Graeme

Lest We Forget

This may appeal to some people here... My Dad wrote a porno -- and it was genius

When Corey and Charlie met Cornelius at the hospital, that exchange reminded me of how many people knew about Brett and Corey, even though Corey thought no one knew. It may be that others can see Corey more clearly than he can see himself.

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I'm going to concentrate on something different in my comment We have all heard stories of regret about how someone throws away a long friendship when someone comes out. What we're seeing with Corey is that while it may look to Brett that he's throwing away those years of friendship, he's not. He's mourning the loss of that friendship, he's lamenting the things like birthdays that they've previously shared but won't share in the future, and he's bitterly unhappy that that's the way it's ended up. Corey's the one who's ended the friendship, but he's not thrown it away, even if that's what Brett thinks he's done. Corey needs a replacement friend, and he's trying to make Adrian that friend. However, he doesn't seem to have a lot of experience in making new friends because he appears to have put Adrian in the box called 'friend' that was previously occupied by Brett, and doesn't seem to realise that Adrian is not Brett. The joking and sharing he did with Brett isn't going to automatically work the same with Adrian, and Corey's slow to realise that. I wonder how long it'll be before he realises that Adrian isn't a replacement Brett, but a person in his own right. If he wants any sort of relationship with Adrian (anywhere from good friend to lover) he's going to have to realise that soon, or he'll end up breaking the new friendship just when he can't really afford to lose another friend.

There a few interesting and appealing things about this chapter. The first is how Corey and Adrian were tentatively checking each other out. They didn't say much in words, but their actions spoke loudly. My only real concern is Adrian could get hurt really badly if Corey doesn't sort out his feelings for Brett. Corey's in love with Brett; he's not in love with Adrian. He may be flirting with Adrian, but he can't commit until he puts Brett aside. As for Brett, I'm glad they've cleared the air. They both know where they stand, and it wasn't anything new, but it's been spoken now. Brett doesn't want to lose Corey, and Corey's explained that he can't downgrade his feelings to 'only' being best frieds that easily. This is impacting on Brett just as much as Corey -- the coach's comment about how Brett has been in practise shows that. Finally, the coach The most impressive part for me was when he told Corey that he doesn't care about winning, he cares about his boys. He wants Corey to come back for Corey's sake, not for the team. Now, he may just be saying that, but he comes over as sincere. He clearly wants to help, and it comes over as more than just getting his star receiver back in the game.

Pick a name based on the role of the AI. If it's a pilot, go with a name like Wilbur. Jeeves or Alfred are traditional for butlers/servants. A general purpose AI could be Friday.

I have two stories/scenes in 1000 words. Different scenes, and both are ones I wrote a long time ago, but they're still two of my favourites: Broken Pen Dear God

Please, enough about Cindy. I want to enjoy the rest of the chapter, instead The paintball descriptions were great, and a fantastic way to break up the more serious thoughts and discussions that took place. It gave the chapter a feel of lightheartedness while still dealing with important topics, such as how Jackson is going to keep his relationship with Luke a secret. Prom may be a long way away, but Jackson's already getting hassled about having a date. An interesting comment about the captain of an opposing school team being gay. The comments indicated that Jackson will get some good support if he comes out, though there's no guarantee that it'll be sweetness-and-light. Indeed, given the general attitude of she-who-must-not-be-named, I think we can guarantee Jackson coming out won't go smoothly, but it looks like he'll keep most, if not all, of his friends.

What happens with your friendship is up to him. From what you've said, he knows that you want to regain that friendship (your other friends have said to give him time), so the next step is up to him. There's nothing more you can do. Sorry, but I think it's out of your hands.

I think you meant Isaac Asimov, not Arthur C. Clarke. Isaac Asimov is the author who came up with the three laws of robotics.

Can I present an alternative interpretation? That Brett loves Corey so much that accepted having sex with Corey because he wanted Corey to be happy. Corey asks him for sex and, despite being straight, he lets Corey have what he wants. Wouldn't you consider that to be love? Eventually, Brett realises he can't continue, and he stops it when he can, but there's a lot of history before he gets to that point. He's young, he makes mistakes, and he's probably scared he'd lose Corey as a friend if he says 'No'...and guess what's happened? One of the things I would really like to know is what Brett is going through. From what Corey is seeing (rather than what Corey is interpreting), I think Brett may very well be in as much pain as Corey. He doesn't want to lose his best friend, but being honest with him seems to have had exactly that result. How many gay teenagers know what that feels like? How being honest after years of implicit dishonesty results in having a friend walk away from them? Even hit them? What Corey is doing to Brett looks to me like a friend breaking off a friendship because they've finally learnt the truth. Yes, because we're aware of Corey's thoughts and emotions, we know what's really happening, but look at it from Brett's point of view. He's finally built up the courage to be honest with his best friend and his best friend has not only walked away from those years of friendship, but has even hit him to emphasise that he doesn't want anything to do with him. All of that is just a theory because we don't know what's going on inside Brett's head, but it's consistent with what's been written so far.

In an earlier chapter, Corey indicated he knew Brett's straight, and these flashbacks show the same thing. However, Corey also indicated that he had initiated all of their sexual encounters, which would mean that Brett was not a user. The flashback in this chapter seems to show otherwise, so is it the exception, or had there been things earlier where Corey was the one who started the sex, and the flashback was partway through an encounter? Corey is still hurting, but he's enjoying Adrian's company. Adrian seems to be at least a partial antidote for Corey's pain. I hope that continues.

I don't think I need to comment on Corey's mother. Everyone has already done an excellent job there. Corey's father has his priorities right, but I couldn't help but feel touched by when he entered Corey's room and joined him in the bed. I could feel the despair and resignation in that simple action, even though there was little written. That's a sign of good storytelling. Corey's decision to quit football is understandable. He doesn't want to run into Brett, and that would be unavoidable if he played. At some point he needs to be able to see Brett without breaking down, but it's too early. It's interesting that Corey's father has also seen how Corey feels about Brett, and how Brett didn't have the same feelings back. Charlie wasn't the only one who had worked it out. I wonder who else knows and has simply not been saying anything?

It hadn't struck me before why football was so important, but that last scene shows the answer. Football is something that's certain in Ryder's life. It's predictable (to a degree) and understandable. It's one of his walls against the terrors in his life. When I read that scene, it all just clicked for me, giving me another piece of the puzzle that's Ryder. The scenes with Callen and Jeremy were good, too, as Ryder's friends start to work out what it means to them for Ryder to be dating Tyler. I had to laugh at Jaxsom standing up to Jeremy, though. Ilike Jaxsom

Happy Birthday, Drew! (Someone get the boy some pi. He doesn't want cake)

Ron, you can use the "Quote" button to quote and reply to an individual comment. You can also use the "+" button to select multiple comments and then reply to them all at the same time.

It's interesting reading this again, knowing how it ends and what's going on behind the scenes. I'm picking up the little signals that I didn't catch the first time. As Charlie has said and Corey acknowledged, Brett has never been in love with Corey. He has loved him, but he hasn't been in love with him. Corey is having an emotional breakdown as a consequence. As I mentioned in the last chapter's comment, Corey has to accept some of the blame for what's going on, but he's not. He's blaming his straight friend for not being gay. Is Brett blameless? Absolutely not, but Corey isn't as blameless as he'd like to think, either. What we have here is a real-life tragedy, someone experiencing a one-sided relationship that eventually crashes. I feel sorry for Corey, and I'd love to know what's going on in Brett's head at the moment, but without more information I'm not making anyone a villian. Brett doesn't seem to be ignoring Corey -- he acknowledged him in class, even if he didn't speak to him, and he's sending him text messages. He's reaching out, but Corey's not ready to reach back.

Congratulations!

Take care, my friend...

Happy Birthday, Reader!

Things are slowly progressing, but living in the countryside sometimes slow is the right pace. Life in the big city and life on the farm happen at two different rates, and that's what we're seeing. Ben and his life in the tabloids is moving fast, but Travis and his life on the farm is plodding along. Ben recognises he needs to slow down or he's going to trip and fall, and he knows that Travis is helping him do so. Travis is beginning to realise that Ben can give him the support he desperately needs, and that's not just finanical support. Travis needs help and he's not getting it from his family. Ben can give him that help. Different worlds, but when you take the best of both and put them together, you can make something magical. Ben sees it, I think, and Travis maybe getting an inkling. We'll have to wait and see if they can make it work. As an aside, the worst of those different worlds will hit both of them soon, and that's a storm they'll have to weather. They won't be able to weather it alone -- they'll need to do it together, or they'll find themselves blown apart...

Do we charge the real costs associated with other forms of transport? The reason we don't build many new train lines (at least here in Australia) is that the cost of doing so is prohibitive. The land costs alone are astronomical without adding in long lengths of infrastructure that then has to be maintained. Air transport has the advantage that the infrastructure costs are only for the start and end points -- the space inbetween doesn't cost anything to maintain. When you look at it from that perspective, are you taking into account the pollution costs of maintenance for trains and their required infrastructure when you say that airplanes are the worst pollution form of transport? What about the cost of concentrating travel pollution in a single narrow channel, as distinct from spreading it around by travelling over a broader channel? There may be more total pollution in the broader channel, but the mere fact that it's spread around more may be enough for the environment to cope better than the fixed narrow channel presented by ground transport. I don't know -- I'm just presenting it for consideration. As you said, we usually don't think about the total cost of things, only the narrow, immediate part that we see. But we're moving towards driverless cars. If we have flying driverless cars, would we have the problems you envisage? Many SF stories involve flying vehicles that do not have drivers -- the vehicles are automated, eliminating many of the problems you've mentioned.

We can see at the start why Corey and Brett are breaking up. Corey doesn't seem to be as interested in what Brett wants -- he's assuming he knows. Sadly, that's true for way too many relationships. Charlie seems to know what's going on, but Corey was clueless -- something also sadly true too many times. This chapter is telling us that Brett's not a bastard, he's not a bad guy, and that Corey has to share at least some of the fault in the relationship breakdown. As for Corey's mother, I wonder if she's been wilfully blind, or because Brett and Corey have been together for twelves years she didn't see their relationship change, but saw it more as simply an evolution of two guys who are best mates. Regardless, Corey is right that he doesn't get on very well with her -- that comes over loud and clear...