Part 1, Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Before”
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Will and Rosie stay in touch via text message. Will sleeps with Darcy once but doesn’t enjoy it, thinking about Rosie instead. Marley gets angry with Rosie for not dating Will, but Rosie placates her with a movie night. Rosie focuses on studying for her exams. She likes it when Will texts her before bed. Rosie feels “In control, and on the right path […]” (62).
Marley plans to attend the winter dance with Tom Dellow. She can tell Marley is frustrated that she’s not taking Will, but Rosie promises they can get ready together and jokes that Josh is her date. Rosie’s mom has a bad migraine the week before Christmas break and can’t go to work. Rosie takes her medicine, sits by her bed, and thinks she likes her mom better when she’s ill because she isn’t pressuring her about weight loss or school. Rosie tells Josh she wants to go shopping for a dress for the dance. He jokes with her about wanting to impress someone special, and when Rosie cracks a joke about him never having a girlfriend, neither laughs in the uncomfortable silence. Rosie apologizes and blames her outburst on stress. He asks if she is having trouble with her “checking,” her repeated rituals she’s been doing since age seven that only he knows about. She wishes she could tell Josh about Will. Josh offers to take her shopping for a dress.
Josh begins meeting Will in the school workshop for more math tutoring. Will prefers to be alone to work on his candlestick project but tolerates Josh even though he feels him watching him. Josh asks if Will is attending the dance and says he’s going to a party beforehand at Jack’s. Josh’s tone makes Will wonder if he knows about him and Rosie. Will decides that if he goes to the dance and sees Rosie there, it won’t violate her terms of the relationship.
Will walks to the dance because Gran won’t let him drive. Josh is there and very drunk. Will finds Rosie, who is looking for Josh. He almost doesn’t recognize her, as she looks stunning in her blue dress. They go outside for air, and Will tells Rosie he only came to the dance to see her. He asks her to dance and holds her, swaying in the parking lot. Marley and Tom interrupt them, and Marley pulls Rosie away from Will to dance. Rosie finds Josh inside the dance, falling asleep. She rushes him outside when he vomits so he doesn’t get into trouble. She walks him home, and Josh becomes maudlin, acting like he wants to tell her something. He says, “You know…” and though Rosie isn’t sure what he means, she says she does (79).
Will is riding home with his gran and sees Rosie and Josh walking. They stop and offer them a ride. Rosie invites Will to her family’s Christmas party, and Gran returns the invite even though they have just had a small family gathering for Christmas. After dropping off Rosie and Josh, Gran says she’s never heard Will talk about having friends, and she likes Rosie. Later, Will thinks about how he slowly became unwell after his mother left. He became angry and self-medicated with alcohol. He had a drinking problem by age 13 and began hanging out with the wrong crowd, stealing things, and taking drugs. The next day at the Winters’ house, Josh refuses to get out of bed for school. Rosie feels concerned about how much Josh drank the previous night.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Will attends Rosie’s Christmas Eve party. Josh is overjoyed to see Will, not remembering that Rosie invited him in the car on the way home from the dance. Will sips champagne and flirts with Rosie as they talk about what to eat. Will wants her to do something adventurous, so they take the apple tarts, the featured dessert at every Winters’s Christmas party, outside and eat them before dinner. Will asks to take Rosie on a proper date, but she says they must wait until after exams. When they return inside, Will holds her hand briefly, but they are interrupted by Josh, who is drunk and sullen at the sight of them together. Rosie leaves to play the piano for the guests as she’s expected to each year.
Will finds himself alone in the kitchen with Mrs. Winters. She asks what his intentions are with Rosie. Will explains that they aren’t dating and that he plans “to do only what Rosie wants” —an answer that satisfies Mrs. Winters. Rosie plays original compositions that she’s worked on during the fall. Will listens to her playing, astounded by her talent and the beauty of the music, but he leaves without saying goodbye. Later, Rosie can’t sleep and climbs into bed with Josh. She’s worried about him, but he won’t talk to her.
The following day, Will goes for a run and thinks about what Christmas was like before his mom left. He wonders what she’s doing now. As Gran prepares the Christmas meal in the kitchen, she asks how Will’s night went. He doesn’t say much, but he explains that he and Rosie can’t work because she’s going away to college in the fall. Gran encourages him not to count himself out, especially if Rosie is special. Will texts Rosie to invite her over later, and she lies to her mom, saying she’s going to Marley’s house. She checks on Josh before she leaves and finds him still in bed. At first, she thinks he’s angry with her for lying to him about her and Will. She explains that they’ve been talking and that they both like each other. She assures Josh that it won’t affect his friendship with Will. Then Josh confesses that he’s also attracted to Will, confirming a truth Rosie has known for a while. Josh sobs while Rosie holds him.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
Rosie never comes for tea, and Will hasn’t heard from her since the Christmas party. At school, Josh doesn’t show up for math class. After work at the garage, Will returns home, and Gran waits for him. She encourages him to reach out to Rosie, though he concedes it’s over. She tells him he must fight for what he wants, and Will gets angry and lashes out, asking her if this is the life she wanted, raising him and Amber. Gran says she loves her life, and Will storms off to his room, thinking about how none of this is what he wants. He texts Rosie and asks to meet at the lighthouse.
Rosie worries she gained weight over the holidays and runs extra hard on the treadmill. She meets Will at the lighthouse and tells him she can’t be with him. Will doesn’t buy it and kisses her passionately, and she kisses him back, melting into his embrace and the pleasure of her first kiss. On the path back home, the conversation flows easily, but the closer she gets home, the more Rosie worries about how she can’t share the kiss with Josh. Will notices her detachment. She tells him again that she can’t be with him. He wants a reason and thinks it’s because of her mom or Josh’s disapproval of him. Though it’s a cruel lie, Rosie says, “You’re the wrong kind of person, for me […]” (118). Will wants to fight for them, but instead, he stands silently.
Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary
Spring arrives, and Will and the others take their exams to complete school. Since he isn’t hanging out with Josh and Rosie, Will has spent most of his time in the garage, seeing old friends and spending nights with Darcy. However, he and Darcy aren’t together because she wants a boyfriend. On the last day of school, as everyone is celebrating, Will asks Josh if they’re “okay,” and Josh says yes.
Rosie and Josh get accepted to Oxford. Rosie never submits her application for music school. The summer passes quickly as everyone begins to plan for the fall, and Will misses Rosie and Josh. Will’s friends plan a party for his 19th birthday, and he texts Rosie and Josh to invite them. Rosie and Josh sneak out to attend the party. When Josh had come out to Rosie the night of the Christmas party, he spoke openly about his sexuality for the first time and shared that he didn’t know when he was younger, but gradually, as a teen, he began to understand. Will is the first guy Josh has had a crush on. While walking to the party, he tells Rosie he’s “over him” now because Will’s not gay and likes someone else. Josh wants Rosie to date Will, but she can sense the pain behind his words.
At the bonfire, Rosie waves to Will from across the fire. Rosie walks to the cliff to look over the ocean, and Will joins her. She asks if they can be friends and apologizes for what she said. Josh drinks heavily and is soon drunkenly professing his love to everyone at the party, shouting, “How can any kind of love be bad?” (131). Josh gets so drunk that he can’t walk, and Rosie quietly says his name, pleading for him to calm down. Josh backs up closer to the cliff edge as Rosie begs him to stop. Will follows, reaching for him. Josh spins to face the ocean, slips, and tumbles over the cliff to the beach below. Will holds Rosie back, preventing her from seeing Josh’s broken body.
Part 1, Chapters 4-7 Analysis
Because Will and Rosie’s romantic arc stretches over a decade, it requires Daverley to build in obstacles that drive them apart and allow them to reconnect again and again. Daverley builds on Will and Rosie’s initial connection over two late-night conversations, which evolve into a text-only relationship—a private world that only the two of them inhabit. This secrecy builds a sense of intimacy and keeps their relationship hidden from others, escalating the emotional stakes. Will embodies the rule breaker archetype with his rebellious streak and checkered past, while Rosie self-identifies as a "good girl" who follows the rules. The opposites-attract trope creates tension and a sense of adventure. Rosie feels drawn to someone who defies expectations, and for the first time, Will encounters a girl who wants things other than his attention. To make their relationship viable, Will must cast aside everything he thinks he knows about women, and Rosie must overcome the fear and anxiety of what people will think of her if she dates him. Moreover, she must surrender to the ways that dating Will disrupts her carefully laid plans and grapple with whether she’s willing to risk security for love. The reveal of Josh crush on Will creates an insurmountable obstacle for Rosie in her relationship with Will.
Will profoundly loves and respects his grandmother, but his past creates conflict in their relationship, highlighting The Challenges of Complex Family Dynamics and Relationships. She scrutinizes his every move out of care and concern and a desire to rebuild their trust after his past mistakes. Similarly, Rosie maintains a distant yet tangled bond with her mother. While Rosie empathizes with her mom’s chronic health problems and stressful job, Daverley emphasizes the ways in which her mother’s prescribed ideas about body image and academic performance, exacerbate her anxiety, raising the emotional stakes of the narrative. For example, Daverley notes that Rosie likes her mom better when she’s sick, as it puts Rosie in a position of power and weakens her mother’s ability to control her every move. Rosie and Josh share a unique bond in their twinness, yet they both attempt to hide elements of themselves from each other, underscoring the ways in which their family dynamic fosters feelings of guilt and shame. Rosie tries to conceal her checking rituals related to her OCD, while Josh grapples with his sexuality. Daverley demonstrates how their attempts to hide their secrets from each other hurt their relationship, holding them back from experiencing the twin bond fully.
The moment when Josh finally shares his truth with Rosie is central to the novel’s thematic interest in The Significance of Unspoken Words and Repressed Emotions. Daverley underscores the ways in which sharing this part of himself with his sister is a step towards living as a whole person. She frames his reluctance to come out to their parents and their friends as the fear of judgment and danger— a consequence of anti-gay societal expectations and prejudice. The secrecy affects both Rosie and Josh’s relationships with Will and represents a key obstacle in Rosie and Will’s romantic arc.
By exploring her characters’ external circumstances and internal emotions and conflicts, Daverley creates a nuanced look at The Individualized Nature of Mental Health in her novel. Will’s flashbacks to his past reveal his anger issues that cause him to self-medicate with alcohol. Rosie's anxiety manifests in repetitive, checking behaviors that affect her physically and emotionally. Both Will’s depression and Rosie’s OCD symptoms are significantly exacerbated by Josh’s tragic death at the end of Part 1, suggesting a relationship between traumatic experiences and mental health concerns.
