Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Overkill

Ouch

Dear lord.

Yikes

The tri-weekly Mike torture continues

simpsons stop stop he’s already dead meme

Ohhh that last set of panels is so remniscient of December

holy SHIT dude

I mean, you’re right, but GOD DAMN

Ehhhhhhhhhhh, poor Mike.

Ooof damn don’t make me feel bad for him

Oh yeah, that’s a good point. He’s the one who wants to keep dating Sandy so this is unfair to her.

I was also thinking before this strip came up. Lucy has a tendency to string Paulo along when she’s at her lowest. I wonder if he’ll bring it up.

How did the song go again?

🎵Because I’m all alone. There’s noone here beside me.🎵

HAHAHA, MAY THIS REVELATION STING YOU WITH THE MIGHT OF A THOUSAND BEES, MIKE.

Oh my god James that’s brutal lmao

That last line is MERCILESS holy hell. Mike’s gonna spiral extra hard that Sandy liking someone else was his fault / what he deserved all along

Stop….stop…he’s already dead…

Mike should go home early.. and call Sandy. Thats his only support system rn. Hopefully she can console him between her updates about her day.

Well…damn

Harsh, but fair, but harsh. Longing for the alternate timeline where Mike stayed at the lunch table with the track bros and works on building up healthy friendships with people who aren’t “pining for him.” I know he struggles with feeling like he loses friendships because he doesn’t return their romantic affections, but it seems like he also needs to learn to let go of those kinds of friendships. I think that will also help him feel better about himself and his self esteem. Speaking from experience; it can be a long journey though.

Let’s call it as it is: Mike and Sandy are only together because they feel sorry for each other.

But to be fair, it was Sandy who begged Mike to give her another chance, even though he knew it was best for both of them to break up. (Read “On Call” and “Another Flame”)

Damn James don’t say that, you don’t even know Sandy. So you don’t know if she’s someone to even feel sorry for.

Meanwhile, James will pine over David. It is unknown whether David will care.

this is too much smh

Honestly, this page kind of gives evidence to the idea that James is quick to toss Mike aside because he was tired of Mike hanging around while he was trying to cozy up to David.

Like, yeah, maybe Mike has ulterior motives and is grasping onto James because he wants attention, but, let’s be real, James has very little concrete evidence of it to be *this* brutal about it. We, as readers, may know about Mike’s past behavior, but James has very little reason to jump on this notion this hard. If you’ve ever had a friend who ditched you as soon as they got a new gf/bf, it feels a lot like that sort of behavior. Selfish and immature.

We can argue James is having a knee-jerk reaction to Mike’s aggressive reaction to Augustus, but, I dunno. I remember high school pretty well, and high schoolers understand “talk shit, get hit” as a rule, even if it’s not recommended since you’ll get in trouble. In this context, it just seems like a convenient excuse for James to push Mike away.

Kind of is a parallel to how Mike threw Lucy aside as soon as Sandy texted him in December.

Man f##k James and Poor Mike hope things get better for him

“I feel sorry for your gf (who I tried to steal you from)”

Sure you do James, sure you do.

Ok I’m sorry James, but I hope David gives you a reality check next time.

You have no idea the history every single one of these people have.

So fricken narrow minded and black and white view

Okay okay, so Mike did need to hear how he has certain issues from the mouth of someone like James and all but that last line was absolutely brutal. dude what the hell

That hurts. Augh, James. Much as I find Mike frustrating and I DO think he has these bad habits being harshly pointed out, I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose. I think he’s at least partially willfully ignorant of the pain it can cause at worst. And it’s kind of plain to see why here and I can’t help but be sympathetic to it! Mike is sensitive and easily overwhelmed when looking these things in the eye. He’s quick to feel defeated by the weight of it and declare himself a bad person, not knowing where to start on changing and it feels hopeless.

The guilt is there, he doesn’t LIKE hurting people. He’s not a malicious kid. But he swings back and forth so wildly from a huge defensive temper and refusing to admit fault, to laying down and simply calling himself unworthy trash who deserves every bad thing. And nowhere in between either of those extremes is an intention to do better. Because when he’s angry, he doesn’t feel like he should have to or he’s done anything wrong, and when he’s feeling defeated, it just doesn’t feel possible. This kid just really needs help.

I don’t hate James for this though. While he is definitely fickle as we know, and this is rough stuff, it’s not necessarily his job to be picking the pieces up for Mike right now. And flippantly as he seems to cheerfully head inside with David, I think this dialogue reveals he’s got a lot on his mind right now under the surface and is pretty hurt by the implications of all this, seeing the recent behavior in a new light. The idea of Mike encouraging and enjoying his rejected feelings, or that his getting in the way of his attempts to move on and get closer to David has been intentional clearly doesn’t sit amazingly well with him. And I can’t reaaaally fault him for that. Even though it’s sad to see him be the one essentially kicking Mike while he’s down, I’m sure that’s not what he’s doing in his own head. Right now he’s focused on his own previously spurned feelings and can’t keep quiet about that, especially when Mike framed that request the way he did.

Don’t feel bad for Sandy because I don’t feel bad for Cheaters but that IS a good question.

It was delivered by the wrong guy imo but a good question indeed: DOES he expect people to pine after him forever?

Mike please for the love of god I wish you sat with your new track friends, they invited you and everything

alternative title for this chapter: mike experiences murphy’s law

And now Mike is forever alone.

Mike needs to get out of the black and white lens he goes into. It’s like he sees either things are perfect or they’re horrible. Lucy was his best friend but also his worst bully. These situations are full of context and based on perspective and he needs to hopefully see that. He hurt Lucy, and Lucy hurt him, too. I like this conflict though because you see this sort of mentality even play out in us readers, falling into a Lucy or Mike defender camp. They both acted out in this interaction. They both got physical and in my opinion that took it too far on both their ends. Even still, Mike definitely got socially dog piled, which in some perspectives is justified. He’s snapped at a lot of people for trying to give advice about Sandy, which I think is really that it challenges his perfect relationship image. He’s apologized for some of it at least, but still seems to struggle with correcting that behavior. And the situation with Lucy? It’s a big fat grey area where both of them were not great. The thing to also learn here, if he wants to develop healthier relationships, is it’s not justified to blow up on someone when they do something that hurts you - not if you intend to still have some form of friendship or reconciliation with them. There are other ways to communicate, though I don’t know exactly what that looks like at this point. In regards to lunch, on a totally different note, I genuinely worry about Mike not eating and really pushing himself on a sport. I know EDs are nasty work, and people can have them without even realizing. Maybe that’s a little bit of projection from me as a reader, but if the hints of him ignoring his hunger the past couple chapter are indicating he’s falling into that, I would be very concerned. Because of this black and white thinking, I feel that’s also why he went to a place of “I’m an awful person” when confronted by August before. But compounded with low nutrition and ED type thoughts? That sort of mentality is rough.

Ah so sweet… so delicious… finally… thank you Oliver, Veronica… so deserved, so timely… eat shit Mike how dare you hurt my sweet perfect angel

Woah, this is such a parallel to page 32 of December. How the tables have turned!

reading through all this, its so strange how here is Team Lucy but Reddit is Team Mike. The differences are staggering.

And yet I’m so scared to see what comes next.

Wiping a tear from my eye… it’s beautiful.

While I never had anything messy like this, boy am I glad I’m no longer a teenager.

James doesn’t know the whole story, but honestly? Why would he want to? I’d want to keep what sounds like a disaster of a situation far, far away from me.

I mean, bold words from a guy who was hoping Mike would cheat with him

James: Stop COCKBLOCKING ME, MIKE. GOD

now Mike gets to feel pain! Yay Drama!

Well shit.

“I feel sorry for your GF”, said by the guy who kissed the person in a relationship without consent..

So that’s it huh. Who has Mike got left now? Abbey?

I’ll admit it’s conjecture, but I get the feeling that James’ comments re: Sandy are because, as far as he can see, if Mike had accepted his advances, that’s the end of it, Sandy would just be hurt by a break up and that’s it, while what Mike’s been doing reads to James as more akin to, surprise surprise for this chapter, leading her on when Mike’s nowhere near as dedicated to making it work as he was trying to give the impression of. so I don’t think it’s supposed to come of as hypocrisy, I think James does have cause to believe that Sandy’s being treated worse than his plan to win over Mike did. it still sucked, but I can see why it’s not considered equivalent

This feels like such a perfect parallel to December; I hope Lucy is the one that breaks the cycle and reaches out to Mike when she realizes how bad that conversation must have felt.

Either that, or Paulo and Daisy drag Mike out with them and show him what a healthy relationship looks like.

Or Lucy’s mom notices his expression and talks to his parents??

I’ll take anything for the healing to begin!!

*trigger warning*

I really hope Mike doesn’t get the chance to do anything to himself, because he seems like the kind of person who would do it in such a way that he doesn’t leave a mess and maybe no one ever finds him.

OH GOD, WHAT IF HE GOES TO THE RIVER???

Also: this parallel works even better BECAUSE James is being so shitty and narrow minded. That’s exactly how Mike was viewing his relationship with Lucy in December!

He was ignoring all of the good parts of their past and focusing on the worst parts. Lucy was abusive and violent, but we’ve also seen that there were good times where they opened up and supported each other.

James had Augustus pouring poison in his ear the same way Sandy was on the phone with Mike back then; acting like there’s only one side to the story and that one person has to be to blame.

This is why black and white thinking is a trap; every situation has nuance, but you have to take the time to look for it. These kids are so stuck on finding the “perfect victim” that they’re turning themselves into the villains.