TW ! : jordan lyle
"I still can't believe he stood there with a straight face and made us do that."
"Yes!" Delaney exclaimed, sighing as Hawk combed his hand through her hair. Her head was resting on his lap while they laid sprawled out on his bed.
She, Aisha, Hawk, and Miguel had gone over to Hawk's house to watch some movie that Sensei Lawrence wanted them to watch, but Aisha had to leave earlier into the movie for a family dinner, so it was now just the three of them.
"I can't believe it either. He actually humiliated us even though he was the one who encouraged us to give it our all? Who gives a crap about Manbun? Ugh! I want to sucker punch him in the face."
Miguel patted her leg in sympathy. "I'll hold him down if you want."
She looked down at him with a slight pout. "I'd really like that."
Hawk scoffed. "What's his problem? I mean, he tells us "no mercy," but then when we listen we're punished? And for Robby Keene of all people? Things aren't adding up."
Miguel nodded his head. "You're definitely not the only one thinking that. Did you see when he ran up to Robby?"
"Yeah...it was a little weird. Since when did Sensei Lawrence and Robby Keene have a connection?" Delaney frowned, propping herself up on the bed with her elbows.
"When he made us to the knuckle push-ups, I went into his office and asked why he suddenly got so pissed when it came to Robby, but he just gave me this speech about mercy and honor," Miguel informed them.
Delaney scoffed. "He's saying that as if he didn't literally tell us to do whatever it took to beat those other dojos. I don't get that man sometimes."
"Should we look more into it? I mean, what if Robby is actually connected to Sensei? If we find out he is, we can call him out on his bullshit and make him apologize for embarrassing us," Hawk sat up against his headboard, glancing over at his two close friends.
"I'm not against it. Maybe we can finally get some answers. Laney? You in?" both of the boys looked at the only girl in the room, seeing the unreadable expression on her face.
She tilted her head, before finally shrugging. "Eh. Why not?"
✸
"What do you think? Shithead One and Shithead Two?"
"I was thinking Mary-Kate and Asshat," Aisha inputted, making them all snicker.
One of them spoke up, "Well, I'm Chris ⎯ "
"Did I say you could speak?" Hawk quickly cut him off. Delaney hid her smile behind her hand.
She then lightly smacked him in the chest with the back of her hand. "Alright, no need to be so mean. It's just, no one here is gonna care to learn your actual names, and Sensei Lawrence is gonna give you a nickname anyways.
Miguel came up from behind the two boys. "Guys, look, they're just messing with you. Besides, everyone knows your names are Assface and Douchebag."
Delaney snorted behind her hand, placing a hand on Hawk's shoulder and turned around so no one could see her laugh.
The sound of the bell ringing made her turn back around, her smile fading when she saw an older guy walking into the dojo, a bag in his hand. "Jesus. Someone needs to get this man some retinoids. Or botox."
Hawk pinched her back, and she quietly yelped, slapping his hand away.
"Who's that?" Hawk asked, turning back to look at Miguel.
"I don't know," Miguel responded.
Delaney then nudged the Diaz boy, and they both moved to the side and walked up to the man. "Can we, uh, help you sir?"
The man chuckled, looking them both up and down. "No. But maybe I can help you."
Delaney face twisted into a bit of disgust, taking a step back and slightly hid behind Miguel.
"Hey," they heard Johnny say from behind them. The two teens turned, Miguel pointing at the man with his thumb. "Uh, Sensei..."
The mystery man walked up to Johnny, and the two began to converse lowly. Delaney and Miguel stood side by side, arms crossed over their chest while looking at the older people in the room with confused eyes.
"Who do you think he is?" Delaney turned to Miguel.
"I don't know...I mean, he could be Sensei's dad. Looks to be the right age," the boy shrugged.
She nodded. "Yeah, well, he also looks old enough to be his grandpa, so we can't just make that assumption."
Miguel snorted, lightly shoving his friend before they walked away.
✸
"Class, we have a visitor," Sensei Lawrence said as they all stood in their respective spots. "This is Mr. Kreese. He's just an observer. Pretend like he's not even here. Mr. Diaz, warm them up."
Miguel listened, stepping up to the front with a stern face. His arms laid straight at his side, and he bowed, the others bowing back. "Fighting positions!"
They all took their stances. "Front kick! Yuh!"
"Yuh!" they all yelled back, kicking forward.
"Forward strike! Yuh!" the rest of them mimicking his actions. "Side dab! Yuh!"
Everyone except Delaney copied his move. She slowly got out of her striking position, confusingly glancing around the room. "Did I miss a memo or something?"
Miguel looked at her confused. "I made a groupchat with everyone. You were in there."
"Did you use the 8 number or the 9 number?"
"The 8 one."
"Mig," she groaned. "I changed my number, remember? So my psycho ex can't call or text me?"
He winced. "Sorry, Laney."
"What the hell was that?" the loud voice from their Sensei made Delaney stand up straight.
"We were just messing around," Miguel explained. "We have 11 and a half months until the next All Valley."
"Yeah, besides, we already know how to kick ass," Hawk smugly said, the other agreeing with him.
"Oh, yeah, really, huh? So, you know everything. There's nothing left to learn, huh?"
"What the fuck is going on?" Delaney turned around to Hawk and whisper shouted. He only quietly laughed to himself.
Aisha then began to laugh. "What's so funny, Mr. Robinson?"
"I'm sorry, Sensei. You just wouldn't understand," she shook her head, the smile still on her face.
"Try me."
"It's a Snake-Do."
"What's a Snake-Do?"
All of them, except for Delaney obviously, hissed in response. She looked around in absolute horror. "Oh my god."
"Quiet!" Sensei Lawrence turned red in the face as he yelled at his students. "5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Corner of Fulton and Raymer. You don't show, and you're off the team. Class dismissed."
"What the hell just happened?" Delaney through her arms up in the air.
✸
"Okay, there is no way that you actually find this show enjoyable. I mean, it's just the same thing every single episode," Demetri complained as he gestured to the TV, Grey's Anatomy playing.
Delaney scoffed. "And that fact that they can make it feel different every episode is good. Now shut up and watch the show."
"How can I? Derek is clearly still in love with Meredith. Addison cheated on him so they should get a divorce. It's the logical thing to do."
"It doesn't matter what the logical thing is. What matters is that we can tons of episodes of them pining after one another and when they finally get together it's amazing," the doorbell rang, and she let the TV keep on playing. "I'll go get it. Probably the mail or something."
Demetri furrowed his eyebrows, watching as she got up from the couch and checked the clock on his phone. "Laney, it's 10:00 p.m."
Delaney pulled open the door, expecting to see a box on the welcome mat or a stack of envelops. She wasn't expecting this. Her face dropped, and she stood rigid in front of the door. "Jordan."
He had a small bandage on his cheekbone, mostly from the punches Hawk had thrown at his face. His hair was down, not up in the perfectly styled way he always had it in. He looked rough.
Serves him right.
"Hi, Laney," he said, his voice coming out hoarse and raspy.
Her mouth fell open, and she immediately turned around to call for Demetri, but saw that he was no longer sitting on the couch in the living room, and he was no where to be seen. "What are you doing here?"
"I just ⎯ I need to talk to you," he said in a pleading voice.
She immediately shook her head. "No. You shouldn't even be standing in front of me right now. You should go."
She went to close the door on him, but his hand pushed it open, making a loud smacking sound that made her jump. "You need to go. Right now. Please, go."
"Please. Let me talk to you," he begged, removing his hand away from the door. "I won't even go in the house. We can just, stand like this. That's more than fine for me."
"I don't care what's more than fine for you," Delaney snapped. "You're lucky I'm not screaming at the top of my lungs right now. But there is still lots of time for me to do that so I'm telling you t leave right now."
"I just don't want you to hate me," he said quietly.
Delaney gave a small scoff, feeling her voice get caught in her throat, making her thickly swallow. "You hurt me. Like in a way that you should never hurt someone. And I stuck up for you. I told everyone that you were just having a bad night and that you didn't mean to do it and that you promised me that it would never happen again."
"And I am so sorry," Jordan's eyes turned glossy.
"Sorry? Yeah, that's what you said when you first did it. And then you did it again. You don't do something you're sorry for again. You don't push your girlfriend into a wall and bruise her shoulder and accuse her of sleeping around with her best friends!"
Delaney had tears in her eyes as this point, letting out the built up emotions she had to the person who had caused them. "You had no right to take out whatever anger you had on me. You had no right to make me feel like I shouldn't have given off the wrong impression to you about my friendships. That what you did was all my fault. You can't just do that."
"I know, I know," without thinking, Jordan took a step towards her, and she took a quick step back.
"If you take one more step, I swear to god, I will call the cops."
He raised his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."
She released a deep breath. "You know, I didn't win. Cobra Kai won the tournament but I didn't win. And I want to blame you. I want to say that it is your fault but, the truth is, I should have never competed that day."
Jordan lightly furrowed his eyebrows.
"No, you know what, that was your fault. All of it was your fault," she shook her head, giving a bitter chuckle. "I got so angry after what you did. I imagined every single one of my opponents was you. But even just thinking about you makes me want to run to a corner and hide."
"Laney ⎯ "
"You don't get to call me Laney anymore," she sternly said. "You lost that privilege when you decided to come to my house drunk and upset and angry."
He sighed in defeat. "So this is it? That's all. The end. Friendship and all."
"Yes," she said, her voice breaking in the middle. It was sad to lose a friend, especially one that you had connected with so quickly. But it was for the better. She didn't need Jordan Lyle. But it certainly seemed like he needed her. "So, you should leave before I say more things and you become a crying mess on my front porch."
She didn't give him anytime to response before she slammed the door in his face, inhaling a sharp breath as she leaned against the front door.
Rushing footsteps caught her attention, and she saw Demetri come out of the bathroom. "What was that noise? Was that the door?"
"Nope," she shook her head, wiping away a stray tear. "That was me shutting the door on Jordan who thought it was a good idea to show up and try to talk to me."
Demetri's eyes widened. "Jordan? Jordan was here? Is he still here?"
"No. I told him to leave. If he's regained any braincells, then he should far, far away by now," she sighed, rubbing her face.
He huffed, looking her over. "I guess you aren't going to Eli's?"
She couldn't find it in herself to correct him and stood up straight. "He'll understand."
She walked past him and up the stairs. The last thing he heard from her that night was the closing of her bedroom door.
✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! as much as i don't want jordan around anymore...he will be back