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The summer after their ninth year was already going perfectly. Sure, Johnny had finally beaten Bobby during sparring and seemed to be on his way to becoming Sensei’s golden boy, but Bobby wasn’t as broken about that as the others had expected. He’d gotten yelled at for not fighting hard enough from Kreese (predictable) and Dutch had later told him, “You gotta take back your title! You’re older, are you really going to let Johnny just take it?!”
And no, Bobby wouldn’t just roll over. That wasn’t the Cobra Kai way! But he had never minded not being the best. The fact that he’d held Kreese’s top spot for so long had been shocking but going from the number one champion to the number two just didn’t bother Bobby. It was probably because of his father’s words, always trying to instill that just as there was always someone worse than you, there was always someone or something better than you too. It kind of conflicted with Sensei’s teachings and Bobby was sure that if he ever told Kreese those words, he’d be yelled at for being weak and merciful and kicked out.
Thankfully the topic hadn’t come up though and Bobby was fine in keeping it that way. Besides, having long ago accepted his father’s words, it made his friendship with Johnny and the others all the stronger as he always looked forward to see who beat who and who’s kicks got higher rather than just getting angry at being beat.
For now though, they didn’t have practice until four. Johnny and Dutch had planned something fun for them to do in town before then. Typically Bobby, Tommy, and Johnny shared a ride into town from one of their parents, or more recently rode together on their bikes since they lived closest together. Tommy was already in town with his parents though, leaving Bobby to ride his bike over to Johnny’s house at around ten.
Once there, Bobby noted that Johnny wasn’t out yet, the garage door was closed, and a quick look through the window showed the car was gone. Johnny wouldn’t have left without him so Bobby decided to seize the opportunity to give him a surprise since his parents were probably gone. Freaking out the others was no fun, especially Jimmy and Dutch. Despite being in Cobra Kai, Jimmy was just too easily freaked. Dutch was the opposite. When they’d snuck in to see Alien in middle school, he hadn’t flinched once and when the credits had begun to roll, had simply muttered, “That was scary?”
Johnny and Tommy on the other hand were right in the sweet spot and when Bobby was feeling a bit impish, he liked to challenge himself and see which he could spook first.
Knocking the kickstand of his bike down, Bobby left his bike in the driveway and headed around back to see if there was a way to get in. As expected, Johnny’s window was open though there wasn’t any music playing from it. Bobby wondered if he had already headed downstairs but a quick sign of movement and blonde hair proved him wrong.
A wicked grin, spread across Bobby’s lips as he headed over to the lattice panels that led almost too perfectly up to Johnny’s window. In the past, he’d used that route to sneak into Johnny’s room a few times, along with Johnny occasionally sneaking out. Of course, the original structure had eventually broken under the strain but Johnny’s mom had simply had it replaced and better reinforced meaning that Bobby didn’t have to worry about suddenly falling flat on his ass.
He climbed up, putting the swift skills of a cobra that he’d learned to good use. Ready for anything, Bobby got to the open window and peaked his head over the sill.
Bobby was ready to jump through and hide somewhere to scare Johnny-or perhaps just jump through and give his friend a heart attack then and there if he was still in his room. He was ready for anything. At least that’s what he’d thought.
Instead, he found himself slowly pulling himself further up as he looked in. Johnny was sat on the edge of his bed. He was just staring at the floor, shoulders slumped as he held an icepack against the back of his head. When Johnny still seemed frozen, Bobby finally risked speaking.
“Are you—”
“Jesus Christ Bobby!”
He winced.
“What did I tell you about crawling through my window!?” Johnny yelled. He finally stood up, advancing like he was ready to push Bobby back. To keep that from happening, Bobby quickly scrambled in and found himself standing face to face with a fuming Johnny. “Why are you even here? What the hell—”
“Plans, with Dutch and the others,” Bobby quickly interrupted. “You do…remember that. Don’t you? And then practice at four?”
Johnny’s face relaxed in confusion. His eyes slowly blinked.
“Ok, you clearly don’t remember,” sighed Bobby. He glanced down to the dripping icepack. “What happened? You get hit so hard you got amnesia?”
Bobby laughed, trying to lighten the mood, but Johnny’s eyes only avoided his as his face remained perfectly smooth.
“Hey, sorry. I was just trying—”
“I remember. Ok? Let’s just go,” Johnny bit back. “Dutch will be pissed if we’re late.”
Bobby doubted he’d find out what happened and was already prepared to avoid the topic. However, as Johnny turned away, Bobby realized his joke had been more on the money than he’d thought.
“Shit Johnny! You’re bleeding!”
“What-god damn it.”
Johnny moved like he was ready to make a mad dash for his bathroom but his steps quickly turned wobbly and Bobby grabbed him by the arm. Now that he was looking, there was a good bit of blood on the icepack too and Bobby quickly pushed Johnny back to his bed. When he tried to stand up, Bobby just shot him a glare that he’d definitely learned from Kreese and Johnny reluctantly stayed put.
Bobby had been over often enough to know where the first aid kit was and quickly went to find it. Thankfully, Johnny was still there when Bobby got back. Kicking off his shoes, Bobby hopped onto the bed to better see the injury and parted Johnny’s hair.
“Shit! What happened?”
“I grabbed the candelabra from the foyer and slammed it against my head. What do you think?” growled Johnny.
“Don’t tell me you fell,” sighed Bobby.
“I tripped. Big deal. It happens!” Johnny tried to pull away but Bobby roughly pulled him back as he started to clean up the blood.
“And what? Did you try and do a running start? Make sure to jump up and land the back of your head on some corner? This is deep as shit. You need stitches—”
“No! No way—”
“It’s still bleeding!”
“I said no!”
“Johnny, you can’t—”
“We have practice today! What if it makes me late! I can’t! Sensei wouldn’t allow it—”
“We can’t just leave it!”
“Then you stitch it up!”
“Johnny, are you fucking kidding me! No, hell no!”
“I’m not going to the hospital and you want this fixed, well then do it yourself!”
“I-I-I-you know what? Fine! I will!” Bobby yelled as he jumped to his feet.
Johnny clearly didn’t expect that but there was no backing down now, especially since it was a better option then just doing nothing. There was a needle and thread in the first aid kit so Bobby muttered, “All we need is alcohol. Right? To like, keep it clean or something? I think I saw that in a movie. Your step dad still keeps the liquor in that one cabinet right?”
Bobby waited for a nod of acknowledgement. Instead, he got a flinch.
For a moment, Bobby just continued to stare as he silently decided it was probably best that he was the only one here. The others would have been too dumb to catch onto any of the signs Johnny was giving off and Dutch would have just made this far worse.
Bobby slowly sat back down. “Your…your step-dad did that?”
Johnny didn’t say anything. It was answer enough.
“I didn’t know he—”
“This was one time!”
Bobby let out a tired sigh. God he wished Johnny was more forward about shit beyond bragging. This was like pulling teeth. “But not the first time he’s screwed with you, huh?”
Silence passed until Bobby sighed again and murmured, “I’ll get that whiskey.”
It didn’t take long and once he was back in Johnny’s bedroom, he went to work as quickly as possible. There was a lot of wincing and cries of pain, both taking swigs from the bottle as Bobby tried to keep his hands as steady as possible. Thankfully Johnny had kept the icepack on the area long enough to somewhat numb it but it only made it partially easier.
“What did you even hit your head on?” muttered Bobby, deciding an easy question was the right way to start this.
“Kitchen table.”
“Like the corner? That could have killed you man!”
“I didn’t think it was that bad,” Johnny defended.
“Well what did your mom think?”
“It didn’t start bleeding right away. And she didn’t see.”
The way Johnny said it told Bobby there was something to latch onto there. “But she was involved?”
Johnny was silent a moment longer but fatigue, pain, and the alcohol was clearly loosening him up. He mumbled, “She wanted to try something new, change up the living room for once. Sid, he-he said some shit about her! Untrue, awful shit and…”
Despite trailing off, the picture was growing in Bobby’s head. Johnny had defended his mom and had gotten hit in response. Whether or not his step-dad had meant to really hurt him, Bobby wasn’t sure. But from the way Johnny was talking, Bobby could tell this kind of relationship wasn’t anything new.
The past started to bubble up as Bobby realized he’d barely met Sid. He’d always thought it was because the guy was just busy but now…he wondered if Johnny had purposely made plans and done things around Sid so as to avoid any of his friends meeting the man. Now that Bobby really thought of it, Johnny had always avoided talking about Sid like the plague and talk of fathers had always caused Johnny to distance himself from the discussion.
How long had this been going on? How long had Johnny been hiding it?
Guilt rose up in Bobby at not noticing sooner that his friend was hurting. At the same time, he was again thankful the others weren’t there. Not that he was handling it great, he really should be forcing Johnny to go to a hospital and not stitching up the wound himself, but the rest of them would have just caused more problems and Johnny probably would have hurt himself again out of anger.
As it stood, somehow Bobby managed to finish the shit stitching and clean up the remainder of the blood. Johnny left to wash the rest out of his hair and when he came back, Bobby clearly saw the mask back in place, the smug smile ready to impress and knowing that he was on top.
Bobby supposed it was good that Johnny wasn’t letting this drag him down but still…
“Wish I’d been here. I would have beaten the shit out of him for you.”
That earned a smaller, softer smile. One that said thanks but also said, it wouldn’t have helped anything. Bobby doubted they’d discuss this again, at least not anytime soon, but he hoped Johnny would at least remember that he had his back, even if he was unwilling to talk about this shit.
As they made their way downstairs, it was clear Johnny was still a bit wobbly and Bobby added, “Let’s just ride my bike. It’ll give you a break so you’ll be better rested for class this afternoon too.”
“But how would we explain it?”
“We can just say your shit step-dad ran over yours. It’ll also explain why we’re late,” Bobby grinned as they left through the back door and went around the house. “Come on, no one will think twice.”
“Ok…but exactly how am I going to sit on it?”
“Uh…”
It took a few tries but eventually Johnny was perched on the very front edge of the seat. Bobby got behind him, standing up as he pushed off the pedals and kept them balanced.
“Are you trying to fucking hold my hand?”
“Stop complaining or I’m driving us straight into a car,” muttered Bobby. The laughter that came as a response actually had Bobby grinning as it seemed Johnny was starting to feel more like himself.
Once they met up with their friends, no one questioned their reasoning and Johnny managed to stay on his own two feet the entire time. Once they were at practice, Bobby went a little easier than normal. He was coy about it so that Sensei didn’t get too suspicious, but he could tell Johnny picked up on it from the look of thanks in his eyes.
Bobby just shot him a small smile when Kreese wasn’t looking. Like hell he was going to ruin Johnny’s track record on a day like this. No, he was sure Johnny wouldn’t always be on top. Like his dad had always said, there was always someone worse and better than you. But if Bobby got the chance to beat Johnny, then it would be with both of them on equal grounds.
He quickly wiped the smile away as Kreese turned back around, but the smile still managed to peak out between him and Johnny throughout the rest of the class.
Johnny woke with a start. His mind was filled with memories and bits of his dream. It was muddled and the event had been so long ago that Johnny couldn’t say for sure what had been real and what had been made up in the dream.
He brought one hand up to feel the crude scar at the base of his skull. That part was at least true enough.
The night before had been hard. Johnny had drank way too much from guilt, disappointment, confusion…perhaps even a little bit of fear. He was man enough to admit that now. He wasn’t sure what to do with Miguel and Hawk, with Cobra Kai.
And what the hell was he supposed to do with Kreese? The man had been more than a teacher. He’d been like a father to him, more so than Sid and it had taken thirty-four years for him to stand up to his step-father.
As Johnny got up and headed to his kitchen, he rubbed again at the scar. Bobby…he hadn’t thought about him or his fellow Cobra Kai friends in a while. The last time he’d spoken with Dutch had been in high school. The others had disappeared not long afterwards.
Well, except for Bobby. When Johnny’s mother had died, Bobby had shown up for the service and funeral. It had meant more to Johnny than Bobby could have known. Being surrounded by people who had never cared about his mom, never cared about him, had never questioned Sid, had always avoided looking deeper, none of them had cared.
Except Bobby who’d gone out of his way to see a friend despite Johnny not even contacting him.
Bobby… Johnny had no idea where he was. Only that he’d left the valley a long time ago. Yet if there was anyone Johnny trusted in how to stop Kreese, it would be him.
Perhaps his students could help him find out where he was. On that facebook thing or one of the other million website things that the kids seemed to be in to.
Johnny wasn’t sure but the thought still gave him a newfound hope. Besides, he’d been meaning to talk to Miguel about what had happened at the tournament and this would hopefully act as a good segue. Johnny got off his ass, grabbed his coat, and headed over to Miguel’s apartment.
It was time to get to work.