Jake left the science lab hungry and exhausted.

It had been four months, and he knew he was getting into trouble. In the past few weeks, he had been neglecting his classes, and his marks were starting to suffer. As usual, these sort of thoughts only occurred to him after he had spent about thirty six hours straight in the lab.

The student union was closed, and the only place that had food this time of night was Chico's, a sort-of combination fast food and drinking hangout near the Kelly dorm. Jake debated going there; it was across campus and if they had entertainment tonight, they wouldn't let him in as he wasn't 21 yet. Then he would not only be tired and hungry, but he'd have to face the prospect of trudging all the way back to his room still hungry.

He sighed, and headed for his dorm. He might have some Pringle's or other fast food. Or better yet, his roommate may have put some food in the 'fridge.

As he walked toward his dorm, he looked wistfully at the Packer dorm. Somewhere within that building was heaven--in the form of one Jane Missen, an exquisite blonde sophomore who probably didn't even know that Jake existed.

Jake shook his head, but images of Jane--begging him to kiss her, to love her, to ravage her--started dancing in his head. After about thirty seconds, he realized the effect the daydream was having on him; an erection that would probably require him to beat off again in the bathroom. Just what he needed. SHEEESH!

He tried to peel his mind away from Jane, but found that an almost impossible task. He entered the hallway of his dorm, and walked up the two flights of stairs until he arrived at the Men's room. He decided to forgo the relief of beating his meat in the john, but he knew that he would have to take matters into his own hands later.

Jake finally entered his room, and to no surprise, his roommate wasn't there. Bill usually found some excuse to sleep in some other room--usually a room occupied by one or two nubile coeds. Bill was rather amazing that way; in fact, he was the exact opposite of Jake when it came to women. Women found Bill irresistible, and they usually didn't even seem to notice Jake at all.

Normally, two people as widely different as Jake and Bill would hardly seem to find any reason to be friends, but Bill considered Jake one of his best friends: he could confide to Jake just about anything, knowing that Jake would never consider telling a soul. And he told Jake about each and every one of his sexual escapades, which managed to fuel Jake's own fantasies... which usually had Jane in a starring role.

Jake looked into the 'fridge, and saw a carton of milk. He started to pull it out, but his eyes saw the date on the top of the carton: more than a month old. He shuddered at the thought. Looking through the other shelves didn't reveal anything any more appetizing. His stomach complained with a loud growl.

With a sigh, Jake went to the cabinet of last resort... where Bill hid his six-packs of beer. Having alcohol in the dorms was a campus no-no, but Bill had confided to Jake the location of his stash. He unhinged the small panel that hid the booty: a six pack of Budweiser.

Jake took out his wallet, fished out a dollar bill, and after pulling out a bottle of beer, he put the bill on top of the remaining five bottles. Bill wouldn't really mind.

Looking around the room, he found a bowl of microwave popcorn that Bill had apparently made the night before. Popcorn and beer, Jake thought. What a meal!

Jake popped the top off the Bud and brought his little meal to his desk. He took a swig of the beer (ugh! warm beer!) and ate a handful of popcorn. The corn was a bit stale, but still edible. Living on campus for three years had certainly made Jake accustomed to such horrible cuisine.

His stomach temporarily sated, Jake leaned back. He pulled a vial of serum from his shirt pocket. He looked at it with awe. This serum just might work.

Smiling to himself, he put the vial back into his pocket, and closed his eyes. He thought back to the beginning of the school year... and drifted off to a well-needed slumber...

Jake had met Bill the year before, although he had heard of him through the rumor mill the previous year. Bill was on the basketball team, and was rumored to be a ladies' man... and the ladies loved him. They didn't even mind sharing him, so the rumor went.

For the final semester the previous year, Jake managed to get himself into a couple of Bill's courses. Jake, being a 4.0 student, found himself able to offer Bill some help in a few of his courses, and the two quickly became friends.

They made plans to room together the next year. Bill never said anything about his old roommate, and Jake wasn't really that interested... he was glad to have access to Bill.

Jake had always been a bit curious why Bill seemed to have this magical attraction to all the coeds. Jake had himself witnessed a die-hard feminist berate Bill for what seemed like half an hour, only to have Bill smile to her, ask her out... and she accepted!

Without Bill knowing it, he became Jake's unofficial project this year. Jake studied Bill's moves, and when they talked about things, he would usually make sure that they mostly talked about Bill and his conquests. This was easy, since Bill happened to be Bill's favorite subject.

The first thing that Jake noticed was that Bill never really "went after" any of the girls. They usually sought him out. In fact, Bill's general demeanor toward girls was an I-don't-care attitude, which was not what Jake would have first suspected. Jake started to think that the girls would take Bill's attitude as sort of a challenge, which could make him more desirable to them.

This hypothesis didn't pan out a few weeks into the school year, when Bill became hopelessly enraptured by a cheerleader. She seemed, to Jake, to be the female duplicate of Bill: guys would fall all over her trying to do her favors. Bill pursued her like a romantic fool, even to the point of buying her roses. Jake figured that this would probably be Bill's first failure; the girl was a senior and had utter disdain for people like Bill.

Surprise, surprise! The cheerleader received his roses and granted Bill a five-day audience. Nobody heard from either of them until the following Monday, when an exhausted and satisfied Bill arrived back in his dorm room. Bill told Jake about the wonderful weekend with Carey, the cheerleader. They spent most of their time in bed... the entire weekend! Surprisingly, Bill seemed to lose his desire for Carey immediately afterward, and Bill's love life continued as if the event had never happened.

Since it apparently wasn't his demeanor that the girls found attractive, Jake started to look elsewhere for Bill's secret. If Bill knew the secret himself, he didn't indicate it in any way to Jake. In fact, Bill always seemed to be about as surprised as anybody else, including Jake, at how girls seemed to be attracted to him.

In his studies of Bill, Jake knew that most of the girls that Bill managed to sleep with were people that seemed repulsed by a guy like Bill to begin with. They would actually dislike him, until such time as they would actually meet him, when their attitudes would change from dislike to extreme infatuation.

A week or so after Bill's weekend with Carey, Jake and Bill had gone to the mall to do some shopping. They decided to splurge and have lunch at the restaurant in the mall.

When they got there, they were greeted by a surly waitress, who looked like she just swallowed a whole jar of pickles. When they asked for a table, she basically pointed to a table at the far end of the restaurant, and literally threw the menus at the boys.

After about ten minutes, she approached the table.

"I assume you guys are just gonna have coffee, right?"

"Actually, no. We both were going to order lunch," responded Bill.

She looked at him suspiciously. "And you boys have money to pay for this? I've dealt with you college losers before, you know!"

Bill pulled out his wallet and showed her his credit card. The waitress had the fucking nerve to take the card from him... but as she got close to Bill, her attitude suddenly changed.

"I... I'm sorry, um... Bill," she stammered, reading his name off his card. "Let me get you a glass of water... I'll be right back."

The waitress hurried back with a glass of water, which she put down in front of Bill.

"Have you decided what you are gonna have, Bill?" she asked in an almost sweet voice.

"Yeah, just a hamburger and some fries," replied Bill.

"How would you like that cooked?"

Jake piped up, "You mean, cooking it is optional?"

The waitress looked at Jake as if she had just seen him for the first time. Then she looked at Bill expectantly, waiting for his answer.

"Ahh... medium, I guess."

"OK," she said, and started for the kitchen.

"Um, miss..." Jake called after her. She stopped, turned around, and gave Jake a look that would freeze the Atlantic Ocean. Jake summoned up his courage and said, "I'll have a medium burger, too, if you don't mind."

She breathed in and out, and looked as if she were trying to control her temper. She glanced at Bill, sighed, and then turned around to head towards the kitchen.

While the burgers were cooking, the waitress found many excuses to visit their table... she brought over some ketchup; she refilled Bill's water cup. She asked Bill if there was anything else he wanted.

"Just my burger," Bill answered.

The waitress gave a giddy laugh, and headed back to the kitchen. She came back out with two plates. She practically threw one of the plates at Jake, but made a big production out of serving the other plate to Bill. Jake noticed something was different about the waitress, and as the waitress started to snuggle a little with Bill, who was steadfastly attempting to ignore her attentions, it hit Jake that the waitress wasn't wearing a bra! She must have removed it since they arrived!

Throughout the meal, the waitress kept checking in on Bill, asking him if his burger was all right. "I put on a very, VERY special sauce on it," she cooed.

"The burger's fine," he assured her.

By the time the two had finished their lunch, the waitress came back to the table with an ice cream sundae.

"We didn't order that," Jake complained.

"That's alright, it's on the house."

Bill gave Jake a sheepish look that indicated that this had probably happened before.

The boys tried to get a check from the waitress, but she arrived with a glass of water for Bill. Neither of them felt like pointing out that Bill had four glasses of water in front of him already (and there were none in front of Jake!). As she put the glass down, she said "Oops!" in an utterly unconvincing way, and spilled the water on Bill's lap.

"Oh, no! Let me get that up for you!" she grabbed a few napkins and started to rub Bill's lap. As she was bending over Bill, Jake noticed that underneath her skirt, the waitress wasn't wearing anything at all!

"There, there!" she cooed at Bill. After a few seconds, it was getting very obvious that she was rubbing Bill a bit much... in fact, she was giving him a hand job right there in the restaurant! Jake was amazed at this wanton activity.

Bill let out his breath, and asked her sternly in a strained voice for the check.

"Oh, you don't need a check... your burger is on the house."

"And Jake's too?"

"Hmmmmmm? Who?"

"Jake... the guy right over there!" Bill pointed at Jake.

The waitress froze, and then turned as if she were seeing Jake for the first time. She seemed to be aware of her situation all of a sudden, although she didn't stop rubbing Bill. In fact, her other hand was starting to work its way toward Bill's zipper.

"I think we need to leave now," Bill announced.

The waitress looked at Bill, sighed, and then got up. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you... I just didn't want the water to stain your jeans..."

"That's quite all right," Bill said, sternly. "We need to get going."

She nodded meekly, and let Bill get up. It was quite obvious that he had a huge boner from the waitress' rubbing. Nonetheless, he got up, and walked toward the door. Jake got up quickly and followed Bill out. Jake heard a male voice saying, "Miss Johnson, I'd like to have a word with you," as they left.

The encounter with the waitress replayed itself in Jake's mind for close to a week. What could possibly have changed the waitress' attitude like that? It wasn't Bill's looks, or she would have immediately fell for him.

Maybe Bill has some mental powers, Jake mused. He shook his head violently. Nah, that would be like reading minds or transmitting thoughts. But Jake was pretty sure that Bill hadn't been interested in the waitress. She wasn't much to look at, even the glimpse of her naked butt didn't seem to do anything to Jake, who was, as he admitted to himself, quite virgin.

It was only after Bill showed her his card... what was there about his silly credit card that could make her change like that? It was when she bent closer to Bill to read his card...

An idea came to Jake. It was when she got CLOSE to him! Maybe he gives off an aura that girls can't resist?

No. That couldn't be it. He'd have a hard time just walking down the street.

A few nights later, the idea blossomed in Jake's mind. He woke up and said the word "PHEROMONES!" out loud. He shook his head, in an attempt to clear his mind, and the word came back to him: Pheromones.

That's it! Jake thought. Bill's body produces an odor that make females desire him!

Jake was too excited to go back to bed. It was then that he had started his extra-curricular project.

A few days later, Jake visited the gymnasium where Bill was to have basketball practice. He managed to pick the lock leading to the janitor's room, where he found the master thermostat for the building. He put the thermostat up an additional 10 degrees. He figured that nobody would notice the increase in temperature for a few hours, near the time that Bill's practice would end. Jake smiled to himself, removed all traces that he had entered the room.

Jake returned to the gym while Bill was working out with the team. He smiled as he noticed Bill's sweat-soaked T-shirt. He was going to be able to get some samples of Bill's sweat to experiment on!

About halfway through the practice, Bill noticed Jake, commented something to the coach, who nodded to Bill. Bill ran to Jake, pulling off his T-shirt.

"Jake! The gymnasium is scorching today. You think you can find the janitor to turn down the heat?"

Jake simply said, "Sure. I thought it was kinda warm in here."

Bill indicated toward the end of the building. "The janitor's office is down that way. If you can't find him, see if you can find the heater."

Bill pulled off his T-shirt and threw it down on the stands. Jake glanced down at his prize, and then looked quickly at Bill, hoping that he hadn't let the cat out of the bag. Bill was looking at Jake hopefully.

"Oh... um, yah! I can find him for you," Jake stammered a bit.

Jake ran towards the janitor's office, and found the janitor inside looking at the thermostat. Jake smiled briefly to himself, and knocked on the door to get the Janitor's attention.

"The team wants to know if you can lower the temperature in the gym."

"Yeah. I was just about to do that. Somebody must have bumped the thermostat earlier," the janitor replied.

Jake left the office relieved. He walked back into the gym and noticed that Bill was doing some shooting drills minus his T-shirt. Jake glanced at where Bill threw the shirt, and wandered towards it. He pulled off his backpack and dragged it with him. He got to the stands, and put his pack next to the T-shirt. Five minutes later, Jake had left the gym, his pack just a little bit heavier with Bill's shirt.

Over three months later, Jake was stymied. He had extracted about as much from the arm pits of Bill's old T-shirt as he could. He had run analysis on the chemical and biological make-up of the sweat, and had compared it to his own, and found very little different between the two.

He had tried rubbing two teddy bears with each of the samples, Bill's and his own. For an experiment, he had about four freshman females "cuddle" the teddy bears and tell him what they thought. He got nowhere (and a couple of strange looks from the freshmen).

Jake spent more and more time trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. His hypothesis seemed to be sound, but no experiment seemed to corroborate it.

He sat alone in the lab, and his mind idly started daydreaming about Jane Missen. He got himself pretty worked up, and went to the lavatory to relieve himself.

He had gotten to the toilet, pulled down his pants, and found himself staring at his penis. Or, to be exact, at the base of his penis: There are sweat glands down there!

Jake's mind whirled. Was it so simple that he was collecting his samples from the wrong part of Bill's body?

As soon as the idea entered into his head, Jake had a horrible thought. How was he going to collect a pair of Bill's sweaty underwear??? The prospect revolted Jake, but he knew that he was doing this in the interests of science.

Um, yeah. More like the interests of Jake.

It took a week, but eventually Jake got his sample. (I'll excuse the reader from the gory details.)

A comparison between Bill's and Jake's "lower sweat" showed some bigger differences than between the sweat from their armpits. This was encouraging in and of itself.

Jake decided to forgo testing on teddy bears (he didn't want people to suspect what he was up to), and instead focused on analyzing the differences between the two samples.

He started to spend day and night in his lab, driven by the desire to duplicate the magic ingredient.

About a month later, Jake managed to create as much of the serum as he could. It was a tiny vial, but (Jake hoped) it should be concentrated enough to last for a few dozen applications. He had in his hands... a love potion!

With a start, Jake awoke at his desk. There was a bad taste in his mouth... oh yeah... the stale popcorn and the warm beer. Yuck! He shook his head, and suddenly remembered about the serum. Where was it? He reached into his shirt pocket and found the vial. He pulled it out of his pocket, and looked at it, reassured by its presence.

Jake yawned and realized that he was going to need some sleep. He had been up for almost two days straight. He knew from experience that sleeping in his chair was going to give him a major backache the next morning.

Without undressing, Jake dragged himself out of his chair and dropped into bed, without even pulling the covers off.

Despite Jake's desperate need for sleep, he slept fitfully, tossing and turning all night. He had many dreams of Jane Missen, who was offering her body, her eternal love, her very being... to him!

Jake woke up and found himself on the floor next to his bed. He got up, and noticed the clock read 5:!3. AM or PM??? He walked to the window. The setting sun and students wandering toward the student union indicated it was PM. Shit! It was almost evening!