Dimitris

September 21.
...
But then he takes some actions to take care of me, to protect and defend me... And I wonder if his heart is really that shielded.
And I'm afraid of the answer.
Whatever it may be.
I had been called to the university's administration office far more times than any other student there. Although this had probably happened far fewer times than I actually deserved.
Any other student in my place would have been expelled a long time ago. But my family’s money and my mother’s annual donations to the university allowed them to turn a blind eye to most of the things I did.
This time, however, the situation seemed to be a bit more serious. Heber would certainly have been there with me if he hadn't been taken to a hospital. And I had to stay there, enduring a lecture from the dean while we waited for him to receive a phone call with information about Heber's condition.
A few broken ribs and a broken nose, some stitches on his brow... but other than that, he would survive.
It wasn’t this time that I would add ‘homicide’ to my list of crimes. Thanks solely to Aris’s intervention...
Because I would truly be capable of killing that bastard for daring to speak about her that way.
"From our side, we’ll try not to make a big fuss about this," the dean said as soon as he hung up the phone. "But it will all depend on what Heber Lykaios and his family decide to do about it. If a formal complaint is made and you’re charged with assault or even attempted murder, it will be more complicated to keep you here, Makris."
"He won’t report me," I said.
And I knew he wouldn’t. Heber had dirt on me for countless messes he’d gotten into, including with the Free Bird gang. He was the last person who would want to involve the police in any trouble between the two of us.

The dean reiterated his tireless requests for me to stop getting into trouble and dismissed me. As soon as I left, I found Aris sitting alone in the corridor outside the administration office. She stood up as soon as she saw me, looking anxious.
"How are you?" she asked.
And I felt like a huge pile of crap. I should have been the one asking her that.
For starters, I was the one responsible for her getting involved in that situation.
I walked over to her and, without thinking about my actions, placed my hand on her chest, just above her breasts. I felt her breathing deepen with the contact and focused on feeling the beats of her heart. They were strong and slightly accelerated.
Realizing how inappropriate that contact was, I removed my hand from her chest and put it in my pants pocket.
"How are you?" I repeated the question.
"Concerned about you. What happened in there? Are you going to be expelled?"
"Don’t worry about it. Heber is alive and he probably won’t report me. I’m sorry for putting you through this."
She shook her head.
"He insulted me and you defended me."
"A punch, maybe two, would have been self-defense, Aris. I went way beyond that. I could have killed that bastard."
"But you didn’t."
"But I wanted to. I really wanted to."
"People lose their heads when they’re angry. I’d be capable of killing him too if I had the physical strength, especially after he spoke about my mothers and my biological parents."
"You’d never be able to hurt anyone, Aris."
"You don’t understand, Dimitris? You say I defended you, but I’m the one who put you in this situation in the first place. It was because of me that Heber and Zoe came to threaten you. But they won’t do anything to you. I give you my word."
"I’m not afraid of them."
She should be. If she had the sense I once thought she had, she should be very afraid of those two. But I chose not to say that, because I didn’t want to scare her.
I reached into my pants pocket, pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. I had been without smoking for too long and desperately needed it, but that wasn’t the main reason for my action.
Aris seemed somewhat perplexed as I lit a cigarette right in front of her. And that was my reason. I knew I shouldn’t be doing this and didn’t want to cause her discomfort. But I wanted to horrify her. I wanted her to see another glimpse of the risk I posed to her.
Feigning deep thought, I turned my face, letting my eyes wander over one of the walls, just to avoid blowing the smoke in Aris’s direction.
Then I spoke again:
"They won’t do anything especially because we’re not going to see each other anymore."
A look of confusion and distress crossed her face.
"What are you—" she began to speak.
But I interrupted her.
"After all this, do you understand what I’ve been telling you from the beginning? You need to stay away from guys like me."
"Don’t start again with that nonsense about ‘girls like you’ and ‘guys like me,’ Dimitris."

"I'll be more direct then, Aris. You should stay away from me. There’s nothing good I can bring into your life. You’ve seen how much hatred is inside me."
"There are good things in you."
"Definitely not, Aris. Absolutely nothing. I’m driven by hatred. I have no regard for my own life. And I’m not going to change."
"You don’t have to change, Dimitris. You just need to understand that there’s an amazing person inside you. One that’s just suffocated by pain. The moment you allow yourself to face your grief, and..."
"I don’t want to face anything. Don’t you understand? I was completely numb until you showed up."
"You weren’t numb, Dimitris. You were running away; it’s very different. Is that how you want to keep living?"
"That’s exactly how I want to continue. And if you don’t want to have problems, the best thing you can do is stay as far away from me as possible."
With that, I turned and walked down the corridor. She turned around and called my name, but I ignored her and kept going.
It wasn’t easy to do that.
But it was the right thing.
For Aris...
And for me too.
At least, that’s what I wanted to believe.