PrivateTim

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.

Oh, and I am way too prissy to have sex in a public bathroom.

Well I NEVER! 😁

Ha ha, I took three years of high school French and all I could do is ask where the cinema was (où est le cinéma) and say I am sick (je suis malade). I learned more French in bumming through France for three weeks than I did in three years in HS. But I think Jeremy's explanation for Doug knowing French was that in general, rich and cultured people spoke French and that just isn't my experience.

First off congratulations to you and your team for a marvelous story and thank you for all the time and effort. I'd like to be happy for Brad and Robbie as they head off to college, but I remember all too well the asshole who awaits Robbie there. As to AIDS, although I was too young to remember its start, it is one of three watershed events in my life, where the world changed completely. AIDS, 9-11 and Covid have had profound effects in shaping generations. When I first started really exploring the bi side of me, I didn't want to do it with guys my age, so my first gay friends were all 15-20 years older than me and each one had a unique tale of their experience and that of their friends. They were all mother hens with the young guys in our social circle. The guys who became my friends were the ones who survived the era and they were the ones who didn't drink to excess or do drugs that clouded their judgment and led to risky behaviors. They told me the ones who caught the plague were the prettiest and wildest of the party boys, just like Armand. My friends were guys at the same parties as Armand, but never made it to the orgy room and managed to escape the clutches of Henry Wilson and his coterie. Several were also in committed long term relationships and didn't cheat, as far as anyone knew. I was naturally conservative to begin with. I was what my grandmother would have called "a Goldwater Republican", but what today is a little L libertarian. The lessons from my mentors did help shape me and mold into a person of moderation, which seems to be my default personality to begin with. The logical part of me doesn't understand why people make self destructive choices and continue to make them. The older I get, the more I understand they have to work very hard to change the basics of who they are. I don't. That is one reason I love these stories, even if I rag on some of the characters.

Don't drink, don't chew, don't go with boys who do 😝

Maybe... you are old, so you'd know. By the time I started driving to the Bay Area they'd paved the roads 🤣

Oh, I didn't say it would be interesting. I said it would be happy 🤣

First sacrificial lamb to AIDS. Bill Schluter, Captain Carmichael, Jeff Hayes, Billy Crampton and maybe some others I am forgetting have already been CAP sacrificial lambs to the storyline. Many more will come before Gap Year, and I am sure many after. I keep trying to see a redeeming side of Brad, but he is just so destructive. He's redefined his and Robbie's relationship and he is still not happy and he is corrupting Gary and Mouse, hurting both of them, hurting Dan, hurting Robbie and he no apparent compunctions about it. On a happier note.... I love CalArts, a university founded by Walt Disney. It is less than 30 miles from UCLA. Maybe I'll write a fan fiction happy story where Brad goes to CalArts, Robbie goes to UCLA and they live a happy normal life as a couple.

I'd never really been “in love” before Robbie, and we'd been through so much together Uh, unless my timing is wrong.... Brad's only known Robbie a little more than four months. “Don't you have a fucking scheduled or something?” I demanded. Why is Brad a fuckhead asshole? He certainly did his share of fucking around. Wouldn't a normal, non-fuckhead asshole just say, 'I'm not ready fort hat instead of being a fuckhead asshole? Brad is a very proud person. Pride goeth before destruction.... thus saith the Lord. “Well, I figured that you'd end up resolving things with Robbie, and I don't want to stand in the way.” Well, how about that? A person (Dan), who isn't a self-centered asshole and thinks of others before himself. No wonder this character is quickly shoved aside in the CAP series 🤣 “I'm done being mad at you, so if you want to grovel, now's the time,” I said, grinning Oh great, Brad is done being mad so he expects Robbie to just fall in line. If I was Robbie I'd say 'fuck you, I'm not done being mad at you, get the fuck out of my room".

a) I think most artists don't view their "job" in the same way a stockbroker or factory worker views their job. It is a passion. b) Brad is rich and always has been. He has no obligation to do anything as a profession. He could paint, surf and fuck and never worry about money.

Have you read any of the books with Will in them?? 🤣🤣

What a complete fuck head Brad is. Revenge sex always bites you in the ass. California usually voted for Democrats, but Reagan was one of us. Actually no. From 1952 to 1992 California voted Republican in Presidential elections, except for Johnson in 1964. The only reason Clinton beat Bush in 1992 was Ross Perot pulling so many votes from him. Post 1992 CA has been Democrat, but this isn't the place for that discussion. In 1980 Carter lost because everyone hated him, including a lot of blue collar Democrats. Carter got his fair share of evangelicals because of his open, born-again faith. The only state Carter got more than 50% was his home state of Georgia. If it hadn't been for conservative John Anderson and the Libertarian candidate, Reagan would have won 49 states. Carter was just a fuck-up and everyone but yellow dog Democrats voted against him. “I mean that little to you now that you'd..... And Robbie meant "that little" to Brad as he fucked around with guys. What a fuckin' hypocrite. I think most people are hypocrites in one form or another, me included, the difference is I am fully aware of my hypocrisy, Brad is clueless.

I think Brad's inability to keep it in his pants sets up the future issues with Robbie. Robbie brings his baggage to the party, but Brad his inability to function as a rational being contributes.

"You let him get away with being a total asshole, you coddled him, and you encouraged him." Well shit Brad, I hope if you ever have a son you never let him get away with being a total asshole, coddle him, encourage him to be a douche and let him indulge himself. Brad needs serious therapy. He was again, just an asshole this chapter.

Sorry, but Brad was a total dick this chapter. If he wanted to get back at Billy he had other ways to do it. How did his beating up his brother and insulting the woman who's been his mother for the last 12 years square with his vision of the "good of the group"?

“Dad sees a family as a group of individuals, and he has obligations to each of those individuals. I see it as a whole group, and I think you have to make decisions based on what's good for everyone in that group.” I KNEW IT! Brad's a freakin' Commie! It strikes me how many tragic characters there are in this book.....

Enabling a child's bad behavior is never a good thing. Children do need rules, disciplines, and guidance.

Agreed. Billy has been a very sweet kid up to this point. I don't understand the transformation other than Mark needed some drama to move the story. I also think it is bogus that Brad, who could snap Marc like a twig, did have enough control that he didn't shut down Marc on the rape and gave in to it.