Hands To Fall Into (manxboy)

#1-Media Explosion

Edmund and had been pulled in and out of interviews for the past few weeks. He had no idea why it was necessary, the questions were practically the same everywhere.
"Hello, and welcome back to XD news. I'm here with Edmund Q. Lockwood, the 18-year old who discovered the sequence of prime numbers. The next time you have to memorise it in math class you can thank him." The interview lady said. Edmund sat in the uncomfortable chair next to her. "So Edmund, how long have you been working on this?" She asked. "1 year, 5 months, 1 week and 4 days." Edmund answered and she laughed. "Someone's precise."   The interview lady commented. "Now, there's been a lot of gossip going on since you've been seen a lot with Miss Avery Rockwood. Our viewers might know her from the new hit show Up, Down and Sideways. So, Edmund between me and you what's going on with you and Miss Rockwood?" She asked. "She wanted to know a bit more about my work. Said she was interested in how I found the sequence. Avery is a rather intelligent person, so I enjoyed talking with her." Edmund answered, not understanding why this was relevant. "What did you think about her recent loss of weight? According to many of her fans, she looks way prettier like this." The lady asked Edmund couldn't seem to remember her name. "We only talked about maths, so I do not understand how her weight is relevant, or why it even matters." Edmund answered. "Well, Edmund that's a very nice approach you've got there." She stated. "So you think Miss Rockwood was pretty with some extra pounds on her too?" Edmund sighed, why did this matter? "Yes, although to me looks are rather superficial and almost without meaning." Edmund answered. "Meaning that you like her for her personality?" The woman asked. "Yes." Edmund wanted this to be over. "Before Miss Rockwood did you have any luck with the ladies?" She wiggled her eyebrows a bit. "Women aren't my area, so I don't think that this question is applicable. I can tell you about my works if you're interested." Edmund answered. "Not your area... by that, you mean you're... not interested in women?" The lady asked. "Yes. I am not." Edmund answered. "So you're- oh well we ran out of show time for this panel. It was nice having you here, Edmund." She smiled. "I'm Penelope Yaxley and this was XD News Interviews." Edmund was glad this was finally over.  Little did he know it had just begun.

~*~ A week later ~*~

The media went crazy, Edmund made the headlines of magazines. New headlines came out almost every day.

Edmund Lockwood: Child Genius and Gay?!

Teen Mathematician Comes Out!

Edmund Lockwood's Secret Revealed!

Suddenly people cared about his personal life again, they wanted to know how Edmund discovered his preference for men, they wanted to know if he dated anyone before. But Edmund didn't want them to know. He also started getting hate mail. Edmund's mother used to run a blog about parenting. It was titled: My Kid's IQ is Higher Than Our Ceiling, What Do I Do?!, it gave parenting advice about how to raise a child who has a high IQ because often that was hard. After Edmund's mother passed away, Edmund took over the blog. He changed the theme and renamed the blog: My IQ is Higher Than Our Ceiling, What Do I Do?!, from then on he wrote about his personal experience of being a "genius" as everyone called it. After his terrible interview at XD News, his blog started getting hate mail. People called him a: fag, pussy, faggot, etc. They said how he chose to be this way and he just needed Jesus Christ in his life. Edmund was used to the occasional "you're a weirdo/freak." comment but these new comments were a bit new and hurt more. He could justify the 'freak' insults with telling himself that the writers were just average and had no idea what to do with his superior intelligence but he had no way to defend himself against the new hate mail. Everyone knew he was gay and for some reason they cared.

~*~

Charles Ryder was getting ready for his new case, defending a man who shot another man because he caught the other guy raping his 9 year old daughter. Charles wanted make sure the father got off the charges because he really didn't deserve going to prison for this. They plead innocent and so far they were on the winning side but Charles wanted to be sure.
"Hey, Charlie you might want to read this. You know your friend, William's, kid. He's in the papers." Summer, Charles' assistant, came in and handed him the papers. "Hmm, I wonder what William's opinion is..." Charles muttered as he read the article that claimed Edmund Q. Lockwood was gay. "Gotta admit the kid is way too polite to be straight." Summer added. "Hey, I'm rude and not straight." Charles protested. "You, rude? Charlie the only person who's any more polite is the bloody Queen." Summer laughed lightly. "Shut up." Charles replied. "Well I'll leave you to drool over the kid's picture. I've got some emails to send." Summer said. "I'm not drooling!" Charles called after her. "Don't deny it, Charlie."