The Light and The Darkness - 2. Chapter 2

2012

Tuesday, October 23rd

"Micah!" His mother shouted from downstairs. "Hurry up or you gonna be late for school."

He lifted himself upright in his bed, trying to blink away the last remains of his dream. With a wide yawn he swung his legs over the edge and walked into the bathroom next to his bedroom.

After he had yawned again and switched on the lights, he removed his boxers and put them into the laundry. The cold water that came from the faucet brought life to his system when he splashed it into his face.

Looking into the mirror, a young teenager looked back at him. He was average height for his 14 years at 5"5' with a slim figure, not too thin, that is. His sandy blond hair was messed up from the night and the blue-grey eyes were shining as always. He tried to straighten his rumpled up hair... hair gel was godsend!

Micah brushed his teeth and then checked his cheeks and chin. No shave was needed. As always. He looked down at the little birthmark on his right hip. It was small but was clearly visible. This was all he had left from his real mother... and his life of course. He knew he was adopted because his parents had told him some years ago. It didn't matter to him. He loved his mother and he loved his father with every fiber of his heart. But sometimes he wished he could find his real mother and talk to her. Talk about why she gave him away. He wasn't mad at her. She must have had her reasons, but Micah was eager to get to know her. Maybe they could meet on a regular basis. He could tell her about his life, his feelings and about his thoughts, how his day was or whom he liked. Ok, maybe not the latter. That was his secret.

More or less content with his appearance, he went back to his bedroom to put on some fresh boxer shorts. The clothes from yesterday lay on the floor. He sighed and then grabbed the blue jeans and the yellow long-sleeved shirt. Hopefully it would still be a warm day, anyways, his mother would make him put on a jacket. He grabbed his school bag and then hurried down to the kitchen.

"Morning," he greeted his parents.

"What took you so long? I had to call you twice today. Did you set your alarm?" Micah's mother was a nice woman in her late thirties. Her reddish brown hair hung all the way down to her shoulders. But she often wore one strand behind her left ear.

"I dreamt... and yeeesss, I put on the alarm. But it didn't work." Micah poured some cereal into a bowl and drowned them in milk.

"The dream again, honey?" she stroked his hair.

"Yeah, but this time I think I saw you in it." He ducked from her hand and looked up at his mother while he tried to spoon in some cereal.

"Me?" she gave him a puzzled look.

"Mmmh," he responded, munching hard on his mouthful of food. He gulped it down, "You were there and another woman. I was a baby and she gave me to you... and then I think she died." Was it panic that he saw in his mother's eyes? Only for an instant that is, and it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

"What are you two talking about?" his father looked up from his newspaper. "Micah, I think you've played too many of your video games, defeating monsters all over." He shook his head.

Micah munched on the rest of his cereal and then said, "You know that's not true, Dad." He took a glance at his watch "Ok, better go now. Love you Mom, love you Dad," and hurried out of the door.

"Don't forget your jacket," his mother shouted.

Micah couldn't see the glances his parents exchanged and didn't hear their conversation after he had left the house.

"Good morning, Micah. You're late." The blond girl stood up from the small wall she had sat on.

"Morning Lauren. Yeah I know. I overslept." Scratching the back of his head he walked towards the girl.

"Again? You should go to bed earlier then." Lauren shook her head and put on a disapproving face. She always did that, but she never was mad at Micah. They had known each other since kindergarten and were best friends since then. He loved it to hang out with her. Some of the other boys at school already envied him because it was so easy for him to talk to her.

"I did." They could envy him as much as they wanted. In fact, there were no more feelings in him that he wouldn't have for a sister. And until this day his ‘sister' was the only one in the whole world who knew his secret. When he told her about it, she had wrapped her arms around him and giggled, all the time saying how happy she was that Micah had trusted her so much. It brought them even closer together. The only thing he disliked was when Lauren tried to find him a boyfriend. But she hadn't tried for several weeks now and Micah hoped this would last even longer. They walked on. The school wasn't far away.

"So you think President Obama will win the next election?"

"Huh? What? Lauren?" Micah couldn't believe his ears. "Are you in politics now?"

"Hehe, no, I'm just teasing you." It was a mystery to Micah how she could change her topics so fast. "My father talked about that the whole morning. I think I just needed to talk that off my soul. He sometimes makes me crazy with this ‘Do it again, Barack'-Campaign." She sighed. "By the way, did you study for your History test today?"

Micah just nodded. His gaze fell on a small object that lay in the middle of the sidewalk ahead. He increased his pace and Lauren followed him. When they reached it Micah stopped.

"What's that?"

"I think it's a dead bird." He crouched down and looked at the animal. "It's a bluebird, Lauren." He reached out with his hand and picked the small body up from the ground.

"No, Micah, don't touch him." She was always too wary to do such things. Micah looked at the little head and could see blood on the beak. Seemingly the bird had had a bad run-in with a car or something else. Micah laid his other hand on the bird and wanted to stand up... but he couldn't. There suddenly was a tingling feeling in both of his hands. His eyes widened. No not only the eyes but his pupils dilated as well, although he wasn't aware of it. And not even Lauren noticed when his eyes began to shine. Not the normal shine they had all the time, no this shine was deeper and brighter. And as fast as it had begun it was over.

Micah removed his upper hand. There it was, a bluebird. The little bird hopped in the hand that supported him, cocked his little head and then flew away.

"Micah, what just happened?" Lauren didn't move, she just stood there with her mouth agape.

"I don't know. Weird, huh? Maybe he wasn't dead after all." He stood up.

"You should wash your hands. Maybe the bird is sick."

"Yes Mom." Micah grinned at her and they hurried up to reach the school before the first bell.

When they entered the Lewis and Clark High School, Micah had forgotten about the bird. It was a nice school with a little more than two thousand students. Although it lay next to Interstate 90, it was also surrounded by some nice housing blocks and beyond that was the small Pioneer Park Lauren and Micah went past twice every school day. Micah liked his new school. It was his freshman year but he already became a full-blooded ‘Tiger'. But not everybody can be one. Like the motto said ‘It takes a little more to be a Tiger'. Micah was sure he would never play football. He liked to watch, but he surely was not, under any circumstances, eager to play it himself. When he saw those players walk through the corridors his eyes always widened. Those boys were tall and broad like cabinets and he preferred a much more balanced appearance... although... their asses...

Micah shook his head when Lauren tapped him on the shoulder. "Micah, where are you?"

"Huh? What? I'm here of course." His puzzled look to appear confident wasn't as helpful as he had intended.

"No you weren't. You were somewhere else." Lauren cocked her head and then sighed. "Tell you what, I'm gonna talk to Mrs. Mason. I can't attend PE tomorrow afternoon because I have an appointment with my gynecologist."

"Eww, Lauren, too much info." Micah covered both of his ears with his hands. "I'm not listening, you hear me?"

She grinned at him, gave him a kiss on the cheek and hurried away. Micah's eyes widened and he looked quickly in all directions. The last thing he needed now was the corridor gossip about him and Lauren. He checked the corridor twice, but seemingly no one had seen this little... incident.

"Where're you going, jackass?"

Micah turned around, but the voice was not talking to him. There was this one guy he had seen several times at school now. He behaved like a real bully. Although he was only as tall as Micah his appearance was a bit intimidating. He had black hair and grey eyes and always surrounded himself with a bunch of his so-called friends. He was a freshman, like Micah, but he didn't attend his old junior high, so they didn't know each other. The boy and his two friends were standing next to another boy who seemed a bit lost around them. Lost and panicked. He held his school books in his hands. They were not shaking, but Micah could see how much it cost the boy to hold them still. One of the other bullies slapped the books from the steady hands.

"Oops. I'm sorry." He laid his right index finger at his bottom lip and then began to laugh with the other two. The book-boy crouched down and tried to grab his books into his arms but the third bully put one of his feet on them. The helpless look of the crouching boy made Micah angry. He didn't know why they were doing that. They just felt strong in a group; needing the support the laughter gave them. In fact, alone they would be pathetic beings that didn't know what to say or do.

"HEY leave him alone, would ya?" Micah hurried over to the group of boys.

The boy, their leader, looked at him and gave him a smirk. "Let's go boys." It was clearly an order not a proposal and the three of them just walked away as if nothing had happened.

The boy on the floor was trying to collect his books again. Micah knelt down and helped him to get them. When they both stood up, Micah noticed that the boy was about an inch taller than him, although he must be around his age. He had cheek-long hazelnut brown hair and, to Micah's astonishment, one green and one brown eye. He couldn't help himself but those eyes were fascinating.

"Thank you." It spoke! Well the boy spoke, but for Micah it was more than just a boy.

"Huh? Oh yeah, you're welcome." He smiled and the boy smiled back at him and put one of his strands behind an ear. This smile was so fantastic. Micah could see how it created a small wrinkle in the corner of the boy's mouth. In his imagination he raised his hand to touch this wrinkle to see if it was real. Because how could something so cute be real? He shook his head. "Erm... so, you're new here? I haven't seen you before."

"Yes, I am. Moved here with my parents from Chicago." The wrinkle disappeared when he talked and Micah almost regretted that he had made the other boy answer a question. He put away his books into the locker behind and locked it, checking the lock twice.

"Oh Chicago, that's far away from Spokane." Micah hated himself for that stupid reply.

"Yeah it is." He sighed. "I miss my friends there but my dad found a better job here, so..." He raised his hand. "I'm Luca, by the way, Luca Bishop."

"Micah Strauss." He shook the hand; the skin was so soft. The heart in his chest began to increase its beating and he didn't want to let go at all costs, but the moment was over and the sensational touch came to the inevitable end.

"Nice to meet you, Micah." The boy named Luca smiled again and Micah was once more lost in the wrinkle the smile created. "Dude you don't happen to know where my History class is, do ya?" He scratched his nose with the hand Micah just had touched.

"History? Of course. I have History now, too."

"Really? Kewl." The smile widened.

Micah felt his knees weakening. What was happening to him? This boy made him all shaky and wobbly. His stomach felt as if something was tickling him from the inside. Just for an instant he had the thought ‘butterflies', but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

"I don't think it's so cool, because there's a test today."

"What? They gonna test me on my first day here? Damn." Luca took his backpack that leant against the lockers and put it onto his back.

"Erm... Luca?"

"S'up?" Luca blinked.

"Are you going home, or why are you taking your backpack with you?"

Luca looked over his shoulder. Micah could actually see the thoughts in the boy's head running around. Luca sighed and then slapped his head. "Stupid me. Of course not." He turned around to his locker... again... and tried to open it. When he had set the combination he fumbled on the lock itself, but it wouldn't open. "Argh, man!"

"Here let me help you with this." Micah's hand raised itself all on its own. He reached out fast and even touched the hand on the lock for a moment. Micah's hand was in heaven again if only briefly. He opened the locker door and Luca took off the backpack, put it into the small cabinet and then grabbed some books and paper. Before he closed the door he reached in again and also took a pen out of the soon again dark prison. Micah raised one of his brows and watched how Luca looked back into the locker twice to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything else and then, finally, closing AND locking it for good.

Cocking his head Micah asked, "Ready?"

"I'm all set," was the boy's answer, supported by an impulsive nodding of his head.

The history test was easy, but he couldn't really concentrate on it. The rest of the lesson just passed by without Micah even really noticing it. He was too distracted. In fact there were two distractions, one was green and the other one was brown. As often as he tried to get a glimpse at Luca in the back of the class the other boy would look at him as well and smile when their eyes met. There was the little wrinkle again. Micah didn't know why he felt like this. He never had met a boy in his whole life who had fascinated him from the first moment. There had been some cuties at his junior high school and it was then, about three years ago, when he had realized that he liked boys. When he graduated from junior high and attended high school there were other boys he had looked at but none of them were like Luca. It was as if this boy was sent for him. Well, he imagined Luca was sent for him. Micah sighed to himself. He had been courageous throughout his whole life, courageous from his understanding of courage. Not those stupid tests for courage that is; only dummies did something like that to impress their friends. But he never had been courageous enough to talk to someone else about his feelings except for Lauren. She was the only who could understand him. But she wasn't there right now and Micah was all alone with his feelings. He thought about their initial conversation, looking again at all the information Luca had given him. Micah smiled to himself when he remembered the boy's reaction to the backpack. It was cute. He took another peek at Luca and again met the boy's gaze. Then the smile appeared. Again. And the wrinkle. Again. When he looked back to the front, Micah's hands began to shake. He folded them so that no one would notice his state of emotion. What was happening to him? Then it snapped in his head and he realized that he must have a crush on Luca, maybe even more. Love? Micah didn't know how that felt. He never had felt that before, not in this way, that is. He loved his mom and his dad and he also loved Lauren like a sister. But this feeling was different. And why did it happen so fast? Was this the love-at-first-sight-thing they talked about in the movies? He licked his lips and inhaled. Looking at the clock on the wall, he wished the time would pass by even quicker. He wanted the bell to end the lesson so that he could talk to Luca again, hear his voice again and see the little wrinkle in the corner of his mouth when he smiled from close up. And those eyes. Micah felt as if he was caught in a circle because it was those eyes he had thought about in the beginning.

Finally the school bell freed him from his emotional solitude. Micah jumped up from his seat and hurried over to Luca. Always make the first move. Luca looked a bit puzzled when he saw Micah coming towards him.

"S'up, dude?" He smiled at him and Micah saw himself kissing that little wrinkle in his imagination. He shook his head and the picture vanished.

"Nothing. I just wanted to ask you... if you... erm, you know... wanna eat lunch... with me. Today." Micah swallowed.

Luca scratched his chin and then answered, "Ok. But first I have to go to... erm, English, I think." He looked down at his schedule that lay on his desk.

"Really?" Micah's heart made a bounce, a dido and a frisk all at once. For two reasons. First because Luca had agreed to eat lunch with him and second because he had English next, too.

They took their things and walked back to the lockers where Luca wanted to get his books. Micah expected another catastrophe with the locker, but was surprised when Luca opened it, put in his History books, took out his English books and then closed and locked the locker again without any incident. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't help Luca out again, but he cheered up when Luca followed him to his own locker.

They went on to the English class and when they entered the classroom Micah asked, "Hey, would you like to sit next to me?" He got a nod in return.

Mr. Mason, the English teacher and husband to Mrs. Mason, was a nice person who could always make the most humorless topic interesting to his class. But that day Micah couldn't really pay attention. They had begun to read and discuss ‘Romeo and Juliet' some weeks ago. Although the old language was hard to understand, Micah had read the play, but didn't understand everything.

"Yesterday I told you that you could find several themes in Shakespeare's play ‘Romeo and Juliet'," Mr. Mason announced. "Today let's try to find some of these themes. But before you moan about that... don't worry, I will help you."

Micah looked to his left where Luca had sunk into his chair. The boy seemed a bit uncomfortable in the second row and his cheeks had a slight tone of pink.

"So let's see. What do all these sentences have in common? ‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!'"

Luca used his left hand to put a strand behind his ear.

"'The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp'."

Luca licked his lips.

"'O speak again bright angel'."

Luca looked over at Micah and the latter stared into the green and the brown eye before Luca turned his attention back to the front.

"And the most favorite one: ‘It is the east and Juliet is the sun!' Okay, what do all these have in common? What can you see in them?"

Micah could see how Luca bit his bottom lip and was sliding a bit restless to the front and the back of his chair now.

"No one? Come on, you know it." Mr. Mason tried to encourage his students.

"Light." Came a whisper from next to Micah.

"Who said that?" Mr. Mason asked.

Micah could see how Luca raised his hand shyly and Mr. Mason looked at him. "Can you say that again, please?"

Luca swallowed because now the whole class was staring at him. His voice was still not more than a whisper. "In all those sentences Romeo refers to her as ‘light'."

Mr. Mason narrowed his eyes when he asked, "Can you tell me your name, please?"

"Luca Bishop, sir."

"Well, Luca. That was absolutely right. You see...," he addressed the whole class now, "‘the light' is the first theme in the play..." Mr. Mason went on but Micah didn't listen. He looked at the boy next to him who had sunk even deeper into his chair now.

"Well done, Luca." Micah whispered to encourage him.

"Why did I say that? I didn't want to, but I knew the answer," Luca whispered back. "I'm not good at these things. I never could put up my hand in class." The poor boy was freaked. He turned his head towards Micah and asked, "What made me say that?"

Later Micah couldn't say what made him do it, but he raised his hand and rested it on Luca's shoulder. "It's ok," he whispered and then retreated his hand. In the meantime Mr. Mason talked about the importance of the ‘light'-theme and that more clues and references could be found throughout the play.

When the bell rang, Micah stood up and looked at the boy next to him. Luca was a bit pale, especially around the nose.

"What is it? Are you still panicked because you said something in class?" Micah hoped his smile would help the boy to let it rest. But instead of making him feel comfortable, Luca just looked at him with a somewhat sad expression and then stood up.

"See you later at lunch." Luca waved and trotted away.

Maybe he had said something wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have talked to him at all about what happened. Micah didn't know why Luca was so out of himself. He didn't even know what the real self of Luca WAS, because they just had met some hours ago. He looked after him when he left through the door and then sighed to himself. Micah just saddened himself.

Before they went to lunch, Micah met Lauren in the corridor at her locker. They had set this meeting point on their first day of school. He was eager to tell her about Luca, but somehow worried about her reaction. He had a sense of foreboding. When they entered the cafeteria it was already quite full, but they found a table where they could sit. There was also another seat empty for Luca.

Micah looked around, but he couldn't see the so familiar face. He thought about the moment when Luca had left and was worried that he wouldn't come. Suddenly there was a voice from behind him. "Hey Micah, can I sit with ya? Or am I interrupting?" Micah's face brightened when he turned around and saw the little wrinkle. Apparently the boy's mood had improved.

"Not at all. I invited you, remember? Please, be seated."

"Thanks. I'll just grab some food. Be right back." Micah had to grin. He never had heard someone talking in chat language before. Not in real life that is.

"It seems as if you had an interesting day so far." Lauren said amused, putting her fork down. "He's cute."

"Oh come on, not now. You ruined your record."

"Huh? What record?" Lauren was irritated.

"The one on how long you won't try to find me a boyfriend," Micah answered as quietly as possible.

"What?" She put her hands on her hips and sat upright. "Micah Strauss..." Surname was bad and Micah knew that. "How dare you to believe that my only purpose in life is to find you a boyfriend?"

His eyes widened. Fortunately she had whispered the last two words. He looked at her face and could see she was a bit hurt. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I'm just... you know, a bit sensitive when it comes to this topic."

"I know that, Micah." She looked at him with her sparkling blue eyes, sighed and removed her hands from her hips.

"If you like him, Lauren, then ask him for a date. His name is Luca by the way, because I didn't introduce you yet... and he just moved here from Chicago because his father got a better job here in Spokane. He misses his friends there though, but maybe I can make him feel comfortable here at his new home. Oh... and when he smiles there is this little wrinkle in the corner of his mouth... but only then."

Lauren put her elbows on the table, folded her hands and rested her chin on them. "So... he is cute then?" She gave him an ambiguous smile. Micah rethought what he just had said and then couldn't believe that he had fallen for her trick. He pressed his lips together because he wouldn't give her the satisfaction to hear it from him. She still smiled at him and then winked.

He sighed and gave in. "Bitch. Yes he's cute. He's super cute. Ok? I said it. I just... you know I thought about him the whole day. I don't know why. It's making me crazy to look into his eyes. Did you know that one of them is green and the other one brown? I mean... can you actually believe that?"

"I didn't know that," she answered calmly and continued with her meal. Micah just could wag his head. Then he saw Luca returning, balancing a tray on one of his hands and holding his backpack in the other one. He didn't know why the boy had taken it from his locker where he had put it this morning.

"Dude, could you give me a hand over here?" Micah looked puzzled at the boy. Luca seemed a bit lost with both things. He stood up, took the tray from Luca's hand and put it on the table. Just at that moment, Luca sneezed and held the free hand in front of his nose.

"Thanks dude, you're a lifesaver." He rubbed his nose.

Micah grinned a "Bless you!" towards him.

"Maybe next time you should leave you backpack where it belongs... on your back." Lauren looked at him amused.

Luca slapped his head and set down at the table. "Of course, why haven't I thought of that?"

Micah couldn't help himself. This boy was too funny. He began to snicker; the snicker increased its intensity to laughter.

"Are you laughing at me?" Luca looked at him with a puzzled expression. Then he raised his arm and held out his index finger just in front of Micah's nose. "I tell you what, no laughing at me, or else...!"

"Else what?" Micah peered at the tip of the boy's index finger.

Luca pulled it back and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know."

Micah took a peek at Lauren who sat there with her mouth open in disbelief. He saw how she shook her head in slow motion. This must have been really intriguing for her, because she didn't show this behavior often.

"I'm Luca by the way." He reached over the table with his hand and Lauren took it.

"Lauren."

"Nice to meet you, Lauren." He grinned.

"You, too. I already heard so much about you..." she looked at Micah who answered with a panicked expression, "and now I can finally see for myself." She stared into Luca's eyes.

"Huh?"

"Oh, doesn't matter."

Luca was still a bit irritated, that Micah could tell. He looked at him and then back at Lauren and hoped she wouldn't blab something... inappropriate. In fact, Micah knew that she would take his secret to her grave if it was necessary, but nevertheless, he was a bit nervous. After all he had confessed his feelings about this boy to her and she was so damn trying to get him a solid relationship. It was as if she looked for other boys that might be fitting for Micah... and that were gay at the same time. But so far no luck at all and Micah thanked God for that because he absolutely didn't like it when she tried to hook him up with someone else.

"Ok guys, I'm going to the library. See you after PE." While standing up Lauren winked at Micah and then took her tray and left.

"She's nice. Is she your... erm, girlfriend?" Luca asked.

"What? No! We're just best friends. She's more like a sister to me. Why?"

"Just curious."

And Micah was curious why he had asked.

Micah liked PE. What he didn't like was the shower afterwards. He sometimes waited a bit until he went in himself, preferably when the other boys were already done. He wasn't ashamed. He didn't need to be. He knew he was average size for his age and that was ok for him but he once had a little problem when he realized that he liked boys. It was that, when he stared at them, and he couldn't help himself, he just had to stare sometimes, his body would react to so many naked boys around him. And THAT awkward situation was something he didn't want to have more than once.

Today, that is, could have been different. He really was tempted to shower with the others. The main reason, actually the ONLY reason, was Luca. But somehow Micah knew that wouldn't be a good decision at all. To see the boy change into his sportswear was hard enough to bear. He had gotten a short glimpse at Luca's butt in the boxer shorts before the boy had put on the pants. This sight had been enough to, well... cause nature to take its course.

Micah came from the empty shower, a towel wrapped around his hips. He walked into the locker room and passed the rows. Then he saw him. The boy from this morning whose friends had dumped on Luca. Micah got angry again. He wanted to tell him what he thought about such behavior. He stepped forward and his gaze fell on the boy's naked hip. He moved closer. One more step and he could see it for sure.

He stared down at the little mark. Suddenly all his anger had vanished. It was small but clearly visible and it resembled his own. Only this U was on the boys left hip and pointed downward.

"What are you looking at?" the boy asked. Micah hadn't noticed when the boy had turned his head. And he didn't respond either.

"Hey, you!" he said. Micah still stared at the little spot on the boy's hip. The boy snapped with his fingers.

"Huh?" Micah shook his head to come out of the trance-like state.

"I asked you what you're looking at. Are you staring at my cock, fag?" The boy grinned at him.

"What? No. I was looking at your birthmark." Micah didn't hear the insult.

The boy in front of him gave him a puzzled look and then put on his boxers. "My what?" He continued to put on his clothes.

"Your birthmark. I've got one, too."

"So you have a birthmark, too. Good for ya," he said while tugging on his jeans. The sarcasm in his voice wasn't hard to understand.

"No, I mean, my birthmark nearly looks like yours." Micah said and unwrapped the towel to give the boy a look at his right hip. What did he expect? That the other boy would examine it closely? Well he didn't do THAT. But nevertheless he looked at the naked hip and then narrowed his eyes. He looked up at Micah and their eyes met. Those eyes were so familiar to him. Grey. And the black hair? Micah wasn't quite sure about that. He couldn't think of black hair or why he had this odd feeling at all.

"You're weird," the boy said and gave Micah a disgusted expression. He grabbed his shirt and left the locker room, looking once more in Micah's direction before he disappeared through the door.

"What was that about?" Luca grinned at him when Micah came back to his locker.

"Nothing. It's just... I don't know. he feels somehow familiar to me," Micah responded.

"Familiar? Dude, you should really select your friends better. I think he's an asshole."

"Better? Like you, you mean?" Micah grinned at him.

"Yeeaahh, like me for example." Luca grinned back and Micah's heart skipped a beat.

Micah's gaze fell upon Luca's chest and he saw something that he hadn't seen before. "Erm... Luca, what's that scar." His opposite looked down and raised one of his hands to stroke the pinkish and longish section of the skin between his nipples. Normally seeing the boy touching himself like this would have aroused Micah but the next comment made him speechless.

"Oh that... it's my new heart." Luca looked up from his chest and met Micah's eyes, standing there with gaping mouth from what he had just been told.

Coming out of the shock-like state, Micah raised his brow. Before saying something stupid he bit his bottom lip and thought about his next words again. "Oh, you've got a new heart? What happened?" Then he added quickly, "I mean if you wanna talk about it."

Luca smiled. "Dude, it's cool. You see... my heart was damaged from birth. It didn't work as it should. I spent the first years of my life in several hospitals. All of those so-called specialists wanted to help me. Well I think they wanted to help themselves getting famous with their research, but you know..." He shrugged his shoulders. "I got some pacemakers to help the heart doing its job, but when I was four years old the doctors finally decided that I needed a new heart. I got a really high rank on the list and then..." He paused for a second and pressed his lips together. "There was this car accident and the whole family in the car was killed. They transplanted the heart of the son into me." He looked down and stroked his scar again. "Because of his death I can live."

Micah had to blink away a small tear in the corner of his eye. He didn't know where it came from all of a sudden. "Oh my god, I'm sorry."

Luca looked up at Micah once more. "Hey, what to be sorry about? That's life. I... I have a picture of the family on my nightstand next to the one of my parents." He made another pause. "I wish the boy goodnight every day." Their eye contact was so intense now. It was as if their eyes attached themselves to each other. "You think that's crazy?"

Micah didn't dare to break the contact. "No, I don't think it's crazy. It's caring. Do you know what his name was?"

Luca licked his lips and then said, "His name was Michael."

Micah inhaled. He knew that his own name, the name his parents had given him, was a variant of ‘Michael'. He had looked it up once out of sheer curiosity. All those variations meant just one thing: ‘who resembles God?'

Luca broke their eye contact and continued to get dressed. Micah kept looking for several more seconds and then began to dress himself as well.

They met Lauren at the school's entrance doors. She was leaning against the wall and looked outside. Micah wrapped his arm around her shoulder and said, "You're ready?"

She smiled at him and then the smile turned into a grin when her gaze fell upon Luca.

"Heya. So, how was your first day? I hope Micah behaved himself," she said and Micah's mood sank immediately. She never would give up.

"Hi Lauren, yeah it was nice. Micah helped me a lot with it." He smiled. Micah's mood was up again to its high.

"HEY YOU!" Micah turned his head and could see the boy standing next to the fence at the school gate. He was alone, with neither hide nor hair of his bully friends. The boy stared at him and Micah got that familiar feeling that he had had before.

"What's that about?" Lauren asked.

"Don't know but I'm gonna find out." Micah was eager to know what the boy wanted. After the locker room he had thought the other one might never talk to him again, but it seemed as though he had been wrong.

"Dude, I'm telling ya don't go there. He's an asshole and nothing else." Luca pressed his lips together. It was cute to see him doing that.

"See you tomorrow, Luca?" The one spoken to nodded.

"I'll wait for you Micah," Lauren said and Micah hurried away, leaving his friends behind with shaking heads. He didn't want to leave Luca like this but Micah couldn't deny the urge to talk to the other boy once more.

When he went down the stairs, the boy moved a bit off the paved walk that directed the students through the gate. Micah followed him. When they were out of earshot the boy turned around and stood directly in front of Micah.

"Ok, you tell me now, why'd you do that?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"Hello? Showing your hip to another guy seems a bit strange to me."

"I dunno, I was just... your birthmark... it was." Micah groped for words. He didn't know himself why he had done it.

The boy raised one of his brows. "Do I know you?"

Micah looked at him puzzled and narrowed his eyes. Did HE know the other boy? He guessed he didn't. But still there was this familiarity.

"Honestly, do I know you?" he asked again.

"I don't know if you know me... my name is Micah."

The boy let his tongue roll in his mouth so that there was a small mound where it pressed against the inside. "You seem a bit familiar to me, but I can't tell you why."

"So... what's your name then?" Micah cocked his head a bit.

The other one didn't answer immediately and this short pause made Micah feel uncomfortable. Finally he said,

"My name is Samael."