jkwsquirrel

I got a kick out of this conversation! Thanks guys!

You might be surprised who is in!

Well, I will say that in the case of this particular church the people are suffering with a case of bad leadership. Not every, in fact most, Christians aren't like what is portrayed here. Bad people do bad things regardless of their label. Too often, we turn a blind eye to people who are in our tribe and think the worst of people in other tribes. Conservative-Liberal, for instance. But we'll see how things go in the Roberts tribe.

Could you imagine the gasket that would explode if Brett found out that Billy blackmailed his mother? It's already a festering wound under the surface of their relationship that he even knows who Brett's father is. That would be a nuclear bomb, and I'm not a good enough writer to be able to put that back together!

Thanks for this resource! Pastor Carl doesn't preach the gospel, he preaches hate. Not every preacher is like this, in fact I'd say most aren't.

I appreciate those "wows" very much! Paula fucked up, didn't she?

If left on their own? I agree, this is too big for them to fix. But they aren't on their own, and there's still a certain hyperactive wild card in the deck yet to play. Maturity always comes from the most unlikely of places.

Another story that I'm going to have to check out!

Yep! All of this is good stuff! I don't think it will come to Billy suing his mother, though.

I don't think she was planning for Pastor Carl to speak. He was out of town and I don't think she expected him to be there. But then, I don't think she was too upset about it until Billy had enough and embarrassed her. As for a will, when George died everything went to Paula, no will was necessary. As for Carl, I wouldn't get your hopes up that he has some secret love affair or anything hidden in his past. He strikes me as someone who practices what he preaches, even if what he preaches is junk. I mean, he kicked his own son out in the street. No, his weakness is his ever-increasing ego, and you know what comes after pride.

You're absolutely right. This wouldn't have happened if George were still around. I mentioned in a previous comment above - George and Paula knew how to keep each other in check so that they didn't go overboard with Billy. Paula is like an adult version of Billy in this regard - she longs for acceptance. Why is Billy such a pussy when it comes to revealing his sexuality at school? Fear of getting beat up? No, it's the fear of rejection. For Paula, she has finally found a place in that church where she is receiving the acceptance she's always desired, and Pastor Carl knows exactly how to pull the strings. He's manipulated his congregation by playing on their prejudice against those who don't fit in, particularly those vile, nasty, unrepentant homosexuals. Unfortunately for Paula, her son just happens to be one of "those people." Does she dare to face her greatest fear, or does she lose her son?

Thanks! It's always an adventure around here!

Where is the coin collection? Answer: the same place it was at the beginning of the story - in the safe. But not for much longer...

I take it you're angry at Paula? lol! What I see here is the absence of George. See, each parent would play the mediator when the other parent would go too far when they dealt with Billy (who can be quite a challenge to deal with even two-on-one). But with George gone, and with David still trying to find his place in the family, there's no one to check Paula's desire to change Billy into something he's not. And also, George was the one who know how pull Billy back from his temper. Every once in a while George would just lay down the law with a "Shut up, boy" and that would keep him from going over the edge. Billy respected his father in a way that he doesn't respect his mother. In your additional comments, you have discovered the conflict in Paula's life. She's an adult version of Billy, desperate for the acceptance from the crowd and willing to do just about anything to get it. Do I think she expected Billy to walk out? Well, he's always caved before. Why should she have expected this time to be any different?

Let me just say that I think Billy would be proud that so many people just refer to David as 'vanilla douche.' It's an interesting switch from George. We knew just about everything about George. But we only know what Billy allows us to know about David. But you can kind of see that he's not as bad as Billy makes him out to be. It's kind of the opposite of the way Billy described Brett way back in part one. Billy only described Brett in glowing terms, but if you looked closely you could see the bratty qualities that would emerge later. Are there hidden depths to Mr. Bland that Billy isn't telling us?

Thanks Wesley! Glad you liked it.

The first month after my diagnosis was harder for everyone else than it was for me. Brett was supportive, as usual, but he acted like he was going to break me every time we were together. Was I okay? Did I need to eat? Had I taken my insulin? What were my numbers? One day I just told him it was none of his damn business what my numbers were and that he was my boyfriend not my nurse. “I just don’t want you to get sick,” he insisted. “Dude, I feel fine. Qui

You're right! The start of Billy's distaste for the man! Let's hope DAVE's gotten Billy's name right since then!

They should really be called two different names. Glad I could help!

Smaller needle, bigger emotional baggage I guess!

Thanks Lisa! This was definitely Billy at his most vulnerable. When things got scary for him he dropped the snarky attitude and just wanted his mom to support him. He so desperately wants that support in the area of his love life, but she won't give in. Her support in this area just shows what could be if she would support him completely. She would be the boys' strongest ally, instead of their worst nightmare.

Thanks, Spikey. You hit the nail on the head. The fun of Billy being our narrator is that we only get his perspective on some characters. David's line in this chapter is the first time he's had dialogue. Everything we know about him is from Billy's skewed perspective. And again, your thoughts on Billy's reaction and lashing out at his father are spot on. if George were still around, that would be a very different conversation.

Thanks, and love and support for your continued good health! No, it's not my plan that that Billy go the way his father did!

Bobby will have his moment soon. You're right, Billy's basing his response to this on what he saw his father go through, and his only memories of his father's health were of a long steady decline. As far as Billy is concerned, diabetes killed his father, and now it's coming after him too. Billy has more support than he realizes, if he will just open his eyes and see it.

That's pretty much my way of thinking about it. Billy is just going through the many emotions that such a diagnosis brings, fear, denial, anger... but after a while will come acceptance.