Mark Arbour

The sex scene served two major purposes: 1. It showed these guys solidifying their friendships in a physical way (as you noted). 2. It introduced us to Zach's kinky side. I really think that Will deserves some major plaudits for handling that so well. As Dan Savage would say, he was GGG.

Well, you're both wrong. :-) Gathan went to a football game to watch his brother, and he's flying home for Thanksgiving. I think it's reasonable to think he wouldn't have a condom in his pocket, and since he was ambushed, that's where it would have to be. Will and/or Zach may have had an extra one, and there were probably extras in the plane (it is Brad's plane, after all), but I think Will wanted Gathan to bareback him, and that was a convenient excuse. It was a way to cement the trust issue between them. Further, Zach is into barebacking, and we now get a picture of him as someone who probably has a bit of a cum fetish. It was his idea to have a threesome with Will, so there's really no credible reason for him to be opposed to it.

Thanks for another great review. You make a good point about laying the ground work for the next story...which I'm doing. I love your points on Wade and Will heading into fun relationships issues, but I don't think they've cut themselves off from support networks. I think you're spot on about Wade's emotional inversion. The negativity around their breakup is probably subdued because Wade is a very private person, and because Matt has withdrawn into a shell. They probably are only talking to a few selected and trusted friends, and those friends are keeping their mouths shut.

What do you mean? It says sectionals. Are you blind? Note: this comment ignores that some edits were made to the chapter. ;-)

I don't think that's how the scene played out. ;-) Gathan said he didn't have a condom, not that there weren't any on the plane.

A sibling for Riley? We'll have to see. ;-) Emeline wasn't really trying to cause problems with Ethan, she was just trying to piss Elizabeth off. Wade did a good job of taking charge; not easy to do when you're 22, and still a college senior. There will be loose ends...it's inevitable. I can't close them all down like I did when the stories were far apart, and to be honest, you really don't want me to. ;-)

Thanks for that, and for posting an update in the forum. I need to rack up his count! LOL.

November 22, 2001 Goodwell, VA “When is everyone getting in?” I asked Nana, as I ate breakfast. “Around four o’clock,” she said. “I take it Ethan isn’t up yet?” I asked. He was a typical teenager, and rarely got up before noon unless he had to. “We’ll be lucky if he wakes up in time for dinner,” she said with a rueful grin. Not even Nana had been able to cure him of that habit. “I’ll make sure he’s up, and I’ll protect him from

I'll use this as a springboard to talk about Zach and football. I think that Zach has to make a sincere effort to look straight to the outside world, but I think that within his private circle, he can be relatively gay. As has been noted, there have been gay football players in the NFL, but they've been heavily closeted. It seems to me that if people 'suspect' they may be gay, that's not a big deal, as long as they don't 'know' they are. A fine line, to be sure, but I think that Will and Zach can walk it. I think the risk of outing Zach is a lot less than the stress on their relationship because of Zach being locked in the closet.

I'm so glad you did! I'm working on the next one, but these do take some time.

Right. Just goes to show what you know. That's why I have the most read story on the site. As far as boosting readership, I posted something like that in one of the threads, and hit on four things. I'll repeat myself. it's a snotty bitch thing. I think that it's less about the mechanics of announcements and banners, but more about the following: 1. Your stories have to be interesting. You're asking readers to take their time (which is valuable to them) to read what you write, so it better be worth the effort. If it really sparks a reaction, they'll comment in the forums or they'll review. 2. The grammar has to be good. The first one draws people in, but this one can drive them out. 3. You should be active on the site, and not just in your own forums or threads. If people know who you are, they're more likely to read your story. 4. Volume. You have to post consistently, at least until a story is done. Readers don't like being left hanging, and if they're trusting you enough to invest in your story, don't let them down by not producing chapters for them to read.

I think you're being really unfair to Will. He was a little caustic with Gathan and Wade, but they are effectively his peers, and based on the way guys sometimes interact, I don't think it was out of line. But I think he really gets kudos for how he handled Zach's deal with unsafe sex. He was more gracious about it than I probably could have been. Ethan isn't ready to be interesting yet. :-)

This will definitely change the environment at Escorial, without Isidore there to add some feminine grace, but I think it will be good for both Frank and Zach.

I liked the Uncle Kracker song: it was something different.

I think that Zach's success at football elevates him in Gathan's eyes, and that increased respect helps balance them out, so Gathan isn't the older brother looking down on his younger sibling with disdain. As for Ethan, I think he's just struggling to cope with all the changes in his life, and he keeps a low and inconspicuous profile as a result. Wade probably gets that, and doesn't push him too much.

I read your first sentence and thought "what's he going to bitch about now?" LOL. I use the term "Walnut Creek" as a generic area reference, because I can't bring myself to use Concord in that context. Moraga is too far toward the Bay for them, but Lafayette would be one prime option, while the other would be Alamo, in the foothills around Mt. Diablo.

I loved your observations in the last two paragraphs, but I'll focus on the more mundane issue you raised: speed of posting. I think that at this point, it's a good idea to keep things posting quickly, since we're basically dealing with clean-up/denouement. That means things have to be interesting, but they really can't be incredibly intense. In that situation, dragging it out just becomes tedious. Does that make sense?

Yep. That old smack upside the head deal with these people is sometimes what you have to do. This isn't the note the story will end on, but Matt and Wade's drama probably won't absorb much more of the storyline.

Sibling relationships are complex things, and I'm not convinced it's fair to lay all the blame on Wally's lap. Some of it, certainly, but not all of it. Clara dotes on Zach, so what influence she's had on things is another issue. Flash back to "Poor Man's Son" and the scene where Gathan leaves Claremont: you'll see that there was more to their relationship than there may have initially appeared to be.

I am sure that Zach knows the drill on birth control. Knowledge is not the issue here: behavior is. I'm one of those people who thinks that teens know the risk when they have sex without protection, but they just think they're invincible, and that it (pregnancy, etc) won't happen to them.

I think that Will is actually handling this thing just like Zach is: don't ask, don't tell. Neither one of them really wants to envision the other with someone else, even though they know it's part of the deal. Zach admitting he wasn't safe, whatever that means, was a great way to seal his relationship with Will. I think that we have to give Matt credit for being bright, and resilient. Just because he didn't pull his head out of his ass fast enough to save his relationship with Wade doesn't mean he won't get there in the end.

Well, I think the deal with Zach leaving New Jersey is pretty much as it's laid out. That's one of the problems with a billet family (which is what the Piehls are), in that if they have major changes in their situation, the kid they host may end up out on his ear. Zach looked at the situation and probably figured that with the coach's kid coming online next season, it was time to make a move. Frank and Isidore don't really have any major ties to keep them from moving a mere hour away for the school year. I'm sure Wally and Clara wanted to reel Zach back in, drag him back to Claremont, but Zach is already too independent for that.

Thanks for the review. I'm a man of mystery. ;-) I'm not seeing hope for Wade and Matt at this point. They are both too different, they've endured too much, and put each other through too much for them to just shrug things off and go on like nothing happened.

I didn't say that Will would be narrating the next story, but I imagine he'll make an appearance as one of the narrators. He won't be as big of a driver of that story as he has been of this one.

Thanks Kevin! Ethan isn't a big part of this story, but we did get to meet him. We'll probably see more of him later.