Shadow086

In response to Spikey, I think Declan actually saved the video instead of deleting it, so the question is how thorough Chris was when he went through Declan's phone. My guess is he didn't know it was saved and assumed deleting the message thread was enough. And Chris deleted his video BECAUSE his story was called into question and he didn't want the video going around and arousing suspicion. Remember Declan tried to stop him and it may have cost him the evidence he needs to get Chris punished. Chris will continue to be emboldened and that's what will make him slip up and incriminate himself. Declan just needs to try to keep Bailey out of harm's way until that happens, and openly defying Chris isn't the only way to do that. He needs to know who his allies are first. Chris is hanging himself and there's already dissent in the football team, so I think something is going to happen soon.

There's only one wrong person who'll see Dustin at the park, and that person is Brett. Brett will know who he is, red hair or not. Oh, and I think Brett Reilly's all talk. Dustin was right about that too.

I actually think Declan did the smart thing here. Not the right thing, but the smart thing to do. He doesn't get himself deeper into it while he comes up with a plan, and he can see who his potential allies are. Openly confronting Chris or denying the rumours would accomplish nothing at this point, he needs to come up with a way to nail him with actual proof. My bet is he'll try to convince Bailey to talk, but it won't work at first. Bailey's smart, so maybe they can come up with a plan between the two of them. The truth WILL come out at some point, and I think Declan will be on the right side when it does. I still think he has a copy of the video on his phone somewhere. It's good to see Declan gaining some respect for gymnastics, I don't think he'll call it 'dancing around' anymore. And I don't think Declan will just stand by and let Bailey be bullied again either, especially if he really likes him. At this point I think he's just like Ben: he wants to speak up but doesn't want to make the whole team pay for Chris's bullshit. He doesn't want to be held responsible for the team imploding. It's not right, but I see where he's coming from. I think showing the video to Alex and the others will be Chris's undoing. They could start to suspect something about Bailey's 'confession' and dig deeper.

I agree with Lisa, except I don't think Brett's gonna sing a song for Billy. He's gonna pretend to be happy for Billy and try to come up with a scheme to destroy Dustin. Remember he knows about Mike and he hasn't used that yet. Brett is probably gonna run into Dustin at the park when he goes to buy more pot, and he'll rush to go tell Billy, hoping Billy won't want anything to do with Dustin if he knew. But I think Billy sees through his bullshit now and he'll go ballistic. Either that or we see Dustin vs Brett round 3 and Dustin destroys him when the park comes up. As far as B&B, the heart wants what it wants, but it's interesting to see Billy start to do some mental gymnastics to justify Brett's actions. Brett can be a real sweetheart at times, but Billy's seeing that his b/f isn't the perfect angel he wants him to be. I've been hard on Dustin before, but I just didn't think he deserved a free pass to fix their friendship after what he did (Billy doesn't either). But seeing as they both matured as characters (and Billy learned something) and said a lot that had to be said, I'm satisfied with how things turned out. And yes, Dustin would be a much better boyfriend than Brett ever was. If there was any way Billy could make himself fall in love with Dustin, I think he'd do it. Dustin's speech when he was about to punch Billy really got to me, you could just feel his pain. Dustin deserved to have his chance, at the very least, and it's sad that he never got it. And what's with the black hair?

I'm glad to see that he's starting to patch things up with Dustin, but I don't think it's going to be that easy. Dustin's better than his family, and he's showing here that he can be the better man. Let's hope their friendship is stronger than ever after this. Team Dustin sounds like a good place to be right now. I think Mike's just trying to save his own skin right now and he's worried about Billy telling somebody. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up moving away soon. Brett needs to just suck it up and try to be nice to Dustin, but we all know he won't do that. But with Billy being suspicious about the pain pills (FINALLY!!) and clearly wanting Dustin back in his life, I don't think Brett's going to get away with treating Dustin the way he did before and Billy won't blindly take his side anymore. Mr. Reilly is in for a surprise. Edit: I'm genuinely surprised Billy managed to keep his mouth shut about the park. It shows Dustin's really important to him.

Loved it Com, that was great! Can't wait to see where this goes! I'm getting a bit of a Billy Chase/Jamie Cross vibe from these two (OMIGOD, HE KNOWS MY NAME!! THAT'S THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!!).

Lisa: I think Dustin's shutting everyone out so he doesn't get hurt, but Mike is absolutely the best thing going on in his life right now. I don't think Brett will really care at this point. He didn't care or use Mike against him when they had that big fight. Brett just wants Dustin out of the way and I don't think he cares one way or the other as long as he gets to keep Billy to himself. He'll only use that against Dustin if he feels threatened that Dustin is taking Billy away from him, and to be fair, that's going to start the minute they start talking again. Brett's going to find out either way, so it doesn't really matter what Billy does. I hope the three of them get into a fight and Billy takes Dustin's side, that's the second-best thing that could happen to him right now. I see that happening because I don't think Billy's going to put up with Brett's trash-talking his best friend. And honestly, I think Billy would be better off with Dustin, but the heart wants what it wants.

Well, based on the next chapter title, Dustin may do exactly that. I don't think it's so much that Billy doesn't give a fuck about Dustin, I think it's more that Billy took Dustin for granted and was blinded by his perfect vision of Brett. He never thought Dustin would just leave, and I agree that's stupid and selfish on Billy's part. And in Billy's defense, he probably didn't know just how bad Brett was treating Dustin until that big fight, and he was pretty pissed about it when he found out. Billy's been trying to stop Brett from being an ass, but love impaired his judgement. Of course, Brett will find out, but I think this could be the one time where Billy keeps his mouth shut, and Brett will run into Dustin when he goes to the park to buy more pot as soon as the pills run out. I don't trust Brett to keep his word about that one bit. I don't think we should be so ready to put all the blame on Billy and Brett and defend Dustin like he never did one thing wrong in this whole situation. Dustin also has his share of the blame for this whole mess and acted like an asshole at times too, just not nearly as much as the other two. He should have just kept his mouth shut about the pot when he saw Billy wasn't going to listen to him. I get that Dustin's come out the worst out of the three, but we shouldn't act like he's 100% innocent in all this, because he's not.

I had a feeling Dustin was doing something like that, but thought it was only with Mike. I don't know how Billy's going to navigate through this mess and get through to Dustin, but at least he's not doing this alone. I bet Amanda knows what Dustin's doing and she's been using that against him. I wonder how Dustin's going to react when Mike tells him about their little talk. Brett's going to know about this by the end of the week, Billy just can't help himself. To be honest, I think Brett could help Billy come up with a plan. And now we know for sure that Brett's taking the pain pills. That's not going to end well. Remember your own words, Billy: drug addicts can't be trusted

So Bailey played football, that's interesting. I don't think quitting football was entirely his decision, and I can think of one reason why. Still, he's a lot tougher than he looks and I really want to know more about him. As far as Declan goes, I think he was just shocked at how far Chris was willing to go, and that impaired his judgment. Trying to delete the video was the wrong thing to do though. I do have to wonder if directly confronting Chris and Eric would have been the best thing to do in this case, so maybe Declan did the right thing in the long run. He has to turn them both in and get them punished for what they did, and he needs proof in order to do that. I bet he did end up saving that first video and he's going to do the right thing and show it to the coach or a teacher. What he should have done was save the video and go straight to both the football and gymnastics coaches with it. And yes, it would be great if Justin filmed the whole thing. Then Justin would also know that Declan was trying to help Bailey.

Brett needs a psychologist, at the very least. He needs to vent and find better ways to deal with his issues than lashing out at others the way he's been doing. Maybe I'm wrong, but Brett looks like the type to keep his feelings inside until they explode. Sure, he gets angry all the time but he never addresses the real reasons for his anger. Again, I think a big part of this is he feels his mother treats him like one of her patients, not her son. Billy never took the pills, he's bound to notice some of them are missing. So I guess Dustin's back for Round 3? Things are probably falling apart for him at home and with Mike, but he's showing violent tendencies (from abuse by his family) that make me believe Billy getting involved with him is a bad idea. I understand why he's acting like this, but it still doesn't mean Billy should let him back into his life so easily.

Then the question is, is she sending Brett to a psychiatrist or a psychologist? A psychologist is what he needs, but will Jen agree? Dustin: they're both psychos in their own way, but what I can't get past is that it's like he thinks the betrayal is Billy being gay, not Billy choosing Brett over him. His reaction felt very homophobic to me, and that's why I think Billy should stay away from him. Brett had the same reaction to Billy taking the pills with him than to him flushing down his pot, so that's a big clue.

It's good that Brett is admitting he has problems, but I don't know what he can really do about it. He could always just not take the pills, but it's sad that most doctors take the easy way out and just give pills for everything. And I don't even think the pills would help. At first I thought Brett got drunk instead, but his reaction at the end confirms he's been taking Billy's pain pills. Maybe it would have been safer to let him have his pot after all. I'm worried about this now. Funny how Brett doesn't want to be put on drugs but insists on using drugs to self-medicate. And seriously, Billy, stay the fuck away from Dustin. Just want to be friends again? He's a violent bully, didn't you see that by now? Is Billy waiting for Dustin to put him in a coma before realising that he's dangerous? If I were him I'd just try to back out of the volleyball thing, it's not worth the risk. The guy hates you, just forget about him and move on. (sorry, I still can't forgive the little shit)

So glad Declan got called out on his bullshit, and he actually listened. The problem with people like Chris is that they link this kind of attitude with team spirit, so if you don't act like him then you're not looking out for the team. It's just part of the game. Now he's obviously going to try to act better to his classmates but I'm really curious to see how it's going to go when he has to interact with Bailey. I'm thinking they'll be forced to team up for something and Declan will have to start talking to him. I bet Chris won't like that.

Well, for what it's worth, I think Brett's right about his mom. Sometimes I get the feeling she treats him more like one of her patients than her own son, and I can see why Brett would get upset about that. George feels like the glue holding the family together and the uncertainty surrounding him worries me a little. There's just so much that could go wrong, including how he could react to everything. As for Paula, I'm sure she'll come around fairly quickly, but usually people like her will side with religion at first, and I think that's partly why Billy's so afraid of her finding out. What I'm worried about is the initial rejection and the damage it can cause to Billy. I think Billy's a lot more fragile than he lets on, and I'm afraid Paula's reaction could send him into another breakdown. Billy's already lost one of the people most important to him because he was outed (although I think Dustin's a closet case himself and has a crush on Billy) and I don't think he could handle losing another. Brett's really helped Billy go through his issues and sort things out, now it's time for Billy to return the favour, if only Brett would let him.

Some additional thoughts on the latest chapter: The whole therapy thing should turn out to be good for Brett. Not just because he needs some help with his anger issues, but because, as bad as it may sound, I think that Dr Reilly will be more receptive to Brett's arguments if she hears it from one of her doctor friends. If Brett's therapist says the same things he did, she can't just dismiss it as easily anymore. But that whole episode shows where Brett got his attitude from, Jen also refuses to take any responsibility for the situation. And he shouldn't just blame Billy for "taking her side", Billy's just out of his depth and doesn't know how to react so he'll trust Jen's judgement since she's a professional. I do think Billy will be there to support Brett in any way he can during this whole thing. I'm sorry, but I had to laugh at Brett's desperate attempt to get his pot back, and the disappointment when Billy just shut him down. That conversation with George felt a bit weird to me, especially with the coin box. George can really read Billy like an open book, perhaps because they're so much alike. There's something about that coin box that feels off. Obviously there's more than a coin collection in there, something he probably doesn't want Paula to know about. And the way he said "you and Brett" basically confirms he knows they're together, and George either thinks they'll stay together or that he'll die soon (hopefully not that last one). I have no clue what Brett could help him with, so now I'm really curious. It's nice to have a few chapters without any Dustin drama, but I suppose it won't last. I'd say it won't be too long before Mike gets busted and Billy gets blamed even though he's just minding his own business. Finally, I must say that I like Paula less and less as time goes on. Those religious types don't sit well with me at all. Ever since that fight where she spent all her time ranting about how she'll have to kiss up to Joey's parents instead of at least listening to her own son, I haven't liked her. She's just the typical religious hypocrite who's more worried about what the neighbours will think than how her son feels. I'm sure that as soon as she hears rumours about Brett being gay she'll forbid Billy from seeing him, and if she finds out Billy's gay before George comes back home she'd probably throw him out too. Paula showed signs of that judgmental, bigoted attitude and she just rubs me the wrong way. Great story Jeff! I try to review as soon as I read the chapter, but I always find myself spending the following week thinking and analysing and turning things over in my head for clues on what's going on.

Brett was just so subtle about trying to get his pot back, did he really think Billy was that clueless? And it's a good thing Jen finally decided to do something about Brett's anger issues. So now that Billy appears to have mostly sorted himself out, it's Brett's turn to go crazy. I wonder how that therapy session is going to go. Brett had so much insight to help Billy sort out his issues, yet when it comes time to look at himself he won't listen to anything or anyone. And he's trying to put the blame on Billy when he's the one who insisted on being fucked? Time to take some of your own advice, Tony. As for that talk with George, it's good that Billy found his anchor again, he's going to need that for the troubles ahead. As for the coins, how much more obvious can he get without actually saying "I know you and Brett are boyfriends and it's okay with me.", and I'm starting to think there's more than just coins in that box. Should I be worried about Paula wanting to go to church more? With Joey going there too, I don't see that ending very well for Billy. Oh, and part of me was hoping that Jen checked on Billy while they were asleep.

Of course it was Bailey on the track. It feels to me like Bailey's lonely and just wants to be acknowledge and accepted so he just focuses on his training. We'll just have to wait for his backstory. Why are all high school football players in these stories such stupid, arrogant and self-centered brats? It feels so good to see them put in their place once in a while. Now I'm no athlete, but I'm pretty sure gymnastics is one of the toughest sport there is. Gymnastics are all about balance, coordination and endurance, which makes Chris challenging them to an endurance contest even more stupid. Bailey may be small but he's much stronger than he looks and I'm sure he could wipe the floor with Declan on weights as well. Ultimately, I wish Chris and the football team ends up having to do a basic gymnastics practice to see how easy "dancing around" really is.

Yeah, I think what Billy needs right now is a good talk with his dad to help him sort out his problems. Unfortunately all the things he's having to deal with are connected to his being gay, and Billy just isn't ready to take that step and come out to his dad, even though George probably already knows by now. Although it's a good sign that Billy is acting more mature when dealing with Brett's temper tantrum and the whole Dustin situation, I think he could benefit from hearing George's take on things. Speaking of Dustin, while I don't want to see this little jerk again for a long time, I get the feeling he's going to try and weasel his way back in soon enough. And while I'm sure they'll end up with some sort of friendship again, I hope Billy gives him the cold shoulder for a while and makes it clear that he won't let anybody treat him this way. That's still more than Dustin deserves at this point, it it were me I'd make detours to avoid having anything to do with him. There's still that volleyball thing though, that should be fun. I wonder if Dustin is enough of a jerk to out them, and how much difference it would make. Billy's nowhere near as discrete as he thinks he is and Brett is almost shouting it out as it is, so it's not like the people at school don't already know, as do Jen and George, most likely. And since those two seem to be pretty supportive, that just leaves Billy's mom. Would she love and support Billy and Brett or will she join Team Joey as I half-expect her to do? Only time will tell.

I don't get Jen's excuse for Brett's behaviour. I've seen worse, so this is okay? This is more than just crazy mood swings, I think Brett has some sort of mental illness, made even worse by the fact that Billy just took away his pot so he can't use it to try to calm down. This is going to be a very interesting couple of days for Billy. Two thing came to mind while reading the last part: Could that mysterious Brett guy actually be our Brett's father that died before he was born? The "about a year" thing is suspicious to me. Also, when Jen said "I know you love him", did she mean as a friend or did she basically tell Billy she knows about the two of them? It's kind of strange to see Billy be the mature and responsible one in all this, but maybe he should just try to stay home until this blows over.

I had a feeling some sort of coup would be happening since it was clear that the King lost the support of the people. I thought Phoenix would challenge and beat Landon in a duel. I really hope Noah survives this because they deserve a happy ending. The next chapter can't come soon enough.

Wow, I'm surprised Noah put up with this for as long as he did. I have an idea of what his plan could be, but whatever it is it's probably not good news for Landon. Can't wait to see what happens next!

Another great chapter. Right now I'd say Brett got off easy, but I suspect there's more trouble in store for him. I don't think Billy should have forgiven him so quickly, but I get where he's coming from with wanting to salvage at least one relationship. I'm glad he's getting mature enough to admit his role in creating the whole Dustin fiasco, but I also hope he comes to see that Dustin isn't worth trying to repair that relationship and moves on. Brett is far from perfect, but at least he's making an effort to meet Billy halfway and fix things between them. I didn't expect them to go from "Go fuck yourself" to "Fuck me, Billy" so quickly, but it was really hot! I also didn't expect Brett to bottom, but I'm not complaining. Team Brett isn't so bad now that Billy is no longer willing to overlook Brett's flaws I wonder if Brett's going to try to fix things between Billy and Dustin as well(making things even worse, if that's even possible)? I can see him maybe doing that, but it's a stretch.

This is interesting, I can't wait to find out what Bailey's story is, and how the two of them will get along.

Personally I think this is what's going to get the boys to look at what they've become and do some much needed growing up. Billy's going to think about where he went wrong with Dustin, his dad, etc. while Brett will try stop being such a vicious and mean-spirited person, if not for himself then to be a better boyfriend for Billy. As for Dustin, he'll soon realise what his little outburst cost him and he'll have to live with that. I really hope things get better for all of them, but I feel Dustin's gone too far this time and he doesn't get to just say sorry and be Billy's best friend again. I believe that Billy will soon see that Brett really does care about him and things will get better between them, but if Dustin thought Brett hated him before, he's in for a surprise. By the way, don't they have to go back to school for a few days, or did this happen after the last day?