Love's crime

~ 3 ~

It was lunch. Caleb and Peter sat in their seats in the cafeteria. "Are you sure you're not gonna eat that?" Peter asked, pointing to Caleb's full plate of bangers and mash. The pale boy shook his head, "No, I still feel sick after science." Earlier on, their class had to disect a cows heart and study it. Caleb couldn't take the sight of blood or organs very well (even through the shade of his sunglasses) and threw up several times in class. Peter rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, but before he could make a sarcastic remark he was interrupted. A well built boy named Trevor approached the pair. He had jet black hair, piercing blue eyes and a smug look on his face that made you want to hit him until it was gone. Two cheerleaders clung at both of his sides. He was a Jock. "What do we have here.. It's Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee." The entire cafeteria stayed quiet, as if they knew what was about to happen. Peter put his hand on Caleb's leg from under the table. His voice sounded like it dropped about ten octaves. "Leave us alone, Trevor. Go find someone your own age to pick on." Trevor ran his fingers through Peter's blonde curls and roughly yanked on one of them. "No," he snickered, "Eighth graders like you don't tell us what to do." The cheerleaders giggled. Before Peter could do anything Trevor swiftly moved onto Caleb. "Why are you wearing sunglasses inside? Answer me, you  fucking Jew ." Caleb's breathed hitched in terror.

Antisemitism was on the rise all over Europe, particularly in Germany, now Hitlers influence has spread to Holland. Caleb's family escaped Germany in the mid 1930's to escape from this discrimination, but Caleb felt like it followed him everywhere he went.

The Jock grew impatient. "Answer me!" He yelled. Caleb flinched but still didn't answer. Trevor huffed. In a blink of an eye he knocked Caleb's glasses to the ground. He looked at Caleb's eyes, amused and disgusted. Peter's dark eyes flared. "Don't you dare open your mouth, you scum of the earth or I'll beat you to hell and back." Trevor ignored his warning and grabbed Caleb by the back of his shirt and pulled him forward towards the whole cafeteria. He pulled him off the ground and presented him to the entire school as if he were a rag doll. "Look at this freak!" Trevor simpered. "Strange eyed and Jewish! Why don't you crawl back down to the hell hole you came out of, you fucking disgusting-"
Suddenly the bully went flying onto the floor and Caleb was back in his seat. Peter hastily walked over to Trevor and yanked his head up by his collar and said into his ear, "I warned you that if you opened your mouth I'd beat you to hell. If there ever is a next time, I'll kill you instead." He cursed at him and let his collar go, making him smack his head hard against the floor. Despite this Trevor still tried to fight back when he wasn't looking. This resulted in Peter blocking his punches and then punching him first on the nose then on the chin, forcing his head to jerk back, knocking him out stone cold. Caleb just sat there staring at Peter, his mouth wide open, his heart in his mouth, butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. Everything was dead silent until the Principal called Peter and Trevor into her office.