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A Butterfly's Dream

Chapter 1

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Sitting down, David looks at his parents and wonders what they would say about the thoughts that were buzzing around his head. Gulping, he plasters a strained smile onto his face as his mother hands him the salad bowl. Putting a bit onto his plate, he goes back to his thoughts, not really paying attention to what his parents were talking about, only looking up when they bring up Pastor Alex and his sermon that he had given that Sunday.

“I’m telling you, Pastor Alex isn’t stable. Not anymore at least,” his mother says, chewing a bite of rice. His father snorts before swallowing the food in his mouth.

“Just because he was talking about homosexuals’ place in God’s eyes doesn’t mean he’s losing it, Maria,” his father says. Maria pauses before placing her knife and fork down to pick up her glass of iced tea. Watching her closely, David continues to eat, wondering what his mother is thinking. Whatever it is, it can't be good if it put a mix of sadness and anger on her pretty face. His father must have caught the look because he set his own fork and knife down with a soft sigh.

“Look, Maria, I’m not saying that they’re bad people, I’m just saying that homosexuals aren’t welcomed in God’s eyes,” he says softly. “Pastor Alex is correct in that aspect and we should listen to him.”

“I don’t believe that and you know it, Aaron,” his mother states, going back to eating, the topic clearly closed for now. Finishing his own meal, David watches both of his parents closely, feeling the tension in the air.

“May I be excused?” he finally asks; his food gone. His mother looks up and nods. Standing up, David quickly picks up his dishes before heading into the kitchen and putting them in the sink. After he wets them down, he heads up to his room to do his homework.

Stepping into his room and closing the door behind him, David sighs and leans against it, resting his head on the wood, his eyes closed. He stands there for a few minutes, breathing the soft smell of Dragons Blood incense that lingers in the air, before pushing away from the door. Sighing softly, he flips the light switch, turning on his floor lamp that stands near his bed.

Walking over to his computer, David sits down and moves his mouse to get rid of the screensaver. Watching the screen go from the pipe screensaver that was snaking its way across the screen to the main screen, David frowns at the tab that seems to have sprouted up while he was gone.

“What the…?” he mutters to himself as he scans the article before going back to the top and starts to read the article out-loud, trying hard to comprehend what he was reading.

“‘On Monday, June 5, 1981, Catrina Lewis was attacked and brutally beaten. She was declared dead on arrival,’” he says before sitting back and blinking at the paragraph. Tipping back in his chair slightly, he ruffles his hair in a huff before nibbling his lip and leaning forward again, continuing to read the article in front of him, finding it enthralling.

It told him about a young girl who was your typical teenage good girl in the 1960's with a bright future, loving family, a fraternal twin sister, a 4.0 GPA and part of the Bible Club in her community. Almost a flower child, she showed spirit when given the chance to.

The only "mistake" she ever made was to be found with her girlfriend by homophobes in a park late at night. Her girlfriend wasn’t so lucky. She survived the attack, but had been in a coma since that day. When interviewed, the doctors said that should the girlfriend wake up, which would be a miracle, she wouldn’t be walking properly.

Sitting back again, David blows out a breath, his eyes wide and slightly haunted by what he had just read. Something about the name made warning bells sound in his head, but for now, he wasn’t going to worry about it. Getting up, he walks over to a small table that sat next to his queen sized bed and picks up his small red phone.

Flipping it open, he debates on whom to call so late at night. Sitting down on the bed, his mint green sheets crinkling slightly, he decides to call Markus, knowing that Edward would probably be in the same room. Lying back, he listens to the music in his ear before hearing a silky voice on the other end of the connection.

“Hello, David. What can I do for you?” Markus asks softly, his brother's voice in the background calling out a greeting.

“Hey, Markus, can you and Edward come over? I think I need to talk to you about something,” David requests softly, his thoughts taking up most of his attention. Hearing a soft chuckle drags him out of them for a moment.

“Of course we can, chérie. We’ll be there soon,” Markus purrs softly, causing him to groan in reply.

“No calling me, chérie,” he says before hanging up on the laughter of the twins. Putting the phone aside, he grabs his stereo remote and points it at his stereo system. Pressing a button, he hears a soft click and then whirl of his CD player starting up. ‘Zombie’ fills the room as he lets his arm fall to the sheets under him. Tapping his foot in time, David lets his thoughts run around his head, making him dizzy at times. Sighing softly, he flips onto his stomach, missing the knock on the door and then it opening up, showing two tall figures standing there.

He didn’t miss it when a strong body pinned his own down and a voice purred in his ear. “Don’t you think you should know better than to lie on your stomach when you know we are coming?” one twin says as the other lays next to them.

“You would think I would know this. Now get off,” David says into his arms, his face buried in them. Shifting, the body slides to lie on his other side. Looking up, he sees that it was Markus who had pinned him down. “You two got here pretty fast. Where were you?” Markus smirks, his green eyes sparkling mischievously as Edward speaks for the first time since they came into the room.

“We were just visiting the gallery to discuss what works were to be on sale and which weren’t,” he said, his voice huskier than his brother's soft Cajun drawl. From what David knew, the twins had been raised in Louisiana until they were about 4 years of age and then they moved here.

Sighing softly, David sits up onto his knees and looks over at Edward, watching him shove his shoulder length, black hair out of his face. He looks at Markus before turning his eyes to Edward again.

‘You would never think they were twins with their coloring,’ he idly thinks to himself, shifting so that he could lean on one knee. ‘One dark as the night and the other as light as the moon, I suppose.’ Looking at Edward again, David takes in the sight of the black hair and brown eyes, surrounded by soft, cream colored skin that makes girls envious of them. David knows for a fact that Edward has a fan club at their school. But then again, so does Markus, with his nearly platinum blond hair that falls to his shoulders in a soft, straight line and his eyes that sparkle at you, no matter what the emotion.

The twins were so different, but so much the same. It really made him wonder why they would hang out with him. He wasn’t popular. He certainly wasn’t good at anything except school; but others were better. He didn’t play sports, nor was he a part of any club. So why did these two gorgeous twins hang out with him?

Sighing again and leaning back, he looks at the two in front of him and smiles softly. No matter their reasons, he was glad. Shifting once more, he tries to gather his thoughts so he can tell them what he had called them over for.

“Come on, chérie, tell us what is up,” Edward says, a teasing note in his voice, causing David to scowl at Edward, who just chuckles lightly at the cuteness in his sight.

“I was getting to that, Edward. And stop calling me chérie, please,” David says, his tone laced with warning, which made it just a bit higher then normal. Markus couldn’t help but think that it was nearly in a woman’s octave level before David started to speak again.

“Listen, while I was downstairs with the parental units, someone hacked my computer. I don’t have any virus, or at least I don’t think so.” Pausing for a moment, David scrambled off the bed and started a scan of his computer. Stopping only to print out the page that was still open on his computer, he turned to the twins and sat in his chair.

“You were saying?” Markus asks, sitting on the edge of David’s bed with a slight smirk sitting on his lips.

“As I was saying, someone hacked my computer and opened up a page from The Yuma Daily. But get this, it was from the 1960’s archive and was about this one chick who was gay bashed along with her girlfriend. Look, just read this,” David says, grabbing the papers that had finished printing and shoving them towards the twins. Edward took it and with Markus reading over his shoulder, started to read. David watched as they got through it, the twin faces becoming closed off at the description of the attack. Looking up, Markus pinned David to his chair with a look of anger.

“So, this girl was beaten with bats and fists so badly that she drowned in her own blood?” he asks, his voice making the smaller male shiver slightly.

“Yeah,” David replies softly, nodding his head. He shifts his attention from Markus to Edward when he starts to speak.

“Why would they hack your computer and bring this up though?” Edward asks; his voice thoughtful. David shrugs while sitting back and running one hand through his hair.

“Don’t know. All I know is that I was downstairs eating dinner after posting my Live Journal entry for the day and when I came back, this was up op the screen ,” he says, before nibbling on his lip. “I do know that the last name makes me think that I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

The twins stare at the name, thinking for a moment, before looking up at David again.

“What?” David asks wearily, eyeing the two other males.

“Wasn’t your mother’s maiden name Lewis?” Edward asks after a moment, causing David to suddenly fall backwards, tripping himself and his chair onto the floor with a soft thud in surprise.

AN: Cherie is used in relation to a girl. Yes, a girl. No, David is a male. When the twins use it, it’s like a gentle tease/pet name for him. Cherie, if I remember correctly, means darling.
Big thanks go to Jason, Gary and BeaStKid for their help with this chapter. It’s much appreciated. Gary though is not answering my e-mails so I am being forced to find a new beta/editor. So this will be the last time you see Gary’s name. *pouts*

Feel free to send any and all comments to sweetstuff23@gmail.com!