Freddie woke up on the floor with a dead phone in his hand and a desperately dry mouth. Everything felt like too much so he focused on what was right in front of him. He crawled across the floor to the wall, plugged his phone in, then went to sit in the shower until he started to feel somewhat human. It took a long time, and at some point Lydia burst into the bathroom to throw up. They lamented their despair together for while but Lydia had to head home to her family and Freddie was desperate to climb into bed.

On his way to the comfort of his doona Freddie remembered his phone, grabbing it from where he left it and checking it as he lay down. That was a bad idea because he sat straight back up in shock when he saw the message from Leo.

Is this you flirting?

There's a specific sort of horror that comes from waking up after a hazy night to find an incomprehensible text from someone. Freddie did a double take, checking again that it really said what he thought it said. It did. He groaned loudly and shoved his face into his pillows hoping to drown. Letting himself live in cringe for a moment, he eventually pulled himself together and opened his phone to see what disaster alcohol had evoked. Reading the five texts he'd sent at eleven PM the night before.

It wasn't as bad as he expected. A flash of memory flickered to life in Freddie's head of him carefully type each word of the last three messages. It had felt very important at the time and Freddie for the life of him couldn't figure out why. But it could have been worse, that's what he told himself. Instead of freaking he decided to ride the last of the alcohol in his system and play along with Leo. 

If facts are flirting then yeah sure I'm flirting mate, Freddie sent adding a couple of emoji's to emphasis that this was all just good fun. 

Before he sent it Freddie checked again to make sure there wasn't anything more embarrassing from the night before. But all he did was call Leo cute, and that wasn't so bad. A breath of relief escaped, and he relaxed back into his bed to sleep for a couple of hours before his shift at the hardware store started.

Leo didn't reply until late that night when Freddie was out for a drink with Dave and Tim who were celebrating the Pelicans making it through to soccer the grand final. Their excitement was intoxicating, which was good because that was the only mood alternating substance Freddie was ready to put into his system. His morning hangover was still fresh besides someone had to get Tim and Dave home after the drank the entire bar. He happy was watching Tim and Dave excitedly sing some celebration song with a bunch of strangers.

You're cute too, Leo wrote.

Freddie's heart skipped a little unexpectedly, he knew it was a joke but for a second it felt real and he didn't hate it. The moment passed quickly and Freddie was pulled into a singalong with Tim and Dave before he could reply. But every time he had a second he looked back at the message trying to ignore the way it made him feel.