Bittersweet Candy Bowl

eh, I don’t think she’s going to hit him, but after Double Down you can’t say she’s completely changed. she still resorts to violence when pushed too far

She’s not relieved, I think she’s frustrated and also the fact he’s basically revealing all this without her consent.

He’s basically violating and breaching her trust and boundaries

Had to go back and check. Yeah, true, a slap IS wrong, though as bad as it sounds, I think she respects Augy more than Paulo… but who knows!

To Rocky: The extreme words you choose to use are deliberate to make it all sound more extreme than it is. To me it doesn’t sound grounded. I’m sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️

yeah, I agree, which is why I don’t think she’s going to do that. just not completely discounting the possibility

if anyone throws hands, I’m looking at Mike. he’s not got much left to lose at this point

augustus is a little overzealous at this point i fear but he’s got the spirit. no more hiding from the drama!

Lucy’s not doing anything wrong, I’m pretty sure she’s hating this as much as Mike is.

Augustus can go kick rocks though, I’m surprised that many people are still heralding him as the bodyguard of the century when he’s blatantly betraying her trust and making her relive one of the most traumatic nights of her life all because he’s spiteful that Mike went back on his word over a boundary that Lucy never asked him to initiate in the first place.

i wonder if mike even fully knows why mike said what he said! mike has tended to center it all around sandy—even his realization that lucy’s physical bullying was bad (sandy got upset repeatedly hearing about it). in eternal flame he seemed eager to throw lucy’s past violence to the wayside and she had to point out to him again how unkind she was. mike’s own self awareness is definitely at play in what happens next too but given that he is mentally unwell, i am not very confident about it. maybe david will chime in with his weird moments of observational insight? who knows

That’s honestly a fair point. Even at the time he often would rationalise Lucy’s behaviour with stuff like “i was kinda a jerk to, so i had it coming”

I’m eager to see what happens next!

I don’t get why people get so bent on the physical aspect. They started when they were super young kids and it was mutual. They even did martial arts together. They got older it became less cool for Mike to be involved with physical contact and Lucy started hitting harder with age. Their relationship wasn’t abusive, it just needed to evolve. He could have said stop at any time, and by the fact she left his life without much fight he could’ve just left in general with no issues. I’m really unsure where the abuse aspect ever comes in.

Abuse victims will often try to rationalise the abuse if it’s from someone they care about. “That’s just how Lucy is” was a phrase often said back then.

There are many psychological reasons why a abuse/bully victim would not speak up, that doesn’t suddenly make it okay.

If you would get send to court for beating someone up on a regular basis i don’t think the “but they didn’t tell me to stop” defence would get you far

The fact that they did martial arts honestly makes it even worse. I know for a fact that if i did what Lucy did and my martial art teacher would find out he would not only ban me from his class but go out of his way to make sure i’m not accepted anywhere else.

Good martial art places are very strict on the “don’t use what you’re taught here outside unless in self-defence” policy

i’m on the in between! i agree that their relationship wasn’t abusive but it certainly was toxic. abuse denotes a dynamic of power and control—i don’t feel that lucy or mike ever had a consistent power dynamic of one over the other. they were both kids doing the kid thing of fighting, boundary pushing, and working out their insecurities and bad behaviors (lucy with physical rough-housing way past the point of developmental appropos, mike with boundarylessness that hurts others and himself). and now they’re doing the growing up thing where Consequences Happen, patterns get broken, and new identities start to form. they’ve engaged in bullying behaviors towards each other, but it is not cut-and-dry! this is a bit armchair-y of me, but i think a lot of readers identify more with mike or lucy depending on what kind of kid they were or experiences they had (me included)! which leads to some intense responses or thoughts on their dynamic. but both are just teens with a lot of problems right now. all that to say: vero does a fantastic job of writing teenagers!

I do think if Lucy was going to stop him from saying it, she would have. But I dont think Augustus is done, especially if he knows about lucy and mike kissing under the tree just for him to go back to Sandy.

My man, it’s not that extreme as you make it to be. Did you have a similar situation? I’m sorry if you did

It really depends on what is and isnt public info at the school, which Im having a hard time discerning myself. But it is absolutely a huge deal to announce someones suicide attempt and institutionalization to relative strangers, no matter your age.

you might be right, but we haven’t seen quite what lucy’s full reaction is yet, nor her full motive in trying to stop augustus! we know she hates being babied for sure but i have so many questions! is some part of her still trying to protect and comfort mike? it remains to be seen…

Not to mention he isn’t doing this for Lucy.

He’s basically violating and breaching her trust SO HARD

AND IN A PUBLIC PLACE WITH OTHER PEOPLE

Also a wild theory, Aug will use this to isolate Mike from James as a new friend, leaving him vulnerable to Alejandro and Toby. Alej’s line from Chapter 40 “Moving On”, “Green eyes will hear from me soon enough. Him and his little girlfriend” got me thinking this is a likely possibility.

this comment made me ugly laugh out loud. thank you for this

me too, i am VERY curious what is going on with lucy rn. also wonder what the significance is that her trauma dreams lately don’t include mike? i fear a reveal is coming…

Augustus literally asked him to let her just have the track during lunch. Lucy wanted space away from him. Mike decided and we see this in the chapter THAT HE CHOSE TO IGNORE THE REQUEST AFTER AGREEING TO IT.

Augustus is reminding Mike what happens when you go back on your word.

things that happen: outing someone else’s PRIVATE MEDICAL DETAILS in the name of protecting them and to guilt trip someone else.

no. what Augustus has done here is disgusting. this isn’t about Lucy any more, he’s just out to hurt Mike and doesn’t care about the collateral damage

Augustus is dangerous close to saying “isolate yourself for Lucy’s comfort”. It may seem like a small, non-issue, but if Augustus was at the arcade, do you think it would’ve end well?

👏🏻

Augustus did nothing wrong~

I agree. To say out loud that someone has been to the psych ward IS crossing a line. That information is private. Even if Augy trying to protect Lucy and cross a point really hard to Mike, that info should not be said with more people around. I still think Augy is going too far because of Melanie and because he never had a true friend before, but he does need to learn that he’s not executing this well at all. :(

Yeah, it’s definitely not okay. Unfortunately, given how he grew up and the gang, I think he just doesn’t know any better yet. No one’s ever told him where the line is, but he’s definitely messing up big time.