Déjà Vu

--life itself

To any old passerby, Lukas Bondevik stuck out from the crowd like a sore thumb. He didn't fit into any of the little social cliques--he was very bright, but not a nerd. He was rich, but not a prep. He wore different clothing from his peers, but he wasn't alternative either. He didn't even spend time with the outcasts, either. He made it a point to not let other people put him into a box--so in response, his peers made their own box for him. It had many different names, but none of them were nice.

But did Lukas care? No. And clearly, Matthias didn't care either; he was a frequent visitor to Lukas' cozy little box. Unfortunately, that caused some to start labelling the two of them as "queers". It didn't help that neither Matthias nor Lukas were going steady with any of the pretty girls at school. Even so, Matthias was heavily regarded as the king of their high school. Some called Lukas the queen, but in a less than admirable way.

He still didn't care. The torment was met with a blank, emotionless face, perfect and set like porcelain. Not once did it crack, not once did a tear trickle from his eyes. Occasionally he'd blow smoke in those damn preppies' eyes, tell them to fuck off, but he did it so nonchalantly that his mask didn't even crack then.

He adjusted his--well, Matthias'--oversized jacket; the sleeves were falling down from where he'd rolled them up earlier, nearly covering the tips of his fingers. He tugged them back up, seeing as it was much too hot to be wearing such long sleeves, before continuing to make his way into the mall.

It was about two days before Matthias' birthday, so in addition to giving the wild blonde his denim jacket back, Lukas was going to be giving him an actual gift, too. What was the gift? Lukas wasn't sure, but he definitely wasn't going to be trying to give Matthias cigarettes again. Mainly because they went through a pack every time they got together (which was all the time), and also because he was sick and tired of smuggling cigarettes to Matthias when he was quite capable of buying them himself. And now, Matthias was lifeguarding again, so he had absolutely no excuse for not having enough money for cigarettes--or for any of the drugs in the world, for that matter.

Lukas snorted at that thought before going into Waldenbooks; though popular, Matthias also read his fair share of books and had been asking for quite a few. Hopefully, this would be an in-and-out endeavor; Lukas wasn't too fond of all the mall rats hanging around everywhere, gabbing and wasting space. He pulled out the list of books Matthias had been requesting and began searching for them. He was knelt down on the floor, looking for some of the books on a bottom shelf when all of a sudden, he heard one of the many voices he'd been dreading since school let out.

"Hey Bondevik!"

Wincing, Lukas looked over his shoulder at the imbecile who called him, his glare cold and hard as ice as he clutched the list--and the books--close to him. It was another one of those preppy motherfuckers with a sweater tied around his shoulders. Lukas wished he could strangle the guy with it.

"Didn't take you for a mall rat," the guy (Chad? Chuck? Lukas didn't know his name) continued, sidling up next to him, clearly mimicking Lukas' melodic speaking--except Chad's voice was anything but melodious (pretty tone-deaf, in fact) and he only managed to sound like a dying cow. "Whatcha doin' here? Carrying your boyfriend's books for him?"

Lukas blinked at him before turning away and going back to searching for books. "You should work at a comedy club," he murmured sarcastically.

"Hmm, you think?" Chad actually seemed to be considering it for a second--what an idiot. "Well, too bad. I've got a full-ride scholarship to NYU, baby."

"That's great." Lukas stood up from where he was kneeling next to the bookshelves. "And that couldn't possibly be because your daddy bribed the admissions committee, right?"