Hermetically Sealed

Not just that, but why so "rabid" over a new school? Is it really that unusual for new schools to pop up? We seem to get new private academies ever few years with little if any fanfare. Is there something particularly salacious about this one opening? I'm genuinely wondering, as I feel I am missing something.

Gonna agree with other; the protagonist does not seem to be that good of a parent either. He claims he doesn't have the time to be a parent, what with his busy job, but has time to remodel a warehouse with his buddies. His son is missing, but does nothing but tell police and tell school before turning his phone off and working on his side project. One would think he'd go to the effort of at least canvasing areas with his son's photo to find leads. Iono, both parent's seem bad in different ways.

I would think if anyone was messing with will stuff, it'd have to be family. Tyler's mom would have nothing to do with a will, as they were divorced and Tyler is an adult. Now his aunt or dad's other s/o that abandoned him, on the other hand. I could see the them throwing a wrench into the works.

I really don't understand the frustration or anger being directed at Tyler. Has no one ever seen an abusive relationship before? Has no one actually seen how real world abusers operate? Tyler's entire life has been a set up for low self esteem. Abandoned as a child by one parent, growing up in poverty, being gay in a fairly conservative area; isolation is his base starting point. Tyler is still new to socializing, he didn't really have friends growing up, he's always learned to keep people at a distance, and his experience with dating is exceedingly limited. Recall that he was only just starting to gain some confidence when he met Alex. Alex knows that Tyler is already afraid of opening up to people, that Tyler always has doubts about his own abilities, or about others' sincerity. He's able to easily isolate Tyler simply because Tyler was already one step in that direction to begin with. After all, if your own parent has no problem with walking away from you, why is it so hard to believe that people you barely know would do the same to you? Alex merely vocalizes what Tyler feels about himself. I can understand the sections being painful to read (One would hope it from a sense of empathy). Watching someone in such a situation is never easy, but to simply heap shame and blame on the victim is to perpetuate it's continuance and fail to understand why the situation occurs. Not to mention that it is always easier for people outside of a situation to claim what they would or would not do while sitting in the comfort of their spectator's chair.

This is pure victim blaming. It is attitudes like this which further isolate victims in abusive relationships, as it just heaps further shame and self doubt upon the victim.

That's not really a fair statement. He's clearly in an abusive relationship. Beyond the fact that his upbringing did a number on his confidence and social skills, Alex has manipulated him, using his insecurities and inexperience to control him. To assume that everyone should be able to extricate themselves at the slightest provocation assumes everyone has the exact same coping skills, which simply is not realistic.

Something tells me an outsider informed mom specifically to stir the pot.

I don't think Richard's personality is so flip flopping, as Richie's perceptions. Remember, nearly the entire story is purely Richie's opinion of what is going on. He is the one who prescribed motives, and interpreted events. As he's learned more about past events, his views (and the telling of the story) have shifted along side them.

Well, technically Freddie and Harley are nothing to Andrew. They're just baggage that came with the new bitch that sperm donor has been playing house with. Umm, technically they are his step brothers. You are basically demanding that Andrew and Richie punish them for something their parents did. Like it or not, they are step brothers now. The two younger boys don't get the nuances of the situation, and punishing them for something they had no say in is wrong. This vitriol towards both Harley and Freddie is fairly unwarranted.

I think people need to keep some perspective on what Richie is dealing with. To start off, lets remember he is 15 and was about 12-13 years old when his father walked out. His first time meeting his "step family" was by accident when he saw his father with (what Richie most likely felt) was his family's replacement. At that same age, he was having to take care of his younger two siblings and his dying mother. That is a tremendous amount to place on anyone, much less someone barely a teen. Two years of carrying that burden nearly alone, and his father suddenly decides he's going to be in their lives again, goes against his mother's wishes and moves the "replacement" family into Richie's home and forces the children to stay with him, rather than their aunt and uncle. He does this fully expecting everyone to act as if nothing had happened, then gets angry and physical when Richie fails to just play along. Yeah, it isn't surprising Richie has made many objectively bad choices. But, he was also dealing with inordinate stresses, while not getting the mental health support he needed. Add on the situation with Wade's death, literally weeks after his mother died and his father decided to bully his way into Richie's life, things cannot rationally be expected to go well. Keep in mind, this entire story from his mom's funeral to now has only been maybe a month, month and half. In a perfect setting, yes, Richie is being an ass. In context of what he has been dealing with, and the age at which he has had to, I cannot in good faith make that same determination.

. . . . . i like Writing for Joe . . . .

Probably because like many victims of rape, he blames himself for what happened. It is not uncommon for rape victims to feel they brought it on themselves, that if they tell others will blame them, discard them, be ashamed of them. His reaction is actually pretty textbook.

You might go back a reread the beginning of the story. the whole back and forth in the beginning, jerking Noah around emotionally, jumping in to date his best firend in an attempt to kind of prove himself, then dumping her so he could date Noah. He was not over Noah when he started to date Brody, hasn't exactly been honest about it, and as soon as he saw Noah started basically trying to work getting Noah closer. I think this constant anti-Noah rhetoric tends to ignore Jordan's own problematic issues. If anything, the revised version has kinda made Jordan less of a using jerk than he was in the original, but he's still kinda is. Frankly, I find both of their flaws make them kind of better characters. They're young, they're naive, and they are both making horrible mistakes, but at the heart of it the are neither bad people. They just don't have the luxury of witnessing their actions from a safe spot outside.

Oh, snap!

One of the nice things about having read the previous version is getting to see the changes. I appreciate the expansion on the home scene. Can't wait to see what you do with the rest. ^^