| Well, well, well... I bet you all thought I would never get this up, didn't you? Well... you were nearly right. ::sweatdrops:: But here it is, a brief summary of the events in TtS so you can all go read the sequels without being confused. Links are liberally distributed throughout. ^^ I'm going to try really hard to not make this sound stupid, but... I think I failed. |
| So the story opens with Nicky, who is a sixteen year old hooker working in a sleazy club. He tries to pick up Andy, who is drunk at the bar. Through some strange events, mostly centering around the fact that Andy's boyfriend Seth is a real asshole and Nicky's boyfriend Liam thinks that Nicky needs to make friends, the two of them actually becomes friends. |
| So the long and the short of it is that Seth has been abusing Andy for years in about every way possible. Andy is an unhappy guy. Nicky, on the flip side, has a reasonably stable relationship with Liam, although it's obvious he had a pretty fucked up life before he wound up on the streets. The two of them wind up to be pretty good friends. |
| Turns out that Andy has a crush on this ballet dancer named Ryan, who is basically put, a hottie. Andy has been going to go see him at the ballet for a couple years. Nicky finds out about this and decides to set them up. But first he and Andy have sex, which makes perfect sense if you actually read the scene, because it's not really about them, it's more about Nicky showing Andy that sex doesn't have to suck. Which, Seth not being a Romeo or caring at all about whether or not Andy enjoys himself, is something Andy has trouble believing without hands-on-clothes-off experience. |
| Seth finds out about said fucking a few days after it happens and kicks the shit out of Andy. He also says some very nasty things. Andy, not being the most stable bridge in Brooklyn, takes it into his mind to kill himself. He takes a bottle of coedine pills with a bottle and a half of rum, then calls Nicky to say goodbye. Since Nicky isn't an idiot, he figures out that something's wrong and calls 911. |
| So Andy winds up in the hospital and gets a therapist named Kyle, who is actually a friend of Ryan's. This isn't as much of a coincidence when you consider that he went through three other therapists first. (We're working on it not being as pathetic, we promise.) Kyle works on making Andy not be stupid. Nicky tells Ryan what happened, and Ryan joins in, also adding a heavy dose of flirting, because he thinks Andy is cute. He's also got a soft spot for people in need, of which Andy is obviously one. |
| Around that same time, Nicky tries to destress from the events of the past week. He does this by taking heroin, which goes badly, so he also winds up in the hospital. And gets, you guessed it, a therapist. (No, we're not both psych majors, how'd you guess?) Of course, it's Kyle, but he goes through six others first. He likes to play games with his therapists. Nicky's really a God damned genius, although no one has ever really realized this before. Kyle starts to pry the secrets of his past out of him. One of them is at least obvious-- when social services starts talking about calling Nicky's father, Nicky starts talking about moving to New York City. (The story takes place in Boston, by the by.) |
| Andy gets out of the hospital and goes home, to be beaten more by Seth, because he's a fool and has mental problems and self-esteem difficulty out the wazoo. However, Ryan insists on staying friends with him, in the interest of hopefully getting to date him someday. Kyle decides that it would be a great idea to get Nicky into an adoptive family, and because he's a real weirdo, sticks him with Ryan's parents and sister (who are a great, wonderful family, the kind that we're beginning to think doesn't actually exist). And of course Ryan, except he's at college so he doesn't really count. |
| Zealous social service worker Mrs. Winthrop and bitchy, annoying therapist Ginger, (who is Kyle's boss, much to his dismay) wind up getting in touch with Nicky's father, Mr. Walker. He shows up and demands his son. The whole horrific truth about how scary and abusive he was comes out, there's a big custody battle, and Ryan's family gets to keep Nicky. |
| The long and the short of it is that Ryan and Andy finally start dating, and Walker doesn't give up on getting Nicky back. He tries a few abortive efforts to kidnap him, which are foiled first by Stacey (Ryan's sister), then by Ryan, then by Andy (who is very proud of himself for standing up to the scary, scary man). |
| Andy tries to break up with Seth (mostly by walking out and trying to never come back). Seth takes exception to this and kicks his ass really hard when he comes for his stuff. Andy winds up in the hospital again, Seth winds up very much in jail. Everyone is all wonderful and gives Andy lots of hugs and... stuff. Then he goes to live with Ryan and lives happily ever until the next story. |
| Nicky's father shows up again when only Nicky and Liam are in the house. He tries to walk off with Nicky and gets in a fight with Liam of dangerous proportions. Nicky tries to defend Liam and winds up accidentally killing his father. This is a Bad Thing for Nicky's already fragile psyche. Through about 8 chapters of long, laborious effort, Kyle and Andy manage to piece him back together. |
| At the end of the story, Andy and Ryan are blissfully screwing every free minute away, and Nicky is getting his shit together to enroll in college and stuff. Oh, yeah, did we mention the sizable inheritance he got when his father died? That's why he's got a lot of money in Stained Glass Windows. |
| Um... faithful readers... if I left anything out, let me know. ^^ |