Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; it is appeased by love. This is an eternal Law," I read out loud. I looked up at my study partner.
"Who said that?" Erik asked me. We were at the university library, studying for our term papers for our Philosophy of Love class.
"Buddha," I said. I had a stack of books before me on ancient eastern philosophies. My paper was going to be a study in how the evolution of love in the East differs from the concept in modern Western thought.
"Smart dude," he said absently, not even looking up from the book he had propped in front of him.
"Think about it," I said. "The whole notion of love thy enemy, turn the other cheek, etc., its a beautiful thing."
"Mmhmm," he murmered.
I kicked him in the shin underneath the table.
"Ow!" he looked up. "What the hell was that for?"
"Because you're not paying attention," I stuck out my tongue at him. Erik was a good friend of mine. He was roommates with one of my best friends, whom I casually dated occasionally. His roommate and I often would hit the movies, or catch out the latest band, or just fuck like bunnies. He was a lot of fun. While Erik was definitely the cuter of the two, his roommate was more outgoing. Erik and I had developed a good friendship. We'd gone out a couple of times, but never anything beyond a platonic level. He treated me like his roommate's girlfriend, even though I wasn't. He was the only person I knew in my Philosophy class, though, so we'd often get together to work on homework and whatnot. He'd called me up yesterday, asking if I wanted to meet at the uni library to research for our papers. I quickly agreed. Studying with him was far more fun than studying alone. I'd dressed for the occasion, in my best sexy library outfit: short, pin-striped black skirt, garter nylons with a seam in the back, black heels, and a tailored button-down blouse, unbuttoned just far enough for my bra to occasionally peek out when I turned just right. I admit, it was a deliberate attempt to catch his attention, but that man was just not biting the bait.
He looked up at me and sighed. "I'm paying attention, dork. Buddha, got it. Smart guy. Dead guy. Now, if you don't mind, I'm trying to read."
"Whatcha reading?" I asked him.
"Philosophy in the Bedroom," He replied, turning a page.
Well well, that was a more intriguing book than mine, just based on the title alone. My ears perked up. "Oh really? Who wrote it?"
"The Marquis de Sade," he replied.
I was a little shocked. He was hardly mentioned in our textbook, being more a man about dark sexual philosophy than love. I looked over at his stack of books, checking out the titles. I saw more titles by de Sade: 'Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue;' 'Juliette;' and '120 days of Sodom.' I saw a copy of 'The Story of O.' And then there were two interesting biographies that caught my eye: 'The First Masochist: A Biography of Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch,' and 'The Marquis and the Chevalier: A study of the psychology of sex as illustrated by the lives and personalities of the Marquis de Sade and the Chevalier von Sacher-Masoch.' My eyes widened. "Umm, Erik, those books aren't exactly about the philosophy of love."
"Sure, they are," he looked at me. "Tough love." He grinned.
I chuckled. "Just what is your paper about? I'm all curious now." I'd read a few of the ones in his stack, I was no ignorant school girl, no pun intended.
"How you can love someone and still want to hurt them, or be hurt by them, in a non-abusing sort of way."
"So, the love of surrender and sexual sadomasochism," I rephrased for him.
"Hey, I like that title, mind if I use it?" Erik grabbed a pen and started writing it down.
"Be my guest," I replied, with a wave of my hand. "Your topic's much better than mine. I wish I had thought of that," I muttered.
"Why's that? Yours is great, too. Imagine a world populated by Gandhi-esque thinkers."
"Yeah, that was kind of what I was going with, but damn man, I've read half the books in your stack, it would have been easier to go with what I know than something I don't."
He raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "You have? What for?"
I smiled demurely, "For the pleasure of it." I looked down at my book, pretending to study again.