First thing I wanna say is never feel bad for sharing your thoughts. As a creator, I go crazy for these in-depth analyses. It gives me that outside opinion I can't have because I'm too stuck in my own creations and you know how it is, maintaining a clear vision gets hard.
Overall everything you've said it's true. This is a spin-off so the missing context is meant to be in the main game, the whole story is Patrice trying to get over his first love and failing, that's it.
I will say, I learned about mouth guards near the end of writing the script so I shoved a random line in, without thinking too much. I'll have to go back in and fix it. Makes no sense.
Liam and Patrice are childhood friends so this is their usual banter. Also you're correct about that being weird, which is why Patrice mentions in passing that Liam ended up ghosting him after the break up. Patrice doesn't want to see him that way either. You don't have that friend who just... throws sexual jokes around/flirts but doesn't actually mean it?
I do understand your overall desire between wanting to learn more about Nia and less about Liam, this is just how it came out with the pre-existing knowledge of the main game already in place. I see now that it takes away a portion of the entertaining from the story.
I think love is a very subjective experience so... I want to believe, through Patrice's POV, that he did harbor genuine love and feelings for him but it was messy and they let their lack of experience carry them away. The only reason the end is abrupt was the word limit. I had in mind to add an additional scene at the end and readjust the overall speed.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading! I appreciated your feedback a lot.