🅙🅔🅐🅛🅞🅤🅢🅨, 🅙🅔🅐🅛🅞🅤🅢🅨
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"Come on, Johnny!" Dutch urges and the blonde turns to me as the boys joke around in the car. He glances at me and I can't really say anything since he's my only ride home. "You can bring the princess too." Johnny shoots daggers at the boy and he reverts his eyes from us with his hands defensively in the air.
"We'll only drive around for a little then we'll drop you off." He informs me and I reluctantly nod. "Fine, but I'm driving." He responds to Dutch and the boys begin filing out of the silver truck after finding a parking space.
Johnny tells me to take the front seat and I don't reject the idea, knowing that, if anything, I'd rather fly through the windshield at 90mph than sit next to Dutch. "Why does she get shotgun, Johnny?" The hulking boy in the back seat complains, glaring at me through the mirror.
"Because I said so."
"But she-" I eye him with one brow raised, awaiting his insults that were most definitely floating around in his thoughts.
"Shut the fuck up, Dutch." Johnny seethes and continues down the road as the other boy falls back in his seat, muttering things to Tommy next to him.
"Take a left." Dutch states a few minutes later and my eyebrows scrunch together as the red convertible rolls into the Golf 'N Stuff parking lot.
"Shit," I murmur to myself and attempt to cover my face with the length of my sweatshirt as we slow down beside the sidewalk to where Ali and Daniel stand.
"Hey, Ali how's it goin'?" Tommy asks and I give him a weird look.
"Hey, it's goin' good." She wears a light blue headband in her fluffed-up hair when she glances over to Daniel, a subtle worried look in her eyes as they analyze his features, but his focus is on me. I try to avoid eye contact, knowing the disappointed expression he would surely be wearing.
"Want a ride?"
"Maybe some other time." She replies although the tinge of uncertainty in her tone told me that 'some other time' would never happen.
"Are you sure? We'll make room." He insists and I witness the grin creep onto Dutch's lips as he scoots over and pats the space between him and Bobby who's stayed silent this whole time.
"I'll see you later." She replies, but I could tell she didn't want to follow through with that.
"Your little friend can come too if it's okay with his mommy." Johnny comments and I sink into his leather seat. As if on cue, Mrs. Larusso joyfully rolls up beside us in her old, beat-up car. Daniel's expression hardens and he glances over his shoulder to hide his face.
"Hi, kids." She greets, but her smile quickly fades at Dutch's words.
"Hey, Mommy, can Daniel come for a ride?" He chuckles and Johnny, thankfully, pulls out of the parking lot, leaving the couple glaring at the convertible on its way out.
I remain silent, fiddling with the zipper of my zip-up to keep myself distracted and keep calm. I think back to Daniel on his first date with Ali, my two best friends, and now it's ruined because of the same fucking people I'm sitting in the car with.
I replay the clip of Mrs. Larusso's realization of the group making fun of her in my head and I knew I needed to apologize to her for even being in the vicinity of these guys. Our family was never wealthy in Chicago, we were just barely getting by and now suddenly I'm on the other end of the spectrum. Mom got a better-paying job and we're much better off now, but that doesn't change what we went through in Illinois.
"What's the pout for, princess?" Dutch taunts, but I refuse to respond. Johnny acknowledges this and attempts to grab my attention by touching my arm, but I pull away.
"You're actually mad?" He asks and the car grows silent. "It was just a joke, Sam." Exhilaration flashes through me at the sound of my name in his voice, but I refuse to look away from the window.
"Everything's a joke to you, Lawrence." I counter in a monotone mutter.
"That's not fair-" He counters, but in all honesty I wasn't in the mood for another argument especially in this stuffy enclosure.
"Just take me home." Bobby sends me an empathetic glance in the mirror and at that moment I really wished we were still as close as we were before because even Tommy seems unrecognizable in the constraints of this car.
Johnny drops me off in front of my house and I shut the door in silence. When I open the front door, I spot Erik at the window with his jaw clenched.
"That didn't look like Suzie to me." He confronts me and I avoid him as I scurry into the kitchen to warm up the dinner that I hadn't eaten yet. "What the fuck is going on with you, Sam?" He scolds me.
"Nothing's going on Erik, can you please stop being dramatic."
"I'm being dramatic? Did you see Daniel bruised up every day at school? And now you're cruising around L.A. with the same guys who did it and you lie to me about it."
"You're taking it out of context. I didn't have a ride home. I don't have my car, remember?"
"Phones exist, you could've called me."
"Well he was already there and offered, okay?"
"He? Who, the blonde one?" He questions and I roll my eyes as I place my plate into the microwave. "There's something going on."
"There's nothing going on, are you crazy?" He seems to half accept this response and begins out of the room.
"I don't want to see you with him again, Sam."
"Stop trying to be protective like Dad, you just end up sounding like an ass." I scoff,
"It's not me wanting you to not do things, it's who you do them with. And I don't want him being one of them."
"He won't be. He's the last person I'd think of to voluntarily spend time with, trust me." I wouldn't consider forced private lessons as 'voluntary' in my defense.
I sit down to eat my dinner once he leaves and I listen to the rhythmic dinging of the sapphire wind chime outside the kitchen's open window.
Suddenly, the urge to call Daniel to apologize bombards me and I give in. As I lean against the marble counter with the phone to my ear, I admire the moon that's full and illuminating at its peak in the sky.
Mrs. Larusso picks up the phone after a few rings and I'm immediate with my apology. "Mrs. Larusso, I'm so sorry about the guys I was with before."
"Oh, it's alright, sweetheart. It's in the past, what can you do?"
"I'm not friends with people like that." I assure her, still feeling guilty although she technically accepted my apology.
"I know, darling. You have a good head on your shoulders, you can take care of yourself just fine."
"Do you think I'd be able to talk to Daniel really quick? I know it's late, I just need to say something."
"Of course, let me go get him. I'll be fast." I hear her place the phone on the table and in a muffled voice, I hear Daniel complaining that he doesn't want to speak with me as he nears the phone.
"Hi, Danny." I greet him with a sigh, assuming how he was going to react.
"Don't 'hi, Danny' me." He snaps back,
"I know you're mad and I understand why, but I didn't do anything. All I can do is apologize on their behalf."
"All you can do is not spend time with them outside of the dojo."
"Johnny was driving me home, you know my car is at the mechanics."
"Yeah, yeah." He scoffs, pausing for a second. "I hate him, Sam. I really do." He adds in a low, genuine voice.
"I know you do."
His voice is pulled away from the phone. "Just one more second, Ma! I gotta go, Sam."
"Oh, yeah. No problem, I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Yeah, goodnight."
"Goodnight, "
A couple of days later in physics, the teacher calls off names to complete a study guide for our next test. "Ali and Robbie, right here." She gestures to a lab table and slides the students a packet of their own. "Leaving Samantha and Bobby."
I take a seat on the old metal stool beside him and he awkwardly clears his throat in an attempt to break the silence lingering between us. "I'm sorry about what I said." I blurt and suddenly realize how strongly I came off.
"What?" He questions with a shocked expression, his eyes finally meeting mine after almost a week of no contact.
"Halloween, I shouldn't have said that."
"Understandable though. I'm sorry about all that too."
"I thought you guys were just being asses, but Tommy told me what was really going on." I visibly see the relief flood his face. "So, I hereby unban you from talking to Andie." A smile spreads onto his lips.
"Thanks, but I've missed talking to you too, ya know."
"Honestly, I don't know how you stayed sane in this class without being able to annoy me the whole time." I cross my arms with a grin.
"It was a long week." I giggle at his honest response and I continue my day with delight, not having weight on my shoulders anymore.
In English, I talk with Tommy mostly, but Johnny will chime in once in a while if he wants to, oddly being focused on his work for once.
"There's no way you're not having fun being a cobra kai, come on. Admit it." Tommy urges with a grin, but I just smile.
"It's quite boring, actually," I reply just to see his reaction.
"Might not have been as boring if you showed up on Saturday." He laughs, but Johnny glances at me and we realize that it wasn't a well-known fact that we were partaking in private lessons.
"I didn't just blow it off," I assure him in a muttered voice and he looks to Johnny who wears a smug expression.
"She was with me."
"Training." I clarify immediately and it was obvious that the thought irked the brunette boy.
"You doing anything this weekend, Sam?" He asks and I can feel the tension rise at our table.
"She's busy." Johnny intervenes and I give him an awed look.
"I'm not." I look at Tommy and he flickers between the two of us in confusion.
"Is this you saying you want to cancel our Golf N' Stuff double date because I'm sure Ali would be pretty disappointed."
shit.
The bell rings and Tommy snatches his bag from the ground and scurries out of the room without saying another word. I shove Johnny out of my way and make my way outside of the school. He trails me while I search for Ali through the crowds of students, the California sun beating down on me and making me even more agitated.
"How the fuck do you know about that?" I finally question and he flashes his teeth in amusement as he playfully basks in the sun against my car.
"I overheard Ali asking Daniel about it and he seems really thrilled. I'd have felt bad if I didn't accept the invite for the both of us right then and there."
"I thought you were done using me to get to Daniel. I guess just one more time, huh?" He seemed offended which caught me off guard, assuming that he would just continue taunting me. The 'nice guy' act from the other day is now completely vanished as I expected.
"I'm not using you to get to Daniel." He states seeming truthful, but I don't put it past him that he would lie straight to my face as he does to others.
"Yeah, right." I sigh, tired of this whole bickering act that just seems to continue day after day with him.
"Is it so crazy to think maybe I want to hang out with you?" He asks and I notice a flash of regret on his features as he studies my body language.
"If that were true you wouldn't have made that big of a deal about it in front of Tommy." I respond,
"He was flirting with you." Of course, I'd noticed it, but pretending like I hadn't would honestly benefit me right now.
"He's my friend and you were being an asshole for no reason."
"Because I don't like him flirting with you." I can see the agitation in his eyes as he attempts to keep his cool.
"He can flirt with me all he wants, I don't mind." I shrug, turning to open my car door just as it slams shut almost in an instant. Johnny presses both of his hands on either side of me, trapping me in, and leans down to speak.
"Tell him to stop or I'll make sure he does." My heart begins racing as I remain silent, not having any snobby remarks at the top of my head like I usually do. His jaw is clenched and the muscles in his face are visibly tensed as I admire his perfectly chiseled features.
Of course I've noticed Johnny's attractive qualities before, but his personality wiped that all away every time I spoke to him. I never realized how difficult it would be to not get lost in his eyes until I was six inches away from them and suddenly, I lost track of time. His alluring scent wafts in my senses as he pulls away and snaps out of whatever freak out he had fallen into.
"There you are, man. We've gotta go." Dutch scolds him and glances at me to blame for his absence. As he hurries away, I slide down the door of my car and finally calm my racing heart that hasn't been a normal speed since I walked into eighth period, but he doesn't need to know that.