Angelo and I were sitting on a bench in one of the busiest hallways of the university and I only felt dread pool in my stomach.

 I crossed my arms and slumped against the wall behind me. “I do not need a real person to write a romance story.”

“You need inspiration from somewhere and reading romance hasn’t been helping you.” He pointed to the romance book that peeked out of my bag.

My hand aggressively pushed the book into the pocket. “How do you know this would work? Have you ever dated anyone before?”

Angelo’s hand flew to his chest. “Um, excuse you. I’m married to my fictional characters.”

“The ones you read or write?”

“I’m not answering that.”

Angelo stood up suddenly and suddenly flagged down a girl that was walking past. He obviously didn’t see my horrified expression and the girl took off her headphones off her head before placing them around her neck.

“This is my friend, Boo. He’s a handsome guy that needs a date for an evening.”

“Is this like a prank or something?” She asked between smacks of gum.

“No, he just needs lots of help and I sort of want to prove something to him.”

She gave a snicker and nodded her head toward me. “Alright, show me what you got.”

I stare at Angelo and he gives me a look back, encouraging me to say anything. I looked back to the girl standing in front of us and I attempted to give a friendly smile.

“Hey,” I croaked. “Human Centipede is one of my favourite movies.”

Angelo’s smile faltered for a split second and I stared back at him with panic. Did I do the thing?

“Is this for a project or something?” The girl asked.

“Yeah, it’s a fun creative component. Seeing which,” my brain scrambled for ideas, “personal interest attracts people the most.”

“Sounds like sociology. I’d rate that a five.” She took out her phone and began to scroll through it. “Good luck with the projects, boys.”

I mumbled thanks and I wanted to go back to our dorm to scream.

Once she had left, Angelo gave me a look of despair and I waved my hands uselessly.

“What?” I asked.

“Seriously, you didn’t even try,” Angelo said.

“You didn’t even ask what kind of people I find attractive.”

“Does it matter? This is for a romance book. Romance books have people falling in love with people they least expect to fall in love with all the time.” Angelo took his seat beside me again and took out a plastic bag from his backpack.

“This isn’t a romance book,” I huffed. “She seemed like a cool girl but I wouldn’t know what to say to her.”

“Okay, fine. What kind of girls do you like?” Angelo had retrieved a sandwich from his bag at this point and took a bite.

My hand rubbed my arm as I found myself sitting in silence.

“Well?” Angelo asked.

“Women that seem like they would beat me in a fight,” I muttered.

Angelo choked. “Boo!”

“You’re the one that asked!”

“I don’t think I could help you there, I don’t know anyone like that,” Angelo trailed off for a moment before he gave a gasp of excitement. “What about that girl you were talking with the other day? The one you said was your high school friend? I know she’s your ex but second chance romances—”

“She’s a lesbian,” I quickly cut through his excitement and I saw his deflate like a balloon.

“Oh, that makes a lot of sense now.”

There was another lapse of silence and I took the opportunity to grab my own food. Angelo kept quiet the whole time and didn’t even say anything once he finished his food. I felt myself expecting him to say more but he wasn’t as chatty as he usually was.

“Aren’t you going to ask me about what kind of guys I’m into?”

The question seemed to make him panic. His head whipped towards me and his eyes were filled with panic.

“Um.”

“I think I’ve been very open about being pansexual.” I found myself pointlessly mixing the subpar cafeteria chicken salad with the plastic fork. “At least with the flag and writing.”

“I write gay stories and I’m not gay.”

This was my turn to look at Angelo strangely and he shifted in his seat. He didn’t want to look me in the eye and he was twisting the plastic bag in his hands like it murdered his family. I nodded slowly and took a bite of my salad. Maybe I wasn’t that good at figuring out who else is gay. Even if I was right, he got to label himself whatever he wanted and I had no say in it.

“Well, I am. At least on the spectrum of gay,” I said.

“Which is great for you!” Angelo said a little too enthusiastically. “I think it’s really cool how chill you are about it.”

“Mmm,” I hummed mindlessly. “Not that big of a deal.”

“So, uh, how many people have you dated?”

“One.”

“Oh wow, I thought you would’ve dated lots of people.”

“I’m not exactly a guy that most people go after. Gloomy, introverted, spacey…” There was one more description I wanted to say but I held myself back.

“That can’t be true. You’re insanely attractive.”

I scoffed. “Thanks, man.”

“Seriously, I mean it.”

“Sure. What exactly do you find attractive about me?”

“Your tattoos and piercings are pretty hot,” Angelo paused. “Girls like bad boys.”

“I feel like I’ve been boiled down to popular internet tropes for romance books,” I said dryly. “I’m not even a bad boy. The only thing that I’ve been bad at is romance.”

“But you look like it.”

“There’s a lot of monks in Thailand that have tattoos. Spiritual tattoos. I only look like a bad boy because tattoos are a recent thing in the west.”

“Well, you’re really sweet and kind!” Angelo yelled.

Angelo’s conviction made me jump and heat took over my face in an instant.

“Oh my god, okay. I’m a heartthrob.” I stuffed more food into my mouth. “If you think I’m so hot, then you should take me on a date then.”

“I told you, I’m not gay.”

“That’s even better honestly. I don’t have to actually enter a relationship and you get to show me all the steps of how a romance should go! And if I mess up, you can stop me and redo parts of the date.”

Angelo grimaced and nodded slowly. “Okay. That’s… fine. We can do that. It’s all for the deal.”

“Yep,” I cleared my throat. “All for the deal.”

“Where would we even go?”

“The haunted house of course. If I get to research about writing, you do too.”

Angelo groaned. “I guess that makes sense.”

I happily stabbed my salad a few times and brought it to my mouth before pausing. “Why did you decide to write gay romance anyways?”

Angelo paused before he gave a half-hearted shrug.

“I think it’s just neat.”