40 pages • 1 hour read
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Alex waits on the train platform. She searches through the contacts on her phone and calls two of her former dates, but neither of them wants to see her. Alex thinks about when Simon asked her to leave and convinces herself that he doesn’t want to break up; he just wants a break. She decides to give Simon six days of a break and then to reach out to him again at his annual Labor Day party. The train pulls into the station and several young people disembark. Two young men waiting on the platform with Alex greet them. Alex pretends to be part of the group.
The house they stay at is crowded and filthy. Alex comforts a drunk girl crying over a boy in the bathroom. Alex gets drunk with the others. She swims in the dirty pool. She constantly checks her phone but has no messages from Simon. At night, Alex looks around the house for a place to sleep. She sees a young man asleep on his own and takes the other half of his pull-out couch.
In the morning, Alex wakes up first. As she’s looking through the man’s wallet, he wakes up and catches her.