─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"my name is tabitha brooks and i have anger management issues."

"hello tabitha." the group chorused.

"do i have to do this every session?" tabitha questioned, her eyes on the group leader.

"yes. self awareness and acknowledgment is the first step to recovery." jane nodded. "so, tabitha. it seems you've been prescribed medication?"

"yeah, fluoxetine." tabitha announced.

"that's right. and how has it been so far?" she questioned with a smile.

tabitha shrugged. "fine. side effects are manageable."

"i'm on fluoxetine." the woman seated beside her called out. "are you having trouble sleeping as well?"

tabitha looked down at her and decided to mess with her. "no, but i've been having really bad diarrhoea." she held onto her stomach and groaned, "have you?"

the woman looked rather revolted and shook her head while rowan, from the other side of the room, stiffened a laugh. he put his hand over his mouth and glanced down to his lap so no one would see. tabitha noticed that he enjoyed her joke, which made her smile.

she quickly feigned a frown. "i thought this was a safe space?" she asked, innocently.

"y-yes, it is. thank you for having the confidence to share!" jane praised her. "um, so how have you been doing?"

"well, my boyfriend woke up from his coma and he had surgery on friday." tabitha told her group. they began to cheer and applaud the good news. once it was quiet enough, she spoke up again. "but then i saw that his ex-girlfriend had visited his room before i went in."

"the same one who kissed him?"

"yeah." tabitha nodded.

"wait, she saw him before you?" another questioned.

"no, i saw him when he just woke up the day before." tabitha explained.

"how did seeing his ex-girlfriend make you feel?" jane questioned.

"well, i was definitely pissed off. but when i saw she gave him a gift that had links to their past relationship... i lost my shit." tabitha admitted.

"watch the language, please." jane requested. "it's completely understandable for you to have outbursts as it is still early stages. so, how did you deal with the situation?"

"i did what was reasonable. told him that she clearly wants to get back together with him. and get this, he seemed actually interested with the idea." tabitha explained to her group.

"what?!"

"i know!" tabitha nodded. "it's unbelievable, isn't it?"

"did you raise your voice with him?" jane asked.

"yes... and i kicked his trash can out of the room." tabitha confessed.

"thank you for being honest, tabitha." jane said as she slowly wrote in her tabitha-centred notepad. "and do you think you could've handled the situation differently? calmer?"

as tabitha thought of other possibilities, a woman in her group scoffed. "i'd go back, find her and smack a bitch!"

"language, please bernice." jane scolded her. "and no, tabitha should not have gone back to find her to as that would be a direct violation of her parole, right?"

"i guess." tabitha shrugged. "am i done now?" she asked. jane nodded. "yes, you are. thank you."

"thank you tabitha." the group spoke in unison as she sat down.

"i want you to write down the interaction at the hospital from start to finish and annotate it in a different colour of things you could've done differently." jane instructed. "or-or you could record a voice audio doing the same thing, and play it for us next session."

"okay." tabitha nodded.

since the girl was the last one to speak, the session was over. jane sealed her book and stood to her feet. "great session as usual, everyone. thank you so much for coming, i'll see you next time. please feel free to help yourself to a snack and drink before you go."

"thank you, jane."

tabitha immediately stood up at the mention of snacks and juice. she made her way to the table and seized a handful of cookies and then an apple juice carton.

rowan stepped beside her, reaching for an orange juice. "you haven't taken that medication in days, have you?" rowan asked her.

"nope." tabitha shook her head before placing a finger to her lips to tell him to keep the information to himself. "how come you never present?"

"because i don't want to." rowan shrugged. "you guys are all here because it was court ordered. i'm here by choice."

"i thought you said your dad is making you come here." tabby questioned.

"my dad is a construction worker, not a lawyer or a judge." rowan informed her. tabby nodded in acknowledgement, "my mom's a lawyer." she informed him.

"is that how you evaded juvie?" rowan joked.

tabby rolled her eyes. "realistically, what would i have been to juvie for? i don't understand it. i mean, i didn't seriously harm her. she got a concussion from me at best."

rowan shrugged. "i know, i was there."

tabby's head shot up from the snack's table to his face. "what? you were there?!"

the last thing he wanted was to make her enraged. "hey, take it easy." he said gently. "yeah, i've been going to west valley since freshman year. i saw most of it and then i just left."

"how come you never mentioned it?" tabitha asked him. the boy shrugged. "you never asked." he told her.

"oh shut up." she rolled her eyes. "hey, were you at least rooting for me?" rowan chuckled. "if that's what you want to hear, then yeah." from behind her, he could see miguel wheeling himself into the room. "there's your boyfriend."

when others recognised him, they began to cheer for him. it was a surprise to see the boy they discussed twice a week. miguel was grateful for the praise but confused about how they knew him.

"i'll see you later, rowan." tabby waved to him before making her way to her boyfriend. "what are you doing here?" she questioned.

"i feel terrible after what happened when you left." miguel explained once everyone had gone back to their own things. "so, hawk told me you'd be here and my mom dropped me off."

"that was days ago... you could've texted." tabitha pointed out. "surgery went well then?"

"i hope so, yeah." miguel nodded. "and i did text you, but none of my messages went through."

tabitha thought for a second. "oh yeah... i have a new number." miguel frowned, "what? why?" he asked.

"the night of moon's party i threw my phone into my wall. no big deal." she shrugged. "i'm using my mom's old one. but it's totally a piece of shit. i hope to get one for my birthday though."

"i hope you do too." miguel nodded. "tabby, i'm really sorry. i wasn't interested in the idea of sam wanting to get back with me, i was just surprised at what you said. and even if she wanted to, i absolutely don't. because i already have you and i don't want anyone else."

"you mean that?" tabby asked, her face softening up at his words. jane watched from afar, completely fascinated at how miguel managed to calm her down so easily.

"of course i mean it." miguel reassured her. she sighed. "okay. can i push you?" she requested.

"only if you do it gently." miguel explained. tabitha grinned, rushing behind him and placing her hands on the handle grips. she started slowly, not wanting to cause any harm as she wheeled him out of the building.

"hey, where are your shoelaces?" she questioned, looking at his brown sneakers. miguel sighed at the question. "sensei thinks my physical therapist is stupid so he wanted to help me move my legs."

"what does he know about paralysis recovery?"

"seeing as he lit my shoelace on fire to try and force me to put it out, nothing." miguel said.

"well, better luck next time." she shrugged. "you just had your surgery, why don't you just focus on the physio and rest?"

"rest? doesn't it bother you that i'm in a wheelchair?" miguel asked her. she was extremely confused, "do you want it to bother me that you're in a wheelchair?" the girl challenged.

"no."

"then no. of course it doesn't." tabby told him. "pushing you around is super fun. but if you really want to get back on your feet as soon as possible, then go on. my opinion shouldn't matter."

"your opinion does matter." miguel told her. "it matters a lot."

"that's cute. thanks, miguel." tabby hummed. "where are we going?"

"just around the block, how's that sound?" miguel suggested.

"sounds good, babe." tabitha nodded before cringing.

"babe?"

"shut up. i regretted it immediately."

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

demetri had spammed theo's phone with messages, telling him to meet them at golf n stuff. he didn't give any context or useful explanation, so theo rushed over to the place. "what's going on?" he questioned, running over to demetri.

the boy calmly shrugged. "sam asked us to meet her here."

"you texted my phone saying 'sos' twenty times." theo glared at him. demetri nodded, "she needed us here pretty quickly. and it worked."

"you're insane."

"come on." sam walked straight past the four, expecting them to follow her. she led them into the arcade, where they met chris. "where are they?" sam questioned.

"they snuck into the old laser tag place." chris explained.

"how many?" sam asked.

"four of 'em."

"six of us." she grinned. "i like our odds."

"are you sure we should be doing this?" demetri questioned.

"we're not on school property. this is our chance to fight back." sam explained.

"wait, we're sneaking up on them to fight?" theo questioned. "sam, that's a terrible idea."

"you saw what they did at the soccer game. and yet we got detention and they didn't." sam reminded him.

"but demetri said you guys started the soccer fight." theo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"why are you defending them?" she challenged.

"i'm not." theo shook his head. "i just think this idea makes no sense."

"well, you can count just yourself out. five of us and the odds are still in our favour." sam stated. "come on." she ordered. the three boys followed right behind her, but demetri lingered for a bit. he gave theo what he assumed to be puppy dog eyes, silently pleading him to come with.

"you know this is stupid." theo crossed his arms.

"maybe it could work." demetri shrugged. "let's go."

theo groaned, following behind them. chris switched the lights of the laser tag off from outside the room. "what the hell?" they heard hawk question from inside. sam made a gesture and together, they entered the dimly lit room.

"what do you want?" hawk scoffed at their appearance.

"payback." sam sneered. she ran forward, shoving rickenberger in the chest before twisting around and kicking dakota in the face. theo moved out of her way to a different part of the room. he didn't want to actively attack anyone, but he would defend himself if he needed to.

rickenberger managed to make his way away from sam and caught theo when he wasn't paying attention. he booted the boy in his back, forcing him out of his spot behind a makeshift house. theo stumbled forward but managed to keep his balance.

he turned around and quickly ducked down to avoid the punch that was going to his head. theo thrust his arm back and elbowed rickenberger in the face. clutching onto his now bruising lip, rickenberger tried to punch theo right in the stomach. the boy used the perfected defense moves he had learned from mr larusso to block rickenberger's attacks.

"sam larusso!" tory's voice called out, three boys from her dojo stood behind her. "where are you, bitch?"

her voice completely distracted theo. he hasn't seen her since he picked them up from moon's party. his first thought was that tabitha would be with her, and that meant things were going to get bad for sam. as he wasn't paying attention, rickenberger threw his fist into theo's face. the boy's body slammed against the wall before he fell to the ground.

"come on, bro!" he heard rickenberger shout. almost immediately, another member of cobra kai hurried over and started to boot the boy on the ground. theo tried his hardest to get himself up, but the two were successful in overpowering and outnumbering him.

"no! please, stop!" he could hear demetri. "eli, stop! stop!" theo glimpsed to the side, attempting to see what was going on, but one of their feet managed to knock him in the cheek. "it's me! don't do it!" he continued.

"do it!"

"help me!" demetri hollered. ultimately, the two unleashed him, chortling as they went over to the see the confrontation between the two ex-best friends. theo strained to drag himself up from the floor as his stomach and back were seething with pain.

"finish him. he deserves it." his teammates provoked him.

"do it, pussy!" big red yelled.

"do it, hawk!" tory ordered.

"no. it's fine. i'll go." demetri continued to plead. "i'll go!"

"hawk, finish him!"

hawk hesitated before forcing his hand down, snapping demetri's shoulder loudly. the cobra kais started to cheer with excitement as demetri shrieked out in pure agony.

hearing his pain, theo pushed himself into a sitting position. he could now slightly see the boy lying on the floor and it made theo even more desperate to help him. gradually getting to his feet and stumbling over to his friend.

"this isn't over larusso!" tory's voice echoed through the room.

⎯ ❃ jania speaks!
poor demetri and sam and theo who definitely has bruises all over! probably would've been hard for him to drive demetri to the hospital...

new sam&theo edit on my tiktok!!