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This story is mostly a work of fiction, but began with an autobiographical diary filled with fantasies and wishes during my sixteenth year. My own real life at the time was not similar to the character's story. 

It runs a total of about 333,000 words. The chapter tracking is on the Circle Contents page. All chapters generally run between five and ten thousand words, with a few exceptions. It has 33 chapters, a prologue, and an epilog, as well as a forward, an afterword, and an appendix with images and other information that some might find makes the story more engrossing. 

The Forward is two part; the first is myself speaking about the peculiarities of The Circle, I hope making it a bit easier to read, and the second, a few words from "Alex" with which to confuse you.

The Prologue is just that, a prolog; an introduction and scene setting chapter. It has no real action, no character interactions, no dialog, and consists mostly of narration and a little internal dialog from the main character. The main character makes an appearance, you meet him, and learn a bit about him and his life and situation through a few of his thoughts and a great deal of exposition by the older Alex. The supporting character's are introduced by him, and wrapped into his past and current life. I kept it as entertaining, useful, and brief as I could manage. The rest of the story is perfectly readable without the prologue, but I hope it adds a sense of a pre-existing relationship with the main character and his situation as it unfolds over the length of the story.

 Chapter One is a flashback, as are many of the odd numbered chapters at first. There are other flashback chapters later on as well. They are fairly apparent at first, but may sneak up on you later. 

There is a great deal of sexual activity rather graphically depicted between males ranging from 14 to 20. If this isn't your cup of tea, do not read the X-rated chapters.  There are two versions of many chapters: One will be rated R or less, and a second X-rated version. If you prefer a less sex-filled story, don't read the X-rated chapters, they are explicit. You can find out more about the ratings here. The story without reading any of the X-rated chapters is rated-R.

There are no storyline, plot or content differences between the X and non-X-rated chapters. By reading one version or the other, you will not miss or learn anything not in the other versions. The only differences are the sex scenes. Some side stories develop and entangle within the X-rated versions, and they are mentioned only in the other X-rated versions. You will neither gain nor lose by reading either version. Reading both versions is completely insane and a waste of time, but since some obviously have, thanks for the comments and corrections. 

Please do not link to any Circle pages other than this one. Doing so voids my assurance that the reader has read the pertinent warnings, like the one below.

RATINGS

At the head of each story you will find a colored text with the rating and content codes.

So many writers use different ways of expressing louder or emphasized spoken words in dialog. Some use ALL CAPS while others use bold or italicized words to signify they were spoken louder or with more emphasis.

Myself, I prefer these methods:

A character emphasizing a word among others, and only saying it slightly louder or clearer will be in bold.
"There is no fucking way!" if someone wasn't yelling 'no', but only saying 'no' slightly more emphatically. 
"There is no fucking way!" would mean the entire sentence was said with strong emphasis, as in surprise or slight anger.
"There is no fucking way." may be a character's internal dialog or thoughts at giving up on a situation.

ALL CAPS are yelled words or phrases inside dialog. Usually spoken near top volume or over a lot of background sounds.
For instance, a character shouting at someone else in a loud night club as loudly as possible would be in all caps.  "WHAT?" 
"NO FUCKING WAY!" if someone yelled the words at full volume, as if in anger or very emphatically.

To mix the methods. . . .
"I said no, and I meant, NO!"
In this instance, the first 'no' was slightly emphasized, while the second 'no' was shouted, or nearly so.

There are rare cases where I will use both on the same words. This would signify a complete shouting at full volume in anger, hate or rage.

"I SAID TO FUCK OFF!" or "I said to FUCK OFF!" would be identical uses and meanings, or so nearly so that any difference would be moot.

I use ' ' to emphasize words in narration or third party narrative emphasis. 

Use of asterisks to denote scene changes

When a scene changes within a chapter, I will denote that with five asterisks with double-spaced line returns before and after, like so. . . 

*****

This will denote a major scene change. Often a space of time has been spanned as well. 

When a minor scene changes, or to delineate smaller changes of situation, often between continuing characters in the same location but at a time later, I will use three asterisks with single-spaced line returns before and after, like so. . . 

***

This replaces phrases such as "The next morning" or "Later that day" and is used for a fade-out/fade-in effect quite often in The Circle.

A FEW NOTES AND CONTACTS

• no I am not looking to hook up with anyone
• no I do not want to share porn pics or vids
• no I do not want to IM for a cyber session
• yes your criticism of these stories is welcomed
• yes your opinions of these stories are welcomed
• yes I would like to know about other story sites on the internet
• gaystories at smokr dot info for email
• my views on ages and sexuality
• my views on male beauty