Sometimes Brendan really tries me...

So I'm going through Chapter 7 of APoS, called Adjustments. And BAM, half of it's gone. Dropped over 1500 words because Brendan wants more drama. More problems. More issues. Houston was already starting to seem too comfortable.

I guess I can't put all the blame on him. A lot of this chapter was repeating aspect that happened earlier, and Aunt Mari's two daughters -- Brandi and Bernadette -- have been far too quiet. So now it pretty much starts with Brendan coming out of the bathroom, naked, having just taken a shower, to find them casually seated on his bed.

He is still drying off so the towel does cover just enough of him to keep this from being kiddie porn. They start pestering him with questions about the name tattooed on his arm. Joanna. Causing memories to crash in on him. He freaks out and slams back into the bathroom then crouches down against the door to keep them from getting in. He tells them to leave but they reply it's their house, not his. It takes Aunt Mari coming upstairs to investigate the commotion to get the girls back downstairs.

Brendan stays in the bathroom, shaken, for hours. Grows cold despite it being June in Houston. Might be having a slight heart issue without knowing it. But finally he dresses, goes down to the family room, and tells everyone he can't live there. He doesn't feel safe. And the girls inadvertently admit they've snuck into his room before, while he was sleeping. This leads up to letting him move into the pool house. He'll have locking doors, his own gate in the fence, and can set up a workspace for his repair projects.

Which will also cut out half the next chapter, where I had him do the move in a much more casual, everybody's friendly fashion. Now his cousin Scott is pissed because the family wouldn't let him live there, and it also shows there will be fewer visits from people his uncle's involved with. Visits that are being redirected because Brendan is staying with them, which irritates Uncle Sean.

This was a hard one to write, for some reason. Mainly because it's opening a whole new can of worms that have to be dealt with, so it's almost like I'm starting from scratch. It's also jammed a new chapter in. But...it works better. Dammit. More dynamic and still believable. I love/hate it when that happens.

[NOTE: The photo is of Sufjan Stevens, who so looks like Brendan should, it's spooky]