Davide

Throughout this chapter, part of me was getting worried about Jack and Nick's relationship, while another part felt the worries were exaggerated. The first part was winning early, but the second part got more ammo as the chapter went on and the ending sealed the deal. After seeing Jack be outright mean to Nick in the previous chapter and most of the time refuse to do anything he was asked to, this chapter was now showing him be only grumpy to Christian and Jonah and eventually reluctantly agree with what they wanted him to do. So it seemed that his anger was aimed more strongly at his boyfriend than anyone else, which concerned me. Plus, while we saw Jack smile and even laugh in this episode, every time it happened it was because of something Christian or Jonah said or did, it was never aimed at Nick. This seemed to support him being better around people who aren't Nick. On the other hand, Christian presented a possible alternate explanation that doesn't make Jack's actions present a threat to his relationship with Nick, "But Jack knows you love him. He uses that. Tests it. Manipulates it. We’re just backup dancers in his drama right now, so he doesn’t try as hard with us." In addition, even though every time he talked nicely before the very end of the chapter was to people who aren't Nick, he did say things that showed a strong love towards Nick, despite not saying them directly to Nick. And then last bit of the chapter put an end to my worries, with Jack's request for the to sleep naked and especially his addition explanation that "I wanna feel close to you. Like before."

I'd like that, I enjoy seeing characters from different perspectives. Plus, if at least some of these take place during the summer break, they would be an answer to me saying I'd like to see a bit of how life outside school for the rich friends.

I'd enjoy you exploring Christian being straight but curious more, but I actually like that you're saying he's not bisexual. I think having an open minded straight character in the main cast is good.

I'd enjoy any opportunity to see a bit, or least hear more about, of what's life like in the rich teenagers land most of Nick's friends live in when they're not at school.

Please don't send Noah anywhere with Jack! But I know meant to say Nick and I agree. As for chapters, there's 45 in total, so 4 left.

I saw stories claiming to have been posted in 2011, 14 years ago. If you say it was actually 20 years, does that mean 2011 was some kind of GA website change and that's only the date on the new site? I know that people stop writing because life gets in the way, that's probably pretty common, but they usually never come back. An author leaving isn't a surprise, returning is. I wasn't around when you left, but I'm glad you returned.

A story being moved out "abandoned" 14 years later, wow! Although I guess I could say the same thing about an author reappearing 14 years later, which you also did.

Early into the story, we saw Jack have one or two episodes that were pretty bad and we didn't know anything about why at the time. But then he got better and, despite some worse moments, he didn't have anything remotely close to as bad for a long time. Long enough that I almost forgot how bad it got. But mental health stuff doesn't get fixed that easily, nor it ever fully goes away. Lately, Jack has been through very difficult stuff regarding his parents, so him having another episode shouldn't be surprising. What was a surprise was how much worse it was this time, in the previous chapter and continuing to now. It's a very difficult situation for Jack, he even mentioned in better moments that he doesn't know why he's being mean. But it's also very difficult for Nick, especially before help from Christian and Jonah arrived. No matter how much he reminds himself the stuff Jack says is the illness, it takes a toll on him. And his insecurities start asking "What if? questions. I'm glad Nick's mom finally realised she should have gotten him professional help from a therapist when his dad died and I hope he takes on her suggestion to do it now. In the meantime, it looks like Christian is a big help as support for Nick. And Jonah, with his joking insults, seem strangely effective at helping Jack. Maybe things will start to get better.

They don't feel like the dialogues of typical fifteen year olds to me. But children and teenagers who have gone through difficulties in aspects that impact mental health often grow up faster. So I think the dialogue is realistic because of what Nick and Jack went through.

Colombia does look gorgeous to visit, but traveling from Europe to South America isn't cheap. Plus I'd need to do it as part of an organized visit, so that I'd have a guide that knows which places are safe. I don't know how that happened, and it doesn't really matter, but the quote you're replying to is from @LittleBuddhaTW, even though it appears attributed to me.

Doing all that might take slightly longer than the 3 weeks left until chapter 45 gets released anyway.

Kris interpreting the conversation with Ethan at the café, when it looked more like almost a date to me, was funny. I'm worried about what implications this situation could have for Kris. Ethan seems to be interested in Kris but, with him being his boss, what will happen if Kris isn't interested back? Could Ethan hold a grudge and hurt him through the job, maybe by saying something that will hurt his chances at the interview. Meanwhile, Leah is interested in Dean, she wouldn't otherwise keep finding excuses to go to the shop to talk to him. But Dean asking her out sounds like part of the lies he's been telling himself. He's clearly interested in Kris, we can see that from his thoughts and not charging the 300 dollars. But he also thinks he's straight, so going on a date with a woman sounds like an attempt to silence the part of him that realises this. So both Kris and Leah have people interested in them, although in different ways. And they're both interested in each other, but they're both lying to themselves about it. They're once again different and similar. We'll see how this will develop and how long it will take them to admit it.

When I started reading a story where the main character's mom is an ER doctor, I should have probably expected an important character to end up there at some point. But I didn't think of that and, even if I had, I would have probably expected some kind of accident, nothing close to what happened. Nick's mom did a great job at focusing on her medical knowledge and not letting her personal connection to Jack affect her to the point of interfering with the quality or speed of the medical help she could give until the paramedics arrived. Last chapter, I was confused about the level of jealously Jack had at Tommy, considering his much more accepting reaction to the Jonah situation, b now I don't think it really was about Tommy. The way Jack thought Nick would leave him, combined with what we know about Jack, seems to point to him thinking no one would love him like that. The way he was treated by his parents his whole life made him not have experienced this level of love from probably anyone before Nick. And him looking at whatever medical condition he has as he was building up to an episode, combined with memories of his parents' letter about that topic, could make him think he's too broken for someone to love. So I think these worries made Jack latch on to the first reason his insecurities could find for Nick to possibly want to leave him, but it would have been something else if not Tommy.

Now that stuff with Tucker is fully known, I can say something about a couple chapters ago without risking spoilers. Let me get this straight, Jason. The last time you went to Tucker's place, knowing when you were going to arrive, he was dressed in short shorts and a tank top while free balling when you did, then proceeded to not need any of the tutoring you were supposed to be there to give, and you were still unsure late if he was flirting with you?

This may be the best chapter on this story so far. You described everything in a way that made me really feel what was happening, how strongly it was affecting Nick and going through a variety of emotions. There was confusion, concern, worry and even fear for Jack, but, most importantly, I could feel Nick's pain throughout, not just objectively know the pain is there. The kind of pain he was feeling evolved throughout the episode as things started to unravel, first showing he should be concerned about Jack instead of angry at him, and then revealing the magnitude of the issue, but there was pain the whole time. This means, that the multiple times Nick cries, it hits harder because you conveyed his pain very strongly.

I like the slow burn of the Kris-Dean tension, it fits this story in particular more than the common faster pace at getting guys together. Here we see that they both feel something about each other, but neither of them has figured out what it is, or at least they don't want to admit it to themselves. Kris' potential developer job interview is good news but, after the hope this giving him and his mom, I'm worried about how hard it will hit them if he doesn't get it. Plus his mom won't be working for some time and his savings will take a hit because of the car, so money will be more difficult if he doesn't get the new job.

Exactly. And I'm curious to see what's going on in Jack's head that he has such an opposite reaction to Tommy, which was never anything to Nick, than the one he had to Jonah, which actually kissed Nick.

I get the impression Nick's mom genuinely doesn't know about the one sided tension between Jack and Tommy, it feels like there's no way she could know. Jack and Tommy hit it off when the last time they were together, Jack's jealously only later and they didn't talk about it in front of Nick's mom. If she had been at home during the day today, that might have been enough time to notice something was going on. But she was with them for a single dinner and that wasn't enough to notice the tension, so I think she still didn't know when she suggested the sleepover. So I think she meant well and I can't blame her for what I think it's natural for her to not know. Here's a quote from a previous chapter I want to reference: “I don’t have anyone else, Nick,” he choked out. “Just you. And your mom. And Mr. Bojangles. That’s it. You’re my whole life.” I understand that Jack is probably terrified of losing Nick, considering he said this in chapter 34 and that's the cause of the jealously, which makes it somewhat understandable. But the bit of jealously he had after the other time he was Tommy is one thing, the magnitude it turned in to is too much. I'm thorn because I'm simultaneously upset at him because of how he's acting in regards to Tommy and feel sad for him because I get how much the fear of losing Nick in his life situation hurts. And I feel sorry for Tommy, who got thrown into this whole awkward tension without knowing why Jack is acting like this, nor how to avoid it. He even tried avoiding the sleepover, but Nick's mom caught his bad excuse. Maybe tomorrow, instead of repeating today's failed attempts at diffusing the tension by talking about neutral topics, it would be better if Nick faced the issue head on by bring it up to Jack and Tommy, which would put all the cards on the table and almost force them and himself to discuss it together.

3. Yes, I meant true. I misremembered which was the question goes. 4. The reason I know Porto, Portugal's second biggest city, is at almost the same latitude as New York is it having a much milder weather. It's used as an example of Atlantic conveyor's big impact on that. Googling the exact values tells me New York is at 40.7128° N and Porto is at 41.1579° N, a difference of just 0.4451°.

1. I don't know, (and I don't want to throw a random guess for a 50% chance). 2. Northern (educated guess because this is true for most of Colombia). 3. False (I know South America goes significantly further east than North America). 4. True (I know New York is at about the same latitude as the north of Portugal, my country). 5. No clue (and I wouldn't even know where to begin guessing).

Between the previous chapter and this one, we know both Dean and Kris have experienced difficulties in life, but in very different ways. The main source of Dean's difficulties were on a personal level, the way his father treated him, while the ones Kris experiences are professional, a job that barely pays enough to scrap by. That combination of similarity and difference should be interesting when they interact. Kris is hanging on to his game in development as his hope for changing his life and I get the impression that could also be what's making him stall instead of actually progressing on it. For as long as he manages to lie to himself by pretending he's working on anything relevant, Restart remains a theoretical salvation from a sad life hanging in his future. But if he finishes it, there's a chance the game may not work out in terms of sales, and then he'd have to face losing his only hope of improving his life. I think he may be trying to avoid finding out if this happens without admitting to himself he's doing it.

No problem, it happens.

You pointed out Tommy as the natural source of drama and suggested a few options of what kind of Tommy could happen. I gave an opinion on which option I consider most likely among the ones you listed, which was Jack being insecure about Tommy/Nick.

After rereading the Tommy parts of the chapter Nick comes out to him (chapter 29), I don't get any impression of Tommy potentially making a at either of them. And that's even if he's gay/bi/etc, may not be. As for insecurities, I think it will be that, at least on Jack's sidea. Note this passage about Tommy from chapter 30:

I don't know for sure, but I got the impression Medellin is separate from SFTF. The sentence "When sixteen-year-old Hunter moves to Colombia, he falls for Miguel—then learns Miguel’s father is a powerful cartel boss." from the Medellin blurb feels to disconnected from anything in SFTF to have a chance of it being related.