PrivateTim

No one should be fooled. Merrymount was the founding chapter of the North American Man Boy Love Association. The tribute to Ganymede, the handsome youth and old crusty Zeus was to celebrate intergenerational love.

Bungalow isn't even an English word. Certainly the Angles, Brits, Picts, Celts, etc had a word for a one story dwelling long before the British East India Company 😲

I'd say not much. For finding information and finding it fast and succinct, Google appears to still be the top. I watched the video and them did some simple tests using Google, Reddit and TikTok. On 2 of the 3 searches I did, neither Reddit nor TikTok had any results. On the most simple one, only Google returned helpful, useful information quickly. I do hate having to wade through the sponsored results on Google but not even SEO answers keeps you from finding an answer quickly.

I will be haunted forever by what happens when Nelson meets a young painter.

So sad that 12 years later it is starting to sink in, Dom isn't returning. I want Dennis and Reilly to become boyfriends and Dennis is a total bottom and Reilly a total top 😋 Dennis wasn't an asshole, any more than Owen was before Anna outed him. Dennis has severe PTSD and TSD. It takes a long time to recover from that but it is clear he is well on his way.

"I know." Aiden replied, his eyes still closed, and without the enthusiasm that I was feeling. "He’s not sleeping in our room." Nooooo! I so want a steamy, hot teen threeway! Again, the basics of any drama, miscommunications, misunderstandings, misassumptions. The Hallmark Channel wouldn't exist without them...... or opera.

OMG is Owen a MESS. That’s probably why, as much as I wanted to pretend it didn’t bother me, I couldn’t Seriously Owen? You can pretend you are straight for YEARS when you know you are gay, but can't pretend to be happy or nice to Adam? Dennis has called you all the same names Adam did, but Adam faces your wrath while Dennis you go to his house at 3AM to help him? You want to "rescue" Dennis, but you don't feel you can work to rescue Adam from his prejudice, and for using words you admit you used to use?

I know this was written in an earlier time and we don't really know where it is set, but I don't remember high school kids throwing the "f" word (fag/faggot) a lot as an insult like Adam and Shane have (meaning normal everyday, otherwise nice kids). Football players like Dennis, maybe. I also cannot see Christian kids throwing around that word either. There are just not that many fire-breathing, hell and brimstone preachers around, even it is a staple of gay fiction, especially gay youth fiction.

Teens have volatile emotions, Owen included. He can't be mad at Dennis for what happened before, especially now that he has seen a different Dennis. Ben's battle isn't Owen's to fight. You can't play the game of my friend is mad at you, so I am mad at you too. More introspection would be a good thing.

No, Aiden now sees that his mother is NOT better, she is pulling the same kind of crap she did before.

One point I've been meaning to bring up is how quickly the world has changed since this story was written. None of the teens have their own cellphones, the iPhone hasn't even come out yet, Blackberry is the only viable smartphone. There is no Twitter or Tik Tok, MySpace is bigger than Facebook and social media didn't exist. Just 15 years apart and these teens lived in a vastly different world from todays teens. Can you imagine the damage a Janie or Anna could do with technology?

I don't. When Aiden said this: “Owen, I know you’re freaked out about getting to know my mom, but she really does want to get to know you, and I swear it’ll be okay. Just come over. One dinner, that’s all I’m asking.” That is where I would have said, 'funny, yesterday she asked me to stay away from you. She called me a distraction. I don't want to come between you and your mom, but I also don't want her to come between us. I love you.' This would have been the perfect time to drop the L word on him. But again, drama turns on misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Never a dull moment with Dom.

If Owen doesn't love Aiden, who would he ever love? Everything he has done in this story is because he is in love with Aiden.

Time will tell all, reveal all. I have no idea how anyone could conclude that Aiden is using Owen and being selfish? Aaron is the exact opposite of selfish. Aiden is holding in a lot of anguish that we have just began to see. There wasn't any cloak & dagger on how he got Reilly's address, it was from a friend in the office. 🤣🤣 Dennis has to be wondering what it is about him that caused Reilly to get a boner looking at him. 🤔🤔

But when I did see Dennis between classes he actually walked away. And he saw me too. I know he did because he stopped and stared before he walked away. Not that I was complaining, the last thing I wanted was trouble with Dennis. I just didn’t understand why he wasn’t trying to start trouble. It seemed out of character for Dennis. The pitcher took the first sign from his catcher and shook his head. He nodded on the second and moved his middle finger uptight next to his index finger, he was going to throw the curve ball 😁🤣

I don't know about a small town in Oklahoma or Arkansas, but in California coming out in high school or even middle school, isn't the trauma it once was. At the writing of this story, that wasn't as true. It might have been easy in LA or San Francisco, but not Fresno or Bakersfield. Now even in places like Bakersfield the schools have GSA clubs, the staff of the schools are attuned to bullying, and not just gay kids, but any kid who is different. But high school is a jungle of insecurity, kids will spread rumors and knock down other kids if they think it can add to their status.

Adam is a freshman. Freshmen are really, really lost. They are on the first steps of truly growing up. When my son was a freshman in high school (all boys Catholic school, even though neither of us is Catholic) he assigned a senior big brother, as were all freshmen. To watch my Tommy grow from a boy mentee as a freshman, to a man as a mentor as a senior was an amazing, all too fast process. That is where Adam is now, just starting to develop his own sense of right and wrong and not just parrot what he hears at home. As to the school, there are plenty of witnesses to Dennis's physical bullying of Owen in the PE class. Even 20 years ago coaches and administrators were worried about getting sued. But as the storyline goes, well you have to allow some poetic license to move from one point to the next.

Oh, and one more thing. Owen and Aiden are young and in a time long before teaching conflict resolution became a thing in schools. They don't know how to be supportive, how to seek support, or where to look for support.

It has been a very long time since I first read this story. I don't even remember if it was on GA or not, but I DID remember (vaguely) an upcoming plot twist and if it is anything like I remember, the curve balls haven't even started yet. We've merely gone from Slow Pitch to Fast Pitch, hang on for when the curve balls start 🤣 I am trying to remember when Dom first wrote this story. I think the copyright is 2006, but I seem to remember earlier versions. But I digress (for a reason). It is hard to remember sometimes back 20, 25 years what life was like. I can remember a number of guys dropping the "f" word (fag and faggot), but I don't ever recall a girl using the "f" word. Or at least not girls that anyone considered respectable and really not a church girl, no matter how wrong she thought gay relationships were. Now maybe Dom had the Janie character use that word to try and scare off Owen, but the dialog was really demented; the whole thought process was demented, and I mean in a serious, clinical way; like deeply in need of professional help demented.

Ever since Krok the caveman carved the story of his life in the cave wall, ever has literature been. The themes of misunderstandings, miscommunications, misinterpretations and unrequited love echo down through millennia.

When you are forced out on your own at 18 and can't live in your parent's basement until you are 30, stay in college 7 years, stay on your parent's health insurance until you are 25, there is just no need to grow up. An 18 year old male in 2023 has the maturity of a 13 year old in 1940, an 18 year old male in 1940 is equivalent to a 25 year old today. Teen suicide? I think Janie is unstable enough to commit suicide because she thinks how miserable it will make Aiden, and everyone will blame him. Yes it sounds crazy, but... I don't think Aiden is blind, I think he is a caring person caught between a rock and a bitc... a hard place.

The first time I ever had full on, real sex, it was out of doors, on a blanket, in a park. I was inept it was laughable. I think even Owen is going to pick on Aiden's "hint" this time.

Oh please, I can't begin to tell you how possessive fag hags are, how much they cock block anyone who threatens to divert attention from them and how they scheme to sabotage their fag's happy relationships with boys. Adam said it best, "Bite me." Adam shot back. "You know, Aiden is allowed to talk to us. I hardly doubt your reputation will be damaged if your pretend-boyfriend is seen talking to us."

S'okay, I finished Paternity again and am starting Flux. I don't think I'll ever be able to read 9-11 again.