Here's the Troy, Chile, and Aries short story from Chile's POV! Hope you enjoy it!
Chile Short Novel; Interest Rates
Chile, age 18
Aries, age 17
Troy, age 16
Clio (sister), age 13
*~*~*~*
Admittedly, Chile wasn’t sure what was going on. All he knew was… Well, one, that he was getting a call from Aries’s boyfriend of two months, Troy. Second, that he had never gotten a call from Troy before. Not in the month and a half of knowing him. So after about two rings of him just staring at his phone, trying to decide if he wanted to answer or not… He pressed accept, and wasn’t met with Troy’s loud, booming voice. Instead, he was met with sharp, quiet breathing.
--
He stood from where he’d been seated watching Clio at and left the room, keeping his voice soft as he spoke. “Hey, you okay..?”
--
Almost immediately, a familiar voice rasped on the other end, “—sorry— Sorry.”
--
Aries. This wasn’t Troy calling him, this was Aries using Troy’s phone to call him. He took a breath, and spoke firmly. Softly. Just in case. “I’m.”
--
The sound of a sharp intake— Was he crying? What happened?— The sound of shifting; a head shake maybe? Kyle repeated himself, just in case. “I’m.”
--
Another sharp breath, and then… “…’M sorry— ‘M sorry.”
--
He sighed, and nodded to himself. He leaned against a wall in his small kitchen, he needed to get Aries further from the edge. He was glad his friend had called. “Alright, and what are you sorry for, bud? I don’t think you’ve wronged me.”
--
Other than sharp, hitching breaths every now and then, Aries was quiet for a moment. The panic in his voice was obvious when he spoke again though. Was obvious in the way he couldn’t really connect his thoughts. “Left— Troy— Can’t—”
--
“Hey, hey, let’s breathe. You’re alright. I promise, but you’ve got to breathe. Okay?” The sound of shifting, sharp intakes. So Chile decided to add, “Please?”
--
He exaggerated his own breathing to try and lead him into a better pattern. It took a few minutes, a few restarts, but Aries calmed enough to try and speak again. The breathing wasn’t perfect, not by any means. But he was doing at least slightly better than before.
--
“He left. We got into a fight and he left. I don’t— He left. Forgot his phone and left and I don’t know what to do— ‘S all my fault— I didn’t— I didn’t listen and we fought and he left and—”
--
“Breathe, Aries. You’ve gotta breathe.” Deep, shaky breaths on the other side of his phone answered him. He continued after a good few of them, “You and Troy had a fight?”
--
“Y-Yeah. Yeah. Troy- I didn’t listen to him. We- We argued. He left and forgot his phone.”
--
Kyle bit his lip lightly, taking a deep breath. “Alright… Did he say he’d be back?”
--
A shifting sound, and then, after a few seconds, awkwardly, “-No. No, he didn’t. I- I messed up. ‘S all my fault, I- I didn’t listen and- And now he’s- He’s gone.”
--
“Ari, he’s not gone. He’ll have to come back for his phone. You can talk about what happened, apologize, and make up. You didn’t mess up, you’re alright, just keep breathing for me. Okay?” Something about this didn’t sit right with him. He wasn’t sure what though.
--
“R-Right. Yeah. Yeah. He needs his phone. I can apologize and we can talk and- And everything’ll be fine. I won’t mess up again.”
--
Chile nodded, pushing down the nagging worry, “Exactly. You and Troy will be fine. Can you tell me what the argument was about?”
--
Silence for a second before, “I- I didn’t listen. So he was upset.”
--
“Okay… What didn’t you listen to?”
--
“I- He told me… I’m supposed to… I sent money to Mr and Mrs Cattell… Troy… told me to ask him first.”
--
That… Wasn’t right. As much as he hated the Cattells, that wasn’t right. “..How come?”
--
A brief pause, “To make sure I’m not.. Wasting any of his money.”
--
“His money?” That definitely wasn’t right. Troy didn’t work, Chile knew that for a fact. The only money those two would have would be money from the arena.
--
“Y-Yeah. Of- Of course. I can’t- I can’t have money.”
--
His eyebrows knitted together, the nagging concern pushing back up. “Who said that?”
--
A pause, “P-People?”
--
Oh. Oh. Chile took a breath, “Hey, no. None of that. You’re a person too, you can have money too. I’m sure Troy was just, suggesting that you both talk about financial decisions before making them.”
--
The nagging feeling stayed, none of this felt right. But Troy hadn’t seemed too terrible. Hadn’t seemed like the type to… To do anything like that. He was probably just being paranoid and overprotective. Aries only took what Troy had said like an order instead of a suggestion, an optional idea, because of the arena. Because of the stupid gradually increasing conditioning that the arena had been drilling into his friend.
--
The call didn’t last much longer, Aries mentioning off-handedly about some myth. The myth of Pandora’s Box, it sounded like. Chile was fine with allowing the change of subject, if only because he wanted to convince the nagging feeling to leave. And after some short discussion of the myth, the call ended.
--
The feeling stayed though, and he resided himself to keeping an eye on the two of them. And Troy would have debts to pay if the gut feeling proved right. But for now, he really didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to think about how he could’ve missed it for two months if it was true.
--
Luckily for him, the sounds of Clio waking up and coughing was enough to distract his mind. He had a younger sister to take care of, after all. Kyle could worry about his friend and the nagging worry later. His sister still had to come first, no matter how much he cared about Aries.
Fall 
Day 
Hurricane
