Chapter Text
Moving out of Riverside didn’t sound that bad, honestly. It probably would have to anyone else, who, you know, actually had friends they would miss, but, when your moms sat you down to explain they’d both been transferred, it didn’t seem like such a terrible thing to you and Miguel who pretty much only had each other. It’s not like people hated you or anything- not that either of you knew of, of course- but more like you were sort of invisible.
Your feelings about this would have been way different if you weren’t both going.
Miguel seemed to be set on using the opportunity to make more friends, to become… something other than invisible. You hoped for the same, more for Miguel than for yourself, in all honesty, because you understood. Miguel liked people, a lot. And you knew it wasn’t like he didn’t like being friends with you, but rather that he wished people liked him as much as he liked them. You couldn’t help but wish you’d find people you belonged with too.
Reseda was what you expected. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just the simplest, smallest possible 3-bedroom spaces all crammed up, with the neighbors consisting of almost exclusively big families with a bunch of small children and old people living on their own.
At least you had the luck to live next door from each other.
Miguel walked up to you, pretending not to struggle carrying three cardboard boxes at the same time. He stopped right by your side as you stood in the middle of the parking lot, a couple boxes in your hands too, looking at your new home. “Are you okay? You’re just standing there.”
You were taken out of your thoughts. “Yeah. It’s just different. You?”
He just nodded, but seemed very unsure about it. “Just different.”
“Don’t steal my answer!”
“Don’t make your answers so steal-able!”
You rolled your eyes and the two of you walked towards your new places, your front door only a couple feet from each other. You stopped right in front of them. 109, 108. “Okay. An hour?”
“To unload everything? That’s not enough.”
You shrugged. “Make it enough then.”
Miguel sighed. “Alright. Hang on,” he balanced the boxes on one hand, grabbing his phone in his back pocket with the other and looking at the time. “Okay it’s 10:23. 11:23 and we can find somewhere to eat.”
“Fine. But I’m gonna be faster than you.”
“You wish! Alright 1, 2, 3!” He exclaimed, quickly making his way in.
“That’s not fair! You didn’t warn me!”
“11:23!” Was all he yelled from inside, and you made your way into your own place too. You didn’t run, instead taking in the sight of the living room, slowly putting down the boxes you were still holding.
“You’re not even trying!” Miguel said, and you turned around to find him leaning on your doorframe.
“I gotta set the mood! Put on some music.” You walked up to him, and the two of you started walking slowly to the u-haul truck your moms had rented.
“Yeah your mom’s gonna love the distraction.”
“You’re just mad you didn’t think of it before.”
“Yeah, whatever. But play something cool.”
“I mean I don’t know what you find cool. Could be the Peppa Pig soundtrack.”
Miguel just laughed at what you said, and you both grabbed more boxes, almost as if accidentally entering a box-balancing tournament where the only members were the two of you.
“You know you can talk and carry the boxes at the same time?”
“That’s what I told him, yaya!”
“Hey!”
Yaya rolled her eyes and went away. The two of you did the same.
It definitely felt like less than an hour before Miguel’s alarm started ringing, signaling it was 11:23 already. As soon as you heard the sound of it, you stopped everything you’d been doing, grabbing your phone, which was still playing music, as quickly as you could, and ran out of the apartment to the parking lot.
Miguel did the same, getting there at the same time as you. “I won!”
“I got here first!”
“You literally ran because of my alarm!”
“Not my fault you can’t run!”
“Tia, tell her! Did I not get here first?”
“That’s not fair! You’re completely biased! Carmen!”
“You know what I’m gonna say, Miggy. She was faster.”
“He did,” your mom replied, talking to you.
“Bullshit!” Miguel yelled, laughing as he did so.
“Language!” Both your moms and yaya yelled at him at the same time, and he put his arms up in surrender, making you laugh. “Sorry.”
“Hey can we go find something to eat?”
“Can’t you order something?” Your mom asked.
“We just wanted to walk around,” Miguel replied.
Your moms shared a look before nodding.
Carmen sighed. “Okay. But no walking around too much, you’ll get lost.”
“There’s something called GPS, mom.”
“I don’t trust those things,” Yaya said, in all seriousness, and you and Miguel couldn’t stop yourselves from laughing at it.
Carmen grabbed her wallet and handed you some money for the food. “Be back soon! We need to eat too!”
“Yes mom!” Miguel turned to you as you walked away. “You think there’s like a grocery store around here?”
“I mean, probably. Oh my God but I’d die for some gas station pizza right now.”
“How does it feel having terrible taste?”
“I don’t have bad taste! I’m sorry you’re too fancy for gas station pizza.”
“It’s like 90 percent grease and 10 percent cardboard!”
“Like the burgers you like aren’t like worm meat or some shit?”
“I don’t know what you mean, worm meat is delicious,” he said, smiling, and you couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh my God that’s disgusting-”
“You brought it up!”
“Oh my God how many worms do you think you’d need for a single hamburger? They’re so tiny.”
“The image of worm hamburgers being made will never leave my brain now.”
“You’re very welco- oh look!” You saw a grocery store across the street. “It’s so close! We don’t even have to walk a lot to get here!”
“Lets see if they have disgusting pizza.”
. . .
Miguel laid on your bed, his head propped up by his hands as he watched you unpack and hang the last of your clothes. He wasn’t any help at all but you liked the company. “Oh I forgot to tell you! I met another neighbor today.”
“Was it another old lady?”
Miguel laughed. “No, not this time. It was some guy. Kinda rude, possibly racist?”
You stopped on your tracks. “Did he say something to you?”
“Oh I just told him we’d just moved in and he might have said something about immigrants but it did look like he’d been having a rough… decade.”
“Uh-huh. Maybe he’s helping build the wall, you know? Probably makes you tired.”
Miguel sighed, but you could see him try to contain a smile. “Shut up.”
. . .
You’d just gotten out of the shower when you heard a knock on the front door, walking up to answer it. You didn’t bother looking into the magic eye, since you were pretty sure you kew who’d be standing on the other side.
“Hey.”
“You know I’m starting to think you’re enjoying this next-door-neighbors thing a little too much.”
“I’m gonna buy yaya some Pepto Bismol. Wanna come?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Is she okay?”
“Yeah she’s just not feeling well.”
“Okay. Let me grab my shoes.” You just grabbed a pair of flip flops, since you were already just wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants, and there was no point on committing to sneakers now, and walked back out in a moment.
Miguel eyed your outfit. “You’re going out like this?”
“What’s wrong with this?”
“You’re gonna be cold.”
“It’s a 5 minute walk, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. But I warned you.”
You did feel a little cold as you walked to the grocery store but you were not letting Miguel know he was right.
“Its him,” Miguel whispered to you as you walked into the store, motioning to a blonde guy by the counter with his head.
“What?”
“The neighbor I met earlier!”
“Oh. Think he saw u-” The man looked over and rolled his eyes at you. He definitely saw you. Miguel walked up to the counter, and you followed along.
“Hola, donde esta el Pepto Bismol?”
The man behind the counter pointed at a shelf right in front of the fridge, and you stood beside the man who was apparently your neighbor as Miguel went to get it.
“Found it,” Miguel told you, holding up the bottle with the pink medicine. The whole situation was incredibly awkward.
“Grandma’s not feeling well,” Miguel explained to the blond man when he looked at him weird.
The response was expected. “Didn’t ask. Come on, what’s spanish for ‘give me my damn slice’?”
Neither of you could contain your laughter when the man in the counter said the man probably had a small dick.
“What did you just say? Hey what’d he say?”
“You don’t wanna know.”
“I know it’s something bad just tell me.”
“He said you have a tiny uh, you know,” Miguel said awkwardly, but at the same time trying not to laugh.
The man’s face was hilarious. “You said I have a tiny wang? Tell him he has a tiny wang.”
“I speak english, asshole.”
“Oh really?” The man grabbed his pizza slice from the counter guys hand, throwing the money for it on the counter. Typical.
“Really nice guy.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh can I just grab a soda?” You asked Miguel, since he was the one paying.
“Yeah sure. Just-”
“No Dr. Pepper, I know!”
As soon as you walked to the fridge, three extremely loud guys walked in, and you hoped to God they wouldn’t talk to you.
And then Miguel made a mistake. “Hey, you guys go to West Valley High right? I think we saw you when we were-” you turned around to see the guys holding a few beer cans and figured out what was going on. The one in the middle was glaring at him. Miguel seemed to realize he made a mistake when the guy behind the counter asked them for their IDs.
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit, they were yelling at him, forcing him to get out of the store. He was still holding the bottle of medicine, neither of you have ever gotten in a fight, what the fuck were you supposed to do?
"Shit, shit, shit.”
One of the guys grabbed the bottle of medicine from Miguel's hands. "Oh does someone have diarrhea? Someone feeling a little sick?"
"They're for my grandma-"
"Heyyy Rhea's got a girlfriend!" Some guy approached you, and you were backed into a wall.
"Rhea! I like that! You're Rhea now." One of the guys laughed, a fist holding Miguel's hoodie collar.
And then he opened the pink bottle. And poured everything over his head.
"Fuck."
The guy that had you cornered seemed to get an idea from that. "Can I have that?" He asked, mockingly, taking the side from your hands, opening it and doing the same his friend had just done to Miguel, dumping it over your head. You could feel it, cold, running down your hair and onto your back. Great. You were gonna get beat up while covered in fucking soda.
"Oh, my God-"
And then Miguel was thrown onto a car. "Fuck-" You walked up to him, past the guy in front of you, but couldn't get there.
"Hey! Not my fucking car! Go fight someone who's actually your size!" It was your neighbor.
"What you gonna do old man?"
"You're really gonna hit a girl?"
"We didn't hit no girl. She spilled some soda over herself. She’s clumsy, am I right?" The guy asked, looking at you.
"Go fuck yourself!"
"Oh she's mouthy-"
He got kicked in the face. By…. well, your neighbor. What the hell was going on?
. . .
“Jesus dude are you okay? I’m sorry they arrested you,” You spoke up when you and Miguel bumped into him the next morning.
“Whatever.”
Miguel walked up to him. “Hey I just- I just wanted to say thank you.”
“Alright. Well, you said it.”
“So last night that was- that was really cool what you did there. Was that like Tae Kwon Do or Jiu Jitsu or MMA or something?”
”It’s Karate. Good old karate.”
“Do you think you could teach us?”
You were not expecting him to ask that. “Us?”
“What? No.”
“What c’mon you know we won’t survive them when school starts. They’re gonna make our lives miserable!”
“No.”
“Look, i-i-if I just knew a little bit of what you know, then I would be fi-”
“Forget it! I don’t do karate anymore, alright? Besides, I need to find a job.”
“You could get a job doing karate. Like open a karate school.”
“It’s called a dojo.”
“You could open your own dojo.”
“Look, I’m not getting into this with you.”
“Alright? I’m not even sure if I’m allowed to be around kids right now. You want my advice? Stop being so annoying. Maybe you won’t get your ass kicked.” With that, he walked away.
“Very promising conversation,” you pointed out, to which Miguel just nodded.
. . .
“Dude no that’s not worth it it’s so far-” You were discussing whether you should go out to eat when your neighbor walked in and interrupted you, approaching you at the parking lot.
“Hey!”
You turned around to face him, sharing a confused look between the two of you.
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Ready for what?” Miguel asked.
“Karate. Look, once you go down this path, there’s no turning back.”
“You’re gonna be our karate teacher?”
“Hey I didn’t agree to-”
“Quiet!” The man yelled, surprising you. “I’m gonna be your sensei. I’m gonna teach you the style of karate that was taught to me. a method of fighting your pussy generation desperately needs. I’m not just gonna teach you how to conquer your fears. I’m gonna teach you how to awaken the snake within you. And once you do that, you’ll be the one who’s feared. You’ll build strength. You’ll learn discipline. And, when the time is right, You’ll strike back.”
You and Miguel shared another look before you spoke up.
“Um. Okay. What’s your name thought?”