"You see, sir, when Marti and I were 6 or so, Marti's father got remarried. Then, his new wife and her two daughters, Casey and Lizzie, moved into Marti's house and next door to me. By then, Marti and I were best friends; we were pretty much inseparable. On Casey's first day of high school, she met my older sister Emily, and the two of them fast became best friends. Derek, Marti's oldest brother, already had a good reputation here, so he told Casey that when they were at school, they weren't related. Over the next few years, as Casey and Emily got closer, so did Emily and Derek. Then one day, Derek asked Emily out on a date and she happily accepted. Casey came over to my house to help Emily get ready for the date. Emily and Derek ended up dating for the next three years." Dimi stopped, sniffling.
"Then what happened?" Mr. Lasiter asked. He could see tears starting to form in both Marti and Dimi's eyes.
"During Emily and Derek's three years of dating, Derek was cheating on Emily with Casey. Her best friend, his step-sister. She caught them having sex. Emily held it in for about a week. Then she confronted Derek about it. Later that night, she committed suicide, using a bottle of aspirin." Marti explained.
Dimi took over again. "Right after Emily committed suicide, only Derek knew the real reason she died because Emily had seemed so happy. When Derek told my parents a month later why she killed herself, they blamed George and Nora for what happened. They forbade me from seeing Marti. A year later, after they told me why Emily killed herself, I started hating the Venturi/McDonald family as well. After that, Marti and I started fighting pretty much every day, and have done so to this day for five years."
"Wow. A lot has happened to the two of you." Mr. Lasiter admitted.
"You're telling us." Marti said.
"That's the understatement of the year." Dimi said.
"Have either of you been to counseling for this?" Mr. Lasiter asked.
"I went to one session of grief counseling." Dimi replied.
"Me too." Marti stated.
"Why only one?" Was Mr. Lasiter's next question.
"Because the person I was sent to, told me that talking about Emily wouldn't bring her back, and that it wasn't healthy to get it out into the open. So I left and never went back, and my parents didn't force me to go back." Dimi said getting a little agitated.
"I only went to one because I didn't have anything to say to the guy." Marti answered.
"Well, I think you two should go see Paul, our guidance counselor." Mr. Lasiter said.
"He still works here? Seriously?" Marti asked incredulously.
"Yes. He's been working here for 20 years."
"20 years. Wow. He must feel really old."
"Probably." Dimi muttered.
Marti snickered at what Dimi said. He heard her, looked at her, and then smiled. Marti smiled back at Dimi.
"Take this note to Paul and talk to him or something. Let him try and help the two of you get on with your lives," Mr. Lasiter held up a hand to stop Dimi from speaking, "but still remember your sister."
Marti and Dimi got up, left Mr. Lasiter's office, and started walking towards their lockers before going to Paul's office. They stopped at Marti's locker first.
"How much do you really want to go see Paul right now?" Dimi asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the two after they left the principle's office.
"Not a whole right now. You?"
"Same. Right now, I just want to go home and sleep." Dimi said rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"Aww, poor little Dimi hasn't gotten enough sleep?"
"Rawr. Truth be told, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in, I'd say, years. I can't even bounce back like I could when we were six, or even when we were ten."
"That sucks."
"That's the other understatement of the year."
Marti laughed and then finished what she was doing in her locker and headed over to where she knew Dimi's was. Dimi followed Marti from her locker to his and opened it. Doing what he needed, he continued their previous conversation.
"It seems like I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since I started blaming your parents for Emily's death."
"Why that point in time? Why was it a year after, not when Emily offed herself, that you started losing sleep?" Marti asked clearly confused.
"That's the thing, I don't know. But I think that it may be because when I found out the reason Emily 'offed' herself, as you so eloquently put it, I drove a wedge between us, and for the past 7 years or so, you had been the person that was always there for me, no matter what. So I guess when I lost you as a friend, though it was my fault, I just kept losing sleep."
"That's, weird. Or strangely sweet depending on the way you look at it. Thanks." Marti got up on her tiptoes and kissed Dimi on the cheek.
Dimi had stopped what he was doing when Marti kissed him on the cheek. He just stood and stared at her.
"Dimi? Yoo-hoo? Dimi?" Marti said waving her hand in front of Dimi's face. "Calling Dimi Davis, come to the lost and found, we found your heart."
"What was that? Some sorry excuse for an insult?"He asked. (A/N: let me know if you thought that last crack at Dimi was corny)
"It was a good one and you know it. Besides, I only said it to get your attention. You were kind of staring off into space. As usual."
"This coming from the girl that had a day of the week where she only wore purple. And the girl who acted like a cat for a few days."
"You know right now, I hate the fact that you know so much about me."
"So do I, trust me, so do I."
Dimi closed the door to his locker and started walking towards Paul's office. Marti had to run to catch up to him. They came to the door when Marti stopped Dimi from opening the door.
"Can I ask you something?" She asked uncertainly.
"Sure, I guess." He said apprehensively
"After I kissed you on the cheek a few minutes ago, why did you freeze up? I mean I used to kiss your cheek or hug you every once in a while when we were younger. Besides, nothing's changed since then really. Only the fact that we aren't really best friends any more. Anyway. Why?"
"I'm not sure. It might be that it's been so long since the good ol' days."
"The good ol' days? What are we? In a spaghetti western or something?" (A/N: I'm not sure if that's correct or not. I googled it but it didn't really help me at all.)
"I don't know. Like I said, I'm tired, really tired. So I'm not really thinking entirely straight right now."
"Okay, whatever you say. Let's go into Paul's office."
Marti opened the door to Paul's office and walked in. Dimi however, stayed right where he was in the hall. Marti noticed that Dimi wasn't behind her when the door closed and Dimi wasn't in the small, somewhat cramped office. Marti went back into the hall and grabbed Dimi's arm, pulling him into the guidance counselor's small office.
"Give Paul the note, Dimi." Marti said.
"So Mr. Lasiter wants me to help the two of you start getting along better?" Paul asked after reading over the note.
"If that's what the note says then probably."
"Let me ask you two a few questions. You two have been fighting every day for about five years right?"
"About yea."
"Why?"
"Our families had some issues."
"What kind of issues?"
"Ugh. Do you remember when Emily and Derek started dating?"
"Yea."
"Well during their three years of dating, Casey and Derek were having sex. Big surprise there right? When Emily found out, she confronted Derek, then later that night, committed suicide. A month later, Derek told Dimi's parents why Emily killed herself, they started hating my parents. A year later, Dimi's mom and dad told him why Emily died, he started hating me and my family. Here we are, five years later, Dimi and I hating each other."
"I'm not that surprised that Casey and Derek got together. Though I am sorry that it cost Emily's life."
"Yea whatever. Can you just tell me and Marti what to do so we can pretend to not hate each other until we finish high school?" Dimi asked wanting to get out of the office.
"Have the two of you tried talking through your issues together or to each other?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"Because if you haven't noticed, we're not exactly the best friends we were when we were six."
"You two were best friends when you were younger?"
"Yes we were. But what does that have to do with us pretty much hating one another?" Marti asked getting a bit agitated.
"Did the two of you start drifting before or after Emily died?"
"I don't think we started drifting apart. We stopped being friends because of what Derek and Casey caused."
"Okay. I'm done asking my questions for now. I would like it if the two of you came back once a week so we can discuss things. Okay?"
"Whatever." Marti responded.
"You're the guidance counselor." Dimi said.
"Good. How about the two of you come back every, Tuesday during lunch. You can eat in here while we talk."
Marti and Dimi got up and left the office.
"You know, you never answered my question Dimi."
"Can you repeat the question?"
"I asked you why you froze up when I kissed you on the cheek after you said something nice to me for once."
"You know when we were talking after we were writing back and forth, and I said that I liked you too in the ex-best friend way? Well I wasn't being entirely truthful."
"You weren't?"
"Nope. I said I liked you when the truth is, when we were in grade six, I started liking you more than a best friend should. I ended up falling for the person that hates my guts. That's how I wasn't truthful to you."
"Dimi I-"
"It's okay. I had a feeling that you never felt the same way. Maybe next time we see each other we could just ignore each-"
Dimi was cut off by Marti's lips on his own.
Marti pulled back afraid of what Dimi was going to say. She could tell that he was kind of shocked.
"Dimi? Dimi, is this going to happen every time I kiss you?"
"Oh god, I hope not."
"He lives!"
"Funny Marti."
"Yea whatever. Just shut up and kiss me."
Dimi certainly didn't want to get on Marti's bad side.
"Hey Marti?" Dimi asked after a few minutes of kissing.
"Yea?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to be my girlfriend?"
A/N: What will Marti's answer be? Will she say yes or no? Stay tuned for the next chapter of Things I'll Never Say.
Ps-Excuse any grammatical errors you may find. It's a bit late that I'm typing most of this. Like 1 am late.