tw: talk on depression and heavy mental health.

Sadie had texted Sam and asked her to meet her infront of her house. Sadie didn't want to leave, and Sam didn't live that far away. She planned for them to talk on the porch, hopefully explain everything to her in the best way she can, maybe have someone see that this was her trying, her cry for help.

All of that went to shit when Demetri got off his bike, threw her over his shoulders, and was running into Eli's house.

"Put me down!" Sadie slapped his shoulders.

"Where the hell have you been?" Demetri looked at Eli in disbelief, going down the final stairs as he tossed Sadie onto the couch. "I figured, hey! They'd at least be together but both of you are just cooped up at home?"

"Demetri, how'd you even get in here?" Eli looked in disbelief when he realized he'd been home alone with the doors locked.

"Your moms been leaving the key under the flower pot for years." Demetri rolled his eyes, standing infront of the two."You should really consider increasing security, since, you know, the karate war. But that's not important now. And you! You're just standing on your front lawn?"

"I was on the porch." Sadie defended herself, sitting up better on the couch.

"What's so important?" Eli looked his way from under his hoodie.

"Didn't you hear? The All Valley has separate gender divisions!" Demetri paced in a panic. "I mean, do I look like Miyagi-Do's best hope at defeating Robby Keene!"

"He's probably not as strong as he looks." Sadie rolled her eyes.

"I mean, Mr.LaRusso said that anyone can be the hero, but i'm not Batman." Demetri paced around as the pair sat on the couch. "I'm more like Alfred. You're Batman and Sadie's like Cat woman."

Sadie thought about it, glancing in Eli's direction. "Kinda fits."

Eli looked at him oddly as he sighed with a nod. "Oh, right, I forgot, you're not a DC guy."

Demetri threw his hands toward Eli. "Forget Batman, you're the Hawk."

Eli sighed, pulling his hood and hat off to reveal short cut hair. "Yeah, not anymore."

Sadie leaned back, eying his new short hair.

"Hey, at least it looks better then the last time I saw it." Demetri pointed out.

"Everyone at school knows what happened." he gave a sad look in his direction. "It's embarrassing."

Sadie frowned, hesitantly patting his head.

"Who cares what they think? Besides, it'll grow back!" Demetri cut in quickly.

"It doesn't matter." Eli huffed in annoyance. "I ruined my reputation, I talked a big game, just proved I was an asshole. To Miguel, and especially to the two you. I got what I deserved."

"Hey, I forgave you, remember?" Demetri gave a knowing look his way.

Sadie looked over with a sigh. Demetri threw his hands in her direction. She looked at Eli. "You are an asshole, but that doesn't have to do with your hair."

"See. And we don't care if you have a Mohawk, or a mullet, or pigtails, Miyagi-Do needs you." Demetri sighed as he looked his way in a begging manor.

"I'm not going back to Miyagi-Do." Eli shook his head with a minor frown.

"That's just great. You and Sadie are both choosing Eagle Fang over your best friend." Demetri looked at the both of them in disbelief.

"What do you want me to do?" Sadie asked him with a weird look. "Daniel hates me, Sam and I aren't together, and last time I checked, I don't know what i'm doing. I haven't even been going to Eagle Fang, Demetri! I can't compete!"

"We'll figure it out." he huffed, motioning between the three. "When will both of you realize this is the entire problem with us?"

"I'm not going back to Eagle Fang either!" Eli cut in, looking back down. "I-I'm done with karate, man. I quit."

Sadie looked over. "Liar."

Eli shook his head back at her. "What's it matter? You quite too."

"I quite because-" Sadie began, waving him off with a sigh. "Doesn't matter, I don't have time to explain."

"You can't quite." Demetri flopped on his other side as Eli went back to his game.

"I already told you, I made up my mind." he waved him off. Sadie huffed as Demetri moved in close to her, the trio smooshed together.

He then looked to Eli again. "Hey, you're the one that got me into karate, remember? I mean, I was perfectly happy playing Dungeon Lord after school, but you put me in a situation where I had to join a dojo. Both of you, by the way, because I was sad about our break up. And you know what? It was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Our break up?" Sadie looked at him oddly.

"No. I got stronger, I gained confidence, got the girl of my dreams." Demetri listed on, the two looked over at him. "The second girl of my dreams, and the third person I've ever loved. Even if she ends up leaving me for some hot Aussie dude she meets there."

"Demetri, can we not do this?" Sadie asked, not wanting to get emotional again, especially right now.

"Oh, we are. Just not yet. Hell, i'm actually excited about the All Valley tournament. I never thought i'd say that." Demetri carried on. "But it's not gonna be as exciting if you're not there. Both of you."

Demetri moved in close, tossing an arm around Sadie, going around Eli by default. "Okay, you're gonna make me do this."

Sadie winced when Demetri leaned into her more, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"Excuse me." Demetri threw Eli's tablet to the side, shoving his phone in his face.

"I thought you said you deleted these." Eli spoke as the familiar thumbnail showed.

"Yeah, like when I asked to see them." the Vesper girl remarked.

"Oh, I say a lot of things." Demetri nodded, adjusting to push into their sides better. "Which tends to be a polarizing attribute of mine."

Hitting play, the trio watched as the dance music played, Demetri showing up, typing over a keyboard with red sunglasses and a pink helmet on, the green screen in the background looking like a large moon and hills of snowy mountains. Eli showed up soon after in a construction works uniform, a pair of goggles on his face and his own keyboard. Sadie felt a wave of actually joy and laughter begging to escape. "Demetri and Eli, binary brother. One or a zero, we'll be your hero."

Sadie started to laugh as Demetri grinned, nodding his head. Eli sighed. "Dude, why are you showing me these?"

Demetri looked past Sadie. "Because this is who you are."

"A loser?" Eli asked.

"My best friend." Demetri corrected him. "I know you think that Mohawk defined who you are, but it didn't. Not to me. Eli, Hawk, hell, call yourself Cornelius for all I care. None of that changed the fact that you're my Binary Brother. Whether you're number one, or a zero."

Sadie sighed, sitting up as she faced Eli completely. "I didn't wanna have to talk about this, but it looks like i'm giving in."

"Always do." Demetri spoke.

"Do you remember the first time I kissed you?" Sadie asked, and that caught Eli's attention. "Right outside of Cobra Kai, because you were so upset and I hated that you felt that way because I thought you were the best guy i've ever known."

Eli looked away with a sigh. Sadie grabbed his face to make him look at her again. "And I totally supported the Mohawk, whatever. But, even if you didn't get it, we would have still gotten together. That's why I kissed you without it. Demetri and I were into you, not your stupid hair."

Eli sighed, looking at her with shallow eyes. "And then I screwed it up."

"Yeah, extremely." Sadie agreed with a frown of her eyebrows. "And it sucked, it still sucks and it affects my relationship now. But, I can see you're at least trying. And I might not act like it, but that means a lot."

Demetri stood up. "Good, we're on the next topic. You're turn to tell us what's going on with you."

Sadie looked up at him oddly. "What?"

"You've been off ever since January. And not off like you're in a bad mood, off like something is really wrong." Demetri went on in worry down at her. "You can tell us, whatever you're hiding."

Sadie hesitated. "I'm leaving."

"Nope!" Demetri grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back into the couch. "Sorry."

"It's not any of your business." Sadie pointed a finger at him. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I don't care, you have to!" he rose his voice back at her with crazy eyes. "You aren't talking to anyone else and i'm scared, i'm worried about you."

"What's there to worry about?" Sadie rose to her arms with an insane look. "I'm fine!"

"Why are you putting up some big act with us? Do I need to remind you who we are? We're Eds!" the tallest boy rose his hand up to show off the tattoo on his wrist. "We use to talk about everything."

"I don't know what wrong!" Sadie yelled at him, her face red. "If I did, it wouldn't go on this long, Demetri!"

"Sadie." Eli stood up now as he looked at her. "Are you okay?"

Are you okay?

Sadie went to talk, her mouth opened, and shut again. "I don't- no one's-"

"We get it. No one else does." Demetri promised her as she found his eyes, her own were watery and terrifying. "No one else's mental health is pushed to the side the way ours is."

Sadie nodded, and tears started to spill from her eyes. "I just- I feel like this weight is constantly on me. Like, i'm trying to find a good day but they just aren't coming. And nothings even wrong!"

She was yelling now, but they both knew that's the only way that she could truly express herself. They let her. "I'll have the best day ever and i'll still just want to curl up and just cry until I can't even breath! I feel paralyzed all the time, like I can't even move to get up, to eat, to just go take a shower because when I do I just feel like crying!"

Demetri shook his head gently at her, trying to find a good time to pull her in.

"And I feel so alone even though i'm not." Sadie cried infront of them as she finally got it all off her chest. "It's like this constant sadness that won't leave me the hell alone and I feel like i'm this big problem that doesn't know how to handle it."

"You aren't a problem." Eli grabbed her arm. "You don't need to know how to handle it, you just need to know how to talk about it."

"With who? My mom hasn't been home in months and my dads off at a special hospital because I punctured his oxygen tank." Sadie cried as she got that guilt off her chest. "I feel so alone."

"You aren't alone." Demetri pulled her into the pair as they let her cry. "We're gonna find you what you need."

"I hate feeling like this for no reason." Sadie admitted, her head pressed between them as they group hugged. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry." Eli rested his head on top of hers. "It's not your fault."

Demetri inhaled. "Sadie, my mom can figure out what's wrong and help you. She specializes in stuff like this. You just have to admit it, and let us help you."

They pulled back, and she still felt like she had to look tough, like she had to put on an act. Demetri shook his head at her, reading her mind. Sadie nodded, inhaling painfully. "I need help."

•

kylie speaks

the entire point of sadie's
s4 character. no everyone
feels like they can reach out,
like they can break down about
their mental health and show
they aren't as strong as they
put out. you are strong, you
are human, you still have a
mental health that needs to
be taken care of. there arethings
that you can not handle on
your own, there are mental
problems that you can have
that aren't caused by a bad
life, there isn't always a cause
to an affect. i wish i knew that,
i wish i could express that with
people that understand it rather
then my mom who always thinks something causes a
depression episode. don't be
afraid to put your foot down,
to shut people up that don't take
the time to understand or refuse
to listen to you. you deserve
a good mental health, you deserve to be heard and get the
help you need. not everyone knows what it's like to have
their mental health pushed to
the side.