Freddie Cook is NOT a Sex God

a bad smell

University was supposed to be a fresh start for Freddie. A chance to leave the stigma of high school behind. That was how it worked for Lydia, who left all her labels behind and moved to all the way to another state. Freddie, on the other had, chose to stay close to home. 

There was a university campus about half an hour from where his family home was, it was small but the education department was pretty good so it seemed like the perfect solution for Freddie. It was the perfect solution for a lot of people Freddie went to high school with apparently.  Orientation ended up being like a very early high school reunion. And like a bad smell Freddie's reputation followed him from high school to university.

Freddie didn't think about how the rumours might affect university until he was waiting in line for a coffee and he overheard non other than Lauren Swan talking to a cute girl he'd locked eyes with at orientation.

"Freddie Cook yeah I went to school with him," she said in a whisper so loud she might have been leading a lecture.

At the sound of his name Freddie's ears pricked up and once he caught the conversation he couldn't stop listening if he tried. To her credit the girl Lauren was talking to did speak soft enough for Freddie to miss her side of the conversation. But Lauren Swan spoke loud enough for the both of them. 

"Hot as hell right? And apparently he's brilliant in bed."

Freddie expected that, he knew people from high school talked about him like that. He just figured it would be dismissed pretty quickly as, at the very least, exaggeration. It all sounded so stupid Freddie couldn't understand how anyone believed it. 

"I know I know," Lauren continued in response to the obvious doubt from her conversation partner. "But it's for real. A girl I know went out with him in Year 10 and she said he was like some kind of orgasm prodigy."

That made Freddie raise an eyebrow because as far as he knew the only person he was giving orgasms to in Year 10 was himself.

"One time a camp he made a girl scream so loud a teacher knocked the door down because they thought someone was being murdered. Sounds fake yeah but I was there this isn't even a friend of a friend thing. Freddie Cook is a certified sex god!"

Freddie choked on his iced mocha. His face formed a sort of closed mouth half smile to try to trap his heart, which beating hard to burst free, in his chest. From his perspective Freddie though he looked like a loser but, as Lydia pointed out when he debriefed with her over FaceTime that evening, his embarrassed half smile often came across as a cheeky smirk to unsuspecting strangers. 

"I'm NOT a sex god," Freddie insisted though the phone.

"I know that," replied Lydia. "And she'll figure it out pretty quickly if you spend some time with her."

Lydia wasn't trying to be rude, she had a bluntness that could be misinterpreted but Freddie knew her too well for that to happen. But her honesty hit him a little too hard that day. The words stuck with him the way they had when he'd heard the girl in Year 9 say he was gay. He thought about it over and over. When the cute girl from orientation shyly asked if he wanted to grab a coffee, all Freddie could think about was the rumours. He didn't know if she believed what Lauren had said or not but even the possibility that she saw him that was too much for Freddie to handle. If she was after a sex god, she wasn't after Freddie. He let her down as politely as he could and got the hell out of there. Anxiety bubbling inside there was only one thing to do, he headed straight to the campus gym to let off some steam and work out until he couldn't think anymore. 

And that's where Freddie met Leo.