Andre's dark green eyes stared into Keo's deep black ones. They slowly leaned closer together, putting their arms on the table that was separating them. Their gazes intensified as they did this. Desiree and Phoenix watched them in all seriousness. Desiree was sitting beside Andre and Phoenix beside Keo. Andre and Keo weren't paying attention to the onlookers even slightly. That's why they practically jumped out of their skin when their friends sitting beside them began to tickle their sides, making them squirm and blink.
“Hey! You guys cheat!” complained Andre.
“Is it a draw then?” asked Keo.
“Yes. Now finish eating, you dweebs,” answered Phoenix.
Andre lightly kicked Phoenix on the knee underneath the table. He scowled in response while his friend simply flicked him a smile before going back to his lunch. Keo got up and threw out his tray. The lunchroom was very loud. Andre still wasn't used to it. It had always been so quiet back at his private school, but he didn't miss it at all. Well, except for their lunches. Public school lunches were crap. He had only been going to public school for about a month now. There were many differences between them that he was still getting used to. Actually having friends at school being one of them.
The bell rang, signaling that lunch was over and they all had to get to class. Andre waved goodbye to Keo and Phoenix before walking to his history class with his girlfriend, Desiree, hand in hand. While walking down the halls, multiple people openly ogled at them. The couple were both beautiful, blond, and naturally had a light tan. Even though they were gorgeous, they weren't very popular. In actuality, though, they were invited to many parties and dozens of people tried to befriend them, but they had no interest in it or them. They were perfectly happy with their small group.
They walked into the classroom and chose two seats beside each other in the middle of the classroom. They talked to each other as class happened around them. Andre wasn't really paying attention, but he could tell Desiree was paying attention to him and the teacher. She was good at multitasking. He was pulled out of his reverie when the teacher called his name.
“Yes?” he said.
“I just told you to read,” replied the teacher sternly.
Desiree pointed at the section of the page of their textbook she was referring to. Andre cleared his throat before carefully and loudly reading the section.
“In the 1400s, many countries finally made the law banning homosexuality pass. For years, many have tried to do this because all the evidence as to why it was wrong was there, but others thought it didn't deal with them, so there was no reason to. When two people of the same sex engage in intercourse,” Andre blushed as he continued to read, “they gain a full body tattoo of thick black lines and swirls. This tattoo is known as the Devil's Tattoo because it is the mark of Satan that shows the world that those two people have done a serious sin against God. The governments just want to protect the people from going to Hell for it. That is why they created the law; in hope that it may prevent people from trying it.”
Andre stared at what he had just read as class went on as normal. He didn't even talk to Desiree anymore. Gears were turning in his head. He wasn't sure what conclusion he was coming to, but he knew something was wrong. Along with the context being familiar. He just didn't know what or why.
~*~
Andre pulled up into Phoenix's driveway. His friends and him had slept over his house last night and they needed to get their things before he could drive his friends home. It wasn't odd that they had slept there altogether since they all had been best friends since they were all twelve. They all climbed out of his fire red BMW. Right before Phoenix touched the doorknob, it opened on it's own and his sister, Celine, stood in the doorway. Celine and Phoenix looked a lot alike. They had the same natural dark red hair, light green eyes, and pale skin. It was just her hair was straight and chin length while his was unruly and went to his ears. She was only an inch shorter than him, making her five foot seven. Really the only other difference between them besides their gender and age was that she was very skinny and he was slightly chubby, but not very. She flashed them a warm smile. She was much older than them, being that she was twenty-six and they were all seventeen.
