The Pact discussion

Hello.

I was wondering why some people seem to think Chris was the perfect boyfriend. I'm not saying he was a horrible person, he was a teenager and they make mistakes, I know but...

His girlfriend told him she wasn't ready for sex (I think they were about 15 or 16? Pardon me if I'm mistaken, it's been a while since I read it). There are several occasions where she has to hit him, pinch him or shove him off her because he "doesn't think she means it" when she says "no" and "Stop":

"He'd yelled at her when she pulled away; once he had even called her a cocktease."

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"He slid his hand down the front of her jeans, slipping beneath the waistband of her panties as well, so that his fingers brushed against silky hair. Holding his breath, he inched his fingers downward.

"Stop, " she whimpered. "Chris, stop. "

And when he didn't, she took her fist and clubbed him in the ear."

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"No. "

Emily tugged at the collar of Chris's shirt. "No, " she repeated, and when his hands held her tighter, she pinched his neck. "No!" she yelled, rolling him off her with an unholy shove. "I said no, " she panted.

Chris swallowed hard, his erection pink over the edge of his unzipped jeans. "I didn't think you meant it, " he said.

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"You want to know what's the matter with me, Em?" He grabbed her hand and shoved it hard against his groin. "That's what's the matter with me. " He released her wrist, letting her hand crawl beneath her thigh in hiding. "It's the only thing I can think of, the only thing that keeps me going. And night after night you say no, and I'm supposed to sit back and deal with it my own way, but the thing is I can't deal with it. Not anymore. "

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When they break up he sleeps with another girl pretty soon after. So much for Emily being the only person he wanted to be with.

He kept pushing Emily into sleeping with him. At one point he tells her it's the only thing that keeps him going but night after night she says no and that makes him angry. That doesn't sound like a loving, caring, understanding boyfriend to me.

I know he didn't know all the things that she was going through at the moment, but still, shouldn't he have backed off a bit?

Anyway, as I said, it's been a while since I read it. I've just skimmed over to get the quotes for this topic, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I've just been wondering if I was the only one that thought Chris wasn't such a perfect boyfriend as most people seem to think.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yeah, it's definitely been a while since I read it too, but I completely agree with you. Chris wasn't anything special and he broke the boundaries I don't think he had a right to break :(

Fede wrote: "Yeah, it's definitely been a while since I read it too, but I completely agree with you. Chris wasn't anything special and he broke the boundaries I don't think he had a right to break :("

Thank you for commenting.

To me (while he did care about her) he was more concerned about himself and his needs instead of hers.

I'm not saying he should have just left everything for her, but at least try to find out why his girlfriend is acting strange and respect her wishes of not wanting to be physically intimate with him.

He was definitely "breaking boundaries" there.

Agreed. I just finished this a few weeks ago and I found that I had little sympathy for Chris. He was definitely not perfect.

He didn't know about the incident at McDonald's. I think if he did that would have changed everything.

I think he was pushing for sex because he is a teenage boy. He has dated Emily for quite awhile, and everyone else is doing it. While not a good excuse - they never agreed to wait for marriage. Dating for two years and knowing each other since her birth I can see what he was pushing for sex.

the bathroom trauma and conflicted feelings about chris do not seem to be enough to be suicidal--did I miss something else that would hurt her to that point?

Karen wrote: "the bathroom trauma and conflicted feelings about chris do not seem to be enough to be suicidal--did I miss something else that would hurt her to that point?"

(I'm sorry if my reply is too long and confusing, English is not my native language and my rambling gets out of control sometimes)

It's been a long time since I read it, but I think maybe the pressure. I seem to remember (feel free to correct me if I remember wrong) that she felt everyone expected her to marry Chris, like it was always meant to be, but she wasn't so sure about that.

She said a few times that she felt Chris was like a brother to her, and she didn't want the sexual part of a relationship.

Maybe she felt so overwhelmed about (in her point of view) not having any other option but marrying Chris, like she was trapped.

Also, it's true that some people might not think what happened in that bathroom is enough to be suicidal but it could be.

A couple of years went by and she never told anyone, maybe it was too much for her to deal with alone.

Maybe it wasn't any one thing that drove her to suicide, what if the guilt and shame of the sexual abuse paired with (what she thought) everyone's expectations of her marriage to Chris (when she wasn't sure she loved him like that) did it?

I don't know, I like hearing other people's thoughts on it. Thank you for replying, I hope some of what I said made sense.

I didn't think he was a perfect boyfriend either. Although the book talked about him as being very mature for his age, I don't think he was. When Chris and Emily broke up, he slept with Donna DeFelice soon after. Although he had that right because they were broken up, I think he did it as kind of a "screw you" to Emily (pun unintended). And while he never raped Emily, he did push her and he got angry when she wouldn't put out.