Krista

Sorry! I am writing, just very slowly..

Little late to the party, but this sounds cute.

Halloween is actually seeing a bit of a comeback of sorts. It was becoming a forgotten holiday. Christmas being the one that everyone/every business are already preparing for. Aside from all the pumpkin based foods I am glad to see it coming back. Although, back when I was a kid we had to work for our candy - there was no such thing as designated Trick-or-Treating stops. We actually had to go door to door and people were generally happy to see us coming down the sidewalk. It used to take us all of the 7 - 9pm to get our sacks full of candy. Now it takes all of about 30 minutes to drive to your designated spot and get in line and just get the candy when it is your turn... But anywho, I've always liked dressing up. With kids it gives me a reason to do themed costumes.

Happy Birthday! :D Now don't hold it against me that I was a wee bit late, or I'll beat you up. :P

Happy Birthday Dave!

Hi! Thanks for liking the story, it is on hold. I will finish it, my life has a lot of time constraints right now.. and there is also some lacking of motivation/a bit of block going on. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to settle down for long periods and really hash out the story like I need to. Hopefully I'll have some new content for y'all on this story one of these days. I want to be quite a bit farther ahead as to not have more of a wait.

Wow, I literally remember nothing from this story... lol. I know that it is just about as rough - if not more so - than, "Something Unexpected," so fair warning with that.. lol. There is a lot of overly dramatic scenes with this story. I think it developed too quickly and ended too quickly. In doing so, I think the character development is more than a bit rushed and with that, some of their actions made little sense other than the fact that they were fighting to stay in one another's lives. You have a lovely view on characterizations and how a character may be acting out of character, or doing something funny, etc. The insight into my stories have been very reasonable.

Yeah, in those situations the, "its not a matter of if, but when.." is never really a good thing to be in. At least they had one another to get through it and they stuck stubbornly together instead of allowing the people involved to push them apart. I actually 'did' start a sequel to this story, but it was later on down the road when they were in College or about to start. It started out just too different from the original and too well, dark... I may go back to the idea, but not with these characters. I think it would hurt the original if I did the sequel that way.

I'm glad you've taken the time to read and comment! It has been wonderful reading through your comments/reactions and remembering little bits of stories that I've not looked at in ages. Some of what you said got me thinking about the older stories and how I went about writing them, how some parts would have done better with a bit of a re-write or further thought that I gave them, etc.

Hi! Yeah, he did forgive Lacey, I guess he realized that she was hurting because she had this crush on him. He's a bit of a softy when it comes to seeing people upset as it is, if I'm remembering correctly. (That could be Corey, too many C names in my early writing... mercy). It did though, send the story in a bit of a downward spiral, wrecking Jonathan's relationship with his father and such. (Although it strengthened the one he had with his mother) Honestly though, that would have likely been wrecked no matter what, the father was just that kind of person. Lacey just happened to be the one that did it, and I don't think she did it maliciously, just someone who is upset and a bit dramatic/gossipy herself.

Hi! When I saw that you were reading this story, I was like...oh goodness.. lol. This story was my first ever outside-of-school writing project. I was in High School when I wrote it and I honestly didn't know much about the genre or of writing things of this length in general. I did it mostly on my own, with the help of an editor friend that sadly passed away midway through the project from complications with being HIV+. I was also of the mind that endings had to be be shocking - this one was a bit abrupt and a bit misguided looking back on it. It is also just too old for me to go back in and do the work I need to do to get it worked out the way that it should be. Chandler died, he died in a car accident. Also, if I remember correctly, Andy was using sleeping medications to help him sleep at night, a lot of those have serious side-effect and work terribly with drinking alcohol. So I'm of the mind, again, if I'm remembering correctly, that the mixture of a harder liquor like Vodka mixed with his sleeping medications is what made him pass out. He woke up in the hospital some hours later when his system recovered from doing that. The story is a bit poorly written, the ending is abrupt. In all honesty, if it wasn't the first one and on the website for as long as it has been, I wouldn't have published it to begin with. I'm honestly surprised that people get through it. lol.

I think she took over the family store to help out her father when he was older. Then her father died and she just kept it open. I guess outside of the relationship Cora had with her father, it would be scrutinized by the people around them. It would make little sense to keep a struggling store open and waste a lot of potential she has. But yes, people outright saying that is a bit rude.

Yeah, I think Jenny's intentions are good. As far as Clinton goes, I honestly cannot remember when Clinton becomes more developed and the fear of Cj dissipates so that he can approach Corey the way he wants to.

This story is a re-write from a heterosexual romance novel I started, where the "Greg," character is a bit of a antagonist/villain of sorts. The Engaged twist is an idea in both, but to be honest, I think the impact was better felt in the original concept idea than in this one. I think I kind of needed to go into more detail and have that happen later in the story to make it more central. You're bringing up good points about the Cj/Corey conflict. There does seem to be a very strong history there, but the Father is acting like it is all new. That to me, is a bit of a writing flaw on my part, but I guess I could sum it up as Corey just not telling his father these things, because he'd know how his father would respond. I mean, it would be understandable for Corey not to say anything about the bullying. lol. Also Corey may just be self-assured that Cj is just an ass and he has friends and the respect of a lot of people around him that Cj's antics doesn't bother him so much.

Jenny has a bit of a character growth as well in this story. You pointed out some things that made complete sense. No one did stand up for Corey when he was tossed into the river, but with Teenagers most of them are more comfortable being "standbys" than step into situations such as these, sadly. That's how bullies get away with a lot of their nonsense, if everyone else around them stood up to them, they'd buckle completely, for the most part I'd imagine. Also better to be quiet than not the victim sort of mindset as well. High school is a bit of a jungle in those aspects. lol. But again, nice comments.

What a very insightful summary of the first chapter, really enjoyed reading it. It actually helped bring the story back to me a bit, since it has been a while. I'll say right now, that the Father dynamic in this story is my favorite thing about the story in general. I loved writing his character.

Congratulations.

Thank you for liking, leaving comments, and reviewing. It was enjoyable to see someone taking an interest in the story for sure.

Who even says that you have to flirt? Just taking time out of your day to strike up conversations. Keep it as casual as you can and just be friendly and get to know them on a personal level that they are comfortable with. You say you're friends, but it is new, so flirting might out and out scare them, but sometimes it is better to make people comfortable and safe around you so they can open up, instead of forcing any sort of thing onto them as in flirting.. etc.

Aww! I've been away, congratulations on the little one. Even if the little one was a bit stubborn about popping out.

Yeah, sent everything into a spiral for sure.

I liked writing Tania as well. Someone that really knows what's going on inside the household instead of what the parents project and how they want Jason to act outside the house as well.

Wow, sorry! I missed this comment from ages ago... mercy. Here it is about 3 years late. I really liked the character of Adam, he's probably one of the more dynamic characters I have written for any of my stories.

Thanks for giving the story a look! It is a very twisty/turn-y story.

Being 17 was a bit slow paced for me, but I liked it. God's Own Country was really nice. Although, I must admit I had to turn on the sub-titles, those accents and slang terms were difficult to decipher at times. The Weekend is a nice film as well.