At the start of the novel, Sarah is 15 years old. Although she has friends, notably Joelle, she is also a loner. This tendency becomes more pronounced after she and Joelle have their final argument, and the juniors ostracize her. Though not explicitly stated in the text, Sarah appears to get in the car with Martin and Liam out of loneliness and a desire to be around lively people. Sarah's relationship with her mother is tense, as her mother worries about her and wants to spend time with her, while Sarah is more interested in her own pursuits, at school and with her boyfriend David.

Sarah values privacy. This proves to be a problem with David, who wants to publicly celebrate their relationship. As an adult, she again seems torn between what she secretly wants to do and what she feels expected to do; she has complicated feelings about having a baby, for example, which many would see as a public manifestation of the love between her and her husband, who is absent from this story. As the story unfolds over the course of all three sections, this desire for secrecy stems from an early relationship between her and her teacher.