CHAPTER 1

HOSPITAL;

It was Monday, the very first day of the week. Four more to go. I used to love school, until few years ago, two years to be specific. But now it was hell - literally.

I was late again because I was in the hallway when the bell rang. Actually I preferred to be late for school rather than being early, because I wouldn’t have to hear people murmuring about me in class. I entered the class carelessly because I already knew what the teacher was going to say,

“Steven, keeping up with your usual routine, I see. When will you ever change?” she looked at me sadly then she returned to the board and kept writing.

“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, madam.” I sounded honest but I wasn’t sure if I was willing to do that.

At least Mrs. McLaughlin wasn’t like other teachers. She’d always be nice to me, even though almost every single one of her periods I always came late.

She didn’t answer or talk to me, she didn’t even turn around. She just shook her head in disappointment and kept writing. I looked for a seat and there was an empty chair at the back.

And honestly, I never liked sitting at the back. That was the worst place I could sit in class because they always picked on me. It was always filled with jerks, and I hated it there. But I had no choice, I moved towards it while everyone was giving me this weird look. They always gave me weird looks, but today they had some intensity in them and I couldn’t understand it. It was like they were saying ‘what’s this freak doing here?’ They had that kind of glare.

Well, this is going to be a long day, I concluded in my mind while sitting down and pay my full attention to the teacher. Which wasn’t an easy thing with everybody drooling over me like wild animals which wants to eat me.

Their stares were drilling my head from every side, and it was like some of them were afraid of me or something. I just wanted to shout at them to stop staring at me, like I’m some kind of Grimm reaper. I was affected with everything that happened just like them, I was affected even more because those were people close to me, not like them. But who cares anyway, I was a monster to them.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and the principal got in. Oh god! I found myself whimper inside because I knew it happened again, with the way his eyes were fixed on me.

No way, not again, I refused to believe it was what I thought it was. He talked with the teacher for a short moment, and I was called with him.

“Steven Adams, come with me please.” he called kindly, but I knew there was nothing kind about what he was going to tell me.

He was a tall man with brownish skin and broad shoulders. He had brown eyes and nice long face, nicely shaved. He was always smart, very smart, with his hair nicely cut.

I got off the chair reluctantly. It’s not pretty if whenever the principal comes to class you are the one who’s being called, I mean every single time. And this was one of those times. It has been six months since the last time he called. But that’s a long time, sure! Not if what he’s going to tell you is the same thing every time. And it’s not something nice, expulsion would’ve been nicer than this. I didn’t want to hear any of it anymore. I didn’t want to be asked the same questions again. But, that wasn’t a choice I could make, I had to do it. It was procedure, as they call it.

I followed the principal to his office. When we got in, the chief of police was waiting and he had the same expression on his face, the executing kind of look. Which didn’t surprise me because he never gave me a chance, that I actually wasn’t guilty. What he already knew was that I was connected to all the crimes.

Well, they always look for evidences, and all the evidences he thought he had on me weren’t real enough and that’s what made him hate me so much . And I was sure that once he heard that the girl was my girlfriend he came straight to school. But I was just glad he didn’t tell my mom because I begged him a long time ago that he will never tell her whatever that was happening. But if he was going to find anything that would convict me, he had the right to tell her and I was going to go to jail if they wanted me to. But right to this point there was nothing even though he was trying day and night, just to find something.

“Hello Steven?” he greeted me sarcastically and gave me a fake smile, which was completely understandable. I don’t think any cop would like to chase after a seventeen years old boy and never find anything.

“Hi,” I replied nervously because I didn’t have the guts to be sarcastic because I was still a suspect in the eyes of the law.

“Let’s cut to the chest, shall we? Where were you yesterday from 9pm to 12am? And be honest.” he said, that same question he always asked me because he expected me to admit it someday. He believed somehow my guilty will eat me and then I will give up.

“I was home sleeping, sir.” I stuttered, it sounded too common now.

“Don’t lie to me boy?” he was infuriated by my answer, maybe he was expecting me to say something else, but responding the same thing meant that he failed, again.

“I’m telling the truth sir.” I said in a most honest way I could, but it came out like any other ten times he asked me before.

He clenched his fist and bolted towards me so that he can choke me or punch me or whatever he wanted to do to me. But before he could touch me the principal held him, I didn’t even know how fast he got to him. Either way I was thankful to him for shielding me.

“I do believe our conversation here is over.” the principal concluded after the chief came down, “well, Mr. Wilson you can go now until you come with valid evidence instead of your uncontrolled rage.” honestly I was surprised he said that to him because of me, but I was even more grateful to him. I guess not everyone thought I was a criminal.

“Duncan.” the chief said then he left,

I was frozen, I couldn’t thank him or hug him, but I would have preferred to hug him though, he had no idea what he just did to me. It was like he lifted a big load off my shoulder by getting rid of that cop. I had to say something though,

“I don’t know what to tell you sir.” I paused for a minute looking for any sign that I should continue, then he smiled and that gave me so much courage so I continued, “thank you so much I real appreciate what you have done for me. I didn’t know if there was people who were willing to defend me. Thank you.” I thanked him wholeheartedly.

“Don’t worry son, I would have done the same thing to my son. You have been through so much for these past few years, and I don’t think people have the right to judge you. So go back to class now.” he said, and honestly that felt so good. For once somebody didn’t doubt me. I left the room and headed to my next class which was science.

I needed to go to the lab and there I would meet Veronica, my girlfriend. The only other outsider who believed me, apart from my sister, Ashley. I was super excited to see her again, even though I just saw her the evening before. I walked along the hallway quickly, rushing to the lab so that she could distract me from this super boring day and the whole world.

I really enjoyed being in this class because Veronica was always there with me. At least in this class nobody treated me badly, but it didn’t mean they treated me well either. I guess I might say they just ignored me except her. She was the best girlfriend ever. I loved her and she loved me like crazy.

I barged in the class only to find a new partner on veronica’s seat next to mine. My face contorted to a deep frown and full of anger, I never asked for a different partner. I was perfectly sure that veronica will never want another partner other than me. I looked around to find her, but she was nowhere in the room. What the hell! I froze, I just saw her last night, and she was fine and very excited to see me today. She would’ve told me if she wasn’t going to come to school today.

In my confusion the bell rang and I had to get seated. I looked on my left and this cute blonde girl was looking at me with a wide smile on her face,

“Hi.” She stretched her hand warmly.

“Hi.” I blurted out curtly not bothering to shake hands, who does that anyway. It’s not like we were in an official meeting or anything, we were in a lab.

But she didn’t seem to mind even though her smile faded and her face was expressionless; also her hand dropped in defeat. I didn’t care though, she was the last person on earth I gave crap about. Because I still was having a million questions on what could possibly have happened to Veronica that made her miss school today.

She didn’t text or call or anything at all. She always told me if she wanted to ditch school. I was in a huge dilemma as to what was really wrong with her. The period moved really slowly and the blonde girl was doing every experiment while I was just sitting and gazing from far trying to figure things out in my mind, but of course that was useless.

She looked at me and I looked at her from time to time. And she seemed to be very interested in me, I could see it in her eyes, even though we just met a while ago. She did everything without complaining and even smile while I tried to talk to her through facial expression. Like rising my eyebrows, asking what the hell she was doing; but she didn’t say a thing she just kept helping.

I came to realize that I have an impression on people, they always like me automatically even after meeting for just couple minutes. Like what happened with Veronica, the very first time she lied her eyes on me, that very moment I knew she liked me and I liked her. Then, we started dating almost instantly, and quickly we grew closer to each other and fell madly in love.

But that happens only to people who don’t know me and my stories, which are spread all over the town. The ones who knows stay away from me, as far away as possible because they don’t want to have the same problem as me or even worse. Like most of my friends.

Ring, ring, ring, the bell startled me and brought me back to reality and everything was fine. I wondered how the girl managed to cover for me that the teacher didn’t know that my head was far away, wondering in the mist of my many problems and unfortunateness. Coldly I picked up my back pack and left for another class not paying attention to the girl, even though she helped me the whole period.