Cree glanced over at Lake and inched back against the back of the couch. They were so close. Cree smiled at Lake, and Lake immediately fell dizzy. He looked down at his lap shyly, like a middle schooler who couldn't speak a word to their crush without blushing. Once Cree looked away though, Lake began studying his face- committing every detail to memory. Just in case. Just in case this was the last time he would see Cree.

"Hey Lake?" Cree asked softly.

"Yeah?" Lake replied, even softer, barely able to force the words out of his mouth. However, whatever Cree was going to say was lost in the dark sea of life as the siren of the oven went off. "Oh!" Lake exclaimed, pulling Cree up from the couch and to the food- who's wonderful scents were wafting from the kitchen, making both the boys' stomachs itch them to eat.

As Lake got to the oven, he realized he was holding Cree's hand, but as he went to remove it, Cree laced up their fingers tightly, simply sealing the hold he had on Lake's heart. "You know," said Lake in a voice that sounded like it might break any moment. He turned on the oven light to check the meat, and Cree looked at what was being cooked. "Because of the new law, it makes it legal for us to do this." Lake gestured uselessly, praying that Cree would be okay with everything.

Cree's eyes widened, still looking at the oven, as he realized what was happening. Truth dawned on him- a sun piercing through the black veil of night. "Lake just because something's legal doesn't make it right," he said in a shaky voice, shattering every fragment of Lake's fragile soul.

"Cree."

"No. Lake no," said Cree little firmer.

"Cree listen to me. You don't have to listen to what your family thinks you can think for yourself-"

"This is me thinking for myself Lake! You need to come to your senses! You can't be doing this!"

Lake backed down. All his confidence he had built up flaked away and flew with the wind. "Which part of it?" he asked in a barely audible voice. Cree thought for a moment. He looked at Lake thoughtfully, and Lake took his silence to speak louder than a thousand words. He wasn't yelling. Cree still had doubts.

Lake felt emotions bubbling up in his throat and collecting on his tongue, he knew as soon as he opened his mouth they would spill out all at once.

The silence stretched on, pushing on them from all sides, and Lake searched Cree's face for answers. Answers to questions he was too afraid to ask.

"Lake-"

"Cree, I love you and I have for a long time I just didn't know how you'd react and I wanted to-" Lake confessed, no longer being able to contain his feelings as words spilled out of him like a dam had been broken, but he was cut off by the gentle breath of the other's voice.

"I love you too."

The boys stared at each other for a moment, taking in the other's beauty.

"Then can we just forget about this whole thing and have a peaceful night?" Lake asked in a hushed tone, wrapping his fingers up in Cree's, finally feeling a sense of calm wash over him for the first time that night. Yet Cree wasn't having the same reaction. Cree seemed to wake up as if he had been in a daze a few minutes prior. Like he hadn't been completely there. His look of peace and comfort that had settled on his face, coating it in a bask of happiness, was torn in half. He looked alarmed and his words became frantic.

"No Lake, we can't forget about it! Me loving you has absolutely nothing to do with this! How we feel has nothing to do with any of this and frankly, that was a shitty time to bring up your feelings! The only reason I even responded to that was because it made me so happy- I've been waiting for you to say that since freaking freshman year!" Cree paused, not wanting to persist in his yelling and just wanting to spend time with Lake like they would any other day. All too soon he saw red again because the person he would take a bullet for was behind the trigger. "You can't just erase this! I don't care what you tell yourself to justify what you're doing, because whatever you're telling yourself is wrong." Cree rushed, gesturing wildly, most of his failing arm motions falling in the direction of the kitchen. He knew that he had to deal with the issue at hand whether he wanted to or not.

"But Cree ask yourself this: How many more lives have to be lost before we get our rights?"

"Our rights to what?!"

"To life, Cree!"

Cree cursed and balled his fists, and the look of defeat on Lake's face nearly broke him. He was doing everything he could to restrain himself from saying something he knew he would regret. "You idiot, the new law is wrong. No matter how you put it, it's wrong!" said Cree, looking away from his friend so as to not be distracted from saying what needed to be said.

"How is it wrong?"

"How is it not!"

The oven started beeping again, this time seeming more insistent than the first. Both boys simultaneously looked over to the kitchen. Without looking at his friend, Lake padded over to the cold tile floor. He couldn't help glance behind him at Cree who wasn't daring to look at him. The blonde felt his blood boil. This one thing couldn't stand between them. It couldn't. Even if it was a huge slash in an otherwise beautiful tapestry, cuts can be sewn together again. He wasn't going to let Cree go over this one thing, he had loved him for too long.

He would convince him. Convince him that there was nothing wrong with what he was doing- it was necessary. It was a necessary evil.

Lake dished up the soup, chunks of the meat floating on the top of the broth- fingers trying to swim their way to the surface. He grabbed an oven mitt and took the fleshy meat out of the oven. He cut it in half and put each half on a plate.

"Dinner's served," he called as he brought the plates into the dining room. When he saw that Cree wasn't coming, he went into the living room and took Cree's hand. "Why don't we discuss this over food?" Lake pleaded.

"No! For the last time, Lake, I'm not doing this!" Cree shouted.

"How much longer are you going to refuse your rights!" Lake could feel tears pooling in his eyes.

"This isn't my right." Cree spat.

"You have a right to eat!" Lake screamed, finally letting tears fall. "Cree! The world is running out of food! The Annicalb was the only way!"

"What about all those people that were sacrificed to put food on this table! There's still plenty to eat! Nobody has to stoop to this! Please Lake!"

"But the poor were going to die anyway! We might as well make something of them! The Annicalb-"

"Stop calling it that!" Cree screeched. "Call it by what it is! Everyone calls it The Annicalb but we all know it's really The Ca-"

"It doesn't matter what you call it! It's necessary!"

"So many lives could have been spared!" Cree shot back.

"So many are being lost by not having this law!" Lake begged. Cree shook his head violently, glaring at his friend.

"I'm sorry Lake, but I can't support you in doing this. I'm distancing myself from anyone who feels that this is okay. That's the only way the world is going to be saved. By fighting back."

All at once, the symphony of the boys' love stopped playing its music and everything in, and around them, was still. The only sound left was the beating of the drum- the beating of their hearts.

"I still love you."

Cree walked out the door. Lake felt his insides raging with anger, sadness- fear- at the loss of the boy he loved. The boy he loved with everything he had. The chocolate haired boy that he had been through thick and thin with had just walked out of his life. He was gone.

"No," Lake whispered. How was he gone? He wasn't. He couldn't be. No, it was all a vivid dream and Lake would wake up any minute sobbing because he would think that he was drowning in an ocean of his tears mingled with Cree's. An ocean of their tears, but then Cree would come to save him.

"No," Lake said, his voice rising. They had been through everything together for years- it couldn't end like this! Why did Cree walk out? Did he not care enough to stay?

"No!" Lake screamed, his voice finally breaking. It was his fault. All of this was his fault. All he had to do was change and he could have had the thing he'd been dreaming of for so long. But-

"No." Lake knew he was no longer swimming in an ocean of his and Cree's tears. It was merely a thing of his own name filled to the brim with the salty hurt that was seeping out of his eyes.

"No." Lake mouthed. He couldn't get words past the tidal wave of feelings sweeping over him as he went over to the lonely dining room and pulled out a chair, the legs squealing on the wooden floor. He sat down and gazed longingly at the door once more before all his remorse turned sharply to anger, and standing up he chucked the plate of steaming hot meat at the wall.

Glass shattered everywhere, and Lake's eyes followed the chunk of human flesh that had been upon the plate as it fell to the ground.

"No."

***

A/N: What did you think? Do you have any suggestions? I love hearing feedback!

Thank you so much for reading! If you liked this story please consider leaving a vote or a comment before clicking onto the next part!

-Sunny <3