Shadow086

I honestly don't think either of them can help themselves. And we don't know how much Joey knows anyway.

@spikey582 The reason I don't want Billy to tell that secret is how much it would hurt Brett if that happened. If it wasn't for that, I'd agree that Billy should go all out and destroy that family of pompous assholes. But not if his boyfriemd gets caught in the middle of that mess. Billy's best move right now is to try to wait it out, move in with Brett when he gets the chance, and never speak to his bitch mother again.

Ha! I knew it! Now how long until Billy blurts it out? Then again, he was able to keep quiet about Dustin's activities... I don't know how, and I don't know when, but the truth will come out eventually. Let's just hope Brett doesn't bring up the subject, because Billy just can't lie to him. It's nice to see Jen be so accepting of their relationship, at least Billy has a place where he can be himself. And of course asshole Joey gets away with it, the pastor is an even bigger hypocrite than he is. Thick as thieves. Speaking of Joey (fuck him), Billy better start playing nice with his brother-in-law.

Maybe she had an affair and Daniel is Bailey's real father. Joking aside, I think Bailey's reading this wrong, and they're just college buddies or something like that. The problem comes from Bailey never having anyone to support him through his grief (now he has Declan), and now he doesn't understand how she can "forget" his father so easily. I don't think there's anything going on between her and Daniel, and I think Daniel genuinely cares about both of them, but it's obvious that Bailey will be hostile to any man he thinks she's "replacing" his father with.

That's the thing, though. I don't think Brett knows about any of this. Joey certainly isn't going to tell him, and it looks like Billy (as usual) is avoiding the issue and doesn't want to tell Brett. That's probably because he thinks Brett's going to go beat up Joey and he doesn't want Brett to get in trouble because of him. Billy doesn't tell him because he always thinks that telling will make things worse. So who else can Billy tell? His mother? It's obvious she won't even listen to him. His father? I don't think there's really anything he can do when Joey's parents are such "pillars of the community". Billy basically stood up to the people who own this town, that might be the most courageous thing he's ever done, and it's going to bite him in the ass when Joey comes back. I can understand Billy's reasons for not telling anyone. They're stupid reasons, yes, but Billy doesn't see the big picture. It's frustrating to see the boys constantly failing to learn from their mistakes, but I always try to see things from their point of view before being too hard on them for it.

And when he does have control over things, he just sits there hoping the problem will go away if he ignores it. That's what's annoying about Billy. I'll take your word for how Billy feels about this, but I'd also consider that he feels terrible because he didn't see how bad Dustin's situation really was, and as his best friend he feels he should have seen it.

Exactly, @jkwsquirrel. Dustin always saw Billy as his knight in shining armour, and it's when that illusion was broken that everything went to hell. Now Dustin sees that Billy's only human, but I don't know if what he told Billy is what he really thinks. I don't know how their friendship can make it through this, because Billy's not going to forget those words anytime soon. While I like Brett's confidence in himself, I don't think he fully understands what it's like to live with someone like Paula. I'm sure having to hear his mother parrot the pastor's sermon about gays does wonders for Billy's self-esteem. And people are calling him a loser, but they don't like him it's probably because he's a dick and acts like he's better than them. Brett doesn't think about the consequences while Billy thinks about them too much. It's that constant overthinking that drives Billy to inaction and makes him look like a coward.

I think you're being too hard on them for what they said to Billy. Maybe they're not maturing as quickly as we'd like, but they're getting better. I know what they were getting at with the "coward" remarks, and I agree with them. Billy never really steps up to defend others when he has to, he just sits back and hopes someone else will take care of his problems for him. Does that make him a coward? Maybe that's not the right word, but they were right to call him out on it. And let's not forget that Billy has a bit of Joey's "I'm better than all of you" attitude as well. Dustin's not being rational at the moment. He destroyed emotionally, and he's trying to blame everything on Billy because he feels betrayed. It's all Billy's fault in his mind, so I can see a reason to take his rant seriously. We see the big picture and we know it didn't happen the way Dustin says. He doesn't, so what he said makes sense in that context. Maybe later on, Dustin will be willing to let Billy explain himself, but at this point I think that if he ever comes back, he'll be Joey x 10. Billy not wanting to come out is in big part about self-preservation, but I also think it's because Billy doesn't want to get noticed. I get the sense Billy sees this town as a 'prison', and he just wants to stay under the radar until he graduates and is 'free' from the place. That's perfectly understandable, and while some people would call that cowardice for not being out and proud of who he is, I don't agree with that. I blame Paula for Billy staying in his glass closet. Her attitude doesn't give him any indication that she'd give him the support he needs if he ever came out, so of course he wouldn't. I wish she'd get her head out of the Pastor's ass long enough to see the damage she's doing to her son, but I don't see that happening unless Billy did something drastic. Personally I think that's what the next chapter will be about, but we'll see. I keep wishing Billy just got up and walked out of that fucking church during one of their anti-gay sermons.

Hey look at that, I was half-right about the chapter. It's going to be torture to wait a whole week to see how Billy reacts to this punch in the gut. My bet is he acts on impulse and does something stupid. @jkwsquirrel, early chapter, maybe?

I loved seeing Bailey open up and finally trust someone. And the way they sort of confessed to each other was really sweet. Loved the kiss! It's also good to see Bailey's mom is getting back to her old self. I get the feeling she's going to want to properly meet Declan and make sure he's no danger to her son. Declan's also a bit closer to figuring things out about the cutting, and he'll help Bailey to quit that as well. I like how well Declan's handling the situation at school with the rumours, and it was good to see the gymnastics team put their trust in him when it comes to Bailey. Although I don't know how Justin will react once the truth comes out about what happened. Hopefully he'll see Declan didn't participate in the bullying. The football team seems to be coping pretty well with the news about Chris and Eric, but I predict a loss against Frexbury. I just don't think they'll have enough time to adapt to losing two of their best players, and they'll come up short. Unless, of course, Frexbury is home to the Pitbulls, in which case Mason better watch out.

I don't know, I'm starting to think they're making secret plans to make Billy 'see the errors of his sinful ways'. I think we'll be finding out next week.

Probably, but I think we're about to see what kind of man he is. You know what Dustin said is going to eat at him. Wouldn't it be great if he suddenly decided to start making out with Brett in the middle of the school hallway? At this point I think he might actually do that, Billy can be quite impulsive at times (like what he did to Joey). Then word of it would get back to Paula, and she'd do her own stupid thing, whatever that could be. Honestly, I don't think being out would be as bad as Billy thinks it's going to be.

No, it's Paula. And like George said, she's in denial.

Pam? Who's Pam, I don't remember her.

By the way, @droughtquake, Billy's little "OMG, how did they know?!" is getting a bit annoying because you'd think he figured out by now that people can read him like an open book. He's going to come out at school and people are just going to shrug and go "Yeah, we've known that for months", then Billy will be all shocked again.

So I did. I must have seen your name pop up while I was writing that.

Billy realised it, but hearing it so bluntly from someone he deeply cares about is much different from the way he halfheartedly admitted it to himself. And I think he was shocked because he didn't expect Brett to agree so quickly. I really think he realised just how much he let Dustin down, and he's going to try to make up for it by becoming the person Dustin thought he was. This. This is absolutely it! You hit it right on the head!

I don't really know what to say, that was... I hope Dustin finally hit the bottom of the barrel, and things just get better from here. Like @Israfil, I also have newfound respect for Amanda. I don't think she knew how bad things really were, especially since she left. I noticed that in many ways Dustin's speech was the same as Joey's. But coming from Dustin, it really got through to him. And I can tell it hurt Billy to his core. I hope we see Dustin again and he doesn't turn into a complete asshole to Billy. Maybe Billy is better off keeping his distance and sort out his own problems before trying to contact Dustin again. I'm glad Billy has Brett by his side right now, and I think Dustin's words are going to make him decide to come out. If Dustin ever meets Billy again, he'll be a different person than the coward in that hospital room. Edit: Almost forgot about the next chapter title. With Dustin out of the picture, and the things he said bouncing around in Dustin's mind, I think this is when he comes out to Paula. Or maybe he finds out about her and Pastor Carl. Either way, Paula's involved. I'm starting to think it's not what we're led to believe, but that she's actually talking with the pastor to find a way to 'cure' Billy of his sinful lifestyle. She only wants what's best for him, after all.

Hehehe, that was hot! I loved his reactions to finding out about his mom and Mr. Franks. It looks like Billy's going to have a hard time accepting the possibility of a stepfather, I can see a lot of conflict there. Let's hope he's not a homophobe if things get serious. Looks like Bobby fucked things up again. I swear, that boy has such an inferiority complex when it comes to Billy that I don't know if he can stay in a relationship. My guess is Bobby told Ian not to talk to Billy anymore, and Ian got pissed off at Bobby for trying to dictate who his friends are. That's not gonna happen, because Bobby was an idiot and told Ian he was a virgin. If Billy comes out to Ian, he might start asking questions Bobby and Billy won't want to answer. The only thing on Bobby's mind is "If Ian knows Billy's gay, he's going to find out I slept with him." I mostly feel bad for Bobby and wish things worked out with Ian, but on the other hand he sabotaged his relationship by lying to him in the first place. Ian's going to find out the truth at some point, and he won't take it well at all. Maybe Bobby should be more worried about his boyfriend talking to Brandon.

Disturbing and dark...Sounds like Dustin's going to be involved in some way. Although I still think it's going to be about the start of Joey's revenge and Billy's punishment. We'll find out tonight! I just thought about something. Is Paula the type to try to 'help' Billy by sending him to 'conversion therapy'? I can't rule it out and that would be dark and disturbing indeed. I doubt George would let that happen, though, so I'm not too worried.

I love this story, it always makes me laugh. That was another great chapter. What a day our poor Andrew had! I kinda wish Chris felt the same way, but I don't think that's the case. And if that's the way Andrew always acts, there's no way Johnny didn't figure out hoe he feels about Chris Margo. Maybe he's trying to set them up, I don't know how friendly they were before this. Now it's the first situation where the other half of 'Andris' could find out about the stories. I wonder how this is gonna play out. I would love to see the look on Chris' face if he ever gets to read the 'Andris' stories.

Great chapter, Com! I'm getting the feeling that the small groups are getting closer to meeting up. I'm also trying to figure out where they all are in relation to each other, I'll have to make myself some kind of map of the school/alien nest. And I love the little touches of comic relief you put in such a desperate situation. Looks like they're slowly getting trapped in the school. And that ending, whoa! It looks like Jason found Ren's body. But if that's the case, he should also be able to find the camera, and the video of the creatures that infiltrated the school. That could be the key to getting them all out of there alive. Please don't leave us in suspense for too long. As a whole, I think this story would make a great movie or tv show. I'd watch it for sure.

I think that came up when we were trying to guess who Brett's father is, although I don't remember who said it. Jack McKenzie probably has a second house somewhere to store all the skeletons in his closet. I have no doubt he'll try to cover this up, and because this town is full of morons, he'll get away with it. Jack's charismatic, I'll give him that, but I never trusted him at all. I had a fun conversation about this and Paula in the forum thread.

What?! No way! When did Billy's temper ever cause trouble?

The thing that gets to me about Paula is that, while everything you said is true, I feel like the reason she worries isn't Billy at all. Yes, she knows Billy is gay, but she refuses to accept it, and she worries about people finding out because of what it would do to her reputation. This has nothing to do with Billy's well-being at all. I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to throw Billy out once she isn't able to deny that he's gay, like her 'wonderful' pastor did to his son. Paula shows all the signs of being a hateful, hypocritical, bigoted "Christian", and I can't trust in her ability to the right thing and support Billy when he's going to need it. That's where the Paula hate comes from in my case. And what Billy does to make the world a better place is calling out the lies and hypocrisy of people like Joey.