COBRA KAI | AFTERMATH
season three, episode one

〔 ROSYLN 〕
━━ bon iver                  

❝aren't we just terrified?❝

             AFTER THE FIGHT THAT broke in the school, everything in Willow's life became different.

               When, one day, Sean Froud turned out to be the one, who was supposed to pick her up from the hospital, she didn't know what was really happening, but when his car turned out to park in front of some unknown house in the Valley, she finally understood. That was what he meant by her not getting on her mom's nerves anymore — living with him instead. She was naive thinking that he would understand her and help her.

               However, even though she still couldn't believe how the man could have such a rich house when he literally borrowed some money from her some days earlier, she didn't argue with him. She didn't have any strength for that.

               She was mostly sitting in her room, doing as many things as she could to express the way she was feeling and stop thinking about the incident that happened.

               When she wasn't home, it was clear that she was visiting Miguel in the hospital, bringing with herself all the new letters she wrote every time she felt as if she was at the bottom. She believed that one day, when the boy would wake up, he'd know what to do with them.

               Besides everything, she mostly felt like a prisoner in Sean's house. Even when he wasn't there, there was always the older lady that lived some houses away, checking on her every hour, trying to watch her every move and forcing her to respond in some way. She couldn't, though — Willow's conversations with people ended up saying good morning or goodbye.

               And the time passed really quickly, so she was pretty much in surprise when she realized that two weeks had passed since everything happened.

               She didn't have much contact with anyone from her close people. Her mom and her brother often messaged her, telling her every time about her friends coming to their apartment and asking about her, but always getting the reply that she moved in to her father. Therefore, she never really answered them with more than a few words.

               After the situation with Tanner, she brought herself to the state when she couldn't even trust people anymore.

               Her situation with her friends was similar. Their every call and message was ignored by her for hours, and when she finally answered, the answer was never something that satisfied them.

               She pushed every person that cared about her away, and she felt selfish for not even feeling bad because of that.

               And another situation was that she needed someone else than Sean around. She needed Johnny, who didn't even answer her calls ever since what happened. Who didn't even show up in the hospital. Who didn't even try to talk to her. He promised her to be there every time she would need it, but he wasn't there. Even when she someday knocked on the door of his apartment, he didn't answer or open the door for her.

               And because of that, she felt completely lost and alone with her own burden. She lost everyone she loved, and she was the one to blame for that.

               At the moment when someone knocked several times into the door of her new room, she stayed quiet. She sat on the chair close to the window, having her legs pulled to herself as she watched the cars that drove past her house.

               She wasn't sure how much time passed until she heard someone clear her throat behind her. When she slowly turned around, her snort gaze met the figure of her mother. By those two weeks, she got pretty much used to reacting to people without any emotion.

               She couldn't get herself to smile, laugh or even snort. She felt as if someone had washed away every feeling that had ever been inside her.

               "Hello, sweetie. Your dad must've left early, so I decided to visit you with Charlie. He's been really worried about you lately," Adelaide spoke and scanned her daughter's face carefully to see any emotion in it, but it wasn't there. With that, a quiet sigh escaped her lips before she continued. "It's been weeks and you haven't talked at all about what happened in the school fight." she stated, her face softening with every single word.

               Willow blinked two times before she looked at her hands, starting to play with her rings in nervousness.

               "Are you sure you don't want Blair or any of your friends to visit? I bet they'd like to hear how you're doing from you," Adelaide suggested, but got a small shake of the girl's head in response. "Okay. Do you want Charlie to come here?" she asked another question, but got the exact same answer as earlier.

               Willow felt small with her mom's gaze on her. She couldn't glance at her for more than a few seconds. The image of Adelaide always reminded her about her crying along with Carmen in front of her hospital room every day.

               "I'm there for you any time you need it, you know that, right?" the blonde woman questioned and Willow gave her a nod, then tensed up when she felt the woman wrap her arms around her. Her mom sensed it straight away, so she smiled sadly and pulled away before remembering something else. "I know that what happened to you is really traumatizing, so don't be scared to tell your father that you're still not ready to come back to school, all right? Maybe you don't see it right now, but we have your best interests at heart." and after that, she left the girl's room.

               Willow felt herself flinching at the last sentence, because that was exactly what Johnny had told her once. Still, he wasn't there when she needed him. He wasn't anywhere.

               Willow didn't know how much time she laid on her bed, but probably pretty long, because when her eyes slowly opened, she could hear her phone buzz at the sudden incoming call from Blair. She looked at the screen for a few seconds, hesitating before she decided to finally pick the call up. She held her breath when she suddenly heard silence, which was later replaced by a voice she knew very well.

               "Hey, baby. I know you didn't really want to talk the last time I called, but I and the others are really worried about you," the Johnson girl explained, her voice being extremely calm. "I understand you and I understand why it's so hard for you to talk about what happened, but I also know that sometimes letting everything out of yourself is helping a lot. I might be bad at comforting people, but I'm a great listener," she declared and Willow exhaled.

               Just then, she heard a knock on the doors, which after a second were opened by Blair and Demetri, who walked inside the room and hesitantly took their places on the edge of the girl's bed, sad expressions appearing on their faces as they saw the state she was still in.

               "I'm sorry for bringing him here, but he and Hawk were bugging me all night about you. And he's definitely a much better talker than I am," Blair apologized and the violet-haired girl gave her a small nod before glancing at the Alexopoulos boy, who sent the Johnson a suspicious look before turning to Willow again. "I'm funnier, though," she muttered quietly, him blinking in surprise after hearing that.

               "No, you're — "

               "Shut up. So, we know that those weeks were really hard for you and we also know that some people prefer to deal with their problems alone, but we can't stand seeing you like that and we know that you probably don't see it right now, but maybe talking would help you in making you feel better," the dark blonde announced, looking at the violet-haired girl in hope.

               Willow looked away from the two and blinked several times, trying to push away all the memories from the past weeks. She was standing between the desire to finally tell someone about her feelings, and the fear of being not understood.

               "Or, I can struggle a little and watch the High School Musical with you two," the Alexopoulos boy added, nudging the Froud girl with his shoulder.

               "Why are you doing this?" Willow spoke quietly, the two frowning in confusion. She glanced at them and sighed. "Why are you still trying to help me? I abandoned you, I bailed on you. If I wouldn't let Tanner attack me, Miguel would never pay attention to me and end up in a coma. It was all because of me. I should be the one, who's sorry. Not you." she said under one breath.

               Blair shook her head, "That's not true. It's not your fault, Wills. Any of this is not your fault. Those, who did this to us are the ones to blame," she explained. "And Miguel . . . he cares about you. He would always find you, even if it wasn't because of Tanner. God, I can't believe he turned out to be such a psycho," she said the last sentence with a feeling of guilt.

               "I always knew he was a psycho. I mean . . . the haircut?" 

               Hearing Demetri's words, a small smile showed on Willow's lips. Seeing that, the two did a high-five behind their backs, and then laughed together.

               "I can't even turn on the TV, because I'm scared that the first thing I'll see will be his face. He's like my worst nightmare. I — I still feel his touch on myself. I still hear his voice in my head. And I can't stop it," Willow suddenly said, making Demetri's and Blair's face drop.

               It was the truth — even though Sean acted very cold towards her and her family, he still had his past self underneath, so every time the news about the school fight came on the TV, he always turned it off so Willow wouldn't have to see it. Especially when it came to Tanner Sage, who was finally caught by the police.

               "I'm sorry, I — I didn't mean to scare you guys,"

               "You didn't, Frills. Come on," the brunette boy replied and pulled the two girls into a group hug. "Don't tell anyone that I almost cried here, okay?" he whispered into their group hug.

               "We won't," Willow answered.

               Blair blinked in confusion, "We won't?"

〘 ˚₊‧꒰ა 🎀 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ 〙

               ANOTHER THING ABOUT Willow Froud was that she hated returning to socializing with people after so much time learning how to deal without them.

               And so, the next day, when she stood in the school's entrance, being checked by the security, she was feeling really strange. When she reassured her dad that she was starting to get fully over the school fight, she obviously lied. Just like she did with the others. A shiver ran down her skin as she started wondering why other people could take everything differently, but she couldn't.

               At the thought of Miguel Diaz, she felt numb. Completely numb.

               When the security man gave her her bag back, she quickly slung it over her shoulder and took a few steps forward. She then stopped and looked around, swallowing the lump in her throat, already catching the differences between the last day she was in the building.

               Nothing was the same.

               Willow's green eyes darted between a few people before they froze at the Moskowitz boy, who was already looking at her. His lips twitched slightly when he saw how much she changed by those two weeks. She didn't have this happy expression on her face anymore — she seemed to be washed out of feelings.

               Then he frowned. She was wearing a ponytail and the Willow Froud he knew hated styling her hair. She always preferred keeping it loose.

               She always cared about the way she looked, but yet, today she looked as if she was there by force. And she probably was. That was what he thought.

               "Got something to say?" as soon as Mitch spoke to the Miyagi-Do's that suddenly showed in front of them, Hawk glanced away from the girl, but not for too long, because his eyes were flickering towards her within every second that passed.

               He missed her.

               He missed seeing her smile, her laugh. He even missed the times when she could yell at him every time he did something wrong.

               He missed everything that was happening before Willow Froud suddenly started ignoring him. Him and single every person from her close circle.

               "Hey, Frills!" Demetri called out the violet-haired girl as soon as counselor Blatt separated them and the Cobra Kai's. Willow blinked and a sigh of relief escaped her lips when she saw the boy. She felt pretty lost with everyone else around. "Weren't you supposed to stay at home for at least one more day?" he questioned, frowning.

               Just then, Willow's eyes fell on the very familiar railing. She felt her breath fasten up as soon as she scanned it and the image of Miguel falling showed in front of her eyes once more. She flinched when the Alexopoulos boy snapped his fingers in front of her face, waking her from her temporary trance immediately.

               "Frills?"

               "Where's Blair?" she asked, panicking. He narrowed his eyes and slightly raised his hands in surrender. "I — I can't do this. I need to see Miguel. I'm so sorry," she announced.

               "Frills, but — "

               She interrupted him, shaking her head immediately, "Please, tell Blair that I'm sorry," she whispered and turned around, making her way towards the exit.

               She really couldn't do this.

               The people whispering, the memories, all the stares and voices. It was too much for her.

〘 ˚₊‧꒰ა 🎀 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ 〙

               ❝EVERYONE KEEPS TELLING me that you'd want me to finally move one from what had happened, but I just can't. I feel as if I didn't do enough to save you, and I'm sorry because of that, Miggy," Willow said out loud, while writing the same words on the piece of paper that was placed on her notebook. "Today was the first day of school, and honestly? It was really shitty. The security is everywhere, people are whispering around and I just can't walk past those damn stairs and act like nothing happened," she continued, biting her lips as she glanced over at the boy's face.

               "I'm really sorry for not visiting you that often, but lately I've been feeling really torn apart. After all, you're like my pretty much annoying brother and the thought of losing you is not helping anything at all," she declared, and looked at the paper again. "I need you to know that even if you're in a coma right now, I'll always be there for you. No matter where you are right now, and no matter how hard it is for us both at the moment. I promise, when you wake up, I'll bring you the best food you could ever eat, and I'll finally stop yapping so much about Harry Styles or One Direction. At least I'll try," the last words she added were quieter, and she laughed through her tears. 

               "You can do this, Miggy, you're the champ. You just — you just need to fight this. I know you can do this," she squeezed the boy's hand, placing the note on the table next to his bed. She stood up and then kissed Miguel's forehead, a small smile appearing on her pinky lips. "I love you."

               And with those words, she left his room, wiping the tears from her face.

✹ —— nat speaks!

this chapter's kinda sad, im sorry 😓😓

hope the gif cheered you guys up a little

and the photo too