When Miguel Diaz exited his room to get a quick snack from the kitchen, the last thing he expected was to see his mother and Delaney Alexopoulos laughing together at the dining table. They didn't notice his presence, too into whatever the latter was talking about. He was stood frozen in front of his bedroom, wondering if he was imagining things.
"Laney?"
Both females looked away from each other, grins still on their faces as they turned to the confused teen.
"Hey, Mig!" Delaney greeted, as if her being in his apartment was totally normal. "I was just telling your mom about the park story."
But he wasn't thinking about that. "What are you doing here?"
"Miggy," Carmen lightly scolded. "Don't use that tone with your friends. Especially your nice ones."
He awkwardly chuckled. "Right, um, sorry, Laney. It's just ⎯ I wasn't expecting to see you again today. I mean ⎯ I saw you at school and you went to Eli's house. I ⎯ um, want to know why you're here now."
Delaney giggled at he stumbled his words, standing up from the table and stood in front of him. She placed both hands on his shoulders, making him reel back a bit in surprise. "Watching you be so depressed over not doing karate again has definitely been one of the hardest things I've ever witnessed. I mean ⎯ seriously ⎯ how can someone be so glum?"
"Get to it," Miguel deadpanned.
"Right, right, my bad. Um, actually, I think your mom explaining it would make it 100 times more meaningful. Carmen?" Delaney took a step back, turning to the woman who was watching them from the dining table with a soft smile.
Miguel was becoming more and more confused by the second. "Carmen? You're calling my mom by her name now? What the heck?"
"Now, now, Miggy," Delaney teasingly smiled. "Your mother is wonderful woman. We've become great friends."
"Okay, Laney, I love you and all but this is getting really weird," Miguel blinked.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'll go sit on the couch and your mom will talk to you."
Delaney stepped away, and Carmen took her place.
"Mom, can you please tell me what's going on? No offense to Delaney but she never does a very good job at explaining things."
She lightly chuckled. "She's a very good person, Miggy. You are lucky to have found a friend like her."
Miguel blinked again. "Okay, now you're talking like her and I'm getting scared."
"Delaney came to me to talk about karate," Carmen let out a breath, finally turning the conversation serious.
He immediately faltered, eyes traveling down to the ground.
"She told me that you haven't been looking very well at school, and you've been ⎯ as she put it ⎯ looking like a sad, beat up puppy."
"Sounds like something she'd say," Miguel said in a solemn tone.
Carmen then reached for her son's hand, holding it tightly in her own. "But she also told me that you are one of her best friends, and she hates seeing you unhappy. Said that the only times she's seen you happy and energetic is when you talk about karate, and what you did in karate."
Miguel looked off to the side as he remembered excitedly rambling to Delaney about his karate training that day. He thought she would just tune him out, but he guessed she didn't after all.
The woman swallowed. "I know that I don't take your interests to heart sometimes, even when I should. And, the only thing I want is to see my baby happy."
"What are you saying?" Miguel furrowed his eyebrows.
"I'm letting you do karate again," Carmen firmly stated, light shining through her eyes when she saw the look on her son's face.
"Really? Seriously?" Miguel perked up, a wide smile growing on his face.
"Yes," she nodded, barking out a laugh when he jumped onto her into an embrace.
"Thank you! Thank you!" he repeated.
"I'm not the one you should be thanking, Miggy," Carmen said, pulling away from him.
"Right. Right! Laney!" he hurried past him mom, stopping by the couch the Alexopoulos girl was sitting on.
She sprang up, catching the smile on his face. "She told you?"
He frantically nodded. "She told me."
"It's great, right?" she smugly said, a proud smile on her face.
"It's amazing!" he shouted, lunging forward and carried her into his arms.
Delaney let out a squeal, loudly laughing as Miguel jumped around in excitement and happiness with her in his arms.
✸
"I still can't believe she just listened to you. I mean, you told her how sad it was to see Miguel sad and she just flipped her decision?
"Yep," Delaney replied, grabbing her lunch tray and the group of four began to walk to their table. "I have that effect with moms. Moms love me."
"It's true. My mom's been asking when the next time Laney's gonna come over for dinner," Miguel scoffed, shaking his head. "You're becoming the daughter she never knew she wanted."
Delaney let out a small gasp. "Really? That's so sweet. Tell Carmen I'll be over for dinner this weekend."
"Can't believe you guys are on name bases," Miguel rolled his eyes.
Delaney nudged his shoulder with hers. "Hey, don't be so salty. Moms just find me extremely likable. Ask Eli. His mom practically worships me."
"She's right," Eli spoke up from beside her. "The guest room in our house is basically Laney's room. And when she drinks too much wine, she talks about me and Laney getting married."
The girl choked on nothing, face instantly turning red. "W ⎯ what? That's ⎯ that's ⎯ "
"Really likely, actually," Miguel cut in, eyes scanning over the two.
Delaney glanced over at Eli, who was already looking at her. They both quickly looked away, hearing Demetri gag from behind them. "My little sister and best friend? Yeah, no way. We're all practically siblings."
"Right," Delaney nervously chuckled, eyes flickering to the boy next to her, who was avoiding eye contact. "Practically siblings."
"Hey, guys!"
The sudden shout made the four pause, turning their heads curiously to the sound. "You know that billboard with a big ass dick on it? I guess Sam takes after her dad."
Delaney's jaw dropped, turning to Demetri. "Is that what dad was talking about when he was talking about the Daniel Larusso sucking dick?"
Demetri, who was still staring at the scene, nodded, and Delaney turned back to look at the scene too. That was when she noticed Miguel was noticeably ahead of the group. "Why is he ⎯ he was just standing next to me. What ⎯ Miguel. Get back here."
There was about 2 seconds of silence before, "Hey, Kyler!"
"What is he doing?" Delaney immediately asked, watching as he slammed his lunch tray onto a table that Aisha Robinson was sitting at.
"Why don't you shut the hell up and stop being such an asshole?"
Her jaw dropped again, but this time, she wasn't confused, she was smiling. "Ok, Mig, ok!"
"Want another beat down, Rhea?" Kyler roughly shoved him back. "I'm ready for your lame-ass karate this time."
Miguel was shoved again, knocking into the table behind him. Aisha stood up as well. "It's not lame-ass karate."
A punch came his way, but he caught Kyler's arm. "It's Cobra Kai." He was the one who threw a punch this time, colliding his fist into the boy's face.
Delaney brought a hand up to her mouth as she gasped, becoming intrigued. She quickly put her lunch tray down at the nearest table before quickly taking a step back.
She then watched as Kyler became enraged, tackling Miguel onto the table before dragging him over to another one and placed him in a chokehold. But Miguel gave him a sharp elbow to the side, swinging at him once again, and knocked him over with a kick to the back.
"No mercy!" Aisha shouted.
Delaney glanced at her in a bit of confusion, but she just couldn't find it in herself to remove the awe that she was feeling right now.
Suddenly, Brucks started to advance at Miguel form behind him, but the Diaz boy quickly spun around, ducking from his punch and swept him off his feet. That was when another came and grabbed him by the back of the neck, only to get a hit to the balls, making him let go and cower in pain.
Miguel then sent a kick to another that came at him, before landing another at teen who was still clutching his lower region in pain.
"Go, Miguel!" Delaney yelled, loudly clapping her hands.
The Diaz teen noticed that Brucks was starting to get up and dashed away, rolling over a table while grabbing an empty lunch tray in the process.
That was when Delaney saw another charging for him, but she realized that Miguel had his eyes strictly on Brucks. With her instincts rushing in, she stepped forward, kicking a chair in his way and knocking him to the ground.
A bright smile formed on her face as she laid her eyes on him. It was like an adrenaline rush but so much better.
Miguel turned around and slammed the tray into Kyler, who had seemingly come out of nowhere in Delaney's eyes. He then did the same with Brucks, briefly keeping him down as he continued to fight off to others who have recovered.
Kyler then rose back up again, causing Miguel to rush up, with the help of Brucks back, to a table. He struck him in the face with his foot, and swiped the tray across his face once again. Kyler flopped down, now showing signs of defeat.
Delaney immediately began to rapidly clap, letting out loud whistles and cheers for her best friend.
"That could be us some day," she breathlessly said, turning to Eli, who was already looking at her.
They looked at each other for a couple more moments, Delaney's claps faltering as the seconds went on. He then smiled at her. "Yeah. Us."
Delaney's claps then stopped, a light blush coating her cheeks as he looked away and began to lightly clap. She felt her heart flutter, and she sucked in a breath.
"Hey! Get down from there right now!" Counselor Blatt stormed in, dragging Miguel away while the rest of the students continued to let out cheers for him.
✸
"Hi! What can I help you with today? Broken computer? Shattered screen protector? New phone case?"
Delaney chuckled, waving her hand and shook her hand. "No. I'm actually here to see if my brother's laptop is fixed yet? I told the guy who was working here that I was gonna pick it up."
"Of course," the lady behind the counter said, walking over to a computer and Delaney followed her. "What was the name that was put on the device?"
"Delaney? Or Demetri. I don't really remember. But it's for sure one of those."
She watched as the lady typed for a second, pausing, before typing something again. Her face then scrunched up. "Um, it doesn't look like we have a Delaney or Demetri on file. Are you sure that those two names are the only options?"
"Yeah. My brother would be dead right now if our parents found out he tried to illegally download something on his laptop," Delaney stood up straighter and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Well, it doesn't look like your brother's laptop is here then. Could you have gone to another location?"
Delaney shook her head. "No. This is the closest tech place from my house. It's walking distance. I wouldn't have gone anywhere else."
"Um, okay. Do you have the name of the employee that helped you? I can go ask them about it," it made Delaney look off to the side for a moment, racking through her brain for the name.
"Robby," she stated. "He wasn't wearing a name tag or anything so I had to ask for his name."
The lady knitted her eyebrows. "We don't have a Robby on our staff."
Delaney blinked. "Excuse me, what?"
"Yeah. We don't even have a Robert on our staff. And all employees are required to wear a name tag," she held up her lanyard, which had a name card on the inside. Chloe.
The Alexopoulos girl stared at the name tag for a moment before letting out a scoff. "So, what? I just handed my brother's laptop to some guy named Robby, who pretended to work here?"
Chloe let out a sigh. "There have been stories from other tech shops. People will come in, pay off employees to give them their uniform and name tag so they can collect devices and sell them."
"Okay, what I'm hearing is that the laptop could be anywhere right now."
"Unfortunately. I'm sorry about that," Chloe gave her a sympathetic smile before walking off to go help a person who had been waiting on the far end of the glass counter.
"Asshole scam artist," Delaney grumbled under her breath before stomping out of the tech shop.
Who the fuck was Robby then?
✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! and if delaney jumps robby the second she sees him then what?