Davide

I have commented on Nick's flaws, but these aren't story complaints, realistic humans have flaws. And I agree that Nick's flaws are relatively minor, it just sucks for him because the main one mostly hurts himself. I read the Medellin synopsis on your blog, that sounds like a very interesting premise. I don't know anything about the city, but you lived there for enough years that I can expect it's depiction to be authentic. With that novel, I'll get to be in a place with a comment section for it from the start. I missed out of that for a good chunk of SFTF because I was reading on Nifty without knowing GA exists.

Recently, I thought you had said 50 chapters. Then, today, I thought I misremembered and it's actually 40 chapters. But what you're saying means I was wrong twice, lol, it's actually 45 chapters.

Hmm, an author with the word Buddha in his username wrote a character saying "Talking about how Buddhism spread to China from India through merchants and missionaries felt less like an exam and more like something I wanted to lecture about for hours", that very much feels like a self-insert and I like it. Before this chapter, I wondered if reading about the finals week would get a bit boring. But you managed to make me feel Nicky's stress, while keeping the story interesting. I'm glad they worked things out with Jonah, the way he was so unsure about any kind of physical contact with Nick and Jack (Nack? Jick?) makes me believe his apology really was genuine. Nick needs to stop catastrophising everything, the exams and going home with Jack this time, although I get it because of his past. But that's why he needs to go to therapy and to stop thinking his struggles are small because he compares himself to Jack's admittedly bigger ones, he still gets to be broken despite comparisons.

Good point. Him realizing it by himself means a lot more than if it came because someone called him out, although the second one would itself be a start.

@drsawzall @Summerabbacat @SilentandBroken His name is Grant, not Greg. As for this chapter itself, it contains Olly unequivocally realizing that what he did with Mack the previous time was messed up. Thankfully, Mack was awake and reciprocating, so there was no harm.

Thank you for the clarification and I'm sorry about my accusation.

Re the reaction on my previous comment: Laughing at someone for having a different opinion than yours about a character, really? You can disagree with me without being like that. Edit: Unless you were actually laughing at my spoilers disclaimer. I don't see how that would be funny, but at least I wouldn't be upset at someone for laughing at that.

My opinion is that, if someone doesn't want their friend to share something with another friend, they should ask them not to do it. Since Olly didn't say anything like that to Declan, I think his telling Grant was fair game. And, while Olly was surprised that Declan did that, he wasn't upset about it. Plus it actually led to Olly receiving some information that was relieving to him. (I only wanted to say this specific thing, I won't comment on anything else because I don't remember what I thought when I first read this chapter, and I don't want to risk spoilers for future chapters that I already read influencing the thoughts I share here. And maybe this is a good time for me to say that, because I've read further, I'll never reply nor react to any kind of speculation for future chapters.)

Dean has a sad story between his past with his father and his asshole boss in the present. I hope to eventually see some comeuppance for both of them. And I'm curious about why his mom didn't take him, I can't imagine there would be a reason she'd lose a custody fight against a man like that if she tried. So this chapters tells us Kris knows he's attracted to men while, based on the previous one, Dean seems to denial about the same thing (see below). Let's see where that goes.

Interesting premise, I'm curious to see the impact the difference between the two main characters will have on both of them.

Regarding the "but won’t think twice if a guy puts out" part, that's not the impression I got when I first read chapter 6, the first time Olly approaches Declan, he seemed surprised and unsure of what to do, looking like he had never been with a guy.

I didn't remember Nick was only 9. I already thought he had put too much weight on himself following his father's death, but doing that at 9 is a whole other level. I agree with you on everything in that post. I'm sorry to hear about your own father. 16 is also very young to deal with that, and your situation has the thing that it's not a fictional story.

Regarding Jonah, he said all the right things in his apology and that's a good start. But a lot of it was based on what Christian told him. So it remains to be seen if he continues to act accordingly to what he said. The apology means Nick and Jack can start to work towards trusting him again, but that trust requires actions to be earned, not just words. Now that he said he has a crush on Nick, he can't do anything that could be interpreted by him or Jack as being related to that. I do think he genuinely wants to do better, but we'll see if I'm right. While Jack took Nick's news better than I expected, I also know he would never take it remotely close to as badly as Nick feared. Him thinking 10 seconds of not pushing away before doing the right thing could make a guy that loves him more than anyone ever break up with him tells us something about Nick.While stuff like this would normally point at a lack of confidence for me, with Nick it feels more a matter of anxiety. And that led to the panic attack, which is scary stuff. But, once again, Miss Charice was awesome. Plus Nick always diminishes his problems, sometimes by comparing them to other people, and ends up not taking care of his mental health. It's true that Jack's problems in regards to mental health are bigger, the whole thing with his parents is horrible, but that doesn't change that Nick also needs to take care of his own. Plus there's the paragraph about his dad's death, this has probably been going since then. Between losing the person Nick considered his anchor and him imposing more weight on himself by unilaterally deciding he had to be the "man of the house", it feels like he hasn't been allowing himself enough breathing room to deal with the mental health impact of that.

We actually know Nana Bev would have no issue paying for all that. It took me a bit to find where it was, but Jack says this about her in chapter 32: “And get this – she’s rich. Not just comfortable. Loaded." Given that, I agree that it's not worth the battle. The impact on Jack's mental health would be too big.

I was as surprised as Olly that Declan would go back to jerking him off after reaching post-nut clarity. I fully expected a shift after his horniness died down, which didn't come. (I've read much further, so it's usually hard for me to comment because I could accidentally spoil something, but this time I remember one thing I felt when I first read it.)

Yeah, I don't want to experience anything close to that, it's scary. It's sad that, despite that, this is somehow still less time than I expected Nicky to still of this for.

I'll have more thoughts another time about the rest of the chapter, but I need to talk about that letter. Oh my fucking god! The letter from Jack's parents, the personal one, was absolutely aeful beyond what I could ever expect. Somehow, they managed to make acceptance of of the guardianship feel much worse than the challenge I thought was coming. That letter would have been a horrible emotional hit to anyone, but I think it's much worse for Jack. It's like his parents know how Jack's brain works well enough to be able to deal the highest amount of emotional damage possible. Of course, what his parents think shouldn't matter from a rational point of view. But that's not how humans work, the rejection, homophobia and hatred hurt deeply.l coming from parents.

That's an important point, but I was too focused on other stuff to notice it. It seems Jonah's theatrics hide his fragility a bit too well, making his own friends, besides Nick, not notice it and probably act towards him in ways they wouldn't if they knew they may affect him more than it seems.

I agree that they really should unpack this with an adult, but if there's one thing teenagers won't do when it comes to relationship drama is exactly that.

That first paragraph is a good point I hadn't considered, it means I can't judge this on body language. But I still expect bad news because his parents seem like the kind to fight for Jack's custody just because losing it wouldn't look good in their social circles, not for any reason that remotely related to his feelings. And, if it does go the other way, I agree that it will still be a gut punch for him because emotions aren't rational.

Wow, that Jonah situation is going to complicate things and it sucks for both of them. For Jonah because the guy he loves doesn't love him back, plus he sees him every day because he's part of his friend group. To Nick because he cares about Jonah as a friend, so he doesn't want to hurt him, but he doesn't have a choice when he has to put a stop to this. Nothing Jonah can say will make Nick love him back and nothing Nick says will make Jonah not love him, so they're stuck in this situation. And now Jack got what, based on his body language, is probably bad news from his parents, possibly very bad knowing them. So Nick will need to give Jack all the support, like his mother said, which means he probably won't tell him what happened with Jonah to not pile on to what Jack is already dealing with. But this will result in Nick dealing with that problem by himself in his own mind and the ten seconds when he kissed Jonah back will away at him, even though he then realised it was wrong and pulled away. And I know his mother told him to talk to her instead of keeping stuff inside, but "my friend kissed me and I initially kissed him back for ten seconds before pulling away, even though I have a boyfriend, and now I'm worried about me doing that" is very not the kind of thing a teenage boy would want to talk to his mom about. Besides that, after some time focusing on other issues, we got to spend most of the chapter dealing with normal exam period school worries. Miss Charice is still great, but now we got to see a different side to her than her usual easy going joking mood. Her reaction to the stopping the pills showed she can be no nonsense when it's needed, not when it's time to scold students, when they need that for their own good.

I understand people wanting more chapters, of course I'd always enjoy more. But I think the current schedule two chapters a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, is already plenty.

Yeah, they'll probably try to argue Nana isn't fit to be Jack's guardian because of her alcoholism. But her and Nick's mom will argue Jack's parents are fit to take care of him for various reasons. The case that Jack's parents aren't fit for that is stronger, but I wonder what will happen to Jack if the judge decides neither the parents nor Nana Bev are fit for that.

I'm sorry for the wall of text. It's my first time commenting here, so I wanted to cover the Nana Bev situation so far, not just this chapter. I have been reading this story for a while, initially on Nifty, then I found GayAuthors because you used to include a link to here in your stories. When I finally created an account here, I was originally not going to comment on this story because it felt weird to jump in so late, but I have since changed my mind because that was a stupid thought. At some point, I want to gather my thoughts on the rest of the story so far, but they're no longer relevant here, so I'll probably send them by email. Now I'll start Nana Bev's appearance in the story. Jack has horrible parents and, from what he could tell, there didn't seem to be any for his situation to improve. Then her grandma wanted to meet him, but he didn't know if she'd want to take him. When he met her, he must concluded he could finally have hope, although still with legal issues to deal with. Which is why seeing Nana Bev's state in this chapter is crushing, it's like the hope is being swept from under a guy who already went through too much as just a teenager. Jack's parents will probably present evidence of her acting in the same way we saw today and will use it to argue she's not fit to be a guardian. This isn't to say Nava Bev isn't a good person, she's great, caring and accepting of his sexuality. After the previous chapter, I was convinced she'd do a good job of taking care of Jack. Now I'm not sure, it depends on how common days like today are. But my worry isn't that, it's the roadblock this can place on the legal situation. Maybe they can still win past that stuff, but it would likely result in a bigger impact of Jack's mental health, the last thing he needs. Plus also has Nick's mom who really cares about him too, and will do everything she can to help. Which is why Nick should show her the photos of Jack that are evidence of abuse. On a lighter note, okay J. Jonah Jameson, but I don't know how Nana Bev became Spider-Man. Seriously, he's calling someone a menace and his name is literally J. Jonah Jameson's middle name. The short time with the group in this chapter was funny, Jonah is hilarious, the group as a whole is fun. Plus Nick and Jack are great towards each other, except for a couple chapters ago, which they sorted out. But this chapter was almost completely about Jack, so I'll leave the comments about everyone else short for now.

(I've read much further than this, so I'll just mention what I remember thinking when I read this chapter.) Until now, Luke was being kind of homophobic. Not to a big level, he wasn't insulting Olly, but he was treating him differently than before. But now he's trying to be better and he wants to understand, not stop at just accepting, that's good. His questions were a bit ignorant, but I don't mind that as long as they help.