After Arlington

bonus » Q + A

hello! long time no see!  i was travelling when i was posting the re-written chapters onto wattpad, and so i never really had time to reply to comments/engage with the story as i did so, and so i wanted to make a little Q+A piece! 

Are you a fan of happily ever afters, and do you think that Chloe and William are going to have a stable relationship? - happy___unicorns____

Generally, yes! But I'm also one of those miserable people who love an earth-shattering, devastating ending too--it just depends. For Chloe and Will, I'd say their ending is very happy. They take things slow and a lot of their relationship is from a distance at first, but when they do finally move in together after years, they realise that all of their struggles made them surer than ever that they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

What happened to Zach and Max? - Clumsy_Girl8

Zach and Max were toxic. Max was quite possessive of Zach, but had no intention of honoring the commitment to him when it came to protecting his ego at school (hence him hooking up with loads of girls). While Zach was happy to play along with Max under the illusion of love (thinking that things would change when they became more comfortable), he realised it was more a part of who Max was rather than Max attempting to protect their relationship. So after travelling a good portion of the world and being able to openly express themselves, they broke up. Zach got his heart broken. Max never learned.

Which character can you really relate to? And how did you decide on making your characters and forming them to who they are? - firefliesandforevers

I probably most relate to Chloe just because we share so many personality traits! I feel really protective over her because we share a lot of the same flaws.

I don't really know whether I ever 'decide' how a character will be. It's sort of strange, I begin writing, and a character is just in my mind already their complete person ready to fill their part of the plot. It's almost as if I know them in real life--like they really exist--so who they are is natural. I guess it stems from observation of people in general life and adapting my brain to understand how people would cope under different challenges

Will Francis and Maddy ever see their baby? - RunRightBack

No. They don't come together again after After Arlington. Maddy slowly heals, and though her baby always plagues her she never interferes with the adoption. I talk about Francis in a question to come!

Do Lola (or should I say Dela) and Alex stay together? - melanin_chanel

Again, sadly no. Both come from very different worlds and teach each other a lot about each other, but ultimately they are too different to make things work for longer than five or six months. Because of their relationship, though, Dela is given a lot of confidence and self-awareness and is able to find healthier relationships.

What happens to Francis afterwards? - Arya06

Francis goes off of the radar. He's self-destructive at first, and eventually runs out of funds and goes into a slump. His father tries to bring him back, but it makes Francis rebel even further, to the point that he gets a job to sustain himself without his assistance. This is obviously a huge lesson to him, and pieces of him begin to improve over time.

But, he never returns to live at home again. He learns to let go of Lola and Maddy, and never forgives himself enough to pursue his daughter (truly believing she'd be happier without him ever interfering with her life).