Mark Arbour

Thanks for the review. I'm glad the characters were alive on the page...that's my goal. I agree with you about Zach; he's going to have some major choices to make, some major trade-offs, and what would be particularly grueling is that he'll probably have to make them continuously. At each step of his career, he can opt out, or opt back in.

I think Zach planned this out pretty well. I'll bet people think of him as a somewhat dumb football player, and that's a mistake. He probably sits there in team meetings, laughing his ass off at how stupid the other guys are. If he has an Achilles Heel, it's his over confidence. I thought it was cool the way Matt read his emotions and took action before the explosion. I don't think the letter is in any real danger, since Matt left it on the bed in their room. Escorial is pretty secure, and these guys would have to have confidence that they had a degree of privacy. Unless they're having sex. :-)

With Will, it's not really an investment in Zach, it's payback for how awesome he was after 9-11. As far as Zach and football, I think you're missing the point. If you're that good, playing in a rec league would suck. It's like telling Dali or Monet they can only use crayons, or telling a concert violinist he'll have to make due with a ukelele. Zach's not in this game for the money, and he's not in it for the short term fame. He's in it because he knows he can kick some serious ass on the field, and probably break some records.

Thanks Jinty. I like your observation about Matt: A quiet strength. Both he and Will showed some amazing maturity (for them) and strength in this chapter. Our little boys are growing up!

August 6, 2002 Claremont, OH Will I’d been glancing between Zach and his Jesus pamphlet, but I stopped and just zeroed in on him. If I were to visualize something twisted for Zach to do, it sure as fuck wasn’t religious proselytizing. It shook me to my core because it was so unexpected, and that made me question whether I knew him at all. Was everything we’d been just a sham? Did he even love me? I was learning, though, that it was a smart idea to keep my cool. Gr

The number of posts is irrelevant unless they come from different sources. This is a case where size doesn't matter. :-) The cool thing about writing fiction is that it is open to interpretation. In fact, I often leave details vague so you can paint in the blanks on your own. And as I said before, my objective isn't to convince you to like Alex, but I would hope he'd at least get a fair trial. Then again, those aren't very common here in the US. :-)

I honestly don't care if you all like Alex or not, but I do think that it is a good idea to look at things objectively.

I am disappointed that I didn't write in the scene between Alex and Wade, but I would imagine it would be broad enough to create potential confusion. I could see Alex and Wade, laying in bed after blowing each other, deciding how their relationship would function. Wade would be focused on monogamy, because it's something he never had with Matt, and it's something that he probably craves. Alex would probably be focused on that too. Then I can see Wade opening up to Alex about Matt, and about how they'd grown apart and then together, sharing his thoughts and sadness about hurting Matt. I think that Alex is perceptive enough to see the pain Wade was dealing with, and in the spirit of new love, I think he would have been concerned for Wade. Alex would have probably said something to the effect that "we can make an allowance for Matt. I certainly wouldn't want to cause him, or you, anguish." Wade would have heard that and thought Alex was referring to Alex and Wade making Matt an exception for Wade, while Alex would have meant that Matt was an exception for both of them. Miscommunication does happen in relationships.

Because when men are having sex with someone (and either immediately before or after that sexual encounter) they are always painfully honest? I don't think that Alex coveted Matt at all. I think that when he made that statement, he was throwing some serious power at Matt, and the reason for that was to establish that he (Alex) was in the driver's seat of this relationship with Wade. In his mind, I'm sure that Matt was an appendage, something tacked on to make Wade happy. But that doesn't mean Alex is willing to play second fiddle to Matt. That's something I can't see him doing. Hopefully if you look at it from that angle, you'll see that while Alex may be manipulative from a power perspective, he wasn't scheming to use Wade just to get Matt into his bed. Quite frankly, he could have done that without getting Wade involved at all.

You took some pretty big leaps there. I think Alex didn't go see Wade simply because Wade didn't want him to, and because he probably didn't want to catch whatever sickness Wade had. I think the thing to keep in mind is that just because Wade and Matt had really good sex, and just because Alex and Wade don't have satisfying sex, doesn't mean that Alex is an inherently evil and scheming person.

Possibly. On the other hand, this may just be Alex' way of posturing with Matt. I can definitely see them having an alpha male face off. I think this comment is spot on: No. There's nothing here to indicate that Alex has gone beyond the bounds of their relationship (having sex only with Matt and Wade) or that he intended to do that. Keep in mind that Alex may have wanted to have sex with Matt, but that didn't mean it was going to happen. Alex is in control of this situation, because he was the one granting Matt the exemption, and he was doing it at least primarily for Wade. And note that I didn't say Alex was in control of the relationship, I said he was in control of the situation, which is but one aspect of their relationship. I think that Alex probably worked with what limited information he had when he first hooked up with Wade. He didn't really know them, or the situation all that well. Based on the way Wade acted going into this relationship, I think Alex was trying to make things easier for Wade.

Now that is exciting, that your English degree is becoming (more) useful. I've been accused in prior posts of writing the story to incline people to detest Alex, while then simultaneously defending him in the forum and review responses. And knowing how twisted and sadistic my mind is, there is some plausibility to this theory. In actuality, I know that I've set up an emotional scenario, but much like JP would do, I am trying to throw out some facts to challenge those emotional assumptions. That doesn't mean readers can't reach the same conclusions, I'm just trying to get readers to be more objective. Then again, this is fiction, and fun, so they really don't have to do that. Your comments largely (along with some of the others) reflect that objective.

I think that Alex does, in fact, have control of this situation. He and Wade made a pact to be sexually involved only with each other with one exception: Matt. As Wade explained it, that was Alex's offering to Wade to make it easier for him, something Wade probably thought of as a gift. Alex could have reasonably said "no" and demanded a monogamous relationship, and I have to believe that Wade would have agreed to that, at least initially. It is interesting that Alex and Wade both have very different interpretations of Matt's inclusion in their relationship. As relationships stand right now, Wade and Alex are in a committed relationship, while Wade and Matt are merely friends with benefits. In that regard, I can see why Alex would see Matt as being involved in Alex's relationship with Wade. And while the statement may have offended Matt, if he had taken it in a less personal vein, he may have interpreted Alex's words as indicating he was happy with their situation (with him, Wade, and Matt). You have made a lot of assumptions here, and I would suggest one of them is erroneous. You have assumed that Alex does in fact have a Madonna-whore complex, and that may be correct. But you have also assumed that Alex is lying to Wade when he says he won't sleep with anyone else but Matt, and I've seen nothing to indicate that Alex is that dishonorable.

Sure! I think each guy he's done counts as one, so it would have to include all the prior dudes.

I'm nominating you for King of Emoticons!

You are suggesting I've created a monster? Lol. Alex hasnt caused turmoil with Matt and Wade, they have. And Alex can hardly be hel responsible for Wade's infatuation. And we don't know whether Alex even has this complex, only that Matt and Wade think he does. They're a bit biased.

What has Alex done that is so awful? Seems to me that he met a single guy (Wade), developed some pretty strong feelings for him, but was nice enough to keep Matt in their relationship. No matter what's happening at Escorial right now, having Matt available as a sexual partner is way more important to Wade than to Alex.

That's an awesome scenario...but...no.

Is Alex really evil, really fucked up, or neither?

I'm not allowed to kill anyone off for a while. It's that whole 9.11 thing. People get all testy. This will be an interesting test for Will, as much as how he handles the issue than the actual issue itself.

Hilarious! 1. I'm thinking they're more like the Lusitania, dodging torpedoes. 2. I was out today and a guy tried to hand me one of these things. I refused, but all around the garbage cans were tons of these fliers people had thrown away.

I know two guys from England who couldn't get a date in the UK, but they come over here and scored big time, all because of the accent. As far as Zach goes, it's pretty damning right now, but we haven't heard his explanation, assuming he gives Will one.

I'm glad you liked the scene with Matt and Wade. As I wrote it, the whole dialog came naturally, and even as I typed it, it felt so comfortable. For such young guys, theirs is an old love.

Thanks Miles. I don't think a conversion camp is really a possibility for Zach at this point, because if that got out, it could ruin him. Going off on a tangent here, if I were Wade, I'd look it up and try to find out more about it. I learned a lot about that specific issue. Google is awesome. (Lucky Matt!)

I'm not sure if/how class issues play into Alex's complex. It is a psycho-sexual thing, so I'm thinking it's tough to draw that conclusion, but I may very well be wrong on that. We'll assume Matt has a robust immune system. :-)