Dodger

Rory's mom's underreaction to finding her son rolling around with Robbie should tell us that she's not exactly surprised.

Sorry @chris191070 I forgot to reply to your comment. However it turns out, Rory and Robbie are a good match.

Thank you so much, @SilentandBroken, for reading, and congratulations on catching up. I've been following your progress and reading your comments from the beginning, expecting you to lose interest at some point, but you kept going. I appreciate your perseverance and your many comments, which have enabled me to look back at some of the earlier chapters. I hope you enjoy the ending, which I have been promising for some time now and is not too far off.

We know fools rush in, and Robbie is ruled by his heart.

Excellent points in this comment.

Wow, you're almost up to date. Mitch is a nasty character who will reappear a little later, and Rory continues to frustrate Robbie.

Don will likely use this pretext to control Robbie's finances when he reaches eighteen. It sounds like he already has plans for this money.

We will soon see what Don has up his sleeve.

"You know what, Rory? I'm glad you're not my boyfriend. I need a normal friend in my life to do normal friend things with, like watching boring cup finals. If we were lovers, all we'd be doing is shagging all the time, and I doubt if we would have seen any of that rubbish game." My friend switched off the television and collapsed onto his bed beside me. "That was very profound. But it's not like you saw much of the game. You were asleep for most of the second half." I smiled apolo

Jo is an interesting character and exactly the person Robbie needs to help him sort through the mess in his head and get to grips with Don.

Thank you for your incredible comment. One of the best in the story. I'm sorry if this chapter brought back uncomfortable memories and emotions, but shame shouldn't be one of them. Robbie is in a bad way at the moment but as you point out, he has the right person by his side. Nicola has become a valuable and determined ally but Robbie will need professional help as well.

Yes, this chapter was difficult to read, even though I knew what was going to happen at the end. Will Robbie say anything or go to the police? Probably not.

At the time, I didn't see Nathan as a classic narcissist, but I was wrong. Great comment.

I need to start catching up with some of your comments. This was a fun chapter; I enjoyed writing about Robbie and Rory's odd friendship and how it's perceived by others, including Sue. Robbie's arrival in the family has, in many ways, burst her bubble and proven to be a steep learning curve.

It was only a matter of time.

Robbie's in a bit of a hole and he's making things worse by continuing to dig.

You're pretty much spot on with most of the points you make in this comment, but unfortunately, Robbie is too obsessed with Nathan to realize. Thanks for persevering with this story and for your interesting comments. I read them all and do my best to reply.

Yes, Don's presence is always felt in that house even when he's not there, which thankfully is quite often.

This is very true and easy for Robbie to detect.

Tipping is deliberately ambiguous and, therefore, widely abused and unnecessary. It’s often unfair and causes arguments and animosity among staff and customers. Like every business, the restaurant should be responsible for paying their staff a decent living wage and include the service in the price of the meal. If they can’t do that, then they need to increase their prices to meet their overheads. It’s the principal rule of business. If someone wants to reward good service, then by all means, but if this were the case, it would be the exception to the rule and quite rare. It shouldn’t be expected, and customers shouldn’t feel pressured by credit card machines. In pubs and bars, I prefer to collect my drinks from the bar rather than be waited on at a table. This is how it works in the UK, where the bar staff rarely receive financial tips. Instead, it’s common practice to reward good service by buying the bar person a drink—a reward that, by its very nature, is self-regulatory.

This is a great comment. Well done @SilentandBroken. Your analysis is pretty much spot on.

Robbie's close brush with death and his hospital stay was a sobering experience for him. He learned how fragile life can be and that there are people a lot worse off than him. You're right about him needing to be humbled. As for maturing, he's very much a work in progress.

Reading this chapter again made me feel very emotional. I hope Robbie doesn't die yet; we're only a third of the way through the story.

Not so much for Robbie.

There are many things that can go wrong, but Robbie is too wrapped up in Nathan to think things through and take better precautions.