𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃, cobra kai

──𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐍: 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐄

─────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───────
──EPISODE TEN

ÉLODIE HADN'T SPOKEN to anyone in days.

She'd not been to school, she'd not visited her grandmother, and hadn't spent any time at Hawk's house either. She'd text Hawk begging him to speak to her that night, but when she'd received no response she found herself alone and spiralling.

Not even Sam had replied to her that evening, and she didn't doubt that Sam had been told that Miguel had kissed her. Despite the kiss not being her fault, the guilt was swallowing her whole, and she'd not thought about anything else in the time she spent curled up in her bedroom.

Miguel, obviously, had sent her a number of apologetic texts asking her to speak to him so he could properly apologise and explain, but Élodie had been too fearful to reply.

Demetri had checked in once, and she'd sent him a grateful response, but it had been days now of wallowing on her own.

Her stepmom had knocked once or twice, but she didn't care beyond the amount she needed to, so she'd soon given up. Élodie had hardly slept and hardly eaten, scrolling absently through photos of herself, her friends and most importantly her and Hawk. She felt as though they'd broken up, even though things had been left completely uncertain.

It had been a week, now, and the day of the All-Valley Tournament had finally arrived.

Élodie had been talking herself into going for the whole time she'd been holed up at home. She wanted to cheer Hawk on, and she did want to cheer her best friend on too. But she felt odd about that now. Was everyone right to find her close friendship with Miguel so strange?

She was certain that she was head over heels for Eli, but the self-sabotaging voice in her head kept making her wonder if she had any feelings at all for Miguel. Like she'd told Eli at first, she had had a small crush on him when they first met. But it was never anything more than that, whereas her feelings for Eli had been all-consuming.

Did the worry in her mind mean anything?

She stood staring in the mirror in her grams' bathroom, fiddling with the hem of her dress as she eyed herself carefully in the mirror. She was determined that she would go to the tournament, she had finally successfully talked herself into it, and had headed straight to her grandmother's apartment at 6AM that morning to avoid running into Miguel.

But the anxiety bubbling in her stomach was impossible to ignore. She felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, a decision to make that she'd never been aware that she needed to make until this week.

"You look beautiful, honey," her grandmother cooed, appearing behind her and placing her hands on her shoulders, "You're going to be fine, okay? You can support them from afar and sort things out afterward, yeah? And I'll be right by your side, sweetie."

Élodie nodded, "Thanks Grams," she released the deep breath she'd hardly even noticed she was holding, "We should probably go, I-- I guess."

———

"Please take your seats," a voice sounded over the speakers as Élodie and her grandmother snuck into the venue trying hard to remain unseen by any of the people Élodie knew, "The competition will begin shortly."

They sat somewhere in the midst of the crowd, just deep enough to be difficult to spot but with a good enough view. Marjorie Marshall squeezed her granddaughter's hand tightly as she spotted the boy Élodie had been thinking about non-stop for the past seven days.