Bittersweet Candy Bowl

no, Sue does not know the whole story

she does not know anything about the abandonment issues or the issues differentiating romantic and platonic relationships that have been eating at Mike’s mental state. he’s only confided in Paulo about that

she does not know anything about the problems at home. of anyone in the school, only Haley would know anything there

she does not know what just happened, and is now blocking attempts by others to ask what just happened

even if you were to limit it to just Lucy’s side of the story, she doesn’t know everything there either, because she’s asked for more detail back in It’s All in the Mind and Lucy refused. even beyond that she doesn’t know anything about the nightmares

people are concerned about this because it’s pretty clear Paulo has picked up on things that may require intervention. and “now is not the time” very quickly turns into it never being the time. seriously, do you think Sue of all people would give Paulo the time of day if she didn’t have to?

I’m worried that it might cement Lucy’s thought process that Paulo only cared about her solely because he was attracted to her. Now that Daisy and Paulo are an item, who’s to say? I do hold out hope that Paulo’s newfound level-headedness that he’s shown so far being with Daisy pushes him into not making any hasty decisions.

It’s also been an entire year and so much has changed between all of them. The previous year I 100% think Paulo would have cut off Miek, now though?

Honestly, were we expecting it to happen after their last talk?

She got physical with him, so is it even expected he was going to keep his word after that?

To be fair, even if they had a pretty nasty confrontation in Double Down. Paulo /did/ go to Lucy for advice about Daisy’s strange behaviour after the cinema, and that’s not exactly something you’d ask someone that you don’t care for, distrust or even entirely dislike. And things seemed to be /at least/ tepid in Rain Check, with Paulo acknowledging he didn’t behave well towards her (though he also made it clear he wasn’t comfortable & seeing Lucy was making it worse, something she is shown as VISIBLY remorseful about and tried to make their interaction as brief as possible when ordering).

Though Lucy also recognises her lashing out towards Paulo as uncalled for, she has had a /ton/ on her plate. And I feel like her good nature has shined through by deciding to be Daisy’s confidant and helping her talk out her feelings (which yay! Paulo heard and now best ship sailing so far!). Does that mean Paulo’s indebted to her? No. Did she still do it out of the kindness of her heart, no strings attached? Yes. Does that mean they’re BFF’s forever? Not exactly, it depends on what either of them are willing to forgive and forget.

Lucy and Paulo know how volatile and stubborn both of them can be, how prone they are to lash out because both of them press each other’s buttons. They both come to regret what they both say when they’re wounded, but Lucy was forcing herself away from the group (and therefore shutting down a LOT of much-needed communication) and Paulo wasn’t exactly willing to show up in the way Lucy needed to truly open up entirely. BUT DAISY KNOWS! Daisy knows that Mike has messed up with Lucy again, not explicit details but implicitly. So I’m very keen to see how she handles this, and I’m actually excited to see how Paulo and Daisy navigate this. They’ve shown to want to be a team, and I’m quite eager about what’s coming next.

Definitely feel like Paulo, Daisy, and maybe Abby will be Mikes group he needs to help him get through this, and maybe help push him in the direction he truly needs to go

Cause it’s clear this going civil war territory and friendship and loyalty will be divided

I think one of the big problems here is that several groups are his group and have the capacity for healthier environments for him, but Mike just isn’t willing at this moment. He’s chasing unhealthy habits and the consequences of them feed deeper into his issues.

what promise? he offered to do so if it would help and she rejected him. now you can argue that she knew he’d never be able to do it, but that doesn’t change that Lucy made it clear that she did not want Paulo’s help there

I believe they did once after, when Lucy revealed Augy was living with her

I think that sue just doesn’t want to upset Lucy by Paulo bringing Mike up.

I don’t know if she hates Mike or not, she may not be very fond of him. I hope they don’t leave him.

I think Sue should realise that’s an excellent way to get people who actually care to worry

To be fair, last time Sue tried to ask Mike what was up he yelled and spit venom at her (which was when Mike slammed Paulo’s head on the table). And it even came from a place of benefit of the doubt, because she knew how much of an ass Paulo could be. So I can’t blame her for not being exactly sympathetic at this point.

well too bad for her!

yes, Mike has been unpleasant to the group up until about a month ago, and yes, Sue just doesn’t like Paulo. that does not change the fact that it’s pretty easy to see a pattern between what happened a year ago and now. Paulo is not wrong in any way, shape or form to be raising an alarm that someone he knows might be feeling isolated, when the threat of that happening has been enough to cause a suicide attempt in the friend group before

nobody deserves what Lucy went through, not even Mike, and if concern over that happening all over again angers or unsettles someone, maybe they need to introspect on if they learnt anything at all in the past year

They were part of the same friend group, but never friends.

David never passed a chance to slam Mike. “All the people who matter” excluding Mike, or something similar sticks out in my mind. Not in a situation where I can skim archives right now.

Wouldn’t that mean the only person would be Paulo? No one else is concerned about him. He also hasn’t exactly been hanging out with any of them.

I feel like it will be Paulo, Daisy, and maybe Abbey that will go to him

And James, David, Sue, and Amaya will go with Lucy

Daisy and Mike seem to be on pretty good terms too. I won’t be surprised if she goes after Mike too.

Isn’t she been loyal to Mike since day one?

Just to expand on my thoughts here. It’s not like Paulo doesn’t have the right to be concerned about Mike— if he still considers him a friend and wants to support him emotionally through what he’s going through, he has the right and the freedom to do so. Helping a friend =/= Condoning their actions. Paulo has been the one who’s held him more harshly accountable because he WANTS Mike to get better, to realize whenever he’s acting like an ass or lashing out needlessly.

Just maybe not in front of Lucy. It’s a matter of being socially aware. Whatever Paulo thinks about Mike or feels concerned about, it’s in bad taste to bring it up around someone who’s had bad blood with him. Should he get an explanation if he asks for one? I feel he should, of course! But is that anyone else’s problem? At this point, no. He has been unpleasant to be around, consciously isolates himself and has been acting unstable. It’s completely respectable for many of his friends to just be done and over him at this point. You get out of dark places with help, but the person also NEEDS to have the drive to want to improve.

I feel like we will see an eye for an eye moment if it happens.

Especially what August revealed

Like Paulo is gonna bring up a bunch of terrible things that August did and sabotage his friendships as payback!

Especially what he tried to do to Daisy too back then. Even if he has changed, I feel like that was never properly address other than making sure he stays in his lane.

To be honest, I’m a little bit concerned that people are genuinely annoyed at him for being concerned and asking questons. Like are people just supposed to not care that one of their closest friends is completely absent, nobody else in the friend group seems to care, and that the specific person that was just now his biggest fanboy suddenly seems to hate his very existence? Paulo’s not wrong for wanting answers and I’m somewhat baffled that some people are generally interpeting his justified concern as some kind of subtle hint that he secretely despises Lucy and wants her gone???

It kind of seems like a switch has been flipped.

Especially cause he has no idea how deep this groups history rabbit hole even goes down

Plus doesn’t know about August shady history too

Won’t argue with that, fair point. Though I can’t say Paulo’s reaction here isn’t unwaranted either. So much basically happened to simply not talk about it, but he’s better off searching at this point than staying at the table. Friday can’t get here soon enough lol.

What did he do to Amaya?

I have a vague memory of it, but honestly I can’t recall specifics. I can’t even imagine Amaya emoting enough in their own way to get a rise out of Mike to begin with, so maybe I imagined it? I think I might have confused Amaya being a uncomfortable bystander with anything actually happening. What comes to mind is when she and Sue were hanging out with the skateboard and Lucy came and hung out with them. And Mike HAPPENED to be stalking her.

I blame them for reacting this way to Paulo. Be mad at Mike all they want. However, the way James, David, and Sue are talking to him just because he’s trying to understand what’s going on is disrespectful and there’s no excuse for it.

Agreed. I am not a fan of dog piling on people in general.

“get in the robot, Paulo”

I also believe this could be a deciding factor of where Paulo friendship and loyalty will go

Especially since his last interactions with Lucy in seeing stars and doubling down weren’t so positive, even if she did help get him and Daisy finally together.

Hell I don’t even think we seen them talk or address what happen during their last interaction from doubling down at all

“get in the robot, paulo” wins for funniest comment award this week LOL

Plus he’s the only one as far as we see addressing the issue or the elephant in the room.

I can’t blame him for feeling confused on what’s going on

I been in a similar boat like that too…

OMG I completely forgot about that with Paulo

I can understand so much going through that before, even though my folks left on good terms, I still wanted them back together at one point growing up

I am glad someone else feels like this! This was my reaction too reading the page

Plus, sues in the wrong for how she responded. Should have said we can talk about that later than just saying that

Paulo is literally asking real questions here and all this is doing is adding more to the confusion

i don’t think it’s as black and white as sue is plain “wrong” for responding that way, i completely understand where she’s coming from and don’t necessarily expect her to respond perfectly given everything she’s experienced/seen lately in comic or her tumultuous relationship with paulo in particular. but gosh my poor boy paulo’s sad little pathetic wet beast demeanor here is killing me. he’s just trying his best…..

He’s really had a good character development run lately…

Hope it pans out and he comes out as MVP for whatever shitstorm that’s about to come

agreed!!! king paulo coming through

i think about this good alternative timeline a lot,,, mike please you didn’t have to keep doubling down so hard bro

yeah sue’s about to be real honest about her experiences and she is not going to word it in the nicest way possible i fear

I saw one of the users commented that maybe Paulo experience with his divorced parents could be playing into what’s going on

Like he cares for both Lucy and Mike, but with the things are going, he’s going to lose one or the other, or both.

And it’s scaring him