Pop Until You Drop Part Two

    There are many parallels between Pop and Dada.  For instance, the road trip in the first book is reflected by a plan ride in the second.  The main difference is that the brothers aren't speaking to each other.  The plane ride is also a means of showing how Chris has changed.  The flies all the time now that he had an operation on his sinuses.  To accomplish this plane trip, I had to go through a lot of complications to Chris's plans.  I mean, how likely is it for a wedding to be delayed to a secondary date, but the bachelor party and rehearsal dinner aren't moved?  For most people, this wouldn't be happening, but I felt that Chris and Sam needed to get back to Lexington as a call back to the first book.  I admit, the bachelor party was going to initially take place in New York.  I moved it for all of the complications that could arise.  This meant that not everyone could show up.  This included all of Addie's bridesmaids.  I think I forgot to mention that Addie's bridal shower/bachelorette party would be taking place the following weekend.  My bad.  At least I got Addie's parents and NASCAR themed brothers showing up.  That little nod came up just before I wrote that section.  The other major no-show was Chris's mother.  At one point, she was going to show up, but not be saying anything.  She would only be commented on by other characters.  I ultimately cut her, even to the point of not even including her part of her phone call to Chris.  This had to be done because she would be arguing with Chris's father the entire time, especially since she all but committed illegal activities when the two divorced.  Also, she would be totally dismissive towards Sam after his outburst.  She would be complaining the entire time during the sheltering from the storm.  Yes, I foreshadowed that ever since I made Addie a broadcast meteorologist.  Note how the storm threat increases as one moves forward, but the actual storm hits just after Sam's bombshell announcement.  Said announcement involves the surprise guest at the bachelor party, James 'Jim' Greenwood, the older brother of Chris's friend Will and the person who brought Chris and his friends together.  Jim was so important to Chris, he needed to be brought in, although I had to bring him down to earth just before things started to fall apart.  In Chris's memory, Jim was the tall, older father-figure that was missing from his life.  In actuality, Jim is about the same height as Chris is now, albeit with about thirty extra pounds around his waist instead of Chris's muscles.  The other fact about Jim was he partly wanted Chris to enter his brother Will's life was due to the fact that Jim had sort of a 'man-crush' on Chris. Jim even admitted it to Chris in a drunken kiss after the party.  Here is the main turning point in the story.  I didn't include what happened after that kiss until a flashback in a later chapter.  I wanted that ambiguity to make Sam's bombshell about seeing that kiss to hit harder.  In fact, nothing more happened between Chris and Jim, but I wanted it to seem like it could have happened.  I was seriously thinking to have to two men spend the night together, albeit separately, with Chris sitting on the side of the bed, but I couldn't do it.  Chris wouldn't want to hurt Addie like that, even if absolutely nothing happened or would happen.  I felt this would be truer to the character. It would also allow the tension to increase when the storm hits, and Chris and his friends would have to look for the missing Jim and Sam.  This would be the perfect set-up to get the four friends to take shelter somewhere and be forced to come clean with the many secrets they have kept from each other.  And that will be the subject of the next installment of this series.