THAT'S WHAT EVERYBODY SAID, cobra kai

29

"I was in the final quarter of senior year and in no way in hell, was anyone going to stop me from getting what I wanted. I wanted to get away from her physically demanding parents, the small town, and away from everyone around me. I wanted to be somewhere new. A city life. Not living in the city but around it."

Eileen nodded, listening to her mom with intent. She knew that explaining this was hard for her. She held her hand out for her mom to hold while explaining. She did.

"I wanted to go to culinary school. And the best culinary school I felt was best for me was The Culinary Institute of America. But I didn't have the money for an out-of-state expensive college. I was told yet again that they didn't know about any scholarships of any kind, which was bullshit. Every high school would know of scholarships, they just won't announce them to their face." Kelli scoffed.

"And that's when I met Devi. I overheard him arguing about how unfair the funding for college was and, well, I just had to meet him. We got along well, both having an understanding of one another. Devi wanted to create his own business but he didn't have the money for college at all, and neither did I."

"We decided that we should rent an apartment together after graduation. I would work at a family-owned restaurant. I quickly gained the knowledge I needed to create my own restaurant. Devi worked as an intern for a business and things were great for both of them until the boss decided that he would work with him on a new project."

"What was the new project?" Eileen asked.

Kelli shrugged, "He never told me anything about the project, only the fact that Devi became more hostile when he came home from work. One night, Devi invited me out for drinks and one thing led to another, and, well we hooked up. That hook-up led to me being pregnant and Devi becoming more and more violent."

"And then you left him?" She asked. Kelli shook her head.

"I confronted him about the project, about being so angry all the time. I thought he would be understanding of that but he put a knife against my neck and told me to stop being a bitch. We all have our faults, and Devi didn't want me in his business, he said it was dangerous and that he wanted to protect me. But he wasn't. He was being possessive. Like I was his. So I made a big decision."

"You left him," Eileen concluded.

Kelli nodded. "I left one day after he said he had overtime at work. I went to the family who owned the restaurant and told them everything. They got me a ticket to L. A and said they had family who would protect me." Kelli gave a sad smile.

"Is that why you named me Eileen? Was one of the members named that?" The younger girl asked.

"Oh, no. I named you Eileen because of the song. And because it pissed off my parents." Kelli clarified.

"That makes more sense," Eileen replied, smiling.

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" Kelli told her with a smile back before frowning. "So, you lied about seeing him?"

Eileen frowned and looked down, "I didn't want you to worry. But yes, I did meet him. And he was just as crazy. He is very good at throwing knives and he thinks we live in San Diego."

"How did he find that out?" Kelli asked, a look of urgency falling upon her face.

"He looked at my license." She explained. Kelli sat up quickly grabbed Eileen's wallet that lay on the kitchen counter and pulled out her license. She picked off the camera that Eileen now noticed and smashed it into bits.

"He stalked me one year when you were little. I never knew how he found me until I found the little chip. It's a camera." She explained.

The two stayed quiet, not making any noise. Eileen gapped at the broken camera, feeling bad about not noticing the small black piece on her license. Kelli took deep breaths as she stared angrily at the camera, now even more pissed off that he did that to her daughter. She knew it wasn't Eileen's fault, she just wished, she had kept her protected more and not let her anger get the best of her.

"Are we safe here?" Eileen asked quietly after a bit.

"I'm going to call Samuel and get a hotel for at least four days. Maybe more, it depends. Go pack a bag... And what did you promise Demetri?" Kelli asked, noticing the look on her daughter's face.

"Movie night..." She trailed off, knowing it was probably silly to think of at the moment. Kelli just smiled.

"Okay. You can either stay with us or you can stay with Demetri, I know his moms have really good security cameras all over their house." She told her. Eileen nodded and packed a bag.

Demetri was confused when Eileen burst into his room with a packed bag and a sad look on her face.

"What's up?" He asked her as she laid down next to him and hugged his side. "Are you that upset over watching game of thrones? We can change it."

Eileen smiled sadly, "No, I'm not upset over that. I told mom what happened and she told me."

"How'd that go?" He questioned her again.

"I have to stay at your house for a few days because apparently, he put a tracking device on my license," Eileen explained with an awkward smile.

"I was... not expecting that response. Did not see that coming," Demetri spoke honestly, wrapping an arm around the girl. Eileen nodded, nuzzling into his shoulder. Demetri laid his head on hers.

"So, what is game of thrones?" Eileen asked him, wanting to get her father off of her mind for a while. Demetri smiled and opened up his laptop, quickly typing in his password so he could start it. After watching for a bit, Eileen felt her phone buzz, seeing a text from Sam.

"When do you work tomorrow?" She asked, looking at him.

"Three to Seven, why?" He responded.

"Damn. You won't be able to help us," She muttered, typing on her phone.

"Help you what?" He questioned her.

"Sam needs our help to try and get Mr. LaRusso to restart Miyagi Do again, I guess Johnny is already on board." She explained.

"I can send you a message you can read it out loud to him," he suggested. Eileen nodded in agreement, turning her eyes back to the computer.