ANTI-KARATE 《cobra kai 》

-1.7 ew, feelings

chapter seventeen!

THE GROUP OF COBRAS (plus Demetri and Moon) didn't stay at the diner very long, seeing as how everyone wanted chicken wings and nachos and basically everything that the diner didn't have. They asked Alex to meet up with them after her shift was over, but she told them that she didn't get off until midnight and planned to go straight home.

Miguel was standing outside of her apartment door when she got home, which made her furrow her eyebrows as she grabbed her keys from her pocket. "Shouldn't you be asleep? It's like 12:30."

"Yeah, I thought I'd wait up for you," he told her. "I wanted to talk about something."

"About what?" she asked, growing nervous. Wanting to talk is usually how a bad conversation starts.

"Noah," he responds as she flipped through the keys on the ring. Medicine cabinet, diner, lockbox- aha! apartment key! She froze when he said this, dropping her keys. She missed Noah so much it was unbelievable. She missed holding his hand, giving him hugs. But why did Miguel want to talk about him? Had he found out why they'd broken up?

"Noah? Why Noah?"

"Really?" he asked, unimpressed. "You've been so out of it today. You'll barely talk to anyone, even me. I know it's about him, and I want to make sure that you're going to be okay. I know this is your first break-up and that has got to be difficult."

"You just had your first break-up too," she shoots back, trying to ignore how much it meant that he cared, how well he knows her- she doesn't talk too very much anyways, so her mood probably didn't seem very different to anyone else that day. Not even Noah could've noticed she was upset. She always had been undeniably great at hiding pain. It was a blessing and a curse.

"So I know exactly how you feel," he told her, reaching down and grabbing her keys for her. As he handed them to her, he let his hands linger over hers in a comforting way. "Just talk to me about it, please. I want to be there for you. We can gossip, ya'know, just like I'm sure you and Casey do when I'm not around."

"Okay," she told him, her voice quiet. She pulled her hands away from his and opened the door. "Do you think you could stay the night?"

"Yeah, I'll just text my mom," he nods and follows as she walked into the apartment. Her mom waved at the pair from the couch, where she was watching America Says. Alex let out a soft sigh, as she always did when her mom remembered.

"Okie dokie," said Alex, kicking her shoes off and flopping down on the bed. "What do you wanna know?"

"What exactly happened?" he asked, sitting down beside her. "Nobody seems to know, not even Casey. Ands it's weird, because you and Noah were literally the perfect couple."

"Yeah," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. She too had thought that her and Noah were perfect together, but clearly they weren't. "Well, in short, he was jealous. He told me that he loved me-"

"Whoa."

"Right? And I wanted to make sure before I said it back, because love is a strong word. Especially when it's meant in a romantic way," she explained. Miguel nodded, understanding completely. "And he got a little upset because I feel comfortable telling my other guy friends that I love them."

"But it has a different meaning with them," Miguel said, a look of disbelief on his face. "There's a difference between platonic and romantic love."

"Exactly! And I tried explaining that to him and he was just convinced that I was, like, in love with one of you guys and that one of you guys are in love with me," she told him. No, it wasn't the full truth, but she didn't exactly tell a lie. She didn't want Miguel thinking that it's his fault that she and Noah broke up.

Miguel gave her an exasperated look, "That's insane. You tell Casey that you love her, that doesn't mean that you wanna marry her."

"Right! And shouldn't he be jealous of her too then? He does know that I like all genders, right?" she laughed. She'd told Noah once or twice that she was pansexual, so she wasn't exactly sure why he didn't suspect her and Casey. They hung out just as much, or more, than she did with Miguel.

"He's seriously dumb for being jealous. It was obvious that you had eyes for only him," he pointed out. Alex's facial features faltered, seeing as how she wasn't so sure of that anymore. How could she be? Her boyfriend had pointed out that he could tell that Alex looked at Miguel differently. Did she? She was sure she didn't. Maybe? She'd never really thought about Miguel this way, so how was she supposed to know. Stop, she told herself. I'm just overthinking.

Am I?

Miguel noticed her hesitance and raised his eyebrows, intrigued. "I mean, you do have eyes for only him, right?"

"Of course," she answers. "It's just that with everything he said, it made me wonder if I did something wrong to make him think I was interested in someone else."

Miguel shook his head, grabbing her hands and shaking them lightly. "Hey, no. No blaming yourself. Noah was an idiot- you didn't do a thing wrong, I can assure you that."

Alex cleared her throat, pulling her hands away from his and standing up. Miguel frowned, wondering why she was acting so weird. Alex contemplated what to do next- ultimately deciding that watching Supernatural wouldn't be the best idea. "So, uh, do you wanna watch a movie? The Mighty Ducks, maybe?"

"Sure," nods Miguel, making Alex grab the movie from the top of her dresser and put it in the DVD. She sat back down on the bed, making sure to put plenty of space between her and Miguel. She didn't mean to make it awkward, she just wanted to convince herself that Noah was wrong.

Even though, deep down, she knew that he was right.

And she hated herself for it.

a/n: I don't really have much to say, so I hope you enjoyed:) sorry for the short chapter. have a wonderful evening!

~chloe