PrivateTim

I almost commented last chapter how nice it was that Will and Travis managed to have fun and enjoy each other without getting wasted on drugs or alcohol. That got blown up in the first line of this chapter. I continue to fail to see the attraction to a drug that makes you vomit, and ditto for drinking so much that you do. I evaluate most things in life on a pain vs pleasure scale, be it a friendship, an activity, a client, or whatever. I learned quickly I didn't get enough pleasure out of getting wasted drunk to counteract the pain of vomiting and hangover, so I didn't do much of that. I knew from watching friends with silly-cybins, X, K, etc. that I didn't want to do any of those ever, and certainly never had a desire for coke or meth, which were just over the top. I believe all things in moderation, drinking, gambling, sex because I've seen the destruction in friends lives from those three things and drugs, no thanks.

Fun chapter, I hope Patrick warms up to Travis. The villain here is Zach. Can't wait to see Bellona's reaction to Patrick's improvements. You see where Patrick really is a pro and JJ is still a novice. JJ's concept might have worked for himself or a 6'2", 120 pound model, but not on someone as buff as Will.

I don't like that Will keeps pushing on Travis to come out to more people. Will has ZERO CONCEPT of how hard and potentially dangerous it can be to come out for many people. Not everyone has two gay fathers, two gay grandfathers, a lesbian mother and a gay step father. Not to mention being outed could cost Travis $250 million.

Fornicate George and the whole Granger clan. CAP is our past, our present and our future. 🤣

This time through, this line struck me: “Well, I’m trying to figure out why Travis doesn’t like bottoming,” I said. Travis smacked me playfully. Will "Stay Outta My Business" Schluter, has NO BUSINESS talking about Travis's sexual choices and preferences, especially when he knows Travis is an intensely private person. Will will never be mature in my mind until he gets his temper out of control. He seems ready to fly off the handle at any slight. He also is just now starting to figure out everyone is different and has different ways of dealing with things. Will confronts things like a bulldozer. Every obstacle is something you run into, run over and crush. It never occurs to him you can just drive around an obstacle.

If Zach wasn't willing to risk his football career by coming out, he sure is not going to turn murderer and lose his football career. Plus, he doesn't need the money. If I recall, Robbie left a good chunk to all the Hayes kids. In a creepy turn, I am going to predict Travis's father is his grandfather.

I don't think Travis will be able to rest easy while Curtis Buck is alive. The best thing that could happen is that Curtis disappears ala Jimmy Hoffa. Make sure a lot of his clothes, computer, phone, passport etc are gone too so it looks like CB skipped town ahead of the authorities. Sean Massey can help Travis find a lawyer to sue Guy Fellowes as well as reporting Fellowes to the COPRAC and try to get him disbarred.

Thank you Mark for this marvelous story!

I've known gay male couples who had really bad, prolonged, knock down, drag out fights (which is what happens when you are both 'roiding up to impress the fellas at Crunch Fitness) and 6 hours later were fine and all weepy with apologies. I don't say that is healthy, but by comparison Will and Zach was less than a hissy fit. I do think Jeremy is right though, Mark created the scene to make a break between Zach and Will more definitive. I've never been Zach's biggest fan. I didn't/don't think he is good for Will, I've always thought he was a user and always out to take care of himself first. That said, I can understand the absolutely crushing pressure he is under. To be a closeted gay man, and I do believe Zach is gay, not bi, in a situation where you definitively cannot come out, but you still have these persistent, overwhelming desires can be intolerable. I knew two closeted gay wrestlers, who in a similar situation, turned the violence on themselves and committed suicide. The pressure of a dual life was too much to handle.

I have always been a big believer in "Knowledge is Power". It is amazing what you can learn when you keep your mouth shut and listen. I don't see an upside to Will busting Zach now. I do hope it is the beginning of the end for Zach, once and for all. He has been nothing but toxic for Will.

Will "Wah I Wanna Be Independent" Schluter needs to stop being a pussy and cut those apron strings.

I took the more normal route to celibacy, I got married. 🤣😝

The conversation between Will and Jeff is one of the reasons I am so opposed to wonton promiscuity. If you only can be satisfied with what is new and shiny, you will never be happy in a committed, monogamous relationship, and I think eventually almost everyone wants a committed, monogamous relationship; even wolfs burn out. And if the wolf doesn't burn out, eventually you get to an age and stage in life where guys ignore you; you are no longer attracted to you enough to respond. Unless you are a billionaire (which means you are attractive forever) old wolfs are replaced by young ones, then what do you have? One of the problems when you have had sex with 100, 200, 300 people, etc is that you DO make judgments and comparisons. What happens when the coolest, most fun, considerate guy you've ever met, isn't that great in bed or has a skinny ass dick? If you didn't have 500 other people to compare him to, it might not be an insurmountable issue. I have one friend, who even at 46 is hot as hell and still looks 25, keeps a spreadsheet of every guy he's ever been with, going back to college when we were roommates. He keeps stats on size, physical characteristics, acts done and then rates them. It really is hilarious and very organized, but he's also been unable to sustain a relationship and it is starting to bug him and so many of his/our friends have paired off, had kids, etc. A wolf is a wolf, even in Peoria. The fact that Will is unaware his phone was trackable is evidence that no one has abused the tracking. In just a couple more years (from 2004) a smartphone won't be tracking just location, but every input. It really isn't different. You can't have one without the other. The records will always be there. What is in play is who has access to the records. Will had better educate himself on online privacy, especially as it relates to Google, theFacebook and phones.

I don't think Will will stay at Harvard. I hope he transfers back to UCSD, UCSB or even UCSC (go Banana Slugs!) Will is freaked out his phone is tracking him, while he is a major investor of two of the biggest invaders of privacy in the world. Hard to remember that this is 2004 and the first iPhone is still three years away. It seems like we've ALWAYS had smartphones.

Will has not matured much at all. His rage was out of control several times this chapter. I am "vexed" with Will for being unable to control his emotions. A mature person would have handled Cody and Jeff better. A mature person wouldn't have played the high school games with Cam and just told him who he was. You have always been fairly prescient.

Will is 17 1/2 and he has had what, 60 sexual partners? Were any of those shallow? In each case did Will spend time getting to know the person, find out things about them? Will was all fired up to get with Jeff, even though Cody told him, he was dating someone. There is not a more self absorbed prick in CAP than Will. Cam is an agent...... an agent in Hollywood...... Will four times (at least four) in this chapter got overly angry and once again showed his immaturity and anger issues. Pretty simple, Will calls Cam and says he'd better come clean with Jeff, or he will. Now that Cam knows who Will is, he is probably smart enough to figure out he needs to tell Jeff first.

NO ONE drinks gin on purpose......

We have 60 more chapters to fill..... I'm calling Theodore Boone. I think we'll find, that like the Bastille Day Party, it is very easy for a charity to get off track and forget what its purpose is.

I know Jeremy likes to do "Faces for Mark's Stories", but I think I've nailed Will.

No he doesn't. Will looks like the callow 17 year old he is, with zero understanding of what the consequences of a dishonorable discharge mean in a person's life.

I felt the anger burn through my body at how he was taking me on this fucking emotional roller coaster ride just because he couldn’t bend me to his will. - - Instead, he’d been a complete dick, and hung up on me twice. He hadn’t told me where he was. OMG I laughed so hard at this. How many HUNDREDS of times has Will hung up on Brad? There is NOTHING noble or right in what Will did this chapter. What Brad does is NONE OF HIS FUCKING BUSINESS. Will laid down the parameters of this relationship, "stay the fuck out of my life" was the Prime Directive. So why does Will think he has the right to interfere? To bully Grace? To threaten Brad? How appropriate is it that Psyche is ridden by Psycho?

“Your read on the situation was good enough to convince me,” I said as I pondered the situation. “How do we handle that?” said Will with zero self awareness, nor a sense of irony. Yes.... I do know this is all fiction... Yes, I know there is a puppet master who makes Will this massive ball of hypocrisy and contradiction, but Jiminy Christmas, the Will character goes ballistic and on rage filled expeditions when anyone hints at anything he thinks delves into his private business. Either you accept that people who love you try to help you and keep you from harm or you do not. You cannot, or rather should not, involve yourself in others lives if you resent such interference in your life. There is apparently nothing Will can ever do wrong in the eyes of the Will-ophiles. If Will kicked a baby out of a stroller at noon on Park Ave, the Will-ophiles would either say, "well the baby had it coming" or "he was just trying to save the baby from a speeding truck". I think the only reason Will is going to Harvard is because he thinks he should. As of right now we only know three things that Will is passionate about, 1) fucking 2) surfing and 3) partying (drinking and drugs). If he were a history buff, a foodie or into culture, I'd say Boston is an awesome place to be. But it isn't. People not in California may not appreciate how good schools like UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara are. In the latest Forbes rankings UC San Diego is the #3 public university in the nation behind only Berkeley (#1 and #5 overall) and UCLA (#2 and #7 overall). Harvard is #9 overall on the Forbes list. UC Santa Barbara is physically on the ocean, with its own beach and surf break; part of the UC San Diego campus is on the ocean (Scripps Oceanographic Institute) with a great surf beach and nude beach. Will would have a very easy time at either of these schools indulging his three hobbies 24/7/365. If he decides to follow a business/finance track, Berkeley and UCLA have two of the finest MBA programs in the country, not to mention USC and UC Irvine (which really was UC Newport Beach when it was built since Irvine didn't exist yet).

I hope they pay the chauffeurs a boat load of money. Can you imagine the smell of that backseat and what it takes to clean it up?

Additional thoughts. Yes racism is wrong, but it is also okay to have types. Some guys like skinny guys and don't like beefy guys; some guys like blondes, some like swarthy. What ever Dustin's deal is/was, it sure didn't warrant Will's rage/anger reaction. He obviously needs more therapy to deal with his issues. I also think hooking up with Chris Mendoza was sleazy, both on Will's part and especially Chris's.

Brad does know better. I've decided it is Arbour who makes Brad do stupid shit. 🤣 Let me say again, for the 738th time in a review in a CAP story. I do not understand why people get drunk when they feel like crap the next day. You can't say "it's what teens do" because I was a teen, a fraternity boy, a raver and I liked clubbing and I did it all without getting blotto drunk at every opportunity. The first time I ever drank was my freshman year of high school, I got stupid drunk, puked and had a horrible hangover. I decided very quickly and easily that getting drunk wasn't a good tradeoff for pleasure received vs pain endured. Will seems miserable the next day and getting drunk, or coked up doesn't seem to enhance the fun he has.