Graeme

A possibly closested gay boy and an openly gay guy whose known not to be able to keep it in his pants. Sounds like a match made in heaven...

In case you weren't aware, the section I've bolded is my situation. I'm gay, but I'm also married to a wonderful woman who is the mother of my two sons. It's now over 15 years since I came out to her and we've been married for almost 30 years...

People are complex. Even when there's one major motive for someone to do something, there are usually other motives that are also applicable. Another possible selfish motive you've left off is Rick wants friends outside of his current group, so if everything goes wrong and they all turn their back on him, he'll have someone else he can call a friend. Of course, given what James told him, James is likely to turn his back on Rick, too, but he mightn't. Is that Rick's primary motive? No, but it may be there in the back of his mind or in his subconscious.

Rick, like so many teenagers, is too scared to be honest. He's so desperate for friends, he's afraid the truth will scare them off. It's understandable, even if it's not ideal.

Most exams are less than that, but in the higher grades, English exams have been three hours for as long as I can remember. Most other exams are two hours or less.

Sorry, but I have my integrity to worry about. I can't attest what he wants me to attest... After all, I haven't read the complete story, yet.

It's his usual complex story, so I appreciate why he wants to finish it before he starts posting. It's great so far, though, so when it starts posting, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Carlos as GA's newest Signature Author! Carlos has been a member of GA for over six years and manages the popular Ask An Author feature in the GA blogs. He has over 900,000 words in the novels, novella, and short stories he has posted here at GA, including the very popular CJ series. If you want to check out that series and the rest of Carlos's stories, such as his latest story, Singer, you can visit his author page. I'm sure you'll enjoy what you find! Congratulations, Carlos, on a well deserved promotion!

It's difficult to be encouraging but realistic. I think Darren and Stephanie are managing to tread that line. Darren isn't saying that everything will be fine, but he's saying that the current problems are temporary, not permanent. I think that is probably the most important lesson for now. While Jack isn't contemplating suicide, some kids in his position do. Darren's chat with Jack is acknowledging that things are currently bad, but that's not going to be the way forever, and that there are some bright lights in the gloom. Jack needed to hear that.

To analyse what has gone wrong, we need a lot more information than this. Can you please give us explicit details as to what you should've received a notification for, but didn't? A screen shot of your notification settings, the details of exactly what you're following, and then a comment as to which notification you didn't get is what we're looking. That should allow us to track down what is going on. For the notification settings, go to your name in the top right hand corner and open up the drop down list. Select Notification Settings and review what is configured. If you can't post a screen shot, just let us know what you have set. For example, I don't follow anything automatically, and I have my setting to send me a notification when new content is posted. Most of the options are set to send me a notification, though there are some that are set to send an email instead, and others have both notification and email switched off (such as the "Someone I'm following makes a post") and hence I don't receive a notification for that option. I hope this helps, and if you can provide the relevant details, we can try to work out what happened in your situation.

I like how Jeff has helped Jack with those initial thoughts of confusion after finally accepting himself. I'm sure Jack thought once he accepted himself, it would all be fine, but he's learning that there's always something else he needs to learn and understand. That's life...even for those who aren't gay.

Jack's life is crumbling. What's falling away, though, are the lies and deceptions. The naked truth that's left behind, however, can be frightening for a lot of people, such as Jack's mother. It's frightening for Jack, too, but at least he has some support. Jeff, Tracy, and their parents will help, but ultimately it'll be Jack who has to stand up for himself. Jack's not ready to do that just yet, but I think (hope) he'll get there .

The thing that impressed me the most was Jack knows what's right and what's wrong. He knows that he can't abandon Tracy, but he's afraid of the consequences. Despite that, even if it's reluctantly, he's doing what he believes is right. He's not trying to lie to himself and telling himself he can stay with Jimmy and the others. He recognises that's not possible, but that doesn't stop the regret from shining through. A wonderful piece of characterisation!

Wow!!! A huge of thanks to the review team. This is an amazing and impressive list of reviews. Well done!

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @northie in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. Northie has been a member at GA for over three years, and in that time has posted over 340,000 words across twenty-three stories including the popular Never Too Late series about an older gentleman coming to terms with his sexuality. You can find all of northie's stories at their author page, so settle back and have fun reading the stories of our newest Promising Author! Congratulations, northie!

He's working on a new novel (I'm one of his beta-readers), but he wants to complete it before it's posted. I don't know how much more he has to write, though, as he doesn't tell me that much...

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Tim (Mikiesboy) as GA's newest Signature Author! Tim has been a member of GA for almost four years and was first promoted to Promising in May of 2017. Since joining, Tim has been a prolific author and poet, with almost 400,000 words posted, including novels, novella, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction stories about his own life including how Tim met and married his husband, Michael. If you want to check out that story and the rest of Tim's tales and poetry, you can visit his author page. There's something for everyone there! Please join us in congratulating Tim on his well deserved promotion. Oh, and in case you missed it, Levko by Mikiesboy was featured in our Stories blog on Monday. See what one of our reviewers thought of Tim's story, and then go read it for yourself to see if you agree.

Jack's confusion and worries came through clearly in this chapter. Even though it was forty years ago, I can still remember the same concerns and worries when I was a teenager. I think Jack is suffering even worse than I did, though, because his thoughts were heading in the direction of depression, and it's not a big step from there to contemplating ending things... However, I think Tracy's change of heart will be enough to keep Jack grounded. He may, as he expects, lose his current three friends, but hopefully he'll gain Tracy and Jeff. We'll just have to wait and see, with the same worries as any gay teen goes through with the coming out process. Who will he lose by coming out? Who will stay by him? And how will his family react...?

This is the story about an emotional journey. Richie has just lost his mother to cancer, only to find that the sperm-donor who left him, his little brother and sister, and his mother, has returned. Richie is so angry, he can only think of his father as a pronoun, not a name, not even "father" or "dad". Richie's journey through the anguish of his loss, the hatred directed at his father, and the rebellion against a world that appears to have turned against him, is not an easy one. His mourning for his mother really is a storm of emotions, not all of them healthy, but eventually the storm abates. What it leaves behind is what the reader needs to discover

Thanks, @Ronyx I have really enjoyed reading this story again. Richie still has mental and emotional scars from what's happened, but he's largely healed. For me, one of the best parts of this story is watching that healing process. The transformation from the angry, desolate young man in the first chapter, to the sometimes sad but overall hopeful young man in the last chapter is what this story is about. . We go through that transformation with him, especially through the lows after the funeral and with Wade's death. It was painful, but the ending was wonderful.

I found it amusing that the reason for the trip to the park was because Richie didn't want a party, and especially didn't want a small party because it would mean he would have to have dinner with his father. What happens? A major undertaking to the amusement park (including his father and with Earl tagging along), and a small family party on the Friday night that also involves his father... Richie really needs to learn how to say no, or more accurately: NO! 🤣

Coming in late, unfortunately, but I wanted to note that when Richie was asked to dress up so they could go out to dinner, he didn't resist. If he had still been angry, I would've expected jeans and a T-shirt, but he did what he was asked and put on a suit. I have to wonder how much of that is due to the on-going healing process, and how much was driven by the support his father showed at the school earlier that day... It's probably a bit of both, with the school meeting pushing Richie over the edge into being cooperative.

One of the things I noticed early in the chapter is that Richie's narration has slowly shifted from using "he" and "him" to "my father". His father is becoming less and less a pronoun and more a parent. Compare that to the opening chapter where the only terms used were "he" and "him", with a lot of implicit bitterness as flavouring. Now, the flavouring is bland, and we get the occasional "father" thrown in. We'll see how that development progresses at the start of the next chapter. Does Richie shake off his father's hands on his shoulders, or does he accept the contact? Under the circumstances, he may accept the contact, but regardless of the reason, doing so will be another step in Richie's healing process. Another point that I saw was the reaction by the students to Mrs. Livingstone's comment. At lunch, Gabe is naturally angry at her, but the other guys at the table nodded to Richie when he joined them. That's a soft, implicit sign of support. Another soft sign of support is the lack of direct comment by other students as Richie walked through the school afterwards. The lack of anyone repeating Mrs. Livingstone's comment shows that the other students also recognise the gravity of the situation and are, at worst, staying overtly neutral. Whether that lasts remains to be seen.

A feelgood chapter after a lot of chapters filled with pain and angst I'm glad that Freddy and Richie are getting closer. I'm even more impressed that Richie recognises and tells Freddy, that he's not ready for a relationship. Richie is healing, and while there's still a good chance of a setback, overall his mental state is improving steadily. From what Freddy has said, Richie may need to adjust his thinking about his father. Of course, there's a difference between someone else's kid being gay and your own kid being gay, but there's a chance that Richie's father isn't upset at Richie being gay. It's other things that have had the two of them at each other's throats in previous chapters. Richie's mother is the obvious one, and that still hasn't been resolved. We'll see in the next chapter if Richie's anger at his father's betrayal of his mother has subsided, or if it's still at category 5...

It's interesting that even though Ron didn't write anything explicit, Richie's sadness at being abandoned by Gabe and Freddy again came through clearly. After they left him physically at the park, they again left him spiritually when the two of them started to chat with the girls about their shared experiences at the park. Experiences that Richie wasn't involved in. At least the two guys realised what they'd done, and Gabe had enough awareness to send Freddy out to see Richie instead of going himself. He had clearly picked up that it was Richie who had challenged Freddy to stay the night with them. I'm glad that Gabe recognised that moment, because he's been pretty dense about recognising other things to do with Richie... What Freddy told Richie about his life now and in the recent past was a revelation. It's always interesting to get a different perspective on a situation, because none of us are capable of seeing the complete picture when we're in the picture ourselves. Freddy's observations on Richie's father were particularly interesting, as was the fact that Freddy had been fighting with his mother on the same topic. I think Richie has placed Freddy firmly into the "not my enemy" category, and I can only see that as a good thing. Richie still has a long way to go to heal, but he's made good progress in this chapter, and that's all due to Freddy.