Mark Arbour

Welcome back!!! Sometimes I stumble into things and it just looks like good planning. ;-)

Smart boy. ;-)

Will may not be street smart, but he's bright about those things. If you think about it, after the event in Paris, and with an increase in security afterward, it makes sense that he'd know that.

Well, since Will has run away, and no one knows where he is, he's in control of who spends time with him and who doesn't. Tough to control those damn teenagers.

You were a bad boy. You'll have to share your memories with us some time! You also make some very good points. How interesting that I view that father-son bond as being so strong, and you view it as being so much weaker. What a strange dynamic that is! I think your analysis of where Brad and Will are was spot-on. The question is whether Will's assault will force Brad (and Robbie) to have an epiphany, or to just dig in their heels even more.

Thanks Sam. I think that Will's sense of family would have prevented him from embarrassing Brad and Robbie publicly. That kind of revelation may have hurt others (like Stef or JJ), and Will's attack on them was very surgical to avoid that kind of damage. I'm glad you like Will. 14 year old guys don't make for very compelling characters if you write them with the normal angst and moodiness that come with that age, but as I said before, I think he'll grow into one of my better characters. It's reassuring to me that you see that.

You raise some interesting issues that we'll see in future chapters. As for the boyfriend, well, I don't think Will's in an emotional place for that right now, and besides, I already did that with Berto after the Paris thing, and I'd get bitched at if I did it again here. That doesn't mean he can't get laid, though. ;-)

I do try so hard to surprise you. ;-) Right now, I'm working on a Blues win over the Kings. Will that shock you too?

LOL. Beware of wealthy Queens. Good words to heed.

Thanks! I like your quote! It's funny how, writing in this time frame, some things are very different, and airport security was one of them. As you noted, it wasn't nearly as intense.

Thanks Kye. I thought about running away a few times when I was that age, now that you mention it. Funny how that always seemed to be an attractive option at that age. I wonder if that's why so many teens do run away, and end up getting victimized?

You raise some good points, some that I've addressed in the forum or in other review responses. I do want to say that I don't think the damage here is irreversible, and I don't really think that Will does either. If he did, he would have left and gone straight to Escorial, and sought shelter in Stef and JP's powerful shadow. He didn't, he went to Hawaii, and that means he has a point to make.

I'll bet that Brad and Robbie were noticing how well Will responded to Martin (not getting that he was acting) and they decided that, indeed, they'd made a fabulously wonderful decision by hiring him, and that this should solve all of their problems with Will. The proverbial magic bullet. There wasn't malice in their plans, more of a single-minded need to triumph and win this power struggle.

I almost feel bad that this was a hard review for you to write. I appreciate how thoughtfully you did it. In many ways, I see where you're coming from, and I agree with you. As I said in the forum, though, i think that Brad and Robbie did adopt a 'corporate style' solution to the problem by hiring an expert and delegating responsibility to him. I'm sure they would have thoroughly vetted Martin, but that doesn't mean they would have discovered anything. That's the problem with people who prey on disturbed kids..the kids lack credibility when they complain, and if they shape up, the parents don't ask too many questions. Your approach to things is generally logical and direct, and I sense that you have a tendency to adopt a more traditional response to things, one that is less rebellious. I think that looking through Will's eyes, or Brad's, with that context, would probably make it more difficult to get why they act so psychotic. I'll bet you get Wade's perspective just fine. ;-) Sounds like Will overpaid significantly for his roofies and id. :-) We'll assume that either Pablo gouged him, knowing he could shake him down for the extra cash, or that Will paid extra in the hopes that his new identity would remain confidential.

Well I certainly have gotten some interesting feedback on this story in general, and this chapter in particular. It's gone from Will being the smart ass kid who should be dealt with in a more assertive manner, to Brad and Robbie are unfit parents. I don't think either is true. What I was trying to illustrate (and it appears I may have been successful) was just how complex and emotional father-son relationships can be, especially at that mid-late teen age time frame. I think that as it stands right now, Brad and Robbie will probably be shocked and amazed that Will has freaked out like he has. I really don't think they grasp that he's as upset about things as he is. And while some may think hiring Martin is out of character for them, I'm sure they did do a comprehensive background check, and I'm sure they found nothing. In the corporate world, when you have a problem and you're the boss, you hire qualified people and delegate responsibility to them. Isn't that really what they did with Martin? In their minds, Martin would be able to come in and help Will turn his attitude around, and get that chip off his shoulder. And he'd help make sure that the pole dancing in Rome or the whiskey fest on the float trip didn't happen again. Logical minds would argue that's nonsense, and raise issues that they should have known how messed up he was, that they should have spent more time with Will and Martin before leaving, that they were expecting a completely different reaction from Will than either one of them (and especially Brad) would have given. The problem with that is that in this situation, with feelings running at a high pitch, logic isn't the prime motivator, emotion is. Those are wonderful argument, and they're all true, but they're not going to gain any traction in that kind of environment. My personal experience is that when conflict is relatively sudden and very intense, it's actually easier to get beyond than a lower-grade animosity that festers for a longer period of time. I don't see the mortal damage to the relationships here that some of you see, because I think that the desire and willingness to forgive is an inherent part of the father-son relationship. Just my opinion.

Actually, the piano has been around since at least 1995. It featured in chapter 3 of "If it Fits".

Stef definitely weighs in on things. :-) He actually yells.

Thanks. Don't underestimate the willingness of people to forgive the ones they love. :-)

Martin probably has abused other kids, but that doesn't mean anyone would know about it. He's dealing with troubled kids here, which means that he'll snap them into shape and the parents may not ask too many questions. Visualize Will as less intelligent and strident: Martin would have had a few days to convince him that arguing and opposition were dangerous strategies.

A note on chapter 31.... This was originally a lot more intense, but with some excellent advice from my team, I toned it down a bit. I'd portrayed Will as psychotic, rather than enraged, and needed to be just a bit calmer. One part that I trimmed was Will cutting the shoes in half, but Sharon liked that part, so I put it back in. She usually gets what she wants.

I agree. Linkin Park. Finally. ;-)

Alright, I think it's reasonable to assume that this is drastic enough to give them all reason to pause and consider the situation.

Well, I think you will find that Stef shares your assessment, and is just as vocal about it. BTW, I'm not aware of language restrictions in the reviews, but then again, I've never been one to adhere to strictly to the rules around here. :-)

"I've been to the edge, then I stood and looked down.." Van Halen. You're right, they're at the edge of the abyss. You don't have enough patience for me to build up the Martin-Will battle anymore. ;-) This was already a very long chapter, and I would have had to extend it to cover that. Seriously, I think this will work out better in the end. Trust me.

October 14, 2000 Malibu, CA Will I’d spent the night planning for the worst, taking my dad’s words at face value. I got it now; I understood exactly what they were doing. They didn’t give a shit about whether the whiskey was mine or not, they were just using that as an excuse to bring a total crackdown on me. They’d hired this new guard, and he was going to try to turn my life into a nightmare. There was no way I was putting up with that, with living in a concentration camp. It p