The weak boy
In the cold streets of Boston lived a nineteen-year-old college student named Ethan Cole.
Ethan was poor.
Not the kind of poor people joked about online. Real poor.
His apartment ceiling leaked whenever it rained. His shoes had holes beneath them, and some nights he went to sleep hungry so his sick mother could eat instead.
At Westbrook College, nobody respected him.
He was skinny, weak, quiet, and always carried old books instead of expensive phones like the other students.
But Ethan was intelligent.
Extremely intelligent.
Professors were shocked by how quickly he solved impossible equations and computer systems. Some even believed he was smarter than students twice his age.
Still, intelligence did not stop the bullying.
“Hey genius,” one football player laughed in the hallway, shoving Ethan into a locker. “Can your brain help you lift weights?”
The other students laughed loudly.
Books fell from Ethan’s hands onto the floor.
He quietly picked them up without saying a word.
Only one person helped him.
Jason Reed.
Jason was confident, popular, and always stood beside Ethan whenever others mocked him.
“Leave him alone,” Jason said angrily to the bullies. “At least he has a future.”
Ethan trusted Jason completely.
He believed Jason was his only real friend.
He had no idea betrayal was already waiting for him beneath the blood-red moon.
