Ethan pov
I pushed the wooden door of the two storey building where my aunt's family and I lived.
My heart and body felt so numb.
I saw my aunt in the living room peeling oranges, her heavy makeup still on her face.
I greeted her absentmindedly before turning to enter my room.
"Stop there" her voice halted my motion.
I turned around to look at her, my vision hazy.
"What happened to you? Why are your clothes like this? Why are you back so early? Why do you look so disheartened?" She asked me series of questions with shock evident on her face.
Her questions brought my suppressed emotions back to life.
Her eyes softened for a brief moment and my chest tightened with hope.
For a moment, I considered running into her arms and crying my eyes out.
Tears filled my eyes once more and I was about to take a step towards her when I noticed the shocked expression on her face turning to one of disgust.
I gauged her expression to see if I could trust her this once but all I could see was disdain and disgust.
I almost laughed at myself.
Of course.
What was I thinking?
"Are you going to keep standing there looking like a fool? Fine, if you don't want to talk, keep it to yourself. I'm not interested in your matters anyway. Go clean yourself up and head to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Daniel will be back soon and he would be very hungry."
I stared at her for a moment, my expression back to normal.
I didn't bother replying her and entered my room to wash up.
There's no need telling her anything anyways.
Her son would be more than happy to help me do the job.
As the cold water from the shower splashed on my face, everything that happened today replayed on my mind.
I had become a dropout.
Some hours later, Daniel returned from school and so did his dad from work.
I had already prepared lunch and served it on their arrival.
I saw the hatred in Daniel's eyes when he entered the dining room and saw me. He stood there looking at me without sitting down.
"Daniel, why are you still standing? Don't you want to eat?" His mom asked him, her voice filled with love and care.
Mr Tyron, my uncle raised his head from his food to glance at his son.
The next moment there was loud crashing as Daniel had pushed his plates of food to the floor.
Aunt Gabriella had a look of shock as she stood up from her chair. My uncle didn't bother standing up but also had the same expression.
I watched with a lifeless expression as I stood at the side.
"This bad luck has finally brought shame to us" he said, pointing at me.
There was a brief moment of silence as everyone's eyes focused on me.
"What do you mean by that Daniel?" his father asked,confused.
Facing the question, Daniel recounted everything that happened at school today.
I watched as the whole family looked at me with disdain.
Aunt Gabriella took slow but deliberate steps to where I stood and before I could process what was happening, her small hand landed on my face.
The pain coursed through my body as I turned my face to stare back at her.
At that moment, I felt nothing aside from the pain.
"Where is the necklace?" She demanded, stretching her palm forward.
I glanced at her palm before gazing back at her face.
"I didn't steal it" I replied blankly.
Smack**
Another slap landed on my face and this time with a stronger force which forced me to stagger.
It was my uncle who hit me.
All the times when my aunt say and do hurtful things to me, my uncle always turned a blind eye.
He neither said nor interfered with it which is why I was rather surprised.
I raised my palm to hold my burning cheek as I glared at him.
"You ungrateful boy. After everything we've done for you, this is how you repay us? Do you know how embarrassed Daniel was today because of you? We fed you, clothed you and sent you to school only for you to become a thief? Your parents must be rolling in their graves right now. I kept quiet all these years because I pitied you, but now I can see my wife was right about you. Children without proper upbringing always end up like this. Maybe bringing you into this house was the biggest mistake we ever made." My uncle shouting, his voice filled with contempt and disappointment.
The tears I've been trying so hard to prevent from falling streamed down my face uncontrollably.
"Stop the pitiful act. Since you already got expelled, there's no school for you anymore. Now get out of here. Just the mere sight of you disgusts me." My uncle said.
As I glared at their faces, the pain I felt within changed to hatred. Deep hatred.
I turned as I walked to my room, their murmurs loud enough for me to hear.
"We shouldn't have brought him in"
"What a disgrace"
"How am I to face my classmates now".
Third person's pov
At school the next day,
The whole school was filled with excitement as what happened yesterday was still fresh in their minds.
The students, even teachers kept on talking about it. They believed that having Ethan expelled was the right thing to do.
Their hatred and disgust towards Ethan was not just because they believed he stole but also because of his background.
It's not that Ethan was the only orphan in the entire school. There were quite a number of them.
Ethan was ridiculed more than the others because Daniel instigated it. He made sure there was no day that went by that he didn't rub it on his face in front of the other students.
In the staffroom,
"How ridiculous of him to keep on denying it even after the evidence was right in front of him" Mr Kayl, the physics teacher, a slim tall man with average features sighed.
"What do you expect from a lowlife. I feel bad for Mr Raymond though. That was a gift from his wife" said Mrs Phil.
She looked at the man, Mr Raymond who had a disappointed look on his face.
"We should be more careful around the other orphans. We wouldn't want our things getting stolen now" another teacher commented.
Amid their conversation, a tall curvy beautiful woman walked in, the sound of her heels clinking on the marble floor echoed in the staffroom.
"Good morning everyone" she greeted as she walked to her desk.
"Good morning miss Liah. You weren't in school yesterday." Mr Kayl said, his eyes filled with lust.
It was well known among the teachers that the man fancied miss Liah but the woman have never given him a chance to get closer to her.
"Yeah. I actually came in the morning but something came up and I had to rush back home." She said with a smile.
"Oh. You missed a lot yesterday" Mr Kayl said with excitement, always in the mood to gossip.
"Oh, what did I miss? Before that, Mr Raymond you dropped this yesterday morning while entering the staffroom. I'm sure it must have fallen from your bag" she said, bringing out a beautiful silver necklace from her purse.
Everyone in the room gasped as they stared at what the lady was holding. Silence descended on the staffroom.
No one knew what to say.
Mr Raymond eyes widened as he recognized the necklace immediately. It was the necklace his wife gifted him.
The same one he accused Ethan of stealing.
Immediately he was filled with guilt and not only him but the other teachers as well.
They had accused the wrong person and didn't even listen to him when he tried to defend himself.
They paid no attention to his words because of his background and they realized now how wrong they had been.
"Why didn't you return it to him that morning?" Mrs Phil asked, her voice one of guilt and frustration. She had also ridiculed the boy.
"I was about to but then I had a call and had to rush back home. What happened? Why do you all look so shock?" She asked looking confused.
Mrs Phil filled her in on what happened and miss Liah felt guilty. She thought the whole thing happened because of her.
Mr Raymond took the necklace and rushed to the principal's office.
Some minutes later, the whole school was filled with shock and guilt.
Who would have thought that the necklace wasn't stolen but misplaced instead?
They had accused the wrong person and so badly at that.
When Emily heard the news, she was so happy but also felt a bit guilty that she had doubted him a bit.
This means that he could return back to school and he wouldn't be labeled as a thief anymore.
The whole grade six class was silent for a long time since they heard the news.
Daniel was the most unhappy one not because he felt guilty but because he was angry that Ethan didn't steal it and the truth came out.
Mr Raymond had told him that he would be accompanying him home to see his parents and Ethan as the whole issue stemmed from him.
He gritted his teeth at the thought.
"Do you think we should apologize when he comes back?" Hailey, a timid girl in the class voiced out, breaking the thick silence.
"I think so too. We were so harsh" another student commented.
"Why should we?" Sam, Daniel's lackey shouted. He felt guilty as well but his pride wouldn't let him apologize to the boy.
"Yeah, he's just a lowlife. Even if he didn't do it now, that doesn't mean he won't do it in the future" Another boy shouted.
Emily stood up and slammed her fists on her desk, her eyes blazing with anger as she looked at the shameless students.
"You don't think you should apologize to him?" She scoffed.
"Have you ever imagined yourselves in his shoes, being humiliated every single day of your life over something you have no control on. We were all wrong and the only sane thing to do is to apologize to him. Do you understand the pain he must have felt? Why are you all so heartless?" She shouted.
No one dared open their mouth to speak a word.
She eyed the whole classroom before picking her bag to leave.
She needed to find Ethan.
Meanwhile, hours later, on the edge of a bridge with nothing but water beneath, stood a tall boy with dark hair.
Handsome as always, yet looking completely broken at the moment.
The cold breeze brushed against his figure as he stared blankly at the water below.
The insults and hateful words from earlier echoed endlessly in his head.
A bitter smile formed on his lips.
In the end, no one believed him.
He sighed softly and slowly moved a foot forward.