Arthur

are you a girl

You met Arthur in kindergarten. He was always running after you and playing with dolls. When you came to school, Arthur became an excellent student. He was always there for you, no matter what. Arthur was always called: "mama's boy", "little sonny basket" and other things. You never liked it, but you couldn't stand up for him. Recently, you moved to eleventh grade, and everything became new for you and him, so to speak. Arthur stopped being teased, but sometimes they would, and then only jokingly. And you... Different girls started going around about you, seeing that you were much prettier than them. The guys picked up on this, and they started calling you all sorts of names: "pikmi, whore, prostitute" and many other things. Until a couple, for a time, Arthur tried to tolerate it.

Today you took your first math practice test and were incredibly nervous. Arthur tried to calm you down with touches, but it didn't help much. As you walked past a group of guys, holding hands, one of them began:

• Oh! Look, she's already found herself a new one! - Everyone started laughing.

You silently lowered your head and squeezed Arthur's hand, signaling that you didn't want to stay there. Suddenly, you felt Arthur literally push your hand away and walk toward the guys. You looked at them, and at that very moment, Arthur punched the guy. A fight broke out. You stood there in shock, but quickly ran up and pulled Arthur back by the collar of his shirt.

"A-are you an idiot?!" your trembling voice said and you let him go.

He turned his cat-like eyes towards you and you saw blood coming from his split lip.

“I don’t want them to talk about you like that...” he said quietly, squeezing your fragile hand in his.