𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐓 (ManxMan)

𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 & 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

𝐒𝐎! Let's start with fun facts! Cause I promise you this story went through too many changes... LIKE A LOT. So let's get to it! (Author's thoughts are at the bottom)

━━━━━━ 𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 ━━━━━━

1. Joseph was actually originally supposed to be a 34-year-old and Alex was 23. I scrapped this mainly because I felt a bit weird about the age difference and I wanted him to be a bit more desirable and not some middle-aged man going after a fresh adult so I changed Joseph's age to (24.)

2. Originally the story was gonna end with Joseph and Lance getting married, then Alex would crash the wedding attempting to shoot Lance, but Joseph actually takes the bullet and ends up dying. It was very dark but I scrapped it mainly due to having more ideas for the story and not knowing exactly where to fit the wedding scene.

3. The story was gonna end super early at the chapter where Joseph proposed to Lance in front of everyone. It went pretty much the same. He goes up to his room to get Lance's gift, running into Alex BUT the difference is after he leaves the room, Alex shoots a bullet in the air and then takes Joseph's brother, putting the gun to his head. It ends about the same, with Joseph dying from a gunshot. I Scrapped it cause it was definitely rushed and of course I had other ideas..."

4. The few bits you get of Alex and the club was actually meant to be expanded upon way more then it actually was. Originally Alex was a gang member, and his pov was to actually move the story forward and create new drama with him and Joseph but for some odd reason almost 90% of his backstory never made it into the story. I think mainly because Joseph's backstory even from the beginning was A LOT more fleshed out then Alex's. His was mostly "Abuses Mom and manipulative" while Joseph had a bit more layers which i kind of wish i gave to Alex...

5. There was about 5 chapters worth of scrapped moments with Alex. Originally after Joseph calls Lance's ex-wife and storms away in the car, he actually goes to the club only to see Alex talking to another guy. So he slams the guys head into the table and continues to beat him, but he was only a friend of Alex's and after that I thought of making them a kind of harley Quinn, Joker couple. Joseph in that storyline would be a lot more aggressive and angry and Alex would actually be the rational one. I wanted to switch there dynamics but I scrapped this storyline mainly due to the fact that, they do have sex in those 5 chapters, and Lance didn't actually cheat so i thought it would have made Joseph look absolutely horrible so i threw those 5 chapters away... ( I really did like writing that storyline though and there banter was adorable but Joseph was very possessive and controlling in that draft. Totally different character.)

6. Lance never existed. (NOPE but lemme explain...) So basically the story was originally meant to be a SUPER slow burn and you would see more of Alex's manipulative side. Like he was originally gonna introduce himself to Sebastian as Joseph's (Old best friend) and snake his way into Joseph's heart slowly. (Which btw I expand more upon in the Authors thoughts part) But that never ended up happening so I made him storm off to his parents house on a whim hoping it would brew up more ideas THEN BOOM. Lance was born. After writing them in the hedge maze, I genuinely feel like i struck gold so i made them a whole backstory and Lance ended up being one of my favorite characters. All of there childhood memories they brought up? Never existed until I wrote them in the garden so Lance was tacked on last minute and i think i did a pretty good job fleshing him and Joseph's old relationship out a bit. (Too the people who want a boyxboy story with them as teenagers, I'm still thinking about it...)

7. I never knew what to do with Sebastian... I'll be honest with you guys. He kind of disappears out the story because i genuinely didn't know what to do with his character... He was mainly just backstory for Joseph (Even though in the original slow burn version of the story, he was much more important and you'd see more of him and Alex kind of battling for Joseph's attention...)