Davide

Boyfriends at last! They were practically acting that way already, now they finally realised it and made it official.

This is exactly why getting Hunter's perspective makes me like him more than I would have otherwise. He obviously doesn't talk about those problems, just like I wouldn't have, so the other characters don't get that backstory to justify his behaviour. Similarly, in SftF, maybe Noah has a backstory that justifies how he acts that were mostly not aware of, outside of some brief comments that could be something. So seeing things from his perspective will probably give us that context other characters don't have. And yes, of course I expect Hunter to grow throughout the novel.

Getting a view into a character's head helps understand them, so I expect my perspective on Noah to soften once I read his Extra Innings. Similarly, I'd probably have a harsher perspective on Hunter if the story wasn't told from his perspective.

Congrats on the entries on the top lists. Especially SFtF, number 2 overall for the year is a lot. The formatting is a lot better on new.nifty.org than on nifty.org, plus there's profile pages for every author. There's the thing of it not available for categories that may include kids younger than high school age, but that's still a better place to read the remaining stories.

What the hell was Hunter doing the whole chapter? He had a boyfriend, but spent a lot of time crushing on a other guy. All the truth or dare game did was speed up the inevitable. Yeison deserves a boyfriend that doesn't treat him like this. "We didn’t know then that oaths, even those made in blood, were fragile things. That time, fear, betrayal, and love would test them and break them in ways none of us could have imagined during that warm, star-filled night. Hearts would be broken, lives would be lost, and new loves would blossom." This part is ominous and the ending of the chapter brought me back to it. Yeison is out alone at night, which is dangerous over there, plus he's going to a neighborhood that we were already told us dangerous. My mind went back to the "lives would be lost" line and I hope my fears are wrong. Yeison is a good guy.

The way Ev reacted to Nate giving his phone number to some girl (before he knew he gave the wrong one), he was jealous because he wants Nate for himself. Given the ending, maybe Ev finally starting to realise he has those feelings. As I said in the previous chapter, I think Nate has probably already noticed his own feelings for Ev.

Some of the dialogue gives me the impression Nate is consciously into Evan, but he's hiding his comments in that direction behind jokes because he doesn't know how Evan would react if he said it for real. Meanwhile, Evan is starting to notice he feels something for Nate, but doesn't fully realise it yet.

I got carried away. The boys deserve the good time they're about to have.

In the previous chapter, we learned Jamal's family accepts his homosexuality, but now we see how supportive they are. When he moves out to the other side of the country for a job, his parents and brothers all help him, and his parents' help extends to finding people locally to continue to help him. And, also very important, they help placate questions from his extended family that are inconvenient for a closeted gay guy. "Ryan, who saw me. Who didn’t flinch at my silence, my caution, my faith. Who brought me coffee when I was sick, who played Faiz in the background like it was normal, who never asked me to be less Muslim, less brown, less me." And then there's the introduction of Ryan to Jamal life, where he stresses the importance of the lack of racism. Which connects to how heartbreaking the prologue, set at a later time, is. Because this is what failed with the joke Ryan laughed at, and that's probably more painful than a breakup for most other reasons.

I expected Madison to not believe the child porn and rape accusations against her uncle, even after getting proof he was lying about the money. But what I see is even worse, she seems to almost not care if they're real, she only wants her money. At least Jordan plan managed to get rid of her as a defense witness. Plus Josh and Daniel seem very unsurprised about her, so she must have been like this before. The psychologist thinks Josh and Daniel are both doing well in terms of mental health, but I wonder if the upcoming circumstances could change that. First, because they're going to spend a few days in the place their brother died. And second, since they rarely get to be with their partners in person, they may want to have sex, which could trigger unpleasant memories.

I'man atheist after being raised Christian, but I liked seeing the loving side of Islam explored. With Christianity, we talk about the people who misuse it for homophobia, but we also talk about the ones who actually practice the love they preach. But, with Islam, most people here in western countries, and especially the media, only show the people who misuse it for hate. I loved seeing this chapter explore what that religion should be, and to see a gay guy be supported and loved by his family.

What an ending! They're getting close to realizing the feelings they have for each other are more than just a friendship.

Hunter and Yeison had a great time in all aspects, namely the sexual, romantic and friendship ones. And it feels good to see Yeison get to experience things he can't afford. Yeison is a good guy and he's really sweet, he's make a good boyfriend. But it feels like Hunter's brain will get in the way. Yeison wants a commitment, but Hunter's past makes him weary of what that could lead into. Ironically, Hunter's fear of losing someone if he gets into a serious relationship with them may be what makes him lose Yeison.

I see they still don't realize they have feelings for each other, but it's a matter of time. And, thankfully, neither of them has backed away from what they've been doing with worries about being gay. On the contrary, they went further this time.

Dean is lucky it wasn't too late after ghosting Kris a second time in a short period, this time for a crazy number of weeks. Him packing all his things and driving all the way to Toronto without knowing if Kris would even want to see him helped show he was serious about wanting to make it work. But I like Kris's initial reaction was, promises don't mean anything when Dean went back on them shortly before, he needed to see for himself that Dean was changing. But it takes a long time to unlearn everything Dean was conditioned to believe all his life, so the time frame of weeks, then months and even years later is realistic for the various steps of his changes and, with them, phases of their relationship. I get the impression that, if Marcus hadn't left the town before Kris, Dean would have probably kicked himself for losing Kris for some time, but then moved on and continued to live there. He had to lose everything, in this case everyone, to shock himself into acting against the shit his asshole father drilled into him. And, even then, it took weeks of not caring for the house and Marcus setting his straight for him to do it. But he did it and it could have very well been too late, but it wasn't and he went through huge improvements. And he slowly convinced Kris first and then his 'mãe', who even started to act like the mother figure he didn't have most of his life. I'm proud of him. Similarly, I don't know if Kris would have uploaded Restart, at least at this point in his life, if Dean hadn't ghosted him for long enough that Kris was had mostly mentally moved on. Kris's life at the time wasn't perfect because he wish Dean hadn't left, but it was still good in that he had his own place and a good salary. His thoughts on Restart mirror that, the game wasn't perfect, but he finally realised he didn't need to be, and maybe that similarity is what made him see it. As for Dean showing up, accepting him back as his boyfriend and losing him a third time would have broken Kris, so he needed to put the breaks. For the sake of his own mental health, he needed to be certain first.

I think when I saw that surname (which I didn't remember until you said it now), I mistakenly thought it was also used on Spanish. And I'm more used to Spain being references than my country. But I googled it now and I was wrong. As for India, I didn't know they have a similar name, but they probably got it from Portuguese when Goa was a Portuguese colony. (Me referencing a past colony of my country isn't endorsing colonialism, that was very much bad.)

Thank you. I didn't know that about Kris' family, and I think I'd remember a reference to my country in the story. So I take it that must be a backstory element that you didn't have an opportunity to reference until this sweet gesture from Dean. I agree that this is a good way to help show the magnitude of Dean's progress.

I'll post thoughts on this beautiful rollercoaster of a chapter after, but I have to ask one thing. @ChromedOutCortex Why "mãe"? That's the Portuguese word for "mother" and, as far as I know, not in any other language. It's really sweet to see Dean call that to Kris's mom, but I'm Portuguese and I'm surprised at the choice of language. Nothing about the characters made me expect Portuguese and it made me curious.

The way Nate and Gigi are acting, their friends will realize this has to be more than a fight. Meanwhile, Ev clearly liked seeing Nate shower, but he doesn't yet realize he can be attracted to a guy.

The timings will help the inevitable speed along. Noelle broke up with Evan close enough to the trip that he ended up alone on a two person room. And Nate caught Gigi talking to another guy during the trip, so he's going to want to sleep on another room. Cue Evan and Nate sharing a room and a bed.

So one family's homophobic and the other is racist. That sucks! But Christian and Henry make it work alone, even with the financial difficulties. The love they have for each other is beautiful.

We obviously know from the prologue that they'll break apart. Seeing how good they are together and how much they support each other when they need it makes it sadder. But knowing Henry already lost his family because of homophobia makes it so much worse that he'll lose his husband too (not legally husband, but effectively so).

Another interesting premise. And I don't know how you manage to write so many stories at the same time.

Very interesting premise, I look forward to seeing it explored.

I hope she doesn't, it sounds potentially traumatic.