PrivateTim

I think you mean "Misery" 😁

PS Brad and Will would be rockin' their Reyn Spooner shirts, and a lot of the Malibu - H-W kids. Reyn is the Ralph Lauren of Hawaii. Every man of a certain class has them, especially the annual Christmas shirt.

Fifteen years of reading Chronicles Of An Academic Predator and the ONLY thing in all 17 books that EVER seemed unrealistic was that Jack would fall out of love with Claire and cheat on her. As to Travis.... maybe Curtis isn't his father? Maybe his father is a Hayes - Crampton - Schluter - Granger? Claremont could be good as a hideout. I am just finishing rereading Man in Motion and I wondered what JP and Jim would do with Jack and Marie's house when Grandmaman passed away. Or maybe with JJ? Carullo? Chicago? Does Brad still have his SF love nest? Does Will still own in the same building? I really like Travis because he seems normal and sweet.

Why is Brad so incapable of controlling his emotions? You can't fly off the handle at everything that pisses you off, especially with the one you love. I did worry about Marie and being alone in that huge house, so I am glad that Darius and Jeremy will stay put for the mean time. I wonder who will move into Jack & Marie's house when she is gone?

Where there's a way, there's a Will.

I vote Sue Ellen.... But since I know, I'll move on this chapter...

This is one of the many reasons I never liked Robbie. The instant Neil, Robbie should have told Brad. Brad would have gotten security and maybe arranged for Neil to disappear. How did Neil know to find thugs in Paris and how was he going to pay them?

But it was different because Marcel was 16, where his hormones seemed to override his logic. Oh Brad, Brad, Brad...... you are 23 and your hormones override your logic and still will be when you are in your 40's. “I asked him if he had any morals,” I said. - “I don’t see why you have the right to question him on that,” JP said. He was starting to piss me off.It is indeed funny to see Brad talking about "morals". To paraphrase Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, "morals means just what I choose it to mean, nothing more nor less". I remember everyone shocked and aghast that Sam would have sex with Jake, who was just 16, and now John Paul has had sex with a 16 year old, only he is 6 years older now than Sam was in Claremont.

In most cases that would be true, but in this case, Marcel is almost a carbon copy of Robbie; even hotter, he is a copy of Robbie at 16. I agree they are far too risky and cavalier, and I cannot believe Brad (as well as almost every other main character in the CAP series) cannot control his dick and libido better. I've skipped dozens of guys for a variety of reasons and there were hundreds more I could have pursued, but that wasn't me and I learned a lot from my older friends, when I was younger. I also get that for a lot of gay men, age is not a factor. Since the pool of available people is much smaller than the straight community, I believe in flexibility. In fact I find it shocking that there is so much judgment in the gay community over May - December romances. I saw it first hand when I was with my older friends when I was 18, 19, 20, etc. The people who didn't know me or them assumed I was a rent boy or gold digger, not knowing I had money of my own. I think "chicken hawk" is an old term, but I heard that judgy term used by gay men/twinks, along with many other judgy terms (bean queen, rice queen, banana, etc) from a community that demands others not judge them.

The mystery fucker is almost certainly Marcel, since he was the only other person in the apartment. Interesting in that with him being a Hayes, his cock is similar enough to Robbie's to fool Bradley.

Hey, the best character this chapter was Monsieur Plaquet. He reminded me of Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady. Having read the story before, I know how Marcel progresses from here. I think Mark should hire a ghost writer and have them do a comprehensive Marcel story. He is one of the few Hayes boys I actually like. It was also great to see Armand's brother make a cameo. Yes, good news JP is negative after all, sad news for Mouse. It will add to his stress and insecurities.

What comes to mind is what a fertile lot the Hayes boys are. A woman has one little fling with a Hayes man and BAM, she preggers!

Hey, Jake was a pretty normal, if bullied, gay kid before he met this family. If Brad hadn't made Jake go to Claremont for his own, selfish reasons, he may never have hooked up with Sam and it is Sam who was supposed to be the responsible person and see it didn't happen.

JP and Mouse are passengers on the Titanic and they've decided to sit down and listen to the band from a lounge chair as the ship starts to tilt... Bitty is a product of Janice, who was a mess.

As I've been told by my friends who lived through this era, the kind of clubs where Roger liked to go to punish himself mostly closed in the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS outbreak. Even though the disease was named and exposed in 1981, it had to have been present and rampant in the bathhouses long before. I think many more will die from this in CAP before all is said and done. I wonder if JP will retest or if there are more then one test at this time? I've known a few guys who experienced false positives and a couple other who always test positive in one kind of test, but always negative in another.

I love Darius. And we get to meet Jeannie and Tony. Without giving any spoilers, I am saddened when I think of the future for several of these people, who are more than just characters in the persona dramatis.

Loved Brad talking to the police. He is so polished and upper crust it was pretty easy to convince the police he was as innocent as a lamb. I wish the Neil issue was put to bed, but I know it isn't. Doesn't Tony Soprano live in New Jersey?

Neil is far from done. Like that villain in a Bond movie said, "Why can't you just be a good boy and die?"

Brad is an idiot. He should NEVER have fucked Max. He should have made Robbie come up to New Haven. Neil is going to use the extra time he gets to exert control over Robbie and now Robbie is going to want to spend more time in NJ and not return to CA with Brad when school ends. I really don't understand how a sex act can make someone psychologically dependent, but apparently it can happen.

I went to the premiere then after party for the movie, It's My Party. I was too young to have known Harry Stein, on whom the film was based, but I ran in the circles he was a part of. One of my older mentors was actually at the party and lived in the last house Harry designed. The movie had probably the biggest impact on me ever. My BFF/FB who went with me cried for an hour after the movie. My older friends who died, died of "something else", but it was the HIV that had so compromised their bodies. I also remember being out one time in Boy's Town at a coffee shop and a guy showed up, wasted (not drunk, wasted as in 95 pounds) and gaunt. It was obvious he was deeply sick. The man I was with, went over, greeted him and brought him over to our table. I was freaked a little, but I think I hid it well. We talked for about 15 minutes until his boyfriend who had dropped him off, then went to find parking, came back. He took him to the club next door. After they left, my friend told me he had been the absolute cutest boy in town, the nicest guy around, but also a party boy. He later showed me pictures of him. The transformation from gorgeous young twink to walking skeleton was shocking. What was most shocking that night was how people, especially people my age avoided him. The community that was supposed to be the most supportive, and was making demands on everyone else to be supportive, recoiled in the face of the reality. I hope we never experience a new plague like that.

Why doesn't Brad hire a private investigator to find out what Robbie and Neil are doing? Scat I'll just never get. Or gerbils.

And when he makes a decisive decision, it doesn't go well. Duh. I don't like Lark. Never have. Never will. Love the beach scene and love that it becomes a recurring theme. I feel badly for people who don't have beaches to go to to clear their heads. That is why I think Will should stay in CA.

It'd so weird to hear it took 4 years to develop a test for HIV. By the time I was sexually active, getting an HIV test was routine and we'd go to a free clinic to get it done. As far as I know only a couple of the young guys in my circle of 30-40 friends ever contracted HIV and both are still alive. Both are devastatingly good looking and both had unsafe sex when fucked up, which is one of the reasons I don't like getting fucked up or being around those who do. And while only two of my friends got HIV, I lost four friends from my circle to drugs directly, one indirectly and one to drunk driving. of those who died from drugs directly, three of the five choked to death on their own vomit, too fucked up to roll over and spit it out. The one who was an indirect victim had a heart attack at 28 and died just months after becoming a multi-millionaire in his own when Google went public. They all died before 30 and each was a wonderful young man, but couldn't quit the party lifestyle so prevalent in the gay community. I remember one year I went to like 10 funerals, three for the 20 somethings and seven for the older set (late 40's, early 50's) who died too young because of AIDS. While I was never a big drinker or someone who'd hook up with 4-5 guys a week, going to those funerals before I was 26 helped cement the idea I was on the right tack.

It is painful to reread this story. I don't remember details, but I remember the basics. I want to introduce Neil to Audrey II. Stop and think it over, pal The guy sure looks like plant food to me! The guy sure looks like plant food to me! The guy sure looks like plant food to me...!

<sigh> I just want to skip to the chapter where <you know who> is <violent act> by <he who shall not be named> and life gets better.