Sunsets and Constellations | B X B

• T W E L V E •

A R I U S

Arius carefully unwrapped the stump shrinkers as he winced slightly, shutting his eyes and pulling them off in one go.

"Careful with that Arius." Viggo said as he brought over the body-powered prosthetic to Arius and helped him strap the harness onto his upper body. They had been doing some compressions as it was part of the treatment that Arius had to go through in order to better his residual limb. His arm had been amputated, wrist disarticulation.

They were in Arius's room while the other students attended class after lunch. They would be late to astronomy, but they had a legitimate excuse. As they made their way down the empty hallways, Arius's phone vibrated in his back pocket. He rolled his eyes at whoever was calling him and swiped decline. He'd blocked around six unknown numbers so far.

"Is it Tammy?" Viggo asked from beside him.

"Yeah, and don't call her that. She's a bitch."

"Woah calm down Ari."

"She keeps calling me from different numbers like I wouldn't guess it's her. Nobody else even has my number. She's fucking annoying."

"I still think you should let her down gently, talk to her and tell her why."

"No Vig, she doesn't deserve shit, she fucking left me when I needed her the most." Arius turned to Viggo, startled.

"Tammy- I'm sorry, Tamara regrets whatever she's done. Don't forget that you were friends before you dated."

"Yeah well, friends don't ditch their friends and block them when they're going through the worst time in their lives, and neither do girlfriends." Arius seethed as he glared at his best friend who was currently defending his ex girlfriend.

"Wait, are you talking to her? Why the fuck are you even taking her side?"

"Listen, she'd pinged me on Instagram. She really wants to talk to you Ari, give the girl a chance."

"You can fuck off. Leave me alone." Arius muttered, turning away from Viggo and walking briskly toward the library. He couldn't understand why Viggo was so adamant when it came to Tamara, he knew what she'd put Arius through. Well, not everything.

He was sick of Viggo trying to mend things in between him and Tamara, his ex girlfriend. Heck, they hadn't even technically broken up properly. After Arius had gone back to school after his time in the hospital, she had simply ignored him and acted like he was coming onto her. She had embarrassed him in front of half the school on his first day back when he had tried to hug her. She'd gone as far as calling him a 'fucking freak of nature'.
Later that night, she had called him back crying, to apologize to him for whatever she'd said. And Arius forgave her. And he kept forgiving her. Now, when he thought about it, it absolutely blew his mind how he hadn't seen the problem with her and just let it go like it wasn't a big deal. It was like she was two different people everyday. She would totally ignore him in school and flirt with other boys but in the night, she'd sneak into Arius's room through his window and cry as she held him in her arms apologising endlessly until the sun rose. Arius wouldn't ever put up with this kind of behaviour, but he was so in love with her that he ignored everything she was doing to him. Emotional manipulation, guilt tripping, making him feel like he didn't deserve her, and convincing him that he deserved to be ostracized. She was fucked up majorly, and it wasn't easy to come to terms with the fact that his loving, sweet girlfriend was only after status, money, prestige and all about keeping up appearances.