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Audo's Blazing Summer



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Audo

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I plan to do a bunch of them so I figured I should make a thread for them. Here's the first entry. It's based on a novel idea I had, where this short story is a scene from it. It starts in media res, in a sense, but I think you can gather what is being alluded to. I was also told that I don't write enough happy things which was what lead to this lol. Anyway, here we go~


and i want you.
PROMPT: BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP
CONTENT WARNING: NUDITY AND STUFFS

Peyton and Dejan walked along a small creek. The water nipped at their ankles as they struggled to keep their balance on the rocks. They had ditched their shoes back at the tent, not wanting to get them wet. Above, the sun filtered through the branches of the trees and danced on their skin. Dejan watched Peyton in front of him, who seemed to be taking the entire Event incredibly cavalier and calm. Inside he was on the verge of screaming and crying himself and couldn’t imagine how any of them were reacting differently. Peyton was taking it all in stride and Shane looked practically giddy the morning after. Did neither of them really have any concerns? All Dejan could think about was what his family would say when he told them, if he told them. What would he even say? Was he gay? Or was this something else entirely?

He had never thought about it before. They all knew Peyton was gay, of course. He had come out in highschool. At the time Dejan didn’t think much of it. Nothing had really changed. Peyton still smiled the same, laughed the same, joked around the same. He was more vocal about guys, sure, but that never seemed to turn inward on the group itself. Shane, of course, had girlfriends all throughout highschool. Was he really gay, too? F*ck.


Dejan wondered if Peyton thought about him like that before now. Wondered if he was thinking about him like that right this very moment. Suddenly he felt self-conscious. They were both shirtless as they walked the creek, but now Dejan was made far more aware of the slight chub around his hips and stomach and the muscles that he could see beneath Peyton’s skin. He never really felt like he had to worry about how he looked, at least not in that sort of way, but now it was consuming him. What if he wasn’t fit enough to be gay? Was that a thing?


Peyton looked back at him then, concerned. “Dejan.”


Dejan forced a smile and subconsciously wrapped an arm around his stomach. “Peyton.”


“Do you want to talk about the other night?” Peyton said. “It must be on your mind.”


“Just a bit,” Dejan lied. “But I don’t think I want to talk about it.”


Peyton nodded and continued to lead them down the creek. All around them the forest was alive and disinterested in whatever drama Dejan felt. The birds continued to chirp. The wind continued to blow. The ants continued to travel. None of them gave the slightest f*ck that Dejan was amid a gay crisis. Perhaps that was to give him some comfort, show him how small and insignificant he and his problems were in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps he would smile and sigh and realize how foolish he has been, how liking boys was no big deal. Perhaps. But that’s not what happened.


They reached the end of the creek, where the water met with a large rock wall. A small waterfall poured down from above, cascading down the rocks and forming the stream they had walked. Peyton gave a weak smile before removing his boxers and setting them on a nearby stone. This too only seemed to cause further worry in Dejan. What if his dick wasn’t big enough to be gay? Was that a thing? His size had never concerned him before now. That’s all he seemed to have been experiencing since it happened — concerns, growing in his heart like weeds. He tried to remember that it didn’t matter. Peyton had already seen him naked, had already seen more of him than he would ever thought imaginable, really. Dejan stripped himself of his own boxers and walked to the waterfall.


Peyton closed his eyes and let the water fall over him, running down his chest and back and legs. Dejan followed the water’s descent with his eyes and blushed when it reached his friend’s crotch. It wasn’t the first time that he had seen Peyton like that either, but for some reason, he could feel his cheeks burn like they never had before. Peyton seemed to notice as he let out a small chuckle before grabbing Dejan by the arm and pulling him into the water. He placed Dejan’s head directly under the stream and then rubbed his hair and laughed.


“Snap out of it,” he said with a grin, letting his hands fall from Dejon’s hair to his shoulders, to his arms, to his hands. He held onto Dejan’s fingers, their bodies close and nearly touching. “Talk to me,” he said quietly.


Dejan’s eyes closed tight. “I’m scared,” he whispered.


He could sense Peyton nodding in the way his grip swayed. “You have every right to be,” he said. “This is all new to you. It is scary.”


“I just don’t know what it means. What I am.”


“You’re Dejan,” Peyton said. “That hasn’t changed. You’re still my best friend. Still a ridiculous cute Indian boy who studies business. Still funny and kind and generous and caring. Still love video games and anime and slushies. Still watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine obsessively and deep down think about joining the RCMP and making it better for people like us. Still listen to 50’s and 60’s jazz and big band music. Still close your eyes and feel the trumpets in your blood.”


Peyton kissed Dejan on the forehead. “You’re still you.”


“But how can I be? I never looked at guys like this. It never even crossed my mind as a possibility. But now I look at you and I want you. And that’s terrifying.” He opened his eyes and looked like he was about to cry. “And it’s not just that. I keep thinking about how much I want to hold your hand and fall asleep with our bodies touching and just like, holding you. I really f*cking want to hold you and kiss you.”


“Then hold me,” Peyton said. “Then kiss me,” he said.


“But it can’t be that simple, can it? How can I even know if any of this is real? What if it was just… getting caught up in the moment? And all of these other feelings are just born of me overreacting? Overanalyzing?”


“I don’t know. I don’t know how you will know.”


“Well, how did you know that you were like that?”


Peyton looked down and away, avoiding Dejan’s attentive gaze. He let go of Dejan’s fingers, letting his arms go slack by his side. “I never just knew,” he said. “It was never that easy. Even after I came out, I still sometimes found myself questioning it. Maybe I’ll always question it. Maybe things aren’t so cut and dry.” He sighed, and turned away, resting his back against the rocks. “Maybe one day I’ll meet a girl and fall in love,” he said. “Probably right when I feel like I finally have all of this figured out,” he added with a small laugh.


Dejan rested against the rocks beside him. Their shoulders and arms touched. “So you’re saying I’ll always feel like this?”


“No,” he said. “Not exactly like this. It’ll get less scary. You’ll feel less awful about it. You’ll stop, hopefully, thinking there is something wrong with you, and you’ll learn to just take it as it comes.” He turned to look at Dejan, who still looked so scared and helpless. “Sexuality is a f*cking mess, Dej. And you won’t ever just have it click and then that will be that. But you will always have me, and we can stumble and figure out this shit together, if you want.”


Dejan smiled and he held Peyton’s hand and his heart seemed to light up.


“So you’re saying it never just hit you like ‘wow I am so f*cking gay’?” Dejan asked after a moment.


Peyton laughed. “It did, actually, sort of. I mean I didn’t think of it like that, but after one point, it did kind of hit me. After a long time of worrying and feeling ashamed and scared and denying it. All of the sudden it was like all the doors opened up inside me. I looked back over my life and a lot of things made more sense. Like why I always felt warm inside when you fell asleep on my shoulder while watching episodes of 1960’s Batman. Or when we covered Shane’s chest in fake blood and cuts for that project. Little things like that, all throughout my life, made more sense. And I felt… happy.”


“Warm, huh?” Dejan muttered quietly.


“Hm?”


Dejan faced Peyton. His expression was focused and serious, even as the water sometimes forced him to close and squint his eyes. He brushed his hair back with one hand and pulled Peyton forward, slightly out of the water with the other. “Peyton,” he said. “Can I kiss you right now?”


Peyton grinned. “Always.”


Their lips met under the water and even then they could feel the fires burn inside each other. Dejan held Peyton close, their flesh against flesh, his hand firmly on his neck while another wrapped around his waist and pressed against his back. Peyton felt right in his arms, like they were two puzzles pieces finally connecting after years apart. He wondered what it would have been like if he had missed out on this feeling his entire life. This feeling where everything was warm and familiar and right. Dejan smiled against Peyton’s lips, and skin. He tasted like wild berries. They stumbled back against the rock wall, water pouring over them as they continued to connect and disconnect their lips, their hands, their love.


Eventually they broke away and rested their foreheads against each other, both of the boys all smiles and sparks.


“Well?” Peyton asked after a moment, still breathing slightly heavy.


“I never knew,” he replied, “that I had this heat inside.”


Peyton smiled. He wrapped his arms around Dejan once more.


And they held each other tight.
 

KingdomKey

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Awesome! :D Happy to see you're partaking in this contest as well! I really love your entry. It is really refreshing and light to read. Nothing sad about it. I like how Peyton was patient with Dejan about his crisis and helped him through it by explaining what it's like with his newfound sexuality. I also like how you used the scenery and placed them somewhere unique. I look forward to more entries and stories from you, Audo!
 

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Augh why haven't I been reading your stuff goddamn.

I really liked this too. This was a bit more polished than the other one I read this morning.
If you ever want help with the novel you diddlying call me man.

Some parts were a bit vague, like Shane just disappeared, so that was weird. Same thing I mentioned in Glad We Did This, a lot of he's so it's like which one who did that, etc.

The dialogue was strong, as was the narrative; a good clear voice.

Also wouldn't the waterfall kind of drown out some of the quiet voices? Just a thought.
 

Audo

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Augh why haven't I been reading your stuff goddamn.
Why indeed?
To help fix this CRUCIAL ERROR~
-I Wouldn't Have Minded
-[BIOSHOCK] Everyday Words
-[KH] How to Leave Organization XIII

This was a bit more polished than the other one I read this morning.
Which is funny because the other one is actually a second draft and this is a first draft, written-in-one-go kind of thing lol.

Some parts were a bit vague, like Shane just disappeared, so that was weird.
Yeah I think the fact that this is just a piece of a larger story makes parts like that stand out a bit more than they should, as technically, as a complete short story, it seems unresolved and off.

Same thing I mentioned in Glad We Did This, a lot of he's so it's like which one who did that, etc.
Always a struggle with same-sex stuff ><

Also wouldn't the waterfall kind of drown out some of the quiet voices? Just a thought.
Perhaps it wasn't clear but it wasn't like, a huge waterfall. Much smaller scale. But I'll pay close attention to that.
 
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Annoyance

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By polished perhaps I should have said "has less minor typos?" heh.

As for the water, I just imagine a waterfall high enough to fall over their heads, which would possibly create enough noise with the water falling into water. Juuuust loud enough that Dejan wouldn't be heard as clearly so he'd need to speak up.
 

Audo

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Welp. Looks like I won't have any more submissions to offer :(

I had a lot of ideas for stories for the contest/challenge but I just couldn't break that writer's block and actually write them.

Story of my life.
 

Annoyance

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Welp. Looks like I won't have any more submissions to offer :(

I had a lot of ideas for stories for the contest/challenge but I just couldn't break that writer's block and actually write them.

Story of my life.
Well you can always write 'em later. :v No one's stopping you right? Only you are.

Are you gonna try and participate in NaNoWriMo?
 

KingdomKey

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Welp. Looks like I won't have any more submissions to offer :(

I had a lot of ideas for stories for the contest/challenge but I just couldn't break that writer's block and actually write them.

Story of my life.

You'll get over writers block eventually. C: Besides, we'll have more contests and other stuff to partake in again soon. So seriously, I wouldn't worry bout it for now. Write when the mood strikes. Forcing it makes it harder, you know? And what you put in was awesome! Also, don't forget to write story ideas down, since you could always work on them more later too!
 

Audo

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Well you can always write 'em later. :v No one's stopping you right? Only you are.

Are you gonna try and participate in NaNoWriMo?
I forgot about NaNoWriMo. If I get back into the rhythm of writing, I think I'd like to do that this year.

You'll get over writers block eventually. C: Besides, we'll have more contests and other stuff to partake in again soon.
How soon? Truth be told, I'm doubtful I'll be sticking around in 2016. I'm considering going on hiatus to avoid KH3 spoilers until release, which would likely mean avoiding the forum as a whole. Do you guys do a Winter Contest at all?

So seriously, I wouldn't worry bout it for now. Write when the mood strikes. Forcing it makes it harder, you know? And what you put in was awesome! Also, don't forget to write story ideas down, since you could always work on them more later too!
Well, it's kind of gotten to the point where if I don't force myself to write, then I just wouldn't write at all. It's like exercising, right. I haven't done it in so long the muscles have atrophied. You don't really just jump into it again. You have to make yourself do it and keep with it so you can rebuild your strength up again. I'm just having a hard time with that. I'll write like once every few months, and it's never consistent. It sucks. Just... need to keep trying I suppose.
 

KingdomKey

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Audo said:
How soon? Truth be told, I'm doubtful I'll be sticking around in 2016. I'm considering going on hiatus to avoid KH3 spoilers until release, which would likely mean avoiding the forum as a whole. Do you guys do a Winter Contest at all?

Sometimes it takes inspiration or time to overcome writer's block. For myself, I still haven't written anything since the last contest we've had here on the forum. (Last year, I believe.) Therefore, I can't really be the judge of when you'll write next. My point being is to try to be a little optimistic instead of accepting total defeat, you know? I understand if you go on hiatus, since KH3 is a big deal, and most won't want to be spoiled on it. C: Yup, we'll be doing a Christmas Contest for sure. And the Halloween Contest as well.

You're right about writing being similar to exercising. Which is a great comparison, but just got to push through it sometimes, or find something else you like to do with your free time.
 

Audo

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a hypothetical ending to the hypothetical novel the first short story was meant to be a part of...


The carnival came to their small town every summer since 1992. Shane always appreciated that about it. While each year brought unforeseen change and strife in his life — friends moving away, people dying, parents divorcing — he knew he could count on the carnival at the end of every summer. It was a constant in the sea of variables that was his life. Distance seemed to grow in the cracks of all of his relationships and aspirations and goals, but there would always be the carnival and the cotton candy and the ferris wheel. It kept coming back to him. He needed that. He knew the others didn’t get it, or, perhaps even worse, they understood it and they simply didn’t agree with it anymore. Throughout highschool they would always make sure to go to the carnival every day it was here, but highschool had ended. It had ended a long time ago, it felt now. Would they even show up after everything that has happened? After all that was said and left unsaid? All those years it had never occurred to him, not really, that while the carnival would keep coming back, there was the increasingly real possibility that his friends would not. That eventually the cracks between them would expand into canyons and that would be it. The idea filled him with an immense and overwhelming sadness. He sat there, surrounded by laughing children and families and the sounds of park rides, and felt utterly alone.


A part of him knew that it wouldn’t work, that this summer wouldn’t have changed anything, but he knew that he couldn’t not try. Of particular insult in all of this though was the realization that the more he tried to hold on to what he used to have, the more he tried to keep their connections from tethering, the more it frayed and the more they grew apart. Had he not dreamed up this monstrous wild summer, wouldn’t they still be together now? It would have been different, of course. Things would have kept changing, and maybe the distance would always be there, but maybe his friends would’ve remained as well. The connections would have been faint, but they would’ve still existed. Now he felt he was looking at nothing but frayed ends connecting his heart to nothing and to nowhere.


He ran his hands through his short dirt-blond hair. Covered his face in his palms and tried to block out the light and the sounds. Useless. The children didn’t care about his crisis or that he still had no idea what to do with his life. That he still, after all this time, had no motivation or drive to go out and Be Something. They were too busy enjoying the moment to care about something as pointless as the future. All he had ever wanted was to go back, back to how things were, back to when him, Dejan and Peyton were inseparable. Longed to live back in the days of swimming under waterfalls, of carving their names into the sides of cliffs, of burning copies of The Catcher in the Rye. Farther back, still, to the days of sandcastles and blanket forts and making up constellations. Shane knew now that he could never go back there, and chances were, he had ruined any attempts to go there in the future. But where did that leave him now? Where could he go?


He jumped in shock as someone whacked him in the face with a bag of cotton candy. It was blue and pink and looked like clouds. Shane looked up at Peyton who let go of the bag once he was sure Shane would hold onto it. The large gash in Peyton’s face that stretched from underneath his left eye almost to his ear had been stitched up with neon pink thread. The sight of it made Shane want to cry, but Peyton just smiled.


“You’re thinking way too much,” Peyton said, sitting down beside him on the bench. “Way too much. You’re definitely the saddest, most pathetic clown in this joint.”


“Shut up,” Shane said, nudging Peyton with his shoulder. They both smiled, finally. Shane tore open the cotton candy and passed a chunk of the pink. Peyton pulled off thin strips of the wispy candy and ate it carefully. Sometimes he grimaced from the wound shifting slightly. “That’s a pretty bright colour,” Shane said, motioning to his stitches. They stood out bright and loud against Peyton’s dark skin.


“Deliberate,” Peyton muttered between mouthfuls. “The whole experience is a part of me now. I want people to notice.”


Shane shifted in his spot and took a large chunk of blue cotton candy in his mouth to avoid having to say anything.


“My boyfriend will notice no matter what colour it is,” Peyton said quietly. “Might as well embrace it.”


The candy felt too sickly sweet on Shane’s tongue, and dissolved uncomfortably in his throat. “What are you going to tell him?”


Without a beat, Peyton responded, “The truth.”


“Everything?”


“Everything,” he said simply.


Teens screamed from as the Zipper flipped them in the air from the other side of the parking lot.


“I don’t regret anything that happened, Shane,” he said, truthfully. “I don’t. I’m glad what happened that night. But if I lie about it, or try and pretend it didn’t happen, then that’s what it will become. A regret. A secret. Something to eat away at me.”


“And Dejan?”


“Dejan will do what is best for Dejan, as he should. He’s really scared right now — this whole thing is new to him — but he has his own choices to make about who and what to tell. And I don’t hold that against him.” Peyton put down the candy. “And you shouldn’t either.”


Shane resisted the urge to grimace, but could feel his cheeks burn in shame. “I didn’t—.”


“It’s okay. I get it.” Peyton glanced up at the ferris wheel off to their left. It moved slowly, methodically, against the summer day. “I always get you.”


They finished off the rest of the bag and tossed it in a nearby garbage can. All around them the fair was boisterous and alive. If they looked hard enough, they were sure they could see miniature versions of themselves among the children and teenagers like ghosts. Shane could be seen trying to win the giant stuffed Pikachu for Peyton at the basketball game. Dejan could be seen pulling Shane and Peyton against their will to the Zipper, only for them all to come out feeling sick. And Peyton could be seen not-so-subtly holding his friends’ hands in the Gravitron. They were surrounded by reminders of the time they had shared together, the years spent feeling wild and free among the attractions. Shane so desperately still longed to be able to go back then, to sharing his first kiss with Peyton in the Haunted House while Dejan led the charge fearless in front of them, to riding the ferris wheel with Dejan and talking about their true fears, to watching the carnival light up at night underneath a blanket of constellations they made up. For a moment, Peyton did, too.


The ferris wheel had always been one of Shane’s favourite things at the carnival. So often overlooked for the flashier and more daring rides, there was something he enjoyed in the quiet solitude of the ferris wheel’s permeations. Together they got into one of the seats and waited in silence until the wheel begun moving. The warmth from their touching skin balanced against the cool and pleasant wind. Shane wished for nothing more than the moment to continue on forever, for the ferris wheel to never finish circling around.


“I hear the carnival isn’t going to come back next year,” Peyton said.


“What?”


“Not enough business, or something. They’re going to go to Cranbrook instead. More of a draw.”


Upon seeing the look on Shane’s face, Peyton slipped his hand into his friend’s. He rubbed his thumb along Shane’s and when Shane rested his head on his shoulder, he rest his cheek against Shane. They sat there for a moment, watching the fair and the town come in and out of view. The sun was beginning to set and the sky shone in pinks and oranges. For the past ten years they had always ended their carnival days like this. Shane used to say that from so far up the future could be forgotten. Peyton would nod in agreement, but think instead of how much he wanted to travel as far as he could see up there. To keep moving forward. When they circled back to the ground, Peyton’s instincts was to run and experience all that he saw.


“Do you know what you’re going to do?” Peyton asked on their second trip around and up.


“No,” Shane answered truthfully. “I really don’t. I hoped I wouldn’t have to know. Or at least, that something would force me down one path over another. But that didn’t happen.” Peyton still smelled of the forest and smoke. “I feel like I’m at a crossroads with paths leading every which way, and no idea which to choose. No drive to propel me down any of them. No motivation to move on.”


“Shane.”


“I know. Okay, I know.”


“How many paths do you think I have? That Dejan has? You have so many choices yet choose none of them.”


“It isn’t that simple.”


“I know you don’t think it is,” Peyton said. “But you also have the luxury of not having to have it all sorted out. You don’t have to make the immediate right choice, but any choice would be better than what you’re doing now. How you’re feeling now. You could pretty much choose anything you wanted and even if it didn’t work out, you’d be okay. You’d have a safety net. A place to come back to and a family who would support you and bail you out of whatever f*ck ups came your way.”


The sky was redder now.


“It’s just frustrating,” Peyton said. “I love you, but you’re stuck. And no matter what I tell you or how I try to help, you’ll always be stuck. And that’s what this whole summer was about, wasn’t it?”


“What do you mean?”


“Your great plan wasn’t for us to having one last summer adventure together. You weren’t trying to get me and Dejan to help you move forward. What you wanted was to get us stuck. Stuck here with you so that you didn’t have to move on or grow up or change.”


The needles returned in Shane’s throat, but he kept silent. The ride was almost over.


“I know the future is scary and change is scary and growing up is scary.” Peyton squeezed Shane’s hand tight. “But isn’t staying here more scary? Isn’t stagnating and rotting and dying more scary?”


The ferris wheel slowed to a halt. The ride attendant undid the fasteners on their seat and Peyton let go of Shane’s hand. He rose to his feet and looked back on his best friend.


“Can’t we go again?” Shane pleaded.


Peyton shook his head. “Dejan is waiting.” He motioned behind him where Dejan could be seen leaning against the concrete wall that bordered the area.


“I’m not ready to leave yet.”


Peyton outstretched his hand. “C’mon, Shane,” he said. His eyes were searching, hopeful, underlined by the neon pink stitches marking Shane’s mistake.


Shane knew that this would be a moment he would look back on. A moment where the crossroads was lined up clearly in front of him. Take his hand and move on, or stay behind, again.


After a moment, Peyton withdrew his hand. His eyes were sad, disappointed. The ride attendant came up to them both, annoyed. “What’s it going to be?” he asked Shane. Peyton began to walk away, back to Dejan, and Shane knew for certain this was it. He looked up at the ride attendant.


“Just once more, please,” Shane said.


The fasteners were retightened. The ferris wheel refilled. And up Shane went. He watched as Peyton and Dejan disappeared into the distance.


And he was alone again.
 
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KingdomKey

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This felt real on so many levels that it's mind blowing. I'll admit, somewhat a sad hypothetical ending for the hypothetical novel you're writing to say the least. However apart of me wants to read more and know more about the backstory of Peyton's stitches. I get the subtle hints of what it could mean, but I imagine there's a whole lot more to the story. Otherwise, this hit me hard so much. I know what being stuck and not knowing where to go in a crossroad is like; of not knowing what you want and missing the past like that. I imagine the same could be said for a number of people out there in the world. Peyton offering him a choice and refusing to go with him felt like a slap to the face a little. Therefore, I enjoyed reading this a lot and it was fantastic.
 

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Well this is some honest piece of work here! The first half, I identify with it strongly especially right now in my personal life (I won't get into it on here, but let's just say I identify strongly with Dejan), so for that I say get out of my head! Haha

But it is honest and you're getting into an array of themes all in one from sexuality to nostalgia to relationships in general. This inner monologue in the first half though where you say "What if his dick wasn’t big enough to be gay? Was that a thing?" I lol'ed so much.

I especially loved this line in what you wrote in the first half:

Peyton looked down and away, avoiding Dejan’s attentive gaze. He let go of Dejan’s fingers, letting his arms go slack by his side. “I never just knew,” he said. “It was never that easy. Even after I came out, I still sometimes found myself questioning it. Maybe I’ll always question it. Maybe things aren’t so cut and dry.” He sighed, and turned away, resting his back against the rocks. “Maybe one day I’ll meet a girl and fall in love,” he said. “Probably right when I feel like I finally have all of this figured out,” he added with a small laugh.

The dialogue between the two characters here is so venerable, it's quite terrific, this novel of yours will be a real page turner that for sure, you have a strong voice in your writing!


And then as soon as I started reading the second half, I instantly thought of Catcher in the Rye & then you went on to say this:

Longed to live back in the days of swimming under waterfalls, of carving their names into the sides of cliffs, of burning copies of The Catcher in the Rye.

How cool is that? Haha

And then you started doing this writing technique in the second half, I know there's a name for it but it can be best described as having your setting involved in the dialogue as a way to bring out the characters emotions instead of describing it to the viewer, an example is when you did it here:

The candy felt too sickly sweet on Shane’s tongue, and dissolved uncomfortably in his throat. “What are you going to tell him?”

Without a beat, Peyton responded, “The truth.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” he said simply.

Teens screamed from as the Zipper flipped them in the air from the other side of the parking lot.

“I don’t regret anything that happened, Shane,” he said, truthfully. “I don’t.
I’m glad what happened that night. But if I lie about it, or try and pretend it didn’t happen, then that’s what it will become. A regret. A secret. Something to eat away at me.”


I love that incorporation! Excellent job, keep it up!
 
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