Matthew k

If I have my math right, I think Jeremy was 14 in 2000. I think he just wants in Will's pants!!

Not sure what you are like, but I treat people based on how they treat me in general. If Bob tells me I am a dick, I don't give Ralph attitude. My challenge has been for anyone to show me textually where Mr. Hendrickson flipped Gathan shit in his apology. I quoted text and showed where everything pointed to Mr. Hendrickson being sincere. Up until Kristin almost dying in Paris, the Hendricksons had been pretty lenient. I think it was chicken shit of Gathan to drop Kristin off at her parents and not go with her to face the music. Maybe if the Hendricksons had vented their rage then, there would have been an issue later.

Okay, I couldn't get the formatting the way I wanted exactly, but muddle through it.

“So talk,” I said, unwilling to cut him any slack. Okay, so far so good, Gathan has his defenses up. “I want to apologize to you for having you arrested.” I hadn’t really expected that from him. I figured they’d just have us over and pretend as if nothing ever happened. “I’m kind of surprised to hear you say that, since a couple of days ago you were ready to run me out of town.” He sighed. “It’s hard to explain this to you.” So Mr. Hendrickson has apologized, Gathan is still suspicious, but the sigh from Mr. Hendrickson says to me, this isn’t an easy conversation for him. It is an emotional topic and he is trying to take a first step. “Explain what?” “How I, how we feel about all of this. It’s hard to explain because we don’t really have a common frame of reference.” I took that as a slam. “I’m not a stupid person. I can understand things. Try me.” “No, I’m not saying you’re a stupid person,” he said. “But you aren’t a father, and you don’t have a daughter.” Mr. Hendrickson is right. Gathan doesn’t have a daughter. Unless you have kids it might be hard to understand. Unless you have raised a child from birth and realized this tiny human being comes from me and how immediately all you want is the best for them, you don’t want anything to hurt them. You want to protect them and lash out at anything that is threatening. I think it is even worse for fathers with daughters, the world just looks dangerous. Gathan thinks because he is protective of his sister, it is the same feeling a parent has. It isn’t even close. Why does Gathan take “we don’t a common frame” as a slam? Mr. Hendrickson is right, Gathan isn’t a father and doesn’t have a daughter. Has Brad tried to be any less protective of Will? Can you imagine Brad if Will was a girl and not a boy?<br style="mso-special-character:line-break"> “That’s true,” I said, getting where he was going with this, and how he was going to try to play it off. “I have all of these ideas about the life I’m going to create for my daughter, about how we’re going to guide her through school, about the kind of person we’ll help her become, and about the kind of guy that we want her to end up with. Slowly but surely, all of those ideas have been blasted out of the water.” “And that’s all me?” “No, it’s not all you,” he sort of snapped. It was funny that I’d eroded some of his patient and calm demeanor. Mr. Hendrickson isn’t trying to play off anything, he is trying to apologize. When Mr. Hendrickson said, “I wanted to apologize”, if Gathan had said, “thank you, I appreciate that”, this would have been a very different scene. Even if Gathan had said “thank you, I appreciate that, but it might take a while to get over being arrested”, it would have set a different tone. But Gathan takes pleasure in goading Mr. Hendrickson, not very mature. Not someone who is ready for a serious adult relationship. He hasn’t even been to college yet, he is still just a high school kid. I am sure Matt (TetRefine) could tell you how much he matured his first year in college. I know how much I matured in college. Until a few months ago Gathan had never been outside of Claremont really, he is still very immature and unworldly. If the Hendricksons had really wanted to cut off their daughters “Gathan Hayes thing”, they would have said ‘no, you can’t go to Paris’ and at 17 there isn’t much Kristin could have done about it, she is still a minor. But they didn’t do that. They let her go. Surely her mother understood the implications of that, going to Europe with a boy. She knew they would be playing hide the pickle the whole, even if Mr. Hendrickson didn’t know, even if because he didn’t want to know. Thinking about your baby girl being sexually active is not something a father wants to think about. As the scene goes on we see that it the fact that Kristin could have died that shook up the Hendricksons. Instead of acknowledging that and apologizing, Gathan goes on the attack. Again, the actions of someone immature, who needs to grow up a whole lot more before he gets in a serious relationship. I welcome anyone (except Mark who has a different view since the sub-texts are in his head) to show me based on the text, where Gathan "handled it as well as he could have", where Mr. Hendrickson is a "bigot", or where Mr. Hendrickson wasn't going to listen to anything Gathan had to say, since he was pretty contrite.

From one of my hero's, Samuel B. Clemmons, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.” Having been a bratty high schooler who pretty much had it all figured out by 18, it was astonishing to pass 30 and realize I was getting dumber every year. PS. Someone really dislikes you Mark. This story was rated 5 stars this morning, I gave it 5, I am sure Tim gave it 5 and now it is 4? Someone must have banged a 1 on you...

It is more like breeding. I would never have addressed an adult like that (except my parents) when I was 18. Even at 32, I wouldn't address an older adult like that in a situation like this.

I dunno, it happened right after Berto moved to Venice CA to work in his uncle Fabio's restaurant.

See, I think you need to worry less about what was popular at that exact moment and focus on what song fits the most. Songs that are classics, everyone knows. I know all of James Taylor's songs although I don't think he ever had a hit after I was born. That would be a perfect song for Will and Berto walking down the beach in Malibu, hand in hand and it is a song everyone knows. The same thing with Beach Boy songs, the Beatles, disco songs that never went away in the gay community, and shows like Malcolm in the Middle, which was a big hit in '99-'00, would have made some mid 1970's songs popular and noticeable and what gay boy didn't love Reece??

I dunno, maybe Tim and I read a different story?? It sounds to me like Mr. Hendricksson was very conciliatory and was being open, honest and sincere with Gathan. Gathan had a bad attitude from the get go, didn't seem to hear a word the father was saying or take the opportunity to take the olive branch. He in fact acted like a smart assed 18 year old who thinks he knows a whole lot more than he does and took pleasure at tweaking Mr. Hendrickson instead of listening and trying to get off on a new foot with his theoretical future father-in-law. It was very immature.

Well yes, he lives in Palo Alto NOW , but for years he lived in Malibu with Greg and a lot of people along the coast had their places in the desert because of the cold, damp winters along the coast. Not only do a lot of people have places in the desert, but a lot of Hollywood did, that is why the streets have names like Frank Sinatra Dr, Bob Hope Dr, Dinah Shore Dr, and not just Hollywood, but especially gay Hollywood. It was where their could go and let their hair down. There were legendary pool parties behind the high gates of the estates. And for Jeremy, it isn't a retirement place, it is a gay place. Palm Springs is chock full of gay, clothing optional resorts. Check out the White Party Palm Springs and tell me Stef wouldn't be in the middle of it.

Why doesn't Stef have a fabulous place in Palm Springs/Desert/Rancho Mirage where he goes to the White Party, has fabulous pool parties and rubs elbows with Jerry and Betty Ford?

Darius wouldn't have gotten in Berkeley and it is "Berkeley" or "Cal", never UC Berkeley

Ha, these aren't your run of the mill Catholics, this is the Society of Jesus. Casuistry is Tim's favorite philosophy

If you're a Jesuit! With the explosion of Silicon Valley SJSU because a much better school and much more well endowed (and we all know how important THAT is to you!) If you're a Jesuit! With the explosion of Silicon Valley SJSU because a much better school and much more well endowed (and we all know how important THAT is to you!)

I really wish he had gone to Annapolis (but of course he would have left for it over three weeks ago) Santa Clara is an interesting choice over San Jose State.....

Cool chapter. SixGuage has never been to Bakersfield obviously. San Diego is a road trip. Palm Desert is a road trip. Bakersfield is the highway to hell.

No, I think Claire is pretty well grounded. If John had been through the same things as Will, a kidnapping, sexual assault, etc. I think she would take that into account and just love her kid. As to JJ joining a church youth group, or any of the kids for that matter, it is not an absurd idea. It doesn't even need to be a PR stunt. A lot of kids are influenced by their peers at that age more than their parents. Colorado Springs is a heavily Christian city for some reason and it is not inconceivable that JJ could join Young Life or some such group. A lot of kids at that age are looking for answers, becoming their own people and are heavily influenced by their peers. A lot of kids get involved in church or Christian groups and are very serious through high school. A lot fall off in college, some don't. Some fall off and never come back, some fall off and return later in life when they are older and want to settle down. I wouldn't paint any of the kids into a corner just because of who their parents are or what their lifestyle is. I would actually find it interesting to see JJ telling Robbie and Brad they were sinning. Not that JJ would need to be a hard core evangelical, although it could lead to interesting scenes, he could just as easily go to an Episcopalian youth group or UCC, that accepts homosexuality.

I'll disagree with you disagreeing What the parents and their lawyer were ready to dismiss or not dismiss would not be relevant to a judge in either a guardianship hearing or an emancipation hearing if it got as far as a court. I think the other kind of pressures that Stef and JP could bring to bear, it would never has gotten as far as a court.

Yeah, not so much anymore... it was cool when the shops were local mom and pop places and the Psychic Cat was doing his thing. Kelli Ali Psychic Cat

Weird..... there were no pinned topics when I posted that and then when it refreshed I saw a bunch of pinned topics.....

I think sluttiness is bad on lots of levels, but not really moral grounds because I don't really care what others do. I think it can be bad emotionally and keep you from forming lasting relationships. I think it can give you a reputation where certain guys won't want to date you. You can still get all kinds of nasty diseases. Lastly I think it devalues sex to a mere physical activity and misses some of the cool intimacy that goes with it. I get why guys had to be slutty 30 years when Arbour was still kinda young but I think times have changed where you can be openly with someone and you don't need to sneak around like JP did at Princeton. Oh and what makes someone slutty? When you go out to coffee with 6 of your best friends and realize you've had sex with all of them.

I want something real Southern, Beau(regard), Custis, Reid, Jefferson, Lee or Braxton.

Yes, you are way out of line and off target. This is a gay club, there are no children there. Pedophilia is pre-pubescent or very early pubescent children, that is not Will's situation.

Can this topic be pinned?

Sorry, but i think this post is way off target. Pedophilia by definition is pre-pubescent children and Will is certainly not pre-pubescent. I think at this point in the story Will is already 14, which happens to be the age of consent in Italy. In any case it isn't really relevant, the exact age, but the idea that Will isn't quite a child, not fully a man, but physically we know Will looks older than he is. For thousands of years a boy became at a man when he started to spout them hairs down below. A bar mitzvah happens at 13 and the boy becomes a man, lots of African tribes had manhood ceremonies when a boy hits puberty (13th birthday or so) and he left his parents hut for his own and he could then sit with the other men in meetings and go on hunting or war parties. At 13 in years past a lot boys were already serving in the military as midshipmen or similar ranks. As to what Stef did or did not do to stop what was happening, we don't really know when Stef arrived. Was he there in time to pull Will off the stage? If he did get there in time to stop it, would he or would he think it important to let make his own mistakes as long as they were not too dangerous? Remember that Stef at an age not much older than Will was prostituting himself to survive. I won't judge Stef until I know more about the entire circumstances.