GOLD DIGGER

I was getting ready for school when I heard some noises downstairs. I stopped checking my bag and decided to go downstairs. I haven't get down yet but I can hear mom's rampant voice. So I rushed to go downstairs.

"How dare you have that thick face to waste electricity watching TV when all you do is fail us! All you do is disappoint me! You're such a dumb! Unlike your sisters! Don't you ever dare watch TV again or else I'll crumple your face, dumbass-"

"Mom, stop it!" I cut her off. "Stop saying hurtful words towards my brother!"

Her eyes widened when she saw me. Her facial expression then changed from being rampant to being soft. "Oh, I'm sorry, my dear Sienna. Did I wake you up? You should go upstairs and continue your sleep." She took steps getting near to me with arms to open widely.

"Mom, stop!" I moved sideways like I was too disgusted by her touch. I just don't like how clearly she shows unfairness in front of Nathan. "Nathan are you okay?" I walk in his direction and held him.

His bloodshot eyes rose to me. He smiled at me and nodded despite the tear that fell on his cheek. I pulled my lower lip between my teeth as I felt my chest gets overcrowded.

"He must be okay! He really must! He deserves those words anyway! He must get to use with it!" Mom huffs.

I balled my fist and gritted my teeth inside. Is seeing my brother fighting himself not to cry isn't enough for her to see that he's hurt? What kind of mom she is?!

"Nathan, go to your room now. You should prepare for school, okay?" I caressed his cheek. He just nodded and was about to go but I held his hand. "I love you." I kissed his forehead.

I hope the pain inside of him will somehow ease as I reminded him that I love him. He turns his back to us and I glimpse at mom. Her breath was heavy. Enough for me to feel she's mad but trying to calm herself.

"Mom," I closed my eyes emphatically and gritted my teeth inside. Whatever I might be saying right now, I'll do my best to say it calmly as I can. "Nathan is still a kid. He can't handle the pain you always gave him. Can you imagine at a very young age living in the place you called home but doesn't feel like home the way it should be? Can you imagine at a very young age receiving too heavy words to swallow?"

"He's just you brother. You'll soon realize that it's just the surname string that makes the two of you related. You'll soon realize that you don't have to think about others and just think about yourself." She said emotionlessly.

"No." I immediately said and shook my head. "No matter what life brings me, I'll always think about the sake of others. Especially my siblings. I'm just your daughter. I won't be like you when I grow up. I won't be like you. I won't be like you that cuts off her connection to her siblings because you envy the successful life they had-"

She suddenly slapped me. It was a hard slap against my right cheek causing me to face the left side for too long. Wow, I haven't expected that coming. When I was able to turn my face to her I talk again.

"That's right. I'd rather be the one being treated this way than letting you treat my siblings this way." I smiled despite the tears that fell on my cheek.

I went upstairs after that. I can't help but cry inside in the bathroom as I take a shower. Half of me felt guilty for the words I've thrown against her. Not the words I said for Nathan but the one about her siblings.

My mom and her siblings took the tourism course. She didn't finish her studies because she got pregnant by Dad so she won't have a choice but to stop her studies. Her two sisters now are already a flight attendant. While our mom, on the other hand, ended up working in a grocery store.

When I was still a kid, I often heard her cried listening to Grandma's hurtful words. 'If you finished your studies first before you got pregnant, I'm sure you're also successful now.' Or 'if you just listened to me before when I said to break up with your boyfriend because he's poor and obviously cannot give you a nice life. You'll also end up a flight attendant.' Grandma always says this to my mom every time we took a visit her house.

"Yes, my lovely Olivia. You should get a rich boyfriend as your Ate has. Someone who can bring us dinner just for you not to be tired."

I heard my mom chuckled as I go downstairs for breakfast. No wonder, why my mom has this kind of mindset. She inherited it from grandma. I shook my head and stepped out of the house instead of having my breakfast.

"Oh, look who's here?"

I was about to open my locker when Molly blocks it. She chuckled when she saw my reaction. Her friends are also with her, waiting for the scene she's about to make.

"Molly, not now, please," I begged.

She went to me and ruffled the tip of my hair with her finger.

"Are you demanding on me?" She rose her left eyebrow at me. "Oh, by the way!" She took one-step backward and looks at me from head to toe. "You're wearing an old plain white shirt, huh? Do you see this, girls?"

"Uh-huh," her friends responded.

"A plain shirt doesn't look good on you, Sienna. Hmm..." she trailed off and placed her pointer finger in her chin like she's trying to think of something. "Let's put art on it!" She clapped her hands happily and asked one of her friends to gave her something.

I saw her friend pulled out a black felt tip pen from her bag and handed it to Molly. Oh, no! I don't know what Molly will gonna do but I'm sure it's not good. I was about to run away but her friends immediately held me in my both arms.

Molly then stepped closer to me and smiled evilly. She uncapped the felt tip pen and wrote something in front of my shirt.

"Make her turn so there'll also be an art in the back."

She demanded and her friends turn me. She writes something again before telling her friends to let go of me. I saw a bunch of students watching me while tilting their heads like they're reading what Molly writes on my shirt.

"Gold digger?" Someone reads loudly and they all burst out into laughter.

I felt the edge of my eyes heated and I slowly looked down on my shirt to see what Molly wrote.

'HI, I'M A GOLD DIGGER!'

I covered my mouth as my tears exploded. I am not a gold digger. It just happens that I fell in love with a wealthy man.

"Molly... why do you... always do something bad... to m-me?" I can't even say it straightly because I can't help the sobs coming out of my mouth.

She stops joining the laughs and went to me.

"I already warned you before. I'll make your life miserable if you'll say yes to Atticus." She smiled sweetly. "If you want me to stop this... then break up with him."