as she picked up a donut and ate it.
"It's whatever."
"Rach, I know that it's not whatever to you." Rachel sighed.
"Today is Miguel's big surgery so he's probably there but that means that he probably isn't gonna go see Robby either." Rachel closed her eyes tightly. "Robby's gonna be so upset." Rachel took a deep breath in, and then let it back out in frustration.
"Rachel, you can't fix anyone else's feelings or actions. Today is your one year sober, loads of things that have happened to you would cause a lot of people to relapse. But you stayed strong, and stayed clean." Rachel smiled a bit.
"Thanks, Ms. Sandra." The door opened beside Rachel and in came Officer Devon with a large smile on his face.
"Thought I'd come in here and congratulate you, Rach." Rachel smiled at him. "And to tell you that Miguel's in surgery right now, apparently enough people donated money so the Diazs won't be in debt." Rachel had heard about the car wash that Sam had hosted, she was happy that she was trying to help.
"Now, Rach, you do know that you have to come to school tomorrow?" Rachel sighed.
"Don't remind me," Rachel muttered.
"Why don't you wanna go?" Officer Devon asked as he sat down next to her.
"Because as soon as I walked inside this school today, all I saw was Miguel falling all over again and it made me hyperventilate." Ms. Sandra nodded.
"We'll have Officer Devon outside and if he sees you having a panic attack he can help you, or a friend can. Okay?" Rachel nodded slowly.
~
"Rach is gonna help teach," Sam announced as she stood beside her.
"Are we sure that's safe?" Demetri asked.
"Listen, do you wanna fight and always win or not?" Rachel asked, the group nodded.
"I grew up as a Cobra I know most of the Miyagi Do moves. I know what tricks they'll throw, I know their moves. I'm one step ahead of them and all of you." Rachel heard Sam scoff, but even Sam knew it was true. "You can be like me or you can keep getting your asses beat by Cobra Kai." Rachel glanced at the boy who Hawk had beaten the shit out of, and he'd already gotten a piece of her mind. "Which one do you wanna be?"
"Like you." They said in unison.
"Exactly, so let's get started."
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A/n: my weekend's up so don't expect a chapter tomorrow😕
Word Count:3,105