Bittersweet Candy Bowl

I knew this chapter was going to hit me where it hurts and yet i still wasn’t ready

Can I just say that I am LOVING this chapter so far? It really makes you think!

This page makes a lot of things make a lot of sense to me. It’s nice to know the world is wider than the angst and tumult of these high schooler’s romantic lives.

From Haley’s pov this makes total sense

The question does need to be asked. Does he only care about his shitty girlfriend or is that an assumption cause his shitty girlfriend happened to be the drop that spilled the bucket?

We all know Mike biggest character flaw is he bottles negative emotions untill he bursts. And in those cases what makes one burst often isn’t the main cause of it

Confirmation about Mike’s parents’ situation is huge. She’s kind of right though, he’s so wrapped up in his own shit that even the audience following him for over a decade didn’t know for sure.

Is that Rachel’s brother?

I’ve been dying to learn more about Hayley’s feelings about EF. She reminds me of Lucy the way she seems to be masking her concern for Mike with abrasiveness.

I don’t recall where I saw it, but I remember someone put forth the idea that one reason why Mike clings so tightly to his relationship with Sandy is because of his parents’ relationship troubles. This page makes me believe it even more

Ok, now it looks a little more valid

Ok, now it looks a little more valid

I get from Haley’s perspective it looks like he doesn’t care, but what is Mike realistically supposed to do? He can hardly get his parents to not divorce. Sometimes it can feel better to bury your head in the sand and not think about all the shit going on in your family, to have some semblance of control of your life. I know that’s how I reacted when my parents were going through it. It must be frustrating for Haley being on the other side of that though, she probably just wants to talk and vent to her brother about the experience they’re sharing but she can’t reach him if he’s up in the clouds

She looks so tired

I’m so glad to see where this went because this whole chapter I’ve kept thinking back to Haley’s cameo in Eternal Flame and how genuinely worried she seemed for her brother that day and how she was the one who seemed to notice something happened and he wasn’t okay. Made me think from the start that even if Haley’s genuinely resentful over being the parentified eldest daughter without the golden child treatment, it doesn’t mean she hates him or that she’s a one dimensional harpy totally ignorant or unsympathetic to what he’s been going through. But the whole family is going through a lot and she was obviously frustrated to see him getting back into a relationship that put him in such a bad place and probably assumes that’s still all of what’s making him unhappy now and that she can’t do much to save him from that choice.

Haley is truly the eldest daughter

Yep, this entire page further confirms for me that they’re kids playing at adults. Haley’s feelings are valid, yet we can see she has the limited view of a teenager still experiencing and learning to understand the world.

This is shown through the fact that she can see how Mike’s relationship isn’t healthy for him. Yet she can only acknowledge that it upsets her because “their family’s problems should be more important.”

Haley isn’t at the stage where she can acknowledge that her brother is likely only maintaining his relationship with Sandy due to his own limited experience with romantic relationships. This may be a result of having their parents’ tumultuous marriage as an immediate example of what a relationship is. And their parents, by example, have shown that this means staying in an unhealthy relationship, even at the cost of yourself, while using any excuse necessary to do so.