Fake Friends (1)
“This is getting ridiculous, Charles,” Hank said as Charles was about to go on with his rant. For a second, Charles felt something like pity for him. Hank obviously wanted to just eat his lunch at the cafeteria in peace before Charles had sat down next to him and Raven to complain about Erik again. “For the past two weeks, the only thing you talk about is how much you hate a guy you have barely spoken to.”
“His arch-nemesis,” Raven added with a giggle that indicated she was thinking the same as Hank.
“This is not funny, Raven.” Charles´ voice had a sting to it that made her roll her eyes. Since he found out that Raven had slept with his arch-nemesis the mood between them had been sour. Every attempt of Charles to talk her out of her attraction to Erik Lehnsherr had failed, she still followed him around and flirted with him whenever possible.
Charles loathed the Tuesday and Friday afternoons at the Chess Club, even if he only caught a glimpse of his arch-nemesis for a few seconds each time. Just the knowledge that Erik was smoking and playing chess next door was enough to make Charles´ blood boil. Apparently, he had made his hatred known so often or so intensely that even Hank who barely dared to disagree with anybody was speaking out about it now.
“We are not in high school anymore.” Hank adjusted his glasses uncomfortably as he spoke. “You two are both adults-”
“I´m seventeen,” Charles said but Hank just continued as if he had never been interrupted.
“Both adults and even if you don´t like him you should find a way to get along with him. Even if you disapprove of his relationship with your sister.”
“You two are dating?” Charles growled which only earned him a sigh from Raven.
“No, we are not. We are just casually seeing each other. I told you I am not interested in a relationship and neither is he.” She turned her body towards Charles and for once, didn´t roll her eyes at him. “I honestly don´t understand why he bothers you so much. Yes, Erik is antisocial and a little weird but he is not as bad as you make him be. I even think if you didn´t decide you hated him, you two could have been friends. Seriously.”
“I tried to be friendly towards him,” Charles reminded her and forced himself to not pout. “Twice. And he thanked me by insulting me both times.”
“I mean you made a fool out of yourself at that party,” Raven said with a cocky grin. Hank must have told her about how Charles drunkenly tried to start a fight with Erik Lehnsherr before he went and hooked up with her. Charles was still not entirely convinced Erik didn´t just do it to spite him. “He probably thinks you are the weirdo, little brother.”
“I don´t care what he thinks about me,” Charles hissed. It was a lie, of course. When he had tried to be friendly towards Erik it had bothered him that Erik apparently didn´t want to have anything to do with Charles. And now that Charles viewed Erik as his arch-nemesis it was bothering him even more that Erik wasn´t acting like an arch-nemesis. He continued to ignore Charles whenever possible. It drove Charles mad.
“That´s why you keep talking about him every day?” Raven grinned as if she knew something Charles didn´t.
“I have to go to class now.” He grabbed his bag and left the two of them alone at the cafeteria. It was Tuesday; after the next lecture, he would have half an hour to catch up with his readings before he would go to the Chess Club meeting. Charles refused to give up the Chess Club even if Erik´s presence there bothered him. And part of him hoped that Erik would feel bothered as well.
The lecture flew by in no time. Charles honestly had expected college to be harder but like usual, he had no problem following the material. The reading came easily to him and every new problem that needed to be solved filled him with joy. Yes, biology had been the right choice for him even if he mourned the missed opportunity to minor in psychology.
When he arrived at room 217 the other members of the Chess Club were already sitting in the back of the room. Charles frowned. No chessboard had been prepared, yet, and everyone was involved in a silent discussion. The second Charles entered the room everyone went silent, some of the other members were looking at him wide-eyed.
“Sorry,” Charles said with visible confusion. “Did I interrupt something?”
Liam was already on his feet and hurried Charles back into the hallway. He looked uncomfortable, rubbing his sweaty hands against his jeans.
“We need to talk about something,” he finally said, still avoiding Charles´ eyes. “About you and Erik.”
“What about us?” Charles had the tingling feeling that Liam was about to say the same thing Hank had complained about earlier. Maybe he was a little too obsessed with Erik.
“The... rivalry between you two is bothering the rest of the group,” Liam explained as diplomatically as possible. “Charles, this is a Chess Club. We are here because we don´t want the drama that comes with other clubs and social activities. And if you two can´t resolve the issue then we need to kick both of you out. That´s... that´s how we have decided.”
It did not sound like that decision had been unanimous. Charles could imagine that at least some members had asked for only Charles to be kicked out of the club. Unlike with Charles, Erik seemed to get along just fine with the other members. This sparked an idea inside Charles´ mind, an unbelievably stupid idea but sometimes the stupidest ideas had led to Charles´ biggest successes.
“Fine,” he said. “I´ll go talk to Erik. If we can´t resolve the issue one of us will leave the club.”
Liam looked relieved, Charles didn´t even have to use his winning smile to convince him.
“Yes, yes, that would be great. Erik is next door if you...”
Charles simply nodded, left the backpack with his textbooks in the common room, and then knocked on the door to show the other members his good intentions before he entered. Erik sat at his usual place, reconstructing a board position from a little booklet laying next to him on the table. He was smoking like usual but for once, Charles didn´t comment on it.
“Hey,” Charles said as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.
Erik grunted. This was his only response, he didn´t even look up from the board.
“Liam has threatened to kick us out of the club if we don´t get along with each other.” His words made enough impact that Erik jerked upright, his eyes glowing with anger.
“Why would he try to kick me out when you are the one who can´t stop talking shit about me behind my back?”
“I think the other members have voted on that matter,” Charles explained calmly. When he was sure he had Erik´s full attention he leaned slightly forward and lowered his voice. “So I propose a deal: since we can´t get along with each other we could at least pretend to be friends.”
Erik reacted as expected. He leaned back in his chair, lit himself a new cigarette, and furrowed his brows before he said: “Pretend to be friends?”
“Yes. I´m suggesting a fake friendship. I stop complaining about your rudeness and that you slept with my sister, you stop treating me like an annoying little child.” Charles had been very careful with wording his proposal and now held his breath as he awaited Erik´s answer.
“This is the stupidest idea I have heard in years,” he replied but he had not yet resorted to insulting Charles which had to count for something. “Why would I agree to something like that?”
“So you don´t get kicked out of the club,” Charles said plainly. “I know you enjoy coming here. And I know you would enjoy coming here even more if we stop this feud.”
Erik thought about it for a few seconds. Still, no insults, that had to be a good sign.
“What would you get out of this deal?”
“My sister likes you. It is important for her that I like you as well, I think, but since I don´t actually like you, I can at least pretend to do so for her sake.” This was the most honest response Charles was willing to give. It seemed to have been enough.
“Fine.” Erik exhaled the smoked and watched it dance in the sunlight without looking at Charles. “Let´s be fake friends, then.”
Erik had to admit that being Charles´ friend had its perks. It was October by now and far too cold to spend the breaks between classes outside so Charles invited him to come to the cafeteria with them instead. “Them” - that were Charles himself, his sister Raven, the slightly antisocial Hank McCoy and an overly social young man named Alex Summers. Sometimes a young woman who called herself Angel joined them but she only seemed to come to college when she felt like it which wasn´t often.
How Charles had managed to convince his friends that he and Erik were no longer enemies was still a mystery to Erik. The young Brit was a terrible liar and an equally terrible actor. Just last week he had tried to go for a hug to greet Erik in the morning. Erik had flinched so violently that he accidentally hit Charles in the throat with his elbow. The whole situation had been extremely uncomfortable with him pretending to be worried about Charles´ health. But so far no one seemed to suspect a thing and as long as there was free food involved, Erik was willing to go along with the act.
He had even gotten used to Raven flirting with him, even though Hank´s sad, disappointed eyes followed them everywhere. No matter how often Erik rejected her she still tried to get into his personal space. And Erik hated people getting into his personal space. So far, he had outright rejected her three times and he suspected it would take at least another three times before she would be willing to let it be.
By now, Charles also had managed to learn that Erik was majoring in Mathematics and would graduate next summer. He congratulated Erik on his hard work but grinded his teeth so loudly while he did so that Erik was sure everyone on the table had to notice it was fake. But apparently, they were still oblivious to the whole farce. Nobody was giving him weird looks, either, and that was good enough for Erik.
“What are you all doing for Thanksgiving?” Alex Summers asked while Charles and Erik were still trying to figure out which places in the booth to take so they wouldn´t have to look at each other. At the end, Hank was quicker than Charles to secure himself the spot next to Raven, and Charles ended up having to sit next to Erik. Their arms touched uncomfortably whenever one of them tried to cut their food.
“I´m visiting my family,” Hank said and shot a quick glance over to Raven.
“We will be staying in the States,” she smiled at her brother who nodded.
“Thanksgiving is not a big deal in Great Britain,” Charles explained and then added with a horribly fake friendliness. “What about you, Erik?”
Erik shrugged. He had to remind himself of their deal not to snap back at Charles.
“I don´t have any plans, yet.”
“Do you not want to see your family?” Raven asked with a smile. Erik didn´t bite.
“I don´t have any family.” He lowered his eyes on his food and luckily, she got the hint so he could continue his lunch undisturbed. It was only a half-lie. He still had family in the States but none he wanted to visit during the holidays. In fact, he hadn´t seen any relatives of his since he ran away from home ten years ago. He didn´t miss them, either.
He tried to remember whether or not he had spent the last Thanksgiving with Magda. Not, Thanksgiving was in November, by that time she had already been hospitalized. The months after their breakup were a blur in Erik´s mind.
“You should all come to our Thanksgiving party,” Alex continued excitedly and Erik snapped out of his dark memories. “My brother Scott and I have the house all for ourselves since our parents are going to visit some extended family. You are all invited as long as you bring beer.”
The group immediately burst out into chatter only Erik stayed silent. Thanksgiving was still six weeks away; plenty of time to work out the details. Charles´ friends were inviting him to spend Thanksgiving with them. Literally none of them suspected their friendship could be fake. He shot Charles a quick glance but the younger man was occupied with working out the logistics of the upcoming holiday.
And even though their friendship was fake, Erik still felt a certain warmth inside his chest over the fact he had been included.
When Charles met his friends at their usual booth in the cafeteria, he immediately noticed Erik´s absence. He looked around but couldn´t find his stuff anywhere else, either. Their fake friendship had gone well so far; Charles had stopped pestering Erik about his smoking habits and in return, Erik hadn´t made a single derogatory comment about him or Raven in weeks.
“Where´s Erik?” he asked as he sat down next to Raven. She had already finished her lunch and was now chatting with Hank who didn´t look pleased at all that Charles was interrupting their conversation.
“We thought you knew,” she replied. “Maybe he´s hungover. Maybe he didn´t want to come.”
“It´s Thursday,” Charles reminded her with a frown. “Erik has Theoretical Mathematics on Thursdays, his favorite subject. He wouldn´t miss it without reason.” Charles wondered how on earth he had managed to remember that. He and Erik weren´t real friends, after all, he really needed to reevaluate his priorities.
“Have you called him or sent him a text?” Raven asked with a shrug. Erik´s mysterious absence didn´t seem to faze her much. A very positive development in Charles´ opinion. He hated seeing his sister flirt with Erik.
“No,” Charles said and had almost added “I don´t even have his number” before remembering that he and Erik were supposed to be friends.
“I mean, I have texted him but he has not replied,” he corrected himself and gave his best to put on a worried face. Raven seemed to buy it. Good.
“I hope he´s not sick or something. Do you think you could check in on him after class?” she asked.
And because Charles was apparently unable to deny any of his own sister´s requests he agreed.
Two hours later, when he left the lecture tired and hangry he hated his past self for agreeing to look after Erik. If Erik was actually sick he would be in a sour mood and their carefully crafted public image of friendship could be destroyed in an instant. Liam had even congratulated Charles on how quickly he had been able to overcome his differences with Erik. Charles felt like a terrible liar when he had smiled at the president of the Chess Club and assured him that Erik and himself were on good terms now.
So instead of heading home Charles made a detour to the dormitory. It was noisier than it had been on that Sunday morning he had lasted stepped foot inside the building. Students were chatting in the hallway, carrying books or laundry or were returning from their classes. It made Charles wish he lived in a dormitory himself. That was, until he passed a dorm room and could clearly hear two people having sex. Well, privacy was apparently nonexistent in here.
The incident made Charles painfully aware of the fact he still hadn´t followed through with his idea to try hooking up with another man. As he reached Erik´s door he filed the thought away for later and knocked.
It took Erik a while to open but once he did, the reason for his absence became obvious immediately. His face was swollen and his cheeks had taken on a unhealthy green color. He also didn´t look glad to see Charles here.
“What do you want?” he groaned.
“You weren´t there for lunch today,” Charles explained, displeased with finding Erik in an actual desolate condition. “Raven was worried but I realized I didn´t have your number so she urged me to drop by and check in on you.”
Erik frowned. Making that face was apparently painful for him but not painful enough to stop.
“I told you it was a horrible idea to fake a friendship.” It looked like he had to support himself as he leaned against the door frame, arms crossed in front of his chest. “I had my wisdom teeth removed, that is all. I´ll be back by Monday.”
Charles nodded. He could have left it at that, Erik had made his position clear already, but his good manners got the upper hand once again.
“Can I do anything to help you until then?” he offered with a smile.
“Why would you offer that? We aren´t real friends, remember?” Erik frowned again and if his face hadn´t swelled up to the size of a balloon Charles might have been intimidated by the suspicious look in his eyes. It was clear he did not trust the younger man at all.
“As I said, Raven was worried about you,” Charles repeated, barely concealing his frustration.
“If your sister is so worried about me ask her to come over and suck my dick. Would be more useful than anything you have to offer.”
Something inside Charles snapped at these words. Before he even realized what he was doing he had already punched Erik right in the face. He hadn´t punched anyone in years, and more importantly, he hadn´t punched anyone without boxing gloves, yet. A sharp pain shot through Charles´ knuckles as they made contact with Erik´s face.
Erik stumbled backwards, both hands pressed against his nose but even from the distance, Charles was able to make out the dark red blood running over his face. Keeping his face calm and collected, he took out a package of paper tissues and wordlessly handed them over to the other man. Erik pressed a tissue against his nose while the two men glared at each other.
“You deserved that,” Charles stated coldly.
“Yes, I deserved that,” Erik agreed.
To Charles´ great surprise, the other man looked defiant. They stood there in silence for a minute or two until the bleeding had stopped. For some reason, there was now less tension in the air than before the punch.
“Can I do anything else for you?” Charles asked with the faintest hint of a smile.
“I think you´ve done enough.” Erik groaned but it did not sound as hostile as before. “You are a terrible nurse.”
“I know. But at least I´m a good brother.” Charles nodded towards Erik before he backed out of the little dorm room. He felt Erik´s eyes linger on him while he walked away, his hand still hurting from the impact.
The last weekend had to be the worst in Erik´s life. Even with the painkillers, he could barely move, his cheeks so green and swollen that he might as well had turned into an ogre. On Friday night, he was in so much pain he seriously contemplated calling Magda for some encouraging words. Thankfully, he was able to resist the temptation and by Monday morning the pain was finally gone.
He doubted Charles had told anyone about their little fistfight a few days ago. Hank, Raven and Alex greeted him like usual and as much as Erik hated to admit it, he had missed his little group over the last few days.
He visited the Chess Club on Tuesday afternoon like usual but since the dentist had advised him not to smoke for a few more days, Erik found himself sitting in the common room with the other members, listening to their conversations while playing an especially taxing match against Cheung.
Charles arrived a few minutes late like usual; for a British gentleman he seemed to have far too many problems with being on time. Erik barely looked up when he entered, completely engulfed in the game. He lost for the first time in a while. With a displeased grunt he put the pieces back into their starting positions, wishing for a cigarette more than anything else.
“Having a bad day?” Charles asked as he sat down opposite of Erik.
“Had a bad weekend. Some guy came to my dorm and punched me in the face.” Erik grinned when he noticed Charles blushing from his words.
“I´m not going to apologize for that,” he mumbled. Charles playing White like usual began the game.
“You shouldn´t need to. You throw a good punch, where did you learn it?” Erik had chosen a neutral, conversational tone of voice. He still wasn´t feeling good enough to start a fight. And they were still supposed to play best friends, so that was that.
“I boxed for two years in my early teens,” Charles replied with a shy smile. “But I never really got the hang of it. It didn´t help that the other boys were all taller and heavier as well.”
Erik nodded to acknowledge the piece of information Charles had just shared, then he sank himself into the game. Charles was already a better player by now than he had been at the start of the semester just a few short weeks ago. But like usual, he was still no match for Erik.
By the time the club came to an end, they had played seven games and Erik had won all of them. Bemusedly, he watched Charles grinding his teeth as the Brit tried to keep his calm. As Erik left the room to return back to the dormitory, Charles caught up to him in the hallway.
“How did you get so good at chess?” Charles demanded to know.
Erik shrugged. He really wished for a cigarette right now.
“I practice a lot.”
“We should meet up and practice sometime this weekend,” Charles suggested eagerly.
“Absolutely not.” Erik stopped dead in his tracks and it took the other man a second to catch up. Erik glared down at him. “We are not friends, Charles. You literally punched me in the face less than a week ago. I´m only playing this little charade with you because you don´t have the balls to tell your sister No, so don´t assume I want anything more than my peace and quiet!”
He didn´t wait for Charles to respond, just continued his way down the hallway. This time, Charles didn´t follow him.