All Comments on 'February Sucks: Same Old Me (2of4)'

Impressive. The best sequel.

Loved this one, too.

I've read every sequel out here; none of them does justice to the original story quite as well as this series. Wow.

So far this is the best sequel I have read ...am a little surprised he is making nice with his Mom, but I can kinda see why he is deciding to do so. She is carrying a metric crap ton of guilt for helping to kill her own husband. I do not believe I could be as forgiving as Jim was, which is kind of "eye opening" for the type of person I want to be.

So thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Payenbrant

This is really sucking me in. The pages just flip by. I am getting a little annoyed that everybody who is giving good advice is saying almost exactly the same thing. Maybe there should be some contrary but still good advice. Perhaps someone in a similar situation that forgave and took the cheater back and then went on to have a fulfilling life with them. Maybe someone will point out that we haven't evolved to be happy. We have evolved to survive. Bad feelings have survival value. Pain has survival value. You should not try to dull your pain. You should try to eliminate the source of your pain.

Much worse than the first chapter.

Two things stand out for me:

1) Redundancy.

It keeps repeating itself. The discussions are always the same, the justifications are always the same, the explanations are always the same, whether it's with Dave and Pete, their friends or his family.

This episode seemed to go round in circles.

2) NEED.

The need I don't understand.

- The need to convince her friends that what she did was wrong.

I mean, it's strange. Betraying, deceiving someone is wrong. It's the basis of logic.

Whether there are circumstances or not, at root, betrayal is a bad thing in most people's minds.

- the need for confirmation that he has the right to be angry, to be furious, to be sad, to be insecure,.........the need for confirmation that he has the right to feel the way he does after a betrayal.

Psychological violence or pain takes much, much longer to heal than physical violence.

A person, whether sexually assaulted or not, will be psychologically damaged for a long time, while the body will have healed.

There is a lot of depth here, and I’m enjoying the read. Very keen to see the next part and where you take the conclusion.

Well done👍

On the edge of my seat, there's several twists that can happen still. The DNA tests. Jim learning if Linda had been cheating regularly. And of course Linda could have gotten an STI or pregnant. One of those must be a hit and the story has me sold on Linda being a serial cheater. I mean it brings up a solid point about how practiced she seemed at it.

I love this idea of not talking to her until they get in front of a third party.

You’ve got a tiger by the tail with this one. Stay away from the claws. Great writing the dialogue is superb!!

@Francemann ,

Well, if you didn't understand the need for validation, that your pain and the other hurt feelings should not be devalued, as in the original, then I hope for the best for you that you never feel it

@Charette,

I think we misunderstood.

My point was not to devalue or not his feelings or those he feels, but rather to disregard the judgment or opinions of others.

Your pain is your pain.

I don't think you need other people's validation or acceptance.

In any case, they are in no way in your shoes. They can imagine your pain, but they can't appropriate it or really feel it.

Everyone needs to stop telling Jim who is the victim to man up and Linda is and will always be a narcissistic bitch for telling him to get over it like it was nothing. God I hope he ends up divorcing her and marry someone else. She has no idea what she has done or think it's no big deal.

Great job. Are you a graduate psychologist, philosopher, or sociologist? thanks

Why does Jim need to validate everythingwith these groups of people. His over reactionto these conversations and their revelations make his characterseem like the biggest idiot or pussy I've read about here.

As you promised, there is a lot of dialogue, trying to hash out the “whys” in the “how’s”, the reasons and excuses, as well as the possible blames for everyone involved. You are a good writer, which makes it easy to take in longer stories like this, and even anticipate the next. I can say honestly, that I didn’t always like the conversations in this chapter because they seemed bent on excusing Linda‘s behavior. I know it’s more like giving possible reasons, I also know that I didn’t like it because it didn’t fit my tidy point of view of the world, as it is, or at least as it should be. But, as I read through, I did understand that my reaction was not dissimilar to some of the things that you were trying to get the readers to understand or at least ponder. Looking forward to the next chapter, thanks.

Enjoying this — a very different and thoughtful take on G.A.’s original story. It is interesting how some of the comments are about Jim talking to too many people, yada, yada. The writer, they should understand is using these multiple conversations to bring in different aspects of the situation without have some single, long soliloquy. And it gives the writer the chance to have different ‘devil’s advocates’ taking opposing viewpoints.

Best,

P.S.

I'm really liking this. You belabor somethings a bit much, but it's really nice to see someone dig into those issues that explain what's really happening. I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

Part Two isn't as good as Part One. There's a lot here where you redundantly rehash the same topics. The best part, however, is how systematically Jim breaks apart any excuses for Linda's behavior with their mutual friends at the table.

I have an ending I am rooting for but I sadly don't expect that's the direction you're choosing to go. That said, I await the next installments.

Yes, way too long. Yes, way too much dialogue. But this is really fine storytelling.

i love the detailed thoughts. I think you went a little overboard trying to analyze the whole human condition at times but you are the one telling the story. great job.

Like you said; wordy. Then again, it is keeping my interest. 👍

The circumstances of the betrayal are much more humiliating in this story, but I can damn sure relate to the internal dialogue occurring within Jim. Very realistic. 5*

I don't think it is too long. I really am enjoying the dialogue and am very much looking forward to part 3. My one criticism is the quick reconciliation with the mother. In my experience, family baggage does not go away. Jim would not ever trust his mother fully. I do understand that she is helping the plot move along. I don't see Jim ever confiding in his mother beyond what is publicly known.

Well the minutia has gotten to me; now reading page one then skipping to the last page to see if I need to read between - notta...

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I'm sure I'm missing some stuff but its FebSux so the baseline is set and I hate my dyslexia torture.

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3.0*** hooyah

Still an awesome tale. With parts 1 and 2 this is my absolute favorite follow-on to the original FS. I just want to add, Jim didn't see this part cheating part of Linda because he TRUSTED her. Teenage mind or not, Linda made promised to Jim and he trusted and relied upon her and her promises. As far as I can tell from GA's version, Linda had never given a reason for Jim to examine that trust. That's also why betrayal is so very hard.

I have read GA's original and every sequel to FebSux. Until now, the main problem I had was accepting the premise of the previously faithful being suddenly blinded by MV's magnificence and taking for a night of fantasy sex. This despite GA's lengthy preamble about the bar conversation. This author presents the first plausible scenario for it.

One other nitpicky comment: All Linda's women friends admit to talking in intimate detail about their love lives "just like you men do." My experience, after 55 years of marriage, is men don't. Maybe my group of male friends was unusual, but I don't think so. I never heard one of my friends describe their sex life in the same detail as their wives have when they're dishing together.

The story has me interested, a little wordy, but ... I know the last two chapters are written and turned in, but it would be great to find out that Bob is really rich and he (to make Jim's mom happy) contracts some people to take out our favorite tight end, ending his career and sex appeal. Acid on the face and genitals would do it.

10 Big Blazing Stars for a very interesting read. So, What is the big deal? Linda spends the night having sex with LaVallier and Jim is having a stroke over it. What? Her pussy is still just as good as it was before she spent the night with LaValliere. What is the big deal? Why is Jim having a 'cow' over it. She came home the next day. She still loves Jim, Great dialog Great writing, Great Effort. I don't know if I would be that upset. LOL I've been known to be that upset and alot more actually. Next part please! Buster2U

I like the fact that you haven’t changed the basic characters of the story and forced situations that aren’t part of GA’s original story. Every one of the main characters is acting pretty much the way GA wrote them, at least up to the betrayal. Most of the follow-on stories either have Jim being a superspy or some such drivel, or have Linda as a secret super-slut that’s done this a thousand times.

Has Linda showed Jim who she really is? If so, will he believe her? 5*.

Well done - good read and nice to have a deeper take on the FS saga. Looking forward to the next two chapters

Sometimes I get bored when there’s too much chatting. Not here. Keep it coming.

It's a bit wordy and I admit I skimmed some of it, but the part where he draws the analogy to ABUSE is dead on. Linda firmly believed she could fuck him over and he'd accept it because he loved her soooo much. That's classic domestic abuse thinking, only this time it was psychological abuse not physical. You have a good grasp of Jim's emotional torment and Linda's lack of empathy, which should lead you to a logical conclusion. We will see what comes next, thanks for sharing.

I still really like the introspection, along with how Jim is handling his devastation. He’s determined which of their circle are impartial, which are like-minded. It’s, I think, more reasonable than a good person like Jim surrounded in a pit of vipers. He’s found the decent ones. Yours is the only spinoff where Jim tells Dave what Dee said; extremely unlikely that any man would keep secrets for his wife’s secret-keeper. The talks with his mom and in-laws are great. In general, Jim is relying on the few he trusts. You’re doing a great job with this. If that’s #3 of 4, I don’t see the story living past the first session with the marriage counselor. In that case I’d probably prefer it go beyond #4.

I am not sure quite how to deal with your story thus far, as it has dredged up memories that are still painful. I will say without reservation however that this is not a Literotica story. It has depth and breadth that demands a level of attention and introspection that surpasses the typical superficial BTB or RAAC tropes like the Rocky Mountains surpass the sand hills of Nebraska. Your story demands that all the characters, as well as your readers, recognize the enormous pain and loss caused by infidelity. We have yet to see how Linda will ultimately deal with her betrayal, and so I await your next chapters with anticipation.

“I started composing about a dozen letters to Linda, and ended up writing way, way too much every time and repeating myself…”

This is the chapter that had to be compulsively written, over and over. I get the sense you needed to write it. It is an odd thing—the compulsion to repeat—but it is life-like, even if it doesn’t make for great literature! I hope that the next chapter we get to the Thursday climax. I figure the fourth part is an extended coda. Is that the plan?

There's some good story elements here, but they're drowning in a sea of words.

I really struggled to finish this chapter.

Every character is unrealistically wise with psychology degrees on their walls.

I’m still giving it 5 stars but it was a struggle. The repetitive moments of epiphany, are just that repetitive and the MC must have a short term memory loss disease because the epiphanies could only keep occurring if he has no memory of what just occurred in the previous paragraph or two.

Frankly the repetitive navel gazing is neither conducive to the story or to character development. Its a cheat by the author to pontificate endlessly. Like the sound of you own voice much?

Anyway, reduce the word count by a third by eliminating everything that is repetitive or words for the sake of words. The story would flow better and some real character development might find some space to happen.

IMO - YMMV

Not quite as tense as chapter one. Whew, I think. This story is dredging up a lot of old shit that I have never dealt with. Five stars are still underscoring.

That blue horse you saw at DIA is the horse that watched over Mile High Stadium before it was torn down. Also, the model for that sculpture was Trigger, Roy Roger's horse in the old television show.

One of the reasons Linda has fooled people around her so long is that, as you stated, they are HER friends. Even in his pain, one of the things Jim has done is bring the majority of those friends to an understanding of who and what Linda really is and isn’t. Linda’s (and Dee’s) arrested development towards functioning adulthood is likely now to be thrown back at her and she is not strong enough or mature enough to handle that truth with friends who now see more clearly. I am hooked by this enough to anxiously await some of the coming resolution.

Still wrapped up in this Followup. It’s the. Best one I’ve read to date, and I’ve read many.

Scubabill, that is not true about the horse at DIA. it is a fresh sculpture that was commissioned in 1992 but not set until 2008. And part of it did fall on the artist and kill him before it was finished.

I feel like this is proving to be a very interesting examination of the loose ends and unasked questions of the original. So far, I'm enjoying it.

Am glad I chose to read this nth sequel to Feb….

Absorbing read. You’re good.

This engaging story is becoming 'interestinger and interestinger'...

...lots of detail, lots of introspection, and we still haven't heard anything directly from Linda... yet.

Still looking forward to Parts three and four.

Four stars again for this part.

Im anxious to read about where Linda is coming from. A lot of o shit is being said about her. So is she as bad as everyone its saying or what. So far this ending has been great anticipation. So far 2X5 ***********

I can't take it anymore. I scanned most of the first chapter and the first 3 pages of this one but it's all I can take. This is so repetitive and so full of bullshit it isn't funny. The author needs to buy himself a blue pencil and go through the story to see what is important and what is not.

It's really important not only for Jim but also for the development of the story that he is able to convince some of the women in the group that is too much to ask him to Simply suck it up and accept it. that these women are finally understand what Linda's actions mean to Jim as a human being as a man.

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AANDY.... "But I don't think the women in our group really appreciated the kind of impact this has if you're a man, though. That part hasn't sunk in, and maybe it never will. This kind of thing is a direct blow to our self-esteem. There could hardly be a more humiliating or disrespectful thing. Getting hit by a car, getting into a fight, losing your job, well, those aren't personal. We're expected to tough that kind of thing out. But this. He took your wife like he was entitled to her. She turned her back on you like you didn't exist. That's personal. That's a betrayal. That's an insult. That rips out the roots of everything it means to be a man in our society. We're expected to be tough. Secure, Self-reliant. Strong. But she took all of that away in an instant, leaving you with nothing but the laughter and the pity at that table."

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Also the development and discussion of the possible motivations regarding how Linda could suddenly change and flip into a different person when she was supposed to spend that special time with Jim…. is actually quite well done. Without using the Martian slut Ray explanation ....if she is psychologically an emotionally this immature then yes the marriage with Jim is a mismatch and Linda could be viewing this Through The Eyes of a high school girl.

Linda stabbing Jim? Jim breaking Linda's nose? They're not the same sort of thing, you know. Linda would get treatment. Jim would get jail.

You should go to the doctor's soon. You have diarreha of the mouth and it's leaking onto the pages. This is awful.

First off, the MC's mother is a piece of shit. And highly unbelievable that she'd have the remorse or regret as to what she did. Hated doing it? Bullshit...

I could be wrong but the MC is giving off serious beta vibes. The lawyer LW is pretty much the same as depicted in the original.

Jim says he won't be manipulated or coerced. I guess we'll see..

ALL of this CONTINUED talk is just like Linda herself hammering at the MC.

All the justification: she's a teenage girl but horny like a teenage boy.

"She's going to have to make this right somehow. What are you going to need from her?"

HOW will this NOT end in a RAAC?

Sorry, WAY too much talk. Your 90,000 words could have been about something better, something useful.

One and done does NOT mean talk about it forever.

It means you get the eff out.

That's the problem with all these guys that think they're a man.

If you're disrespected and you take her back, you're just a wimp who deserves what you get.

Doesn't anybody have anything else to write about but this crap? The guy is a dog and the wives are just plain whores. If a husband gets mad, what is to stop him or someone from killing Marc? Running away, abandoning your family or accepting this behavior is not what the normal man would do. He may even beat the crap out of his wife to teach her a lesson.

Well done so far. If you can avoid the pitfalls of dumbing the women down to one IQ-point above a sheep and turning the men into secret John McClane-James Bond-Rambo-hybrids, you'll soon be one of the best writers on this site.

Boring. I keep waiting for something to actually happen but there's nothing and it's so tedious I skimmed hoping for anything other than why (some) women are sluts but men should accept it

With a little less verbiage we could have been.at the end by now

Something tells me that a RAACuck is coming !!!

So far 2 chapters of mumbo jumbo it’s like repeating dialogue in different settings get to the chase and confrontation

Depressing.

4 stars

Repeat rinse repeat long story repeat. Nicely written expect repeat rinse.

Probably the best feb sux story so far, including the original...

I hope the rest of the story lives up to what we have read so far..

kudos.

No, not all women talk to their friends like that. Not all women even THINK about that. There’s still good, decent people out there, both men and women, who don’t have “secret slut switches”.

This is a frustrating story so far. Parts of it are absolutely awesome, particularly identifying adultery with abuse. Other aspects are disappointing. The idea that his mom needed sex, which her husband couldn’t give her, is ridiculous! It’s like no one has ever heard of personally relieving themselves?!? Almost no man gets as much sex as he wants. Most don’t have affairs to compensate.

I hope it will be pointed out how little accountability women are expected to take for their choices. I hope that the MC ensures that the slut takes responsibility. She needs to suffer. I know the author said that it won’t be a BTB. Too bad. The only correct response to what Linda did is to burn her so horribly that in 50 years girls tell each other “Don’t be a Linda!”

ZK

Excellent. 5 stars.

You know you are too wordy, you do nothing to curb it'

it makes your stories less than

You are providing a far deeper insight into Jim's mind as he struggles with the deep betrayal he suffered.

This is another example of psycho-babble cuck tale where the husband reasons and act like a whining brainless sheep, while the whore wife looks for some impossible justification for her unforgivable betrayament. It would be nice to have an husband with a male brain, once in a while.

This MC guy is not a man, he's acting like an unsecure, ridiculous and immature teenager: "I don't know what to do, I have to ask my mummy" ... Really ???

Nothing diffrent there than the first chapter, just a load of repeated nonsense

Really enjoyed both chapters so far. Better than most of the FS stories. However I think both were too long. Along with Jim I'm pretty much tired of hearing the same stuff of what happened that night over and over and over. Gave it 3* - a 4* if it was shorter. I do really like how it's really a different story now.

Of course other2other1 thinks this is good, he is just as longwinded as you are. This is nothing but repetitive boring psychobabble, skimmed a lot of this chapter.

Thirteen pages of Jim being a whiny little bitch and what do whiny little bitches do? they capitulate he’ll end up head hanging shoulders slumped and tail firmly between his legs. It’s like he can’t make a decision without talking to all and sundry. Just stand up say ‘fuck you’ and file. Accept the fact that his mother was a slut and he married one. Cut the ties that bind and move the fuck on.

Got a bit into psychobabble and mambo jumbo there for a while.

You know, some people just cheat because they want to experience the thrill.

No rhyme or reason to it.

So, l think you were stretching it a bit when analysing Linda.

But no real harm, no matter what you think, those of us who have been cheated on in the past will always have our own opinions when it comes to the whys and where fore’s of spouses cheating. Can’t help it.

Good story still scoring 5/5

Another very good chapter.

One point I particularly liked in this one, which was missed in all the other sequels to "February Sucks", is how smoothly Dee + Linda coordinated her cheating.

I'm pretty sure that Dee was a serial cheater, and probably encouraged Linda to do the same, because she'd always got away with it in the past.

I agree with with Franceman. This chapter was redundant. Boring

This has been a good story so far but I'm starting to smell a reconciliation coming. No way in hell I would reconcile with that bitch

When spiraling into the unknown, a lot repeats itself from many voices. Bravo, and keep writing.

Very well written has a lot of twists with in it , one thing i dont understand is why so many feel that it was ok for her to do that , only the moms hubby told him get rid of her and so far in the story it seems hes talked to everyone but his own kids , looking forwards to the next part ,

Remember the line about an old boyfriend committing suicide? That's where Linda has been cheating. She decided to stay with Jim then and the guy took his own life, wait and see. Linda is a grade 1 slut.

I am really enjoying this story. I liked your story connected to Cookie but this take on February really fleshes out the characters.

Continuing to be insightful and very well written. It is entirely reasonable that there is repetition as Jim has to keep going over the arguments in his mind and with his friends to confirm to himself that his thoughts and actions are justifiable and correct, that he is accepting psychological abuse if he lets Linda and Dee's denigration and manipulation force him to comply with their contempt of him and the devastation he rightly feels after his appalling rejection, betrayal and disrespect.

Damn. Here I am, reading a multi part story as it is published. I don't do that! This story is well written and excellently displayed. Whole is is technically a novella, it is in its rightful place in LW, where George published.

Desperately searching for part three ..

Oh, by the way, give stars.

JPB

It's telling that one can be so engaged with a story of this length that it goes by in the blink of an eye and leaves you wanting the next part.

Well done, Cockatoo, if there were any glaring errors I must have rationalised them away to the point I never even noticed them, and the narrative is as close over the target as I have ever seen.

I am sorry that your open experiences have given you this much insight, but sharing your thoughts with the world is to the benefit of us all. A gift.

The basic actions may be done to death and tired, might have already been covered by other authors, but the dialogue and the analysis, the journey that you have Jim travelling, makes this anything but a cliche.

I am pretty sure I have read every version of this tale, and by far, this is the best examination of the human psyche in such brutal conditions. Thank you and look forward to the final 2 installments. 5 stars.

4 stars - slightly better than average, BUT you are starting to get 'preachy' and adapting a narcissistic drone.

You need to cut back on the psychobabble a bit.

Divorce is the only reasonable option for any of these renditions of GA's crappy story.

you said no BTB or RAAC so I am hoping at some point there is a basic divorce and he moves on. No during at the stake, no Mexican whore house, no Navy Seal team, and no reconciliation at all. Just split things, share custody, move on.

Honestly brilliant it doesn't look to good for Linda, Jim is finally waking up from the dream.

An interesting take on a well traveled experience

No thanks.

Still liking it, but starting to have problems. Everyone he meets and talks to turns out to be a deep and established psychologist. That aint real life.

Great writing. I love how are seeing Linda without seeing her, just other peoples disections of her.

If Jim stays married to Linda then he has zero self-respect.

Cockatoo, your writing is helping me to gain a lot of insight in background for thinks that happen(ed) to me in my own life of 75 years, though very different from this tale and not about cheating. That's the highest praise one can get from any reader, I think. Your version of the drama is awsome, just awsome!

Too much psuedo-intellectual tripe. This is as emotional of an experience that a married man can go through and while you use the words, you don't share any of the real rage, anger and feelings of betrayal. To much time dialog with others and no real emotion.

Everybody is trying to explain the situation when it's still raw and emotional. For Jim to get in these long drawn-out conversations is pure absurdity, and the fact that he is even having these conversations with the people who helped betray him is a clear indication of how emotional detached he appears to be.

Just so bloody good! When the writing is like this, a reader actually HOPES that the story is a long one. This is definitely one of those cases.

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It is surprising, actually, that Jim has so successfully avoided Linda up to now, given how gregarious he’s been with everyone else.

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One thing that I missed ….. how and when he set up the counseling session, and how that was communicated to and agreed on by Linda?

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Fascinating that we are 2 long chapters into this and yet not a single appearance by Linda, except via a few texts to Jim.

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5 *****

I'm not the best person with words some of the comments sound like teachers I've had in the past or like art critics so I'll just give my normal person's thoughts I read the original story and many alternatives to it and yeah this one is long but that's not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing it's just what is required for this writer to put what's in his head down for us all to read. I've had a spouse cheat on me and I in turn cheated on her and the marriage just dissolved over a number of miserable years nobody can say why is Jim talking to so many people because maybe he as a human being needs that to mentally survive what's happening in his life. I like this version and it's probably the most detailed and best I've personally read so far everyone give the writer a break or write something better and see how everyone responds to your version

a classic James Bond movie- "Goldeneye."

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Oh, what is this world coming to when that's considered a classic James Bond movie?

Looking forward to part 3.

One criticism though, too much rationalizing why Linda isn't a monster for what she did. Raging hormones and a teenage mentality (which is insulting as hell to women in general) is a bridge too far. To do what Linda did takes malicious indifference towards her husband and kids. Like seriously, you have to have contempt of someone to pull off a public betrayal like that.