My Utopia

The sky was grey and a gloomy atmosphere was held over the world. This wasn't anything new, it was like this everyday in the "utopia" that they lived in. The rich and poor were greatly separated. The wealthy had an enormous wall that blocked them from the horrors of poverty. The wall was heavily guarded both day and night. Only its first rate citizens, after a lot of paperwork, could pass through the wall and back. There was one company that stood above the rest wealth wise. Mr. Erodolliel was the man that had absolutely everything, basically owning the entire Utopia. He had one son: Dante, and two daughters, Bridget and Jennifer. Dante was his heir-the most important person in his father's life, because of this Dante wasn't allowed as much freedom as his siblings. He hated everything about his life. Everything Dante wanted to do with his life, his father promptly crushed any dreams of. He wanted to be an artist, he wanted to be his own person. Mr. Erodolliel would never accept that kind of lifestyle for his heir. Dante needed to be proper, he needed to be exactly like his father, after all, he would own the business and the wealth of his father in the future.

He had never been beyond the walls that detached him from the filth on the other side. But tonight, he was going to, and nothing would stop him. Packing only what he absolutely needed, he enacted his plan. Thoroughly thought over and over many times. It was easier than he thought it was going to be, to get past the guards that protected his home. They slacked off a lot, since rarely anything happened on their side of the wall. The only thing that Dante thanked his father for from all the years he was locked away, was his intelligence. Many weeks of looking at the wall and mathematics, he found a forgotten doorway, which was also in a blind area from the cameras. He used the doorway to his advantage and finally, he was on the other side of the wall. His hands instantly covered his mouth, the air was dirty and polluted compared to the clean fresh air of his home. He held back coughs until he was farther away from the wall.

The houses were small, the streets littered with garbage. Many were laying in the streets and there were no cars to be found. Dante found himself across the street from a lit up tattoo shop. Being the only decent looking building on it's block, it served as a beacon of hope for Dante. He slowly sat down and took in the rest of his surroundings. He felt a tug at his arm and realized that someone had just grabbed his bag from his hands. He yelled and chased the person for a while, but ended up losing them. Sighing and grumbling he ended up going to the same spot as before. He was drawn to the tattoo shop for some reason he couldn't fathom. Even though he had just lost all of his belongings, he still felt happy. Happy that he was out of his horrible fathers hands. He grinned and ruffled up his hair, he would not have to look proper anymore either, he practically embraced the dirt that surrounded him. He laid on the concrete, and through the polluted skies, watched the few stars that floated above him until his eyes felt heavy and closed.

He felt a nudge and his eyes fluttered open. Before him stood a very tall, and very tattooed man. Dante was wearing a suit. It was dirty, but still a suit nonetheless. No one in the lower part of the Utopia ever wore suits. This made that towering man in front of him confused. The man's hair was crimson red by the roots and softly faded into a deep navy blue at the tips. The left side of his head was shaved, exposing more tattoos. He was smiling wide at Dante, his forest green eyes showed kindness. You could tell the man was quite poor, due to him just wearing a t-shirt and some ripped up skinny jeans. He held what looked like a chunk of bread in his surprisingly clean hand. Just looking at the food made Dante's stomach grumble.

"I've never seen you around here before. You hungry?" The man asked him in a deep accent that Dante could barely understand. He simply nodded and the man extended his arm outwards towards him and handed him the piece of bread. Dante took one bite of the bread and felt like he was going to puke. Going from top class fine dining to a piece of stale bread was not easy for him. The man could tell by his reaction that Dante did not like the food at all.

"Name's Jordan," The man smiled again, and reached out for a handshake.

"Dante." He mumbled and slowly reached out and grabbed Jordan's hand.

This marked the the beginning of a friendship that resulted in Jordan taking Dante under his wing, and giving him a place to stay. Dante was content with the life he now had at the tattoo shop he called home. Jordan even made him the lead artist. It seemed like everything in his life was now falling into place. That all changed the day Dante met him.

It was a rainy day, just like any other and nothing special about it. Dante walked to a mirror that was hanging on one of the walls. He admired his new appearance. His hair was spiked up to a point, the tip of the point was red, and the rest of his hair was a greyish blue. His eyes were a piercing electric blue. Dante's clothes consisted of a black crop top, to show off his newly acquired hip piercings, and his pants, just as black tripp pants with red belts criss crossing in the front and back. He counted his piercings for the millionth time. Twelve altogether, snake bites, tongue, collarbones, hips, two on the left ear, and three on the right. He wasn't picky with his shoes, just plain combat boots were fine with him. Dante turned when he heard the little bell on the door ring, signalling someone had come in. "Welcome," Dante greeted the customer. The blonde stranger approached the counter that Dante was now standing behind. The stranger wore an orange hoodie, with black stripes. He had headphones around his neck that were still blasting loud dubstep music. Just like Dante, his pants were the same black color. Dante noticed that his shoes were covered in what looked to be paint.

"Just need touch ups," His voice was warm, and welcoming and his eyes were just the same. Dante actually stared at his chocolate brown eyes for awhile before looking down at the mans extended arms. The customer pulled up his sleeves to show dark black, jagged, lightning bolt shaped lines that wrapped around both of his arms.

"Sure thing, we are going to have to do them in two sittings, that ok?"

"Fine."

"Name please?"

"Zack,"

Zack, the named stayed on the tip of Dante's tongue and he gestured for Zack to follow him to the chair. Dante prepared the tattoo gun and thought of something to say to break up the awkward silence that surrounded them.

"So..Zack, what brings you to our little shop here?" Dante asked him, lightly touching the needle to Zack's skin.

"Um..this is the only tattoo shop left in all of Utopia..I didn't really have much of a choice," Dante felt like an idiot.

"Oh..right.." He cleared his throat. The rest of the touch up was silent.

"See you tomorrow," Dante waved at his customer that said nothing back to him as he left. There was just something about this Zack. Dante really wanted to be his friend for some reason. The next day Jordan asked Dante to run a quick errand in the morning for him. As he passed the shop, he noticed a figure in the alleyway. The smell of paint was strong in the air. Dante neared the person to find them spraying graffiti alongside their building. There wasn't really any police in the lower side of Utopia, so Dante had to take this into his own hands.

"Hey! Get back here!" He screamed at the now running vandal. The culprit would not give up, he was fast, and had the stamina to match. Dante although did not, and ended up stopping to catch his breath, allowing the vandal to get away. This made one angry Dante. Jordan was just as upset to find the words "Go home rich kid" painted across the side of his shop, and made Dante clean it up.

"I don't know who you upset, but that better not happen again." A very stern Jordan stood before Dante.

"Yes sir.." Dante whimpered.

The bells once again jingled and Zack was back for the rest of his touch ups. A very displeased look shown on his face. Dante immediately turned away from a very upset Jordan to help his customer, thankful that Zack showed up when he did. Dante heard Jordan sigh and leave the room to go to his office/bedroom upstairs. He stayed up there the entire time Dante tattooed Zack. Besides some small talk, the shop was pretty much quiet the entire time.

"You're all finished," Dante smiled at Zack as he put the gun down.

"Nice," Zack looked in the mirror and nodded his head in satisfaction. He then handed Dante the money for the tattoo. Dante turned to go back to the counter, but was pulled backwards by Zack who proceeded to turn Dante towards him. Dante was confused and flustered by Zack's actions. He became even more confused when Zack's eyes closed and he planted a rough kiss upon Dante's lips. Zack was shocked when he felt Dante push back, and instantly broke the kiss. "I-I'm sorry.." He stuttered and quickly ran through the door. Dante stood there in shock, his heart was pounding so hard he thought it was going to explode. He reached up and with his hand he touched his mouth with his index finger. What were these new feelings? He didn't actually have feelings for Zack did he? No, that would be ridiculous… wouldn't it? He heard footsteps and Jordan reappeared from his hideaway.

"Look dude, I'm sorry. It's just the shop is my baby, I don't want anything bad happening to her." You could tell by the look Jordan had on his face that he meant his apology.

"I understand.." Dante mumbled. His heart was still racing and he tried to hide any emotion from his face. The last thing he wanted was Jordan finding out about the entire thing.

"Something wrong Dante? You look flushed." Jordan had a look of profound concern on his face.

"I'm just not feeling well I guess.." Dante bit his lip. He hated lying, especially to friends.

"Ok..then, if you say so. I'm here if you need me, you should go get some fresh air or something."

"Sounds like a good idea." Dante agreed and walked towards the entrance of the shop. It appeared to have stopped raining outside, so he stepped outside. As soon as he was outside he noticed the smell of paint in the air. Dante quickly darted around the corner to find the vandal once again spray painting the side of the shop. "Hey you!" Dante growled at the man, and noticed that he looked a bit familiar. Immediately the man dropped the can of paint and sped right past Dante so fast he was like a blur. "Oh no you don't, not this time!" Dante yelled as he ran as fast as he could to keep up with the criminal. Surprisingly Dante didn't lose his breath this time, and followed the man to what looked like to be a run down apartment complex. Dante stayed his distance, and hid behind the corner of the building, just peeking out enough to see the man. He watched intently as the man took of his hood and the bandana that was hiding his face. Dante couldn't believe what he saw. It was Zack?! His heart started to thump in his chest and he gulped. As Zack was about to enter his building, Dante shouted "STOP!" and Zack looked in Dante's direction, surprised. Zack had thought he lost Dante a couple blocks back and was shocked to see him here. When Dante reached Zack, he clenched his fists and growled, then with one hand grabbed Zack's collar and pulled it near his face. "Look what you've done to me," His face was flushed red, and he was staring right into Zack's eyes. Zack didn't know what to say, he stayed silent and let Dante continue but shifted his eyes away from Dante's piercing stare. "You've made me feel things I didn't even know existed, I couldn't get you out of my head, over and over repeated that same scene, yet you vandalized our shop, my home, multiple times?!" Dante was furious, and his grip tightened on Zack's collar.

"Look, I don't know what came over me, I just..had this urge ok? I don't know what it is about you, but I just really wanted to be close to you." Zack admitted. Dante's grip loosened and he heard a sigh escape Zack's mouth. "Look. just let me make it up to you.." Zack pleaded. Dante was hesitant, but nodded in agreement. "Follow me." Zack commanded, and Dante did in fact follow him. Zack lead him back to the tattoo shop, and back to the wall that was was vandalizing earlier. "Look," He said, gesturing for Dante to go down the alley and look at what Zack had painted. Dante walked down the alley and slowly looked at the painting that was before him. In bright red and black artistic words spelled, "Will you go out with me?". Dante was very surprised, and turned to the man standing next to him. "So what do you say? There's a first time for everything." Zack smiled at him warmly.

"Yes"