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“What’s gotten into you?” There was a pause after Johnny asked the question.
Robby took a deep breath before responding. “You left me alone with a bunch of kids who may or may not hate me. I’m just supposed to be okay with that.” Robby knew that what he had just told his father was only part of the story. Robby was mad at his dad for leaving him at all. Robby wanted to spend every minute of every day with Johnny. It was the only way that he knew anymore to feel safe. His dad was the one who pulled him out of Cobra Kai. His dad was the one who made his life safe. And when his dad wasn’t there, Robby didn’t feel safe. Period. End scene.
Except, now he knows that that isn’t necessarily true. Other people can make him feel safe too, at least safe enough to function.
Hell, if Miguel can make Robby feel safe, then maybe anyone could, if Robby would let them. The idea was interesting to Robby, but he was distracted when his father spoke again.
“Okay, so maybe I should have let you know that I was going elsewhere, but that doesn’t give you the right to be a little brat,” Johnny said.
Miguel noticed the slight uptick in the speed of Robby’s breathing and glared at Johnny, hoping that the other man would get the message and calm down.
“I didn’t mean to be a brat, Dad. I was just …scared,” Robby told his dad in an attempt to calm the man. And Robby had been scared. The poor kid had had a panic attack for God’s sake. But Johnny wasn’t in the right headspace to listen to reason.
And Johnny didn’t know about the panic attack.
“Scared of what?! I was in the next room over, Robby! It’s not like I brought you here and left you!”
“That’s what it felt like. Like you brought me here and left me,” Robby said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Well, I didn’t! Okay!” The more Robby’s dad raised his voice, the more scared Robby became, but what Robby didn’t understand at the time was that Johnny wasn’t actually angry. He was more concerned about his son’s apparent clinginess and what it might mean for Robby’s health than he was angry. But Johnny didn’t really know how to express his emotions either.
Robby was starting to tremble again and that was when Miguel decided to step in.
Miguel put himself carefully in front of Robby and looked at Johnny. He said, “You need to calm down. Robby had been so scared that he had a panic attack, so you need to calm the fuck down.”
Being spoken to in such a way, particularly by Miguel, captured Johnny’s attention. “A panic attack?” Johnny had witnessed multiple of Miguel’s panic attacks and knew how serious they could be.
“Yeah,” Miguel stated. “And all of your screaming at him for no good reason is going to send him into another.”
Robby was embarrassed when Miguel told his father about the panic attack that he had experienced. Robby was scared that this dad might reject him for having any sort of mental health issues. Robby was staring at the ground, his cheeks blushing in embarrassment.
He felt arms wrap around him. Arms that were far too thick and muscular to have belonged to Miguel. Robby looked up to see that it was Johnny who was hugging him.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did that to you, Robby.”
“It’s okay, Dad.”
Miguel wanted to look at both of them and tell them that this was not in fact okay. If being separated from Johnny caused Robby to be anxious, but being with his father also caused Robby to be anxious sometimes, then what the FUCK was Robby supposed to do at those times. The times when his father was the problem, but also the only person that Robby felt safe around. Miguel knew that he needed to do something about this situation, give Robby another safe place to come, another safe person to talk to about anything that was stressing him out.
And Miguel decided that he would need to be one of those people, whether he liked it or not.
After all, he lived basically right next to Johnny. Close enough that Robby could come over at a moment’s notice, but separated enough that, if the anxiety was because of something that Johnny was doing, Robby could be away from that for a time.
On top of that, Miguel could help Robby learn how to self-soothe again. Miguel could teach him some tips and tricks to calm himself during a panic attack.
Yeah, Miguel was going to have to offer help to Robby, even if Robby wasn’t really his friend, because it was simply the right thing to do.
But anyone could see that the relationship between Johnny and Robby was very toxic at this moment.
“Robby and I are going to go outside to calm down,” Miguel said as Johnny and Robby pulled back from their hug.
“I’ll come with you,” Johnny tried to suggest.
Miguel shot him down saying, “I have something that I want to talk to Robby about alone, if that’s alright.”
“I guess. If that’s alright with him,” Johnny said, hesitating.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Robby told Johnny.
“Okay then.”
And with that permission, Miguel led Robby outside.