EIGHT.
( the look of love, the rush of blood. )

The next morning, Emmy and Miguel had been calling all day. 

Miguel was expressing his worries that Sam was seeing Robby, while Emmy was trying to reassure him that the boy was just some stray her dad picked up from the side of the road. 

Emmy knew that this could be her chance to swoop in and take Miguel for herself, but she couldn't do that to Miguel. 

And Sam, she thought.

"Mig, trust me. She and Robby are literally nothing. Don't let one dinner get to your head. Besides, he has nothing on you," she said into the phone, shuffling through her closet to try and put together something to wear later. 

"Really?"

"Yeah! She'd be stupid if she even thought about getting with Robby. The guy isn't even that cute. His hair looks like Dora," Emmy snickered at her joke, hearing Miguel breath out a laugh on the other end. 

"Thanks for listening, Em. You get me. You're my best friend, you know?"

"I know," she replied, a sad smile on her face. "See you later, Mig."

"Later."

When he hung up the call, Emmy huffed. "I hate crushes."

Suddenly, the sound of her father yelling in the backyard made her rush to her window, and her eyes widened. 

Johnny Lawrence was right outside her house. And he was fighting with her father.

Without thinking, Emmy rushed out of her room and ran to the pool area, where her mom and Anthony were already standing. 

"Dad!" she exclaimed, pushing past her brother. 

Daniel and Johnny paused, turning to look at her. 

"Emmy, go back inside," her dad ordered. 

She made eye contact with Johnny, and thickly swallowed. This was a day she wished would have never came. The blonde could see the desperation on her face, and faltered.

"No, I don't want you to get hurt," which Daniel and Johnny being right next to each other, it looked like she was looking at her dad, but Johnny could easily tell that she was looking at him. 

"Emmy, this is adult business, get back inside."

Her face twisted. "And have you embarrass yourself by accidentally falling into the pool while fighting your 80's karate rival?"

"Get back inside!" Daniel raised his voice enough to make her take a step back, and Anthony leaned in closer to his mom. 

"Hey!" Johnny shouted, giving Daniel a shove to the shoulder. "Don't talk to her like that. She's your kid."

"Don't talk to me about my daughter," Daniel raised a finger at Johnny before turning to his youngest daughter again. "Go. Now."

Emmy scoffed, and shook her head. "I hope you get your ass kicked."

He gaped at her as she walked away. "Excuse me?"

✸

After Miguel finished his PSAT prep, he was immediately greeted by Sam, and his mind went sour from the memory of seeing Robby and her. 

"So, what did you do last night?" he asked, already knowing what she did. 

Sam shrugged. "Uh, just a family dinner."

"I'd like to meet them sometime," he then stated, the smile on Sam's face slowly dropping. "I've only been over when you guys aren't home to hang out with Emmy."

"Well, it's not like you invited me over to yours either," Sam countered. 

But, Miguel was quick. "You're more than welcome whenever you wanna come. My mom would love to meet you."

There was a pause before he continued. "Or I can come to your house, meet your mom, your dad."

Sam shook her head. "Tonight's just not a good night, but we should totally hit up Venture. Two shakes at Salt and Straw, on me?"

"Yeah, um...I should go train," Miguel replied, a tight smile on his face. "Maybe another time."

The LaRusso girl visibly deflated. "Um, okay."

"But, I'll call you later."

She nodded. 

"Mig!"

The sudden shout made them look down the hall. They say Emmy alongside Hawk, the girl waving him over. "Get your ass over here."

Miguel turned to Sam. "Bye." And walked down the hall. 

Sam had noticed that he had lit up when he saw her sister. And once he reached Emmy, he grabbed the books from her arms, and was smiling from ear to ear at something she had said. 

When Emmy had said she liked someone from Cobra Kai, Sam had assumed it was Hawk since they were always so close.

But now?

She was starting to think it was someone else. 

✸

The group decided to head to the park to train, where Miguel continued to sulk about what he saw when he went to the LaRusso house.

"Come on, eat something. It'll make you feel better," Demetri encouraged Miguel as the latter held a sandwich in his hands.

"I told you I'm not hungry, man," Miguel fiddled with the sandwich. 

"I can't believe Sensei Lawrence was actually at my house today. Ugh, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if my dad found out I was in Cobra Kai," Emmy had her legs on Demetri's lap as she leaned her back against Miguel's shoulder. "He would hate me even more than he already does."

"Your dad doesn't hate you, Em," Aisha tried to reassure her, leaning over to grab her hand. 

Emmy didn't believe it, but gave Aisha a smile, and squeezed her hand for a few seconds before pulling away. 

"I still think you're overreacting," Demetri shrugged. 

"I'm not overreacting, dude. I know what I saw."

Emmy twisted her torso to face him, and leaned her arm on his shoulder. "And I have told you multiple times that Robby is not someone you should worry about."

Miguel raised his eyebrows. "So you're saying that you didn't see any spark between them?"

She opened her mouth to respond, trying to come up with a defense, but no sound came out. She couldn't defend that. She huffed. "Okay, fine, maybe being a little worried is okay."

"All right, so you saw her eating dinner with some chode," Hawk kicked Bert across the face, and Emmy let out a low whistle. "It's probably just her brother or something."

Emmy snorted, pinching his nose when he walked over to them. "I would know if I had another brother."

"And brothers don't look at their sisters like that," Miguel agreed. 

"Depends on what part of the country you're in," Demetri mindlessly added, causing Emmy to turn back to him with a scrunched up face. 

"First, gross, second, Miguel just doesn't want a Sensei Lawrence repeat, right?" she turned back to Miguel for conformation, and he wordlessly nodded. 

"All right, so you go over to this kid and beat his ass so he doesn't have the chance," Hawk advised casually. 

"But newbie is definitely gonna fight back," Emmy waved off the idea. They all looked at her to elaborate. "Dad has been teaching said chode karate. Plus, if you wanna get on his good side, maybe attacking his only student isn't the way to go."

Demetri pat Emmy's leg, nodding along. "She's right. Don't listen to Eli."

"It's Hawk," the boy replied in a snappy tone. 

"Yeah, whatever," Demetri rolled his eyes. "The fact is, Sam's given you no reason not to trust her."

Miguel's eyes flickered before nodding. "Yeah, I guess you're right.

"See?" Emmy placed her head onto his shoulder. "Told you not to worry."

He hummed, and she felt him lean his head on top of hers. Emmy nearly jumped from the contact. 

Miguel was so confusing. 

"Oh! That little bitch!" Emmy heard Aisha say, and she quickly lifted her head up, causing Miguel's to go up too, and turned to her female friend. 

"What? What is it?"

"You know that video I posed of me breaking that board?"

"Yeah," Emmy frowned. "That shit was cool. Why? Did someone say something?"

 Aisha just seethed, and handed off her phone to her. Emmy quickly grabbed it, seeing that the posts comment section was pulled up. Her eyes went to a specific comment. 

Impressive...can't believe that belt made it around ur waist.

Emmy's jaw dropped. "That fucking bitch." She then turned back to Aisha, and handed her the phone back. "Do you want me to do something? I know stuff, you know. Sam doesn't know how to lower her volume when she's on FaceTime."

"Or, how about we kidnap her and have my boy Rico tattoo "bitch" on her face?" Hawk also suggested. 

"Oh," Emmy tilted her head back to look at him. "Is Rico the cute one who works at the front desk?"

"You're thinking of Trevor," Hawk corrected after he thought for a bit. "And don't worry, I asked about you and he thinks you're pretty."

Emmy let out a giggle, not noticing the look on Miguel's face as she looked away from him. "We should totally bring her in."

"Have some class, Em," Demetri looked at her from the corner of his eye, his face scrunching in disgust. 

"Hey! If I wanna go and talk to a cute guy, then I will. Plus, we can give Bitch Blonde some payback. Everyone and their mother knows that she needs a serious reality check."

"Wait, wait, wait," Aisha stopped the side conversation and showed them her phone. 

"Yasmine's throwing a birthday party at the canyon later?" Miguel read it the story aloud. 

"V.I.P. only?" Emmy read next, her eyes squinting. 

"Not if we strike first," Aisha gave her a knowing look. 

Emmy lifted her head and made eye contact with her. Her head tilted with interest, and a smile grew on her face. "You are just graced with the most genius ideas."

✸

"Is he seriously still trying to call her?" Emmy asked as she placed her hand onto the chip shelf and gazed outside the store window. Miguel was stood outside with his phone pressed against his ear. "It's been, like, five tries already."

Aisha looked up briefly from trying to select a few bag of chips. She let out a snort before going back to look. "He is so hopelessly in love."

Emmy whipped around. "What? He's in love with Sam?"

The Robinson girl lightly furrowed her eyebrows, looking at her weirdly. "I mean, it's kinda obvious. He's, like, obsessed with her. And I don't why you're asking me. He talks to you about this stuff."

Emmy just nervously chuckled, ducking her head down and grabbed a random bag of chips. "Yeah. It's just, being in love is a big thing."

"It is," Aisha agreed with a sigh. "I wonder how Sam feels."

"You and everyone else," Emmy grumbled lowly, her voice only being audible to herself.

"Em!"

Her head snapped up, and her eyes landed on Hawk who was waving her over. He was stood in front of the cashier, a case of beer placed on top of the counter. 

"Yeah?" she responded back. 

"Can you come here for a second?"

"Sure..." she walked away from the chip aisle, looking hesitant as she arrived by her best friend. "What's up?"

"This..." Hawk wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Is my sister in law."

"Your sister in what now?" her voice dropped. She let out a silent yelp as she felt a jab in her spine, causing her to straighten up and let out a laugh. "Yes! I am his sister in law."

"Ohh," the man behind the register nodded. "Married to your sister?"

Emmy decided to have fun since Hawk had just decided to spring this on her. She let out a scoff like laugh, and waved him off. "No. My brother."

From the corner of her eye, she could see Hawk whip his head to her, eyes wide. "What?" 

She struck her pinky into his lower spine, causing him to straighten up and smile. "Y ⎯ yeah. Her brother...is my husband."

"They are the cutest," Emmy let out a faux giggle. "6 years strong. They even adopted a boy. He's right there!"

She turned around, and pointed to a clueless Bert who looked up at them innocently. She spun back around to the blank cashier, and placed a hand on her heart. "Isn't he precious?"

"Why don't you go check on your brother?" Hawk immediately said, unwrapping his arm from her and practically shoved her towards the door. 

She gave a sarcastic smile, but when she turned around, she rolled her eyes and walked out of the store. 

Miguel looked up from his phone at the sound of the door opening, and softened at the sight of Emmy. "Hey."

"Hey," she replied, standing beside him. She glanced down at his phone, seeing his text messages to Sam pulled up. "Still no luck?"

"No," he sighed, scrolling up so she could read the rest of them. "What if she's with him, or what if she's ignoring me?"

Emmy smiled sadly at him. "I do know that Robby's at the house right now."

"So both then," he nodded, shutting off his phone and stuffed it into his pocket. 

"Mig, look," Emmy moved closer to him, her elbow bumping into his. "This party is the perfect time to not think about Sam. You shouldn't be putting in this much effort to talk to her when she's not."

"I'm just scared that things are gonna end because she's too scared to introduce me to her dad," Miguel leaned his head back against the window of the store. "You know, last night, I wished that maybe when she found out that her dad didn't like Cobra Kai, she would've broken things off. Maybe things wouldn't be so complicated."

"Relationships are complicated," Emmy softly laughed. "Feelings are weird. You can like someone so much and not even think about the consequences of what could happen."

He turned his head to her, eyebrows lightly pinched together. "Really? You think that's how she feels?"

"Yeah," Emmy said after a moment. "How she feels."

There was single moment of tension that swept them, and Emmy felt the air become a bit...awkward. She was staring straight ahead, and she could feel Miguel's gaze burning into the side of her head. 

Was he catching on? Had she made it too obvious? 

"You know," Miguel began again. "Sam mentioned that you said that you liked someone from Cobra Kai."

Emmy snapped her head to him. "She said what?"

He nonchalantly shrugged. "Yeah. She wanted to know if I knew. But then I realized that you never talked about that. Wanna tell me?"

She cracked a smile, looking away from him. "Maybe one day. If it ever goes anywhere, then you'll know."

Miguel had an unreadable expression on his face, but nodded. "All right. I better be the first."

Emmy snorted. "Of course you will."

There was another moment of silence between the two before it was broken by the sound of the door bell dinging. They both straightened up, turning to see an excited looking Hawk holding up cases of beer, and Aisha and Demetri each holding a bag that was filled with other bottles. 

"Party time!" Hawk exclaimed, letting out a loud cheer. 

Emmy couldn't help but laugh at him, grabbing one of the beer cases. "Party time!"

✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! you guys you don't understand miguel and emmy like i do

what could have been </3