PrivateTim

Here's a newsflash you can feel insulted, offended and wronged..... but still wrong in what you are saying. I am going to guess you don't use Grindr and Jack'd a lot, but if you did you'd see a lot of guys, maybe most, are still asking guys if they are "clean" and many ask about "D&D free" and clean doesn't just mean HIV+, but it also means any of the rather nasty venereal diseases and sexually transmitted diseases out there right now that actually worry people more than HIV. And don't kid yourself that the young guy who becomes HIV+ is getting treated nicer or better, they still become pariahs in large swaths of the gay community along with old guys, fat guys, Asian guys and the horribly unfortunate fat, old Asian guys. Mark did not make a mistake, he wrote it the way it happens. If he chooses to write about Stanford's queer studies program I'll be horribly offended because I find the word queer horribly offensive, it would be akin to Stanford having a "nigger studies" program. But me choosing to be offended doesn't change the reality that that is what it is and what it is called.

Jeremy?

I said it a bit ago and I'll say it again. What makes JJ different in this story is that he is actually the most normal main character there is. It is the others who are the anomalies, not him. Very well said and kind of what I said in my review.

Amazing how the stories of 9/11 can still impact emotion so strongly and take me back to those days in an instant. The guys in Joey's company had to know he was gay, or at least a few guys. While it might be hard for some Catholic families in the NYC area, it isn't for others, NYPD and NYFD are two of the more progressive departments when it comes to gay policies and there have been out people in both departments for decades. It does throw two new interesting twists, John, who can move Will's world too and what will happen with Tony when school starts. I'm still looking forward to time with Cam and want to see where Alistair winds up. I like Kai, but I don't think he'll get to Will's level intellectually and I think that would be a major stopper in their future unless Kai gets off the island.

Hey I thought we were in a government shutdown! What's wrong with your school?? Don't make me read legal briefs when I can goof off with CAP!

All these voices in my head! Make them go away! Actually it was nice to get inside JJ's head for a bit. I find him a lot more interesting and complex than most people I think. He has a lot to deal with. What makes him stand out in the story is that he is pretty normal. The pressure he must face in the skating world because of his completely off the charts different family must be tremendous.

Brad is waaaaaaaaaay too old for Lark. Besides, Brad and Lark were never about love, just lust. Cody isn't right because he is not ready for that yet. Well now that word replace reminds me of a story. A friend of mine had this conversation with his wife: Mary: honey, if I passed away, would you marry again? Larry: I suppose, I mean I am young and I think I'd get lonely. Mary: would she sleep in our bed? Larry: The bed isn't that old, so I suppose, sure. Mary: would she wear my clothes? Larry: you have great taste dear, so if she were the same size, yeah, why not Mary contemplates that and asks one final question: would she use my golf clubs? Larry quickly answered: oh no, she's left handed! Brad and Matt would be too creepy to contemplate. It is creepy enough that Brad hooked up with the boyfriend of his boyfriend's son.

I don't think Will is more mature than Brad I think they are both products of their upbringing and a reflection of their times. Remember the shy, reserved Brad who became blood brothers with Stef? Brad having a mother who actively hated him, a father he never knew who wasn't his father at all. Being gay in time when being gay was still not all that cool or accepted. For good, bad or indifferent Will always knew his parents did not actively, viscerally hate him the way Brad's mother did. Will was able to be openly gay easily both from a societal and familial aspect. I have a lot of friends like Brad, Brad's age and close to Brad's power status. Very few of them date people their own age or get into relationships with people their own age and it doesn't matter gay or straight. It is especially true for guys used to control and who enjoy control. I can see Brad screwing some college twinks, but for a relationship getting serious with a 27 or 28 year old. That is someone a bit more mature than a college party boy, but not a 39 year old either. Brad is going to attract that age range like flies to a cow patty. Those guys want someone older, more stable, but still in good shape. The 28/29 year old is so over his peers he wants more mature and is looking for someone who can take the lead in a relationship. The idea of equal partners is great on paper, but it is a lot easier when someone is leading when you waltz. How old is Wade's lawyer?? That is the kind of guy I can see Brad with.

Yes one of the great mysteries of life is when to use affect vs effect and how to use it without making yourself appear to have an affect.

But the interesting part of the chapter was the issues between Brad and Robbie that we didn't know existed and maybe more to the point, Will didn't know existed. Will in typical teen mode is so absorbed in his life that he doesn't think of the lives of his parents and the struggles they might be going through and how their actions towards him might be effected by what is happening in their lives. When I was a kid you never even really thought of your parents as being people, let alone human. They were just...... well parents. You didn't contemplate what drove and motivated them (until that first Psych 101 class freshman year when you came home over Christmas and psychoanalyzed everyone in the house including the cat's unconscious motivations) you just had these expectations of them to be perfect and not make mistakes and not to have fears and insecurities of their own. I look forward to the tying up of loose ends, reconciliations and set-ups for the future. Do we know if Ryan and Jeff have net yet?

I didn't see it as callous, but clueless. And yes, I don't think too many teachers at The Menlo School (or most top private schools in CA I know of) would be either, but that wasn't the point, this isn't a main character; it was someone who can drive the story in the right direction and get Will's story out in one fell swoop. As a literary device it was quite good. The author gets to have his poetic license.

Hurrumph....... took your own damn sweet time posting this last chapter Arbour! I spent the whole weekend staring at my tablet waiting for an update to pop up.... didn't eat.... didn't sleep.... didn't shower lest I miss it! But lucky for you it was worth the wait! Great chapter, but I will admit I kept getting confused between Brad thoughts and Will dialogue.... interesting that all that back story was going on, but it does bring out a point I've discussed before and that is that we see very little of the actual lives of the character, just minutes here and there and there are whole sale parts of their lives we never see. I get the device of the teacher, but at a school like Menlo, it is not only unlikely that any teacher would be unaware of what happened with one of their students, but that the school would have actually spoken with Will's teacher before school and other kids at Menlo who might have been effected. But it was a nice way for Will to get his story out publicly, all at once and the story should spread like wildfire throughout the school. Maybe philosophy teacher/ water polo coach Jack Bowen can be the teacher on campus who hunts Will down and talk to him.

We will default to Clintonian Rule of Celibacy: If you are not lying down, it is not sex.

It is amazing how sometimes your ardor for someone can cool after you've had sex with them the first time. I remember a girl I wanted so badly my junior year of high school that when we finally had "real sex" for the first time, I was pretty much over her and spent the next two months trying to figure out how to dump her. Nice to see Cody taking an interest in Maddy, not surprised to see Frank not wanting to raise a one year old and I am looking forward to Will's going back to school.

Oh man straight sex and no warnings....... you're gonna have some unhappy gaysters Interesting twist. I had sex with my straight guy cousins, but would have been grossed out with sex with my girl cousins.... can't say why other than Will's explanation. It was recreation with my guy cousins.... girls don't see sex the same way... Looking forward to school Monday

Older guys in clubs in LA got major Shi-ite if they tried to dress like they were in a club in Paris, New York, or London. LA is still LA and a laid back scene, the guys wearing Versace were mocked. Assuming they were not into fetish scenes (daddy, leather, emo, goth, etc) the guys Brad age dressed pretty normal, Polo knit shits, t-shirts if they were built, nice jeans (CK, Armani, etc, maybe even Levi's in a really low key bar). But I don't think Brad would suddenly turn into a club type guy, house parties were more the norm and at Brad's level he'd be going to parties thrown by David Geffen, Garth Ancier, Barry Diller, Sandy Gallin, Bryan Singer and a few other agent/lawyer types less known to the public and in turn, Brad would host parties at Malibu, especially the Sunday afternoon ones that were such fun.

I think that it was Bill Cosby who spoke extensively about "anyone can be a father, it takes someone special to be a parent", or words to that effect. So far Cody is just Maddy's father, not a parent. He hasn't lived with her and his mother as a nuclear family unit. When you live with your child, your baby, and you just look at it, you look at its tiny, perfect hands, its tiny feet and chubby legs, when your hear the sounds and can start to recognize and distinguish the happy gurgles from mere gas, and so much more, yes it is mystical, magic, life altering transformation that nothing else can equal. Of course there are people who are not effected by their baby in transformative ways, but I think they are the exception, not the norm. It is likely that there was some kind of agreement between Jeanine and Cody, but if Cody decides he wants custody of Maddy the agreement is probably not worth the paper it is written on. That doesn't mean he would get custody, it just means the court would throw out the agreement and start from scratch as to what was in the best interest of the child. Even if Cody were not awarded sole custody, it would be likely that he would get visitation..... but that part is all idle speculation on "what ifs". I think Cody and the family will work out on their own what is best for Maddy and that Cody will turn out to be a good, even if absentee, father.

For what age? Uber-trendy for Brad won't be the same as Darius and Bay Area will differ from Los Angeles.

I can totally see Darius as a Beta; amiable guy, money, classy. SAE's at UCLA do well in sports and throw good parties, but kind of arrogant. Sigma Chi, on and off probation so they've had a tough time staying consistent. Here is the Beta House: Here is the SAE House:

He wants to pork freshman chicks before the "freshman 15", duh...... No, fraternity life is the best place for building college friendships. I can see Darius pledging because it was a great way to meet the chickadees. As Mark points out, Darius is going home. He'd have lots of friends in Malibu and the surrounding areas for friendships. I am going to assume he chose to return back to So Cal because UCLA is a better school than Santa Clara and because he only went there because of Ella to begin with. And graduate dorms are very different from undergraduate dorms. I don't get that it is far fetched that men cheat on their partners regardless of the partners gender. Men are dogs, plain and simple. I know a lot of relationships and even marriages where the ditzy wife (regardless of gender) assumes they are in a monogamous relationship where the SOB husband is screwing anything they can on the QT. Even in some of the gay couples I know who are essentially monogamous have rules about how they can sleep with someone else who catches their eye. There are certain rules and guidelines they have agreed to, but they are really not monogamous. I can count the truly monogamous couples on one hand and even then, it is an assumption that they are monogamous because I've never seen or heard anything to the contrary. While I have said it would be nice to see gay couples portrayed in a less slutty way, that actually would be the fiction not the norm.

What will the next CAP be? My Three Sons or The Schluter Bunch? un hunh..... "uncle" Charlie lives with them?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwikvo6EZiQ I think we all know what Mile was doing when Carol wasn't around..... you all thought it was plans in those tubes he had...

Being a quarter school lots of students would have moved in weeks before, mostly because they are fall athletes, but for other reasons as well. The average freshman might have some "move-in weekend" experience, but that would not be the norm for transfer students and not a big deal like it might be as some ivy covered east coast school.

Great chapter..... funny I don't really remember Jeanine's parents being mentioned before. I am sure they were, they just never seem to have been a part of Will's life. While parents might have issues with their children, my experience is they could never be mad at the grandkids even if they were the product of a marriage or liaison they disapproved of. I know there are exceptions, I've just never seen it. Sweet to see John help Will out, Brad I am less sure about. I know there have been times when sex just didn't interest me, I think if I was Brad, this would have been one of them.

Okay wait...... I've gone with a lot of really unbelievable things in this story..... street urchins who turn into billionaires, people having sex who never lock their doors, Stanfurd as an acceptable place for a four year degree...... but now Arbour you've lost me..... no credibility.... a teen who who is pissed that his parents never pried enough into his sex life! Seriously??

I do believe that Elizabeth loved Jeff, that doesn't mean she isn't evil. Anyway, a good chapter to start healing and I hope people take all this stuff to heart and that it lasts longer than the post 9-11 bubble of good feelings, which I would say started to fade in early 2002 as people moved on from the collective grief. Interesting that this was a solo narrator chapter.