"I don't know!" Alexa was getting emotional. Two hours had she been in a tiny room, getting questioned over and over again.

"Your finger prints are all over the gun and you can't tell me how?" the officer asked her in disbelief.

"I told you I found it under her bed but put it back." she wiped her eyes. Talking to people was one thing, getting yelled at was another. But, police? It was different when she knew she wouldn't be able to defend herself against them. "I want my brother."

"And you have no clue where Deanna Castillo is?" he asked her in disbelief.

"No!" Alexa said in return.

"Do you realize how this is gonna look?" the officer lowered his voice to the teary eyed teen. "She bolted and left you here to take the fall for her. Your finger prints are the only other set on here."

"I don't know." she could only cry in return. "I don't know. I don't know."

The door flew open, her head snapping up in hopefulness. One of Demetri's Moms stood there, her lawyer attire on with her briefcase in hand, papers in another. "Excuse me Officer Waltkins but I do hope you realize that you're questioning a minor without a parent present."

"We can't local her mother." he looked af her.

"Oh, well-" she pulled a paper from within the file. "It's a good thing it says right here that her mother isn't her legal guardian. Tyler Castillo is."

"He's in questioning too." the officer looked at her. "I'm doing my job."

"You're failing." she mocked, looking to Alexa. "You can leave until Tyler is prepared to be with her. I need to go over the papers anyways. And uncuff the kid, she's sixteen years old."

Alexa was thankful to have her wrist free, rubbing them slightly as the officer left. Ramona frowned as she set her brief case on the table, kneeling down on Alexas level. "How're you doing, sweetie?"

"I didn't kill anyone." Alexa sniffled as she leaned in and hugged her tightly, giving the first form of safety she could provide her with. "I promise."

"I know you didn't." she pulled back to sit next to her. "Demetri is in there right now. He has proof that you were with him the night your father died. Nowhere near Texas."

"What about the tampering with evidence?" she wiped her eyes and took a sip of the water bottle she was provided. "That's two to ten years in prison."

"They haven't ruled out if that's the murder weapon." Ramona spoke as she held the papers. "I don't know in what right they arrested you in but nothing leads back to you. I have a gun under my bed with mine and my wives finger prints on it, doesn't make either of us murders."

"What if that is the murder weapon?" Alexa swallowed as she looked over. "What happens then?"

Ramona sighed. "We'd go to court and fight in."

Alexa nodded as she sniffled, looking away. She had to laugh at herself. "Demetri is really doing this for me?"

"Miguel called and was panicking. The two of you have pictures together from the night." she said in return, stroking her hair. "I don't know what happened with the two of you, but I hope this can work it out."

The door opened again, the same officer from before looked annoyed. "You're free to go."

"What'd I tell you?" Ramona smiled down at her as Alexa stood up. "Your friends are out front."

As they made it toward the front of the station, Alexa had to run to Hawk, Tory, and Miguel as the four hugged tightly. Tory frowned. "Are you okay? Are you gonna go to jail?"

"I don't know. But, they let me go." Alexa pulled back as she inhaled deeply, her heart hadn't stopped thumping. "It depends if the gun is the murder weapon."

"Should have just gotten rid of it when we found it." Hawk shook his head in disbelief.

"Shhh." Miguel scolded him with a crazy look. "We are in a police station."

"I'm just saying." he defended himself.

Alexa looked back at Demetri, he was with his Mom for a second before she went to the back. "I'll be right back."

The trio watched her hesitantly walk over toward her ex-boyfriend. Demetri took notice of her, checking her out. "So, you're a free woman?"

"For now." she rubbed her sore wrist. "I just wanted to say...thank you, for being my alibi."

He shrugged. "No point in you going to jail for something you didn't do."

"Still." she shrugged, biting the inside of her mouth. "Sorry for dragging you into this."

"Well, to be fair, Miguel actually did." he said in return as she looked up as him. It was hard to stand there and think about hating him. It was hard to think about hating him because he dissed Cobra Kai, stood her up, wasn't there when she needed him. and didn't say he loved her back. He didn't love her back, that was always clear, but she didn't stop loving him overnight. That was even more clear. "You really don't know where your Mom is?"

"No." she lied to him, swallowing. She hated how she was suddenly over powered with the feeling of wanting to get back together just because he did the legal, human decency thing. She hated it, but it was all she was thinking about. "Do you think we could talk soon? When we're not at a police station?"

He seemed taken off guard by her words, her gentle demeanor. "Okay."

Moons party wasn't a place Alexa planned to show up to. Originally, her and Tory were suppose to be staying in her apartment. But, Hawk had texted, livid that Miyagi Do was there, and Alexa and Tory showed up anyways. Word spread quickly about the arrested, lingering eyes and chatter was dedicated to Alexa when she looked around the party.

She met Demetris eye as her heart jumped, walking toward the stairs. She wouldn't have dared to talk to him infront of everyone. Maybe that was Alexas first mistake. Maybe she should have just stayed home.

Maybe, if she had ever loved someone the same way she loved Demetri, she wouldn't have to run back into his arms every single time something bad happened. But, in the end, she never had someone like her the way he did.

"Hi." her voice was gentle when he walked into the room at the end of the hall, the one she texted him that she'd be in. "Enjoying the party?"

He looked around, like he thought this was a big joke. "Not really."

"Me neither." she admitted, despite only being there for a few hours. "Do you wanna sit down with me?"

He did, beside her on the edge of the bed. "My mom can't talk about court stuff with me, but I heard they haven't heard anything about if the gun was the weapon."

"Yeah." Alexa hummed, her hand grabbed his. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he asked. He should have asked for what time.

"Just...you know." she shrugged her shoulders with a sigh. "Thank you for being there for me today."

That's all it boiled down to. Alexa had never experienced a relationship outside of Demetri. He was her first boyfriend, her first kiss, the first boy she truly ever liked fully. It was comforting, knowing someone liked you enough. Even if he didn't love her, he liked her a lot at some point. Alexa knew that, and that's exactly why she put herself in this position.

"What's going on?" Demetri turned to her a little more, his tone matched hers to, possibly, avoid anyone walking in the hallway of hearing.

Alexa turned her head to meet his eyes, not hesitantly as she leaned in and kissed him. He was taken back, far from expecting it. But, he gave in to it. Because, just like her, she was all he'd ever known either. All she'd done, all the pain she caused, it was easy for him to pretend she was the same girl he knew a year ago. That's who he loved, that's why he couldn't tell her he loved her. Because who she was now wasn't the same girl he knew.

Alexas back hit the bed as he leaned over her, her hands were cupped on his face, softly. The bad day was dissolving in her brain as her hands ran along cold, pale skin. Her palms were warm, they always had been, he knew that. But, something about her touch had Demetri lost in his head. He had to remind himself that this wasn't his Alexa. This wasn't the shy, gentle, loving girl that would do anything for him, that would be kind to people she didn't know, that would easily be okay with showing human emotions to the public eye.

This wasn't her. This Alexa was the girl that did nothing when her friends tried to beat him up, the girl that invalidated his feelings of the danger of Cobra Kai, the girl that didn't want anyone to see her gentle side to the public eye so she'd hide it until they were alone. This was the same girl that texted him to meet in a room because she didn't want anyone to see them talking.

Demetri pulled away from her lips, looking down at her. Alexa blinked, her fingers stroked the side of his face as her eyes gave a few blinks. "What's the matter?"

She was so pretty. No matter what she'd done, anyone could admit how pretty she was. The way her hair laid across the bed, her light brown eyes giving a gentle stare, the grazing of her finger tips, the way her shirt hugged her, the way her chest was heaving. It would have been so ease to give into whatever she was wanting from him, about anyone down stairs would have if they were in his position. But, Demetri couldn't. He knew his worth, and he knew hers.

Neither of them deserved to hook up for the first time with someone that had hurt them the most.

"This is a horrible idea." he got off her quickly and stood up. Alexa lingered, sitting up and adjusting her shirt.

"Why?" she looked almost embarrassed, disappointed completely.

"Because, Alexa-" Demetri wasn't annoyed, he was hurt, but his tone was different. "I thought this was over. Like, we were completely broken up."

She didn't say anything, just sat in the guest bedrooms bed and almost waited for him to leave or join her. That was always something they did. He talked, and she waited. "And now you're too ashamed to even speak to me so you text me?"

"I didn't want there too be a fight." she defended herself. "I'm not ashamed!"

"What are you doing? You want to go back and make this a big joke with your friends?" he gapped at her in disbelief. He was good at hiding his anger with her. She'd never even gotten under his skin until Cobra Kai. But, he was hurt too. "Now you want to be around me again?"

"I wanted to be around you, then you stood me up." she looked in disbelief, she still didn't move.

"I told you I was sorry. I didn't mean to forget about your Dad." he thought of the wrong memory.

"You're such an asshole." this time she did get out of the bed. "I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about when we were suppose to meet at the smoothie joint to talk about how awkward things were when you said cool after I said I loved you!"

Demetria sighed as he ran a hand over his face. "Alexa, if you are so mad at me, why did you invite me up here with you?"

"I wish I knew." she snapped as him, finding her jacket she'd taken off. "Doesn't even matter because you don't want to, so i'm gonna go."

"How am I suppose to want to after you sat back and did nothing when your friends attacked me at the mall?" he asked in disbelief before she could leave. "Or the fact that you turned into a complete asshole even before we started having issues?"

"What do you want me to say!" he voice rose his way, throwing her hands around.

"I want you to say why you'd let something like karate change you!" he yelled back at her.

"Karate didn't change me." she looked in disbelief. "It saved me! You'd know that if you'd bother to ask instead of hate all the time."

"Saved you? How can something that made you suddenly hate the word ever save you?" Demetri asked in disbelief as he gapped at her, because he didn't know, no one did, because no one cared enough.

"Doesn't matter." Alexa snapped. After the amount of times she'd tried to tell someone about what happened with Mr.Bryant, and how she was shot down by every single person, she'd given up on thinking it had been a big deal. "I'm leaving."

And she did, colliding with someone as they steadied her. "Oh, sorry."

Robby Keene.

He was the perfect opportunity to get her anger out, to hurt him. But, she didn't. Alexa moved out of the way. "Sorry."

She was gone.

•

kylie speaks

as someone who always
runs back to my ex when
things get hard, i think it's
something that really needs
to be spoken about. this
generation has normalize
hating on girls that run back
to literal red flags, and i'm
not saying that it's okay in
any way, but i felt the need to
portray something that i know
for a fact is a trauma response.

but, being apart of the group
of people that find themselves
going to their ex when bad
stuff happens, i'm trying to
move past something like
that and remind myself that
a moment of comfort is
not worth all the pain him
and i caused each other. if you
have the same issue as alexa and i do, i hear you and i see you. it'll be a process, but all
three of us are gonna work on
moving forward rather then
backwards!