Sometimes I reread this and Take No For An Answer and they're both so good at tugging at the heartstrings. I should prolly re-read Rubaiyat as well.

I felt compelled to write a review for this story. I liked Marcus and I really liked seeing him and Skip together. As for Skip, my heart really bled for him. I hated every single one of the side characters in this story! For his entire life, all anyone has ever done is turn their back on him and betray him. Starting with his parents, always watching him to make sure he didn't turn out like him (his bio dad), making him feel worthless and essentially kicking him out so they could focus on their "real" son, the one that mattered. They didn't even let him know he had a little sister! They're disgusting.
I think the only person I hated more than Skip's parents was Dwayne. He let Skip be accused of rape and stalking and get expelled and didn't do anything to stop it. He was probably glad when Skip was out of the way so his path to Gabe was clear. And he had the audacity to punch Skip in the face and possibly break his nose! Of course, Skip just kept defending him because he never sees anyone else as a bad person. He always thinks he's the problem. The two of them never talked like proper adults. Dwayne just held onto this grudge for the past 10 years. He had Gabe and everything else he ever wanted but he still thought of himself as a victim of Skip. He was telling Freddie that Skip was toxic and whining to his therapist about how horrible Skip is.
Simon was alright. I wish he and Skip had had a chance to talk years ago. They deserved closure. Dwayne, being the massive interfering interfering asshole that he is, stole that from them. I really wanted Skip to punch him back. After watching a boy wrongfully get expelled from school and doing absolutely nothing to stop it, he has some nerve acting like he's the victim. Just die Dwayne.
Gabe wasn't much better. He and Skip were incredibly close their entire lives. But after the debacle with Dwayne, he never tried to talk to Skip and get his side of the story. He just got with Dwayne and cut off Skip out of his life like he never existed. Also, he apparently he kept in touch with Skip's parents and knew they had another child, but never bothered to tell Skip. Nice. Go jump off a bridge, Gabe.
I really disliked Patrick. At first, I though he was great. He was a nice guy and a really good boss. He was the only person that seemed to see Skip as a worthwhile person. I was really happy for him when he got with Simon. But then. Skip misses one day of work and doesn't call in. Patrick is so massively pissed that he doesn't even want to talk to him. Instead he says I'm going to watch a movie with friends and I don't have time for you. What the hell kind of man says that to another person?! Not only is he implying that he and Skip were never really friends in the first place, he's making him seem like he's nothing to him. Less than nothing. I really wish Patrick had gotten into a car accident and gotten horribly maimed. What a piece of shit.
So you're a pretty talented writer to bring out such strong emotions in your readers. But on the other hand, the majority of readers (read the reviews) hated all your side characters. You might want to work on that in future stories. What makes it worse is that none of these despicable people faced any sort of punishment for their actions. They're all just going on with their merry lives, thinking that Skip is a rapist and a user and possible sociopath, never seeing how they themselves are the problem. I'll be thinking of this story for a while. Good job, I guess.

I do really love this story, just the pushy people part frustrate me as established, my favourite section is al the bits of getting together. In the end I think I liked all the characters even if some were still annoying...

Thank you again

Urgh, I hate you (I really don’t) because I can’t hate these characters. They complicated enough that I like them.
Sorry about the harsh rant in the last comment from me? I just had couple of frustrating days and it may have bleed through?

Still thank you

...I’m rereading this currently. I don’t recall getting this irritated over people being so pushy and dodgy...but I really really am...Skip just gets thrown around and I don’t think it’s funny...Marcus is the only clueless one. Either way that forcing people into action thing feels very non-con. It’s not even sexual...but your writing I like it and I definitely like your pairings, most of all Skip and Marcus but I still feel torn...but I get it makes the people more realistic, but I’m also very biased towards Skip, so I get super frustrated. And sorry this rant was probably not constructive criticism. Still...

By the end of it I’m grateful as I’ve been the first two rounds around- I think I actually appreciate it more now. I still enjoy it, even if it drives me crazy. So, thank you for sharing it

Jfc the way this whole stripping of Skip's dignity and whoring his drawings was dealt in such a contrived, shallow way it simply killed the entire story for me. Sorry, I can't read anything past Marcus agreeing with Roxy that it was fine and dandy to emotionally rape Skip AGAIN just because his drawings were "good". These people have all treated the guy like shit and don't care for him at all, and now the supposed lover sees him as less than a person too. Nobody even THINKS of apologizing at all and that's seen as natural and the correct way to deal with people. Sorry, it's not.

Holy shit this story is chock full of the most disrespectful, selfish, shallow assholes ever. Everyone but Skip, Angel and maybe Marcus is straight out of the Kardashians. Horrible people all of them.

Finally I finished this story in just a day , I was morbidly fascinated by it. I really love Skip and even Marcus is acceptable but all the friends are so pathetic, I hate each one of them but Gabe and Dwayne( sorry I forgot his name) are totally disgusting,petty and selfish. I wanted some acknowledgement after Dwayne confession about Skip, Gabe to feel alittle something for his old friend but there was just nothing. Then I thought maybe it's been so many years, they don't even think about Skip anymore, but God Gabe did bitch about skip at any opportunity he got, even to that Freddie guy and Dwayne attitude was totally wrong, in almost ten years he never get the chance to clarify anything and his bad attitude just left it hanging there for everyone to see that he was the wronged one,hell skip was even expelled and everything involving his parents and Dwayne still had the audacity to feel offended. And in the last chapter, how it is showed that gabe and his boyfriend were even part of his family teared me up. I really want them to suffer. I know Skip was not perfect in any way but the way everyone around him treated him like a trash , no wonders he was so messed up. Simon was at least tolerable as he had something to get angry over but he was least of all the mean ppl around. And I was thinking, that Dwayne had to go to therapy again to tolerate him when they started sharing the same friends circled but the way he backstabbed Skip with the phone calls showed the lowness of his character. I just hate him so much.
Lastly I did enjoy your story, no other story on fictionpress has made me feel so indignant and angry about the characters and I have never cried with anger over the injustices faced by the MC so thanks for writing this story. And I am giving Gabe and his bf a really bad ending in my mind so I can enjoy the ending overall.

Wow, every single "friend" Marcus or Skip had is an utter asshole. Each one except maybe Isaac are manipulative, controlling, whiny, pushy and in the case of Roxy a delusional thieving bitch. Marcus had it right when he told Skip his friends had all let him down. They all continue to do so in their self serving way. Marcus should have kicked every person out, taken down the art and helped Skip, but once again every other person is a waste of space trying to manipulate and push him where they really should back off. They are horrible people.

So far I've really enjoyed this story. Skip is a very relatable character, though I wish he'd tell Patrick off. I would have dropped Patrick completely as a friend after all the manipulation he did. He's definitely not a good friend.

I have no words

I'M IN PHYSICAL PAIN

Oh my God, they're just horrible people. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I'm screaming. I'm wishing death upon people that don't exist. Skip is a beautiful angel child compared to these hellbeasts.

I hope Marcus runs over all these people with a bus and takes Skip away somewhere fluffy. Seriously, all of them are literal shit. Apparently, that includes Patrick. Why do you want me to hate all but two of these characters?

Up until the change in tone I felt really sad. I don't even know how to explain it. Skip being Skip. I didn't expect this story to go the way that it did. It had very melancholy moments and chapters and chapters that left me almost crying. Sounds weird right? Skip is definitely misunderstood but I'm honestly glad Marcus called him out on his bullshit.