Why do you think Sean feels so angry, humiliated, and frightened when his attempt to kiss Gabby is rejected?

Why do you think Sean feels so angry, humiliated, and frightened when his attempt to kiss Gabby is rejected?

Sean loved Olivia. He was mortified that his attempt to kiss Gabby failed and then feared that Olivia would find out. He knew she would reject him forever if she found out he'd tried to kiss her much younger, impressionable sister. This desperation to hide the truth from Olivia led to Gabby's death. His utter humiliation rose from his fear that everyone would know what he had tried and failed to do.

I totally agree with ScribblingScribe who states it better than I could. Sean is also a man, which might explain things too. They don't seem to take rejection well.

LOL regarding robertaw's comment about men not taking rejection well. I tend to agree. I think Sean was arrogant in his own head and was confident Gabby would welcome his advances, especially because of young age.

None of the crew: Sean, Kieran or Ash were particularly mature and egged each other on when it came to female conquests. Sean was a bit of an outsider to begin with and this became a combustible combination in his inability to handle Gabby's rejection.

I felt that Sean had no understanding of people. He watched Gabby's face and completely misunderstood the signals she was giving off about him. That he could just walk away from her, leaving her in the cave, tells so much about the person that he was.

Well - as stated he is a man.....no other comment needed - but also I feel sure that his next feeling was that Gabby would tell her sister that Sean made a pass at her and then all would be lost for him... that there would be even further humiliation to follow and would also bring many unwanted consequences that would trickle through his friends and make him out to be a bad person.

Besides feeling rejected I think he is embarrassed by his attempt to seduce such a young girl. I think he acted on impulse but shame overwhelmed him. His leaving her behind is despicable.

Sean's real attraction is to Olivia and when he cannot be with her, he takes Gabby out as a second best. When Gabby refuses his advances, he is obviously insulted - thinking that because she is so much younger she will be easily persuaded and perhaps even grateful for his attention. His ego is seriously wounded and his next reaction is to fear Olivia will find out what he has tried to do and she will think even less of him.

Ego. She was what he thought was a substitute for Olivia. Then, he realized she was still a child and over reacted, resulting in tragedy. He would have been better off to have apologized, thrown himself on Olivia’s and Gaby’s mercy begging for forgiveness, and moved on with life.

I think that Gabby and Sean were young, inexperienced , and both connected to Olivia. I think they were both mortified, but Sean had more to lose-Olivia.

He had a lot to lose and a lot of men don't handle rejection so well. To be fair, neither do a lot of women. There's a lot of shame associated with rejection for a lot of peole and shame is one of the most difficult emotions to handle so a lot of people aren't great at handling it.

I agree that a lot of it had to do with his age and inability to handle rejection. I think people in town already knew Gabby was getting unwanted attention from men and Sean didn't want anyone (especially Olivia) to find out he'd made a pass at a much younger girl. I think he also was completely embarrassed by the rejection on top of her already trying to help him save face when she realized Kieran hadn't told him he was fooling around with Olivia.

I think Sean's own telling of the events of that day explain why he reacted the way he did. Sean took a lot of kidding from Ash and Kieran. He took that teasing very personally- -not seeing it as guys just giving each other a hard time, but as if they were telling him he was a loser, a sissy, and very uncool. It was obviously more important to Sean what is friends really thought of him than anyone- -even me as a reader- -realized. I think this caused him to feel very insecure. After the teasing he received for just talking with Olivia, I think he was terrified of what would be said when everyone found out that he tried to kiss Gabby and EVEN she refused his advances.

I believe it was simply his fear of being humiliated by his group of male friends, and the very real possibility of being totally rejected by Olivia if she found out. Sean was much less confident and experienced than his peers, and already felt left out and lonely. To be ignored by Olivia was one thing, but to be rejected by an even younger version of Olivia was a true humiliation in his mind.

Males often become angry when they’re frightened. Sean was afraid of being humiliated if his male friends or Olivia learned of his interaction with and rejection by Gabby. Sean appears to have difficulty reading people and lacks confidence with his peers. His actions were horrible and showed immature thought processes and emotions.

I think Sean was very unsure of himself around girls. He totally misread Gabby. When he was rejected by her he was embarrassed and worried the other “guys” would find out about his failure to seduce her.

Sean is very immature and does not understand the other people in his life. He was envious of others around him and tried to hide his failings. He did a good job of it because the others seemed not to realize the full extent of his problems.

We already know that he feels inferior to Kieran and Ash in a social sense; they're always the ones hooking up with girls and bragging about it, so this would have just perpetuated that feeling. He's embarrassed, as most people would be, that he misread the situation and social cues (which I get the sense is maybe more of an issue than Kieran knows about for him) and made an advance that was rejected. Not to mention the implications it has for the relationship he has (and the one he wants) with Olivia and the fact that Gabby is so young that he probably knows he'll be labelled in an unsavoury manner. He had been belittled and made fun of, laughed at and been the butt of the joke by Ash and Kieran for a long time, and it may have been that he finally saw a way to prevent this from happening again in this instance. He would have been especially hurt because not only does his crush Olivia not share his attraction, but neither does her younger, inexperienced sister, who admits she has never even been kissed.

Both Gabby and Sean were young - however Sean was somewhat older than Gabby. Gabby looked older than she was, but did not really appreciate the advances that she got from guys. Not seeming to make headway with Gabby's older sister Olivia, which Sean really liked, gave him the courage to approach Gabby. Being denied by even Gabby was hurtful, but even more so was his fear that his friends would learn of this failed attempt.