Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Wooow James is a L friend

Paulo remains my favorite god what a growth of character

Man James is truly a snake and I Paulo a real one he’s going to see through this bs and hopefully helps Mike

Yep, Paulo somehow became Mike’s best friend.

Gigachad Paulo

James seems to really be pissed about the whole Mike thing. Don’t think that Paulo will like James as much anymore…

Go get him, Paulo!

Man, I thought James was obsessive, but WOW, this is somehow worse. Someone find Paulo’s crown, king lost it somewhere.

These last couple pages have pretty much cemented James as pretty bad person lol. What a snake

Is it wrong that I’m suspecting James will say something truly wrong and then Paulo decks him across the face?

I think it was Paulo who dodged a bullet.

Crazy people have more smoke for James than Maishul.

Idk why people are saying James is a snake. He was right there, Mike not only didn’t worry about refuting anything he further made it look like the accusations were true by being violent. Combined with some weirdo behavior of his while he was insecure, he now looks extra guilty. I’m pretty sure James is reasonably distrustful and hurt right now and just doubling down on his crush and his crush’s friends.

Okay. I’m going to go out on the limb and say: Yeah I get it James. The guy you liked seemed like he was more preoccupied with getting you not to leave rather than be honest with his feelings or situation.

Just a reminder that Mike WAS FULLY READY to keep stringing James along. Why should James want to stick around seeing how Mike treats people. Mind you it wasn’t that long ago that Mike was trying to get Lucy back but NOW when she’s possibly getting in the way “she led me on”.

Good on Paulo for caring and being concerned because obviously Mike is going through shit. But it’s not James or even Lucy’s responsibility to help Mike through it.

Paulo go get your friendo…..:)

James is great as like, a friend group C person, yknow? That group you go to for casual talks and maybe sports but not the ones you go crazy with or a little less crazy with like in groups A and B. That casual/friendly acquaintance. I don’t blame him for being mad at Mike, but this is like…a crazy switch up. I know people have been calling him shallow, and he definitely is but this feels a little different somehow.

Anyways again, I don’t think he’s wrong for being angry at Mike after everything that just happened but this feels like he’s fuuuuullly planning on dropping him and if it were any other character I’d assume he’d start crap talking too.

Hmmm.. What has James experienced to react this coldly..?

I wonder if David actually considered what the rest of the table would think of this whole thing. At the very least, it looks like Paulo’s gonna have a problem with this.

I’m beginning to wonder if something about this whole Mike situation hits too close to home for James. Given his tendency to fall for people so easily, I’d totally believe James has been burned by crushes “stringing him along” before, keeping him as a “backup boyfriend” because they love the attention (though they never intended to reciprocate). He might have good reason to take this a little personally, or to think Mike was setting him up to be his new Lucy.

It’s nice to see Paulo is still concerned about Mike - and yeah, he’s probably the best person here to go check on Mike, all things considered.

I honestly think Paulo won’t go after Mike. I think he wants to, but he’ll remember his words to Lucy about dropping Mike in favour of her. Paulo won’t want to upset Lucy by leaving when she’s just come back to the table. I really think as much as he wants to see what’s up with Mike, Paulo is going to stay put, which will only cause Mike to spiral further when he realises he’s truly alone now

Wow, look! It’s the other table who told Mike he could hang out with them and he instead ignored! Lol

you know, whoever you’re sitting with for lunch shouldn’t really be that big a deal. this is what, 45 minutes, according to some of the author commentary? Mike’s already had plenty of time outside of that to hang out with others, and even if things with Lucy go back to roughly as they were with everyone else, she didn’t really monopolise anyone’s time. the only reason it feels like Mike is dooming about it is, well, he’s Mike. the signs were there (in some cases outright told to him) that he shouldn’t be relying on being friends with James that much, and now that’s come to pass. he still has everyone else, if he were finally able to get over the fact that not being romantically interested in him any more isn’t the end of that relationship for people who you haven’t been outright told are kinda flighty and hyperfocus on their crushes

I was confused why Paulo didn’t seem too thrilled about Lucy rejoining the table, but I guess their last few interactions have been pretty rough! Neither have really apologized for what they said, not in a way that counts. That makes me kind of sad — Lucy and Paulo had some of my favorite interactions in the comic. Maybe this will prompt them to actually talk and rebuild that friendship.

JAMES, YOUR WORDS STING WITH THE MIGHT OF 200 MILLION BEES.

Leaving *everything else* aside, James just found out a friend he confessed to and was rejected by has been clinging to him for an ego boost specifically because of the rejected feelings. He has every right to be upset and it’s a wild take that this makes HIM the shitty friend. James isn’t an idiot. He picked up quick that Augustus was there to fuck with Mike and he figured out Paulo/Daisy having a thing faster than Mike did. He has absolutely realizes the subtext of Mike chasing him and David outside, being jealous of James sharing something first with David, etc. Now factor in that James is just one of several people treated like this (he is in no way special to Mike! At all!! Except as an ego boost!!!), saw the violent reaction, and saw just how venomous Mike can truly be, it’d be bizarre for him NOT to be salty.

When you think about it, David pulled the same move Mike did in December: he unilaterally decided the speech’s subject would be isolated, assuming everyone would go along. That wrecked Lucy’s mental health, and it’s setting Mike up for the same. The difference is that Mike was deliberately cruel; David is, at best, oblivious and, at worst, callous.

Huh? How is Lucy able to still be a fast runner after she jumped off a building? that sort of impact would WRECK your tendons and ligaments? at the very least her hip and knees should be in bad shape and would need a lot of physical therapy for it

…but then again this is a comic about teenage cats in love like how Paulo noticed Mike isnt there!!!! YEEEHAAWWW MAULO LIVES ON

I’m a little confused as to why some folks are seeing this and immediately jumping to “I guess Paulo is gonna stop being friends with James now” ?? His concern for Mike is very understandable and sweet; that’s one of his best friends! But I really don’t get how this suddenly means he has to “choose” one over the other? Is this really all that different from how his relationships have been with Mike and Lucy for some time now? Even if those two weren’t talking anymore, he was still friends with both of them (Or at least trying to be).

I think it’s important to consider that from his perspective, James and Mike have been consistently hanging out for weeks now with seemingly no issues whatsoever, and all of a sudden, James is coming in to sit at their table, clearly upset at the mere /thought/ about Mike. Would that not ring any alarm bells? Especially when joined by Lucy; if I were in Paulo’s shoes, I would also be concerned about what just happened, but for ALL of my friends involved. It doesn’t have to be a situation in which expressing concern for one party means completely hating the other.

Especially since James has reason to be upset with Mike! Is he being harsh about it? Sure! But I feel like we’re forgetting that everything that went down on the track was probably less than 10 minutes ago in-universe; It is still fresh. But also they just got to the table, they haven’t even had the chance to Think about talking stuff out yet. I feel like some people are jumping the gun a bit because of feeling bad for Mike, and that’s leading to this idea of James needing to face some kind of “punishment” for being mad at him… It just puts a bad taste in my mouth, I dunno. Excellent page, though!

WEHHH GOOD BOY PAULO!!

Hey, I’m having a lot of issues loading the page, I can’t seem to get it going, I know it’s on my end but is there a fix anyone’s aware of?

I’m going to consider some arguments:

-James tried to date Mike, and was rejected. He saw Mike was having relationship issues and tried to give him something he considered better. Is that bad? Yes, sorta, but also he’s a teenager, I don’t think it was malicious. After Mike rejected him he stopped perusing him.

-I don’t think he moved on to David “too fast”. You’re allowed to have more than one crush, especially at his age. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to go “Oh, this person has set a boundary, but I very much like this person too!”. They didn’t break up, Mike flat out rejected any notion of romance, so he moved on.

-James has known Mike for a short period of time. He doesn’t know him as deeply as the others, and doesn’t know his history. All he knows is what he was just told, and his emotions for him. Mike suddenly is very clingy to him, even after rejecting him, then its explained and CONFIMED that he abused his friend, punched out someone else in front of him, and was told that he was using James as an anchor. He has every right to be angry and “not know” what’s going to happen. He’s hurt, angry, and upset right now.

-Paulo doesn’t know what happened outside. He just saw James and David, who were with him, come sit down. Mike is still his friend, he has no idea he just punched Augustus and admitted to his cruelty. He can be confused and still not blame either one of them for how they acted.

-Mike needs professional help, just like Lucy got. Lucy wasn’t perfect, but the difference between them right now is she got help and she is deeply practicing that help every time I see her. She is calmer, and her reaction to strike Mike was not one out of malice, but one to defend both herself and her friend. The look on the page after she hit him tells me she did not do it without thought, and how much she’s been trying to avoid him and ignore him when she cannot avoid him tells me she is no longer his antagonist, and the blame in THIS moment rests upon him.

She had her punishment, she hurt him, he left her, and she got help in the end. There is zero need to further disrespect Lucy or antagonize her by hanging around spaces she tries to create for herself. Even if it isn’t on purpose, he KNOWS he’s doing it.

TLDR: Mike sucks, James only half sucks, Lucy does not suck at all (anymore).

Another thought: I wonder if Mike is really confusing romantic / platonic relationships overall. He keeps insisting he loves his friends and it’s hurtful that loving them platonically “isn’t enough” because they wind up “leaving him.”

He gets jealous when his friends pay more attention to their crushes/partners than to him. He thinks Paulo and Daisy have “moved on” from him because they got together. It’s like he expects his friends to give him the same level of attention you’d get from a romantic partner, so he thinks they’re “leaving him” if he doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t want to kiss them, and “one-sided unrequited crush attention we call friendship” is what he got from Lucy for years, so he doesn’t see the contradiction.

It’s also why he brushes off the track team. They’re not doting on him like James did, so they’re not “friends,” they’re acquaintances. Friends are deep emotional connections and nothing less will suffice.

Really unhealthy thoughts in that little gray head of his.