Sweet As The Punch

Sweet as the Punch
Chapter 1

"Gays. She likes gays!"

"I told you your face would be priceless and that you'd wanna meet up again. Didn't I?" Jakob said, tapping his foot on the floor of the apartment he shared with his two brothers, Aaron and Dennis. It wasn't a gesture of impatience or annoyment, but once again he proved he was right.

Adam sat in front of his friend and held his head in his hands. "But I'm not gay!"

"Duh. We knew that" the other replied, taking a sip out of the Coke. "Doesn't mean she's outta your league anyways. Just 'cause she seems to be attracted to gays doesn't automatically means that she's that attracted to them. We all have our little obsessions. She likes yaoi, just like most of the girls in there... gays catch their eyes."

"'Cause it's so cute!" a falsetto voice rang behind Adam. It was quite funny to see Dennis, who could easily be mistaken for a bodybuilder, act like a teenage girl. "Don't you see how it's hot?" he continued before taking a seat at the table as well, then spoke with his normal, deep voice. "She's the girl who won the Japanese Speech contest last year right? And I'm guessing you like her," he said to Adam.

A sigh escaped from his lips – he wondered if he fell for the right girl. "Yeah. I'll try to talk to her again tomorrow, see if she ever notices I'm there."

"Just give her the time. Some girls take more time to notice the guys surrounding them, especially if they already have male friends... even more if they're gay. They're just used to guys, they don't see them as special really. Until they meet the right one."

"But what if I'm not the right one?" he inquired. He wasn't so afraid of not being the right one, but he hated being rejected. He knew almost nothing about her, maybe in the end they wouldn't even work out. Or it could work out... he'd just have to try. It wouldn't be easy at all.

"Then you aren't" Aaron replied as he entered the room. It was his turn to cook. "If you aren't, you aren't, can't force that kinda stuff. So yeah, try to go out with her, see what happens and so on." He took a brief pause before changing the topic. "Hotdogs, gentlemen?"

Not even fifteen seconds after the positive answers he got, the buns and sausages were out and almost ready to be cooked. After all those years he knew exactly how they wanted their hotdogs prepared – Dennis hated mustard while Jakob loved it; Adam was a fan of the ketchup-relish-mustard classic. As for himself, Aaron loved onions, cheese and mayonnaise.

Dennis turned to his friend and lifted a finger in the air, as if he was warning him. "Adam, go for it. You've got nothing to lose – if she doesn't like you it means you weren't made for her and I know you better than trying to go after someone who doesn't like you. So tomorrow you go out there, you start talking to her and you get to know her. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" Adam replied. He was going to do as Dennis said. After all, he had nothing to lose.

~ ~ ~ ~

Same corridor, same classroom... different class, this time. But Raelene was in it and it's all that mattered. From the door's small window, Adam could see her. For a moment, he felt like a stalker and the idea didn't please him. He wasn't a stalker, he just liked her. He surely wouldn't go as far as following her home, entering her room, stealing her panties – he felt dirty simply thinking about doing it. He shook his head in disgust. The people who did such things made him sick.

His eyes grew wide as the door flung opened. The blonde guy from yesterday was the first out. Mitch, as he knew him. If he had known him more he'd have asked questions about Raelene. Something came back to him. "Oh so that's why he was somewhat familiar... he's the student life representative! So it means there's gonna be parties and whatnot. Maybe I can get to know her better there."

Adam curse himself as he realized what happened. By the time he was done thinking, Raelene was standing a few feet away from him. This time, he shouted a "Hey!" in her direction. Mitch turned, waved and chuckled, then disappeared within the crowd. So did Raelene.

He cringed. Once again, he had failed. By then she probably was talking to more people and he didn't want to bother her by asking her out so bluntly. Instead, he headed at the cafeteria, where he was sure he could find Jakob.

The man saw it coming; the way Adam walked, it was obvious Raelene, once again, didn't even see him. Jakob felt sorry for his friend. "You don't even need to say anything. Didn't go well right?"

Adam shook his head. "You guessed right. I'm lacking ideas... anyways, where are your friends?"

"Helena has a class but she's going with some of her other friends to some restaurant around. Mitch has no classes this afternoon and he's going back home. Gregory had no classes at all today... I'm simply waiting on Matthew for some quick Japanese revision before I get to my Chinese History class... that's Thursday for ya, buddy."

"I can guess." He took a look at what Jakob was doing for his assignment. Something that looked like a script. "Making a movie for your class?"

"Pretty close. We're doing a play. Gregory, Mitch, Helena, Matthew and I. Gonna be a blast actually. I said I'd throw down ideas before meeting up again tomorrow." As much as Adam wanted to know what he had written, he could only read some of the characters – Kanji was still too complicated and he had begun to learn Katakana last week – adjusting to it, after learning Hiragana, was harder than he thought.

Jakob had noticed, so he started enumerating what he had written on the piece of paper. "So far, the classics: At the Office, At the Mall, Family Meeting, An Anime Game Show... I'm so tempted to start working on the game show one and have Mitch as Sailor Moon on . He's crazy enough to accept. I'd cast Greg as the host and giving all these contestants their tasks. Oh! I could dare Sailor Moon to kiss a random guy within the audience! And the girl to kill someone else. Yeah..."

Adam listened. It was interesting to hear what his dark-skinned friend came up with. He had so much imagination. And maybe his imagination could help him in his quest to get Raelene's attention.

"Well, think about a way for me to get noticed. You know anyone who knows her and I could..." He stopped talking. He had his own answer already. "I need a gay guy."

Jakob lifted his bald head from the sheet. "That I can get you easily." This fact didn't exactly shocked Adam – Jakob was the more social one; he knew almost everyone in the department, so he most probably knew about the sexual orientation of the most active ones as well. "Why for though?"

"'Cause she notices them! If I can hang out with one and she knows him I'm pretty sure I can get her to talk to me..." He stopped talking again. Another idea.

"Even better dude. I could pretend to be gay."

Jakob furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah, I guess I have the right guy for you then. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow to know who it is, 'cause he's not here and I'm not telling anything until I've talked to him. Though I know he's open and he'd probably do it, but still. Just wanna make sure."

"Got it."

If it was sure that he could get to know her, he'd be willing to wait a long time.

~ ~ ~ ~

It was a quarter after noon and for a lunch hour, the cafeteria was rather empty. A lot of people didn't have classes during Friday afternoons, therefore they had no reasons to stay – unless, of course, they had chosen the cafeteria as a study hall.

Adam and Jakob were sitting at their usual table, at the back of the cafeteria, away from the prying eyes. Adam was in his Japanese book while the Black man was sending a text message to his girlfriend, Bianca, telling her that he couldn't meet her after his class – he had to help Adam with "something", like getting a date with a gay guy. He later got the following message: "O_o weirdos. GL". Good luck. Not bad!

"I didn't check what was on the menu today... did you?" Adam asked to his friend. He was getting hungry but didn't feel like getting up. He had to admit he was lazy.

Jakob lifted his head and brought his hand to his chin, thinking. "Huh... salmon I think. I'm gonna get a cheeseburger after I'm done with this sheet. Want one?"

"Yeah. I don't feel like fish. Oh by the way... when is your guy coming?"

"Soon, he had a class. Shouldn't be too long." He got up and waved at the blonde guy from two days ago. "Mitch! Here!" And he sat back down. "Poor Mitch. Got confused again. He gets lost so easily, it's funny."

Mitch was still looking around, confused. He walked to the table after finally spotting Jakob – dark skin on a yellow wall was easy to spot, he had to admit it – and sat down beside him, in front of Adam. "Dude, everyone's at another table, what's up?" he asked, fumbling in his backpack. He wanted his lunch.

Jakob started. "Okay. Well you've met Adam... Adam, Mitchell. Mitchell, Adam. There we go. Adam, that's the guy."

Adam was even more confused than Mitch earlier. "What?! My date? Him? Huh... I said gay guy..."

"Yeah well he's gay."

Mitch cocked his head again. "That's as surprising as you being Black."

Instant reply from Jakob. "Oh my god!" Well, it was rather a scream. "I'm Black?! No way!"

"We've met each other before. Remeber the other day at the cafeteria? " Adam added. There was something about Mitchell that he couldn't quite put his finger on, something that made him different than other gays he encountered. The lack of sophistication, perhaps? Whereas the ones he spotted every now and then were very cautious about their looks, Mitch seemed like an anti-thesis of the stereotype. His long blonde hair was slighly messy, he wore a faded black Opeth shirt, blue jeans and his hoodie was tied around his waist. Black and grey headphones were hanging loosely around his neck.

And all this time he had been somewhat afraid of Jakob finding the most girly guy he could find, just to see his reaction. He prefered Mitch a -lot- more.

"We did, I remember now. Sweet. " He turned to Jakob. " By the way, you coming to the Iced Earth show? I was able to buy tickets so if you don't come I'll rip your throat, you'll die, then I'll go to Hell with you and rip it again".

The guy had made it clear – don't mess with me or I'll kick your ass. He smirked and brought the cafeteria plate closer to him. A club-sandwich with fries. "So hungry. .... You guys aren't eating?"

"I'll get a cheeseburger soon. Adam, want anything?"

"Bring me a club sandwich too... Change my fries for a poutine." With this, he gave Jakob a 10-dollar bill and watched him get up, tugging on Mitch's hair and leaving the table giggling like a schoolgirl.

Now, he didn't really know how to approach him about his plan. Maybe he'd let his best friend do it.

As for Mitch, he had no idea of what was coming for him. He was tempted to put his headphone back on, but remembered there was someone else at the table. He hated silence, it felt so uncomfortable for him. But he was used to loud areas; concerts, crowds, sports events and similar things. For him, silence meant inactivity, and inactivity was bad. "Enjoying the program so far?" he inquired, looking at Adam above his black, sport-ish glasses.

"Yeah, it's nice. Not too hard, but a challenge nonetheless. I have more difficulties in French than in Japanese..."

"For someone coming from a French-speaking family, your English is pretty damned good. Anyways, French is a hard language to learn" Mitch said as he rolled his eyes. He had grown up in an English-speaking family, but learned and used French in school. "I remember the first classes of French I had, and it was horrible. I still make mistakes with masculine and feminine nouns, especially when I'm tired. Nothing as bad as the German teacher I had but still. It's annoying when you do too much, and I always think I do too much of those errors so I get annoyed easily at myself."

This sparked interest in Adam's mind. "I'm wondering... if you're English-speaking, why haven't you applied at McGill University?"

Mitch shrugged. " Wanted to be with friends. The community is harder to get into, it's too huh... official for my tastes. So I chose University of Montreal and really, I'm happy with my choice. They don't have a Masters' or even a real Bachelor's in Eastern-Asian studies but the people are much friendlier 'cause the number of people in it is smaller. Plus as the Student Life Representative I get to meet with most of them; better to know a hundred people very well, than not knowing anything about two or three hundred. "

He had a point there. Smaller groups of people were more efficient in general. Less egos to mess with.

"And with such people, there's always a couple who're willing to go for more. We held initiations, I dunno if you were there, but some people are more comfortable about doing weird things in smaller groups. I see myself acting like a fool around ten thousand people, but I can't say the same for Jakob..." He took a few seconds to look over his glasses again. "Oh wait. Yeah, he would. But I can't say that for more people."

He liked the idea of pretending to go out with that kind of guy, who seemed open to brand new ideas and who had the guts to do more. He'd learn from Mitch. "I don't think I would. But I'm not really shy either, I guess it depends the people I'm with "

Mitch smirked. "The number of people around doesn't matter, I guess that's stuff you learn when you're in a band and play in front of people. I played in the band for my high-school prom, half-drunk... made an ass of myself but it was -so- damn fun! I'd have been expelled if it wasn't MY prom night, but man, I'd do it all over again."

"What did you do?"

"Bit of crowd surfing, made fun of our principal, crude lyrics, mooned a teacher, tried to kiss another... and I wasn't fully drunk, as I've said. I'm worse when I'm drunk." He had to agree that it was pretty bad, but considering the circumstances it must've been quite funny. "Hey, perfect timing dude!" he shouted as Jakob came back, holding two plates – one for himself, one for Adam. "I was telling him about my prom night."

Jakob sat down beside Mitch and slapped his forehead in his hand. "I saw the videos of that." He did it again as the blonde-haired man grinned widely. "Not something the officials at the government are gonna like to see if they do a backgroung check, if you ever work for the embassy, dumbass."

"Fuck them. Anyways my main goal is not to work at the embassy, I'd rather work in translation... working home, on MY schedule so I can go to bed at six in the morning, wake up at noon, work during the evening and game the rest of the night! Now -that's- the life I want. Until then I'll stick to studies, kay-thanks-bye. So anyways, what did you want me for?" He had changed topics quite fast. Jakob was used to it, but not Adam.

"You know Raelene right? She's in like, four of your classes. Black hair with red streaks, she's small... has a nice body..."

"What's up with her?" Mitch asked, curious on why he was there to talk about her. He found her pretty but was definitely not attracted to her, and failed to see the point of him being here.

"Adam likes her."

The man in question cringed. His crushes were no one's business... although it was in this case, if he had to get her attention with another man...

"So he wants a pretend boyfriend, and there's nothing for a pretend boyfriend like a real gay guy."

Mitch's smirk grew ten times larger and he exploded in laughter. " Wow, that's amazing! I'll do it."
Adam was surprised to hear the answer. Mitch gained nothing, while he possibly gained a girlfriend? "But... you gotta keep in mind I'm not gay... you're not really winning anything in this... why are you doing it?"

"I'll be blunt – you're hot and I haven't had a boyfriend in six months, being single gets annoying. Hell, if it means to have the benefits without having the serious relationship... I'm in." Genuine interest. It couldn't get much better. It meant his plan was working.

"Since you're new at this university it's not gonna be hard to have people believe you're gay. For me it'd be harder, if I went out with a girl to get some guy's attention people would find it weird."

Adam nodded. It only seemed normal. "Got it."

"So I'm guessing we could start "dating officially" in only in a couple days. After all, it's not everyday I meet another gay man that suits me."

The brown-haired man nodded again. "Suits me, really."

Mitch grinned and took a big bite out of the sandwich. "Then it's settled. You'll have that girl and in the meantime I have someone to hug!"

Frankly, he was glad he had accepted it.

~ ~ ~ ~