Thinking About You

The end.

Title
It wasn't until near mid way that I finally came up with a title for the story.

I suck at titles and I believe the title to this story is a good example.

I don't really like it but it fits. "Thinking About You" is so cliché when it comes to title names and I thought I would change it later on but that's no longer the case. Every time I look at the title I think of Frank Ocean's song. But like I said it fits because one of the main components of the story is Jac's flashbacks to the times he was with Alex Cruz at the age of 12. And this continues up until near the end of the story. By that time there is not much reason for Jac to have these almost haunting flashbacks because he righted his wrongs.

Flashbacks
On the side this story is told in flashbacks. In general I don't like the use of flashbacks. I realized this is mainly because of how authors I read use it. Typically in a book a flashback is indicated by "Past" in a chapter all on its own, disrupting the flow of the story in the "Present". Me no likey. I don't like how it's done and sometimes I don't care to read about flashbacks. But when it is used I prefer it to be used the way I did it which is during the "Present" via thought.

Jac could be doing something in the present which could bring on a memory to way back when without really disturbing the flow of the story. He's having it brought to the audience by thought. For example, when he glimpsed Alex Cruz's neck mole while they were walking. We were still with Jac walking but his mind was elsewhere and that invited me to insert the flashback.

I love it done this way, it's just a better technique in my opinion.

Chum by Earl Sweatshirt
The story begins with the song Chum by Earl Sweatshirt. Originally there was no real reason for this. I love Earl Sweatshirt and I like listening to this song and it was stuck in my head at the time. The only time I incorporate myself into my stories or into my characters is when I give them my taste in music or I bring up a song that I love.

Perfect examples: When Alex Cruz decided to sing a Stevie Wonder song to Jac, which is a ballad. Kind of odd but not too far fetched. I'm in love with this song and the love for that song grew while I was writing this story.
Another example is when I bring up Warm Winds by SZA and Isaiah Rashad. That was not planned at all! Right when I wrote that scene the song started to play on my phone and I liked it and what it did for the story so I threw it in. I love the song by the way.
A third example was the song Better Things by ASAP Rocky. It was another case of me being obsessed with the song at the time I wrote the scene. I believe at the time I had just rediscovered this song because I had forgotten all about it and so I just fell in love with it again, specifically the first 30 seconds (I tried to find just the 30 seconds on a loop on YouTube but no such luck, it's one of the best parts of the song and what I envisioned playing during that car ride scene).

But back to Chum.

It sounded fitting for the story and I never would have guessed where this story was going or where it would have ended up at from just writing those first lines. I love that surprise and that's why I don't brainstorm my stories. But I do like for things to make sense and link up sometimes. So when I got near the end of the story I decided to go look up the lyrics to Chum and its meaning to see if it related any way to anything in my story. I love the song but didn't know all the lyrics or what the song really meant. I went to Wikipedia and read this:

'Chum' deals with Earl Sweatshirt's feelings and thoughts after a week since his return from Samoa in 2012. These would include his absent father, his relationship with his mom and being raised with problems about his identity.