Jeff Burton

Thanks I appreciate it, the chapter almost went differently without Josh knowing a thing. Then Gus started screaming at me in my head, and that's hard to ignore. lol

“You got some time, not much, but some.” Those words stayed burned into my mind for the next week. The first day off I had available during the regular work week, I bused myself around town with a to-do list that seemed to get longer as the days passed. My State ID was first, I didn’t know how to drive yet, so for the present it would have to do. Tammy suggested I send it to the group home, and she would forward it to my new address when it came. My eyes studied the temporary ID As

I struggled for weeks on Chapter 3. And today I typed Chapter 4 to it's completion in a matter of hours. It should be posted tomorrow for those keeping track. Writing is a strange thing sometimes.

This is actually my favorite line of the chapter and sums Ben's thoughts perfectly, I always thought it must be nice for normal people to live in complete ignorance of the horrors life could throw at people, and sometimes I wished I was ignorant of it too because ignorance is bliss. I'm getting ready to start Chapter 4. One thing about Ben though is he is stubborn to a degree. All I can say to Gus is, "Good luck." lol

I love the stuff you guys come up with sometimes its things even I didn't think of but were so blatantly obvious. Gus has his own thing though, he's seem some stuff and eventually, that whole story will come out too.

Gavin's story is pretty calm, he came from a happy home with both parents (for once), and all was great until that one thing happened he regrets most of all..... *STOPS* No, yall can't know this yet.

Yeah, that seems to be my running theme, at varying levels of trauma maybe at the end of it all when the big 3 are finished it'll be easier to compare the levels of severity, but the overall message is the same.

To save me some trouble, with Jacob's Advocate, I wrote the City they live in (still unnamed at this point) has two high schools across town from each other, and neither set of characters goes to the same school. But you may see another couple of barely mentioned characters making an appearance at some point. Gavin did cryptically mention the two in a line of dialogue, so you may be able to catch it on a second read.

One day I may have to tell Gavin's story if he keeps showing up in other people's stories lol. And actually, I couldn't get through the first part of the chapter without him, I tried on four drafts it just didn't happen. I will tell you though, Gavin was created from another story that never made it past the outline. He was in the same kind of capacity in dealing with minors, just without the degree. I found the snips from that story when I was writing Jacob's Advocate and just had to use him again. Since I know what's about to happen to Ben I'm not going to spoil it, but as Gavin says he's worth saving too.

I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of mental health professionals. The very idea of someone trying to dig into the inner recesses of my mind and soul sets off so many alarm signals, it’s like the control room of reactor four at Chernobyl right before the explosion. At this point, I had seen more than my fair share of the inside of therapists' offices. Some offices were ornate to the point of feeling ancient, while others were light and airy with lots of space and small toys for younger children.

Yeah that's part of the problem with writing this story lol, my other two I can pound out chapters easily, this one I've tried so many drafts of chapter 3 but it still isn't right yet.

I actually did something similar to Billy Chase. There was a story I was working on, I don't even know if I still have it. Instead of a digital journal, I had a composition book that I hand-wrote this character's Journal entries. I only intended to do maybe a few entries, I ended up with the book 3/4 full, over the course of 2 years, writing daily, sometimes several times a day. What made it special though was the fact it was handwritten, by me but had nothing to do with me whatsoever. The damn thing had everything, school life, his friends, his part-time job, his parents. The love-hate relationship with his sister. I ended up with two years worth of journal entries, of a life that never existed. That journal was the only peace and privacy he had because no one in his life would ever get their hands on it to read it. Just that sentence right there makes you stop and think about what that actually means, a piece of himself removed from his space-time and entrusted in mine to keep safe his deepest thoughts. It makes me want to cry because I ended up losing that journal somewhere along the way. I haven't heard his voice in my head since it disappeared, and I honestly feel like I actually lost someone in the process. It seems really strange and really silly to say this, but where ever he went I hope he's okay.

Chris was gone when I woke up the next morning, my dad was too. Both left me text messages explaining they had left for Chris’ first therapy session and reminded me Corey would be picking me up to take me to school. I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard a knock at the door, I wrapped a towel around my waist and grabbed a second, and started drying my hair as I padded down to the living room and opened the door with a silent yawn. “Uh, good morning,” Corey said bas

Where the hell do I begin, seriously? This story pushes all the right buttons in all the right order, the characters the plot, it's all simply amazing. And it has a follow up story of sorts that's in progress what could be better? Laura, seriously if I could channel a few fractions of your talent into my own writing it still wouldn't be as good as yours.

Oh dearest me, were to begin. First of all my apologies for emotional devastating, @Summerabbacat, that wasn't even a thought this time. I had reread the first two chapters and realized the setup was more than adequately handled. It was clear some kind of 'blow up' was going to happen eventually, and rather drag that out I ended up pushing Corey's revelation to push it to critical mass. This was also to help Nathan get over the 'woe is me' feelings that usually spiked when Corey was anywhere near him. This is the turning point, things get better from here, sort of. Now if I could only finish Chapter 3 of Salvaging the Road to Redemption without it sounding like a cliche riddled, literary mess. Sigh.

LOL RIGHT!

That's because Corey is a lug-head, a very stubborn lug-head.

It's coming lmao.

Thanks @weinerdog, this one took a minute not gonna lie. And I may have borrowed @Summerabbacat insight, or kept it in the back of my mind. While Nathan and Chris aren't as bad off as my other characters, I'm going to try to keep this one lighter than Jacob's Advocate. I have an outline this time for Chapter's 4 and 5. This is going to be a busy work week for me as well as writing catchup so I'll try to get what I can out by the weekend.

It turned out that I wouldn’t see Corey again over the weekend which was a relief in a way. I figured over the weekend if I didn’t spend time with him, it would strengthen my resolve against this conflict I could feel growing inside me. Which really I didn’t want anything to do with. Things would go back to normal, and I could go back to being a slightly less angry version of myself. Or so I thought as Chris dropped me off at the pickup line so he could park the car. “Well, w

No trust me lmao. I'm finishing Chapter 3 of Life in Suspension, then I'm coming back to this. I spent the whole weekend and this week reading so I'm behind schedule now.

I appreciate that, and it helps to know it.

You bet buddy, ((Hugz))

I will, thanks for showing the faith in me.