Winger

Ryan Dean meets up with his friends for breakfast the next morning. Annie is feeling better, and they talk about the rugby match while casually holding hands across the cafeteria table. They talk about their trip to Annie’s house, and Joey offers them a ride to the airport since he, Chas, and Megan are all leaving campus for the weekend too. Annie doubts Ryan Dean’s claim that he didn’t understand what was going on when they were about to kiss earlier that week. However, Ryan Dean continues to feign innocence in an exaggerated way. 

In their shared literature class, Ryan Dean and Annie exchange notes about their trip. As Ryan Dean teases her about wanting to kiss him, Annie remains aloof and noncommittal.

On the way to the airport, Chas teases Ryan Dean and Annie about their “romantic” weekend, which leads Megan to ask Annie if Ryan Dean is a good kisser. This terrifies Ryan Dean, who’s afraid Annie will figure out that he’s been seeing Megan, but he and Annie just laugh it off in front of the others. Ryan Dean remains determined to get Annie to kiss him. 

At the airport, the group disperses for their various flights. As Ryan Dean goes through security, he sets off the metal detector by failing to take off his belt. At that moment, a Band-Aid from his testicle wound falls out of his pants. Fearing that he’s a drug mule, airport security takes him aside for a strip search. They release him after they fail to find anything, and Ryan Dean hears the final boarding call for his flight over the intercom. Flustered and half-dressed, he rushes to the gate with Annie, who laughs at his predicament. 

Ryan Dean and Annie hold hands throughout the flight. When Ryan Dean asks her what’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her, she doesn’t answer and turns the question back to him. He says that his top three are the last two times he and Annie went to Stonehenge and that moment on the flight. Interpreting this as a sign that he’s trying to get her to kiss him, she jokingly rebuffs him.

Annie’s parents pick her and Ryan Dean up at the airport and get to know Ryan Dean on their ride back to the house. Based on what Annie told her parents about Ryan Dean, it seems like she could have romantic feelings for him. However, she refuses to let her parents call him her boyfriend, nor does she hold hands with him in the backseat of her parents’ car. Ryan Dean learns that Annie’s parents have a hot tub and indoor pool, and since he didn’t bring any swimming trunks Annie’s parents offer to take him to buy some. Ryan Dean whispers to Annie that he’ll go without them, again emphasizing his sexual and romantic feelings for her.

The group stops on their way home to buy Ryan Dean’s swimsuit. Ryan Dean finds himself somewhat attracted to Annie’s mom when she holds up various swimsuits to his waist to see if they’ll fit. Finally, Annie’s dad, who Ryan Dean already gets along with because he played rugby in college, makes up an excuse to move the errand along. Ryan Dean feels an even stronger rapport with him. 

When the group arrives at the Altmans’ home, Ryan Dean is impressed with the tasteful and aesthetically-pleasing house and grounds. The front walk is filled with metal sculptures that Annie made, something Ryan Dean hadn’t realized she could do. Rather than having him take the house’s guest bedroom, Annie insists that Ryan Dean sleep in another room right across the hall from her bedroom, which raises Ryan Dean’s expectations of something romantic or sexual happening between them. She shows him to his room, and they decide to go for a walk on the beach before dinner. As she reemerges from her bedroom after changing, Ryan Dean is in awe of how she looks in jeans and a sweater rather than a school uniform. She shows him her bedroom, and then the two go down to the beach. 

Ryan Dean and Annie walk on the beach and talk as the sun sets. As they turning around to go back to the house, Ryan Dean almost kisses Annie again, and she again brushes him off. The two swim after dinner under the watchful eyes of Annie’s parents, but while they’re in the hot tub together they rub their legs against each other’s. Ryan Dean is both aroused and frustrated by Annie’s inconsistency.

The next morning, Ryan Dean sleeps in, and Annie comes into his bedroom to wake him up, ready to go for a run. Ryan Dean is excited by the fact that she’s in his bedroom, but she remains businesslike and tells him to come to breakfast so they can go for a run together afterward.

Ryan Dean and Annie run to a park with an old abandoned sawmill in it. It’s covered with graffiti on the inside, and Annie shows Ryan Dean a drawing that reminds her of his wish at Stonehenge—it’s a Venn diagram like the one he drew for her when he asked her to stop thinking of him as a little kid. This touches Ryan Dean, and he “loses” the game they’ve been “playing” with each other by kissing her. The two kiss passionately for several minutes. When they return to the house, giddy and relieved, they tell Annie’s parents that it was the perfect run.

Annie and her mom let down the hems of Ryan Dean’s school pants since he’s starting to outgrow them. Ryan Dean is again attracted to both Annie and her mother. Annie embarrasses Ryan Dean by telling her mom the story of his testicle injury and strip-search at the airport, which amuses her mom. As he leaves the room, Annie’s mom remarks that she loves Ryan Dean; Ryan Dean thinks he overhears Annie agree that she does too.

The next morning, Annie avoids talking about the kiss from the day before. She is brusque and businesslike with Ryan Dean until they get out into the woods on another run together. There, she tells Ryan Dean that she doesn’t want them to kiss again and that she “can’t” be involved with him. His feelings hurt, Ryan Dean turns around without her and starts running back toward the house, feeling dejected and blaming himself for Annie’s reaction to their kiss. He strips off his sweatshirt, socks, and shoes while he runs. 

Ryan Dean runs by himself back to Annie’s house and waits there, shivering, until Annie returns. She brings back the clothes he shed on his way back and apologizes for hurting his feelings, although she stands by her romantic rejection of him. 

Ryan Dean and Annie fly back to school in an uneasy silence after their conversation.

Ryan Dean and Annie are the first to arrive at the airport. While they wait for the others, they continue their conversation about not being together. Before their conversation, Ryan Dean is so dejected about returning to Pine Mountain and his “failure” with Annie that he wants to call his dad and ask if he can go home to Boston instead of returning to school.

However, Annie initiates another kissing session with Ryan Dean, which Joey sees. He teases them about finally getting together, and Annie, embarrassed, leaves to go get a drink. Joey privately congratulates Ryan Dean, who says that Annie continues to be ambivalent about their relationship. Joey suggests that Annie is afraid of being with Ryan Dean because he tends to objectify women, and that she could be worried that Ryan Dean will objectify her if they’re together. 

While he and his friends wait for Chas and Megan, Ryan Dean calls his parents, hoping to speak with his dad. He only ends up talking to his mom, though, who is upset because he enjoyed his weekend with Annie’s family so much and because Ryan Dean tells her he’s gained weight and grown since she saw him last. His mom feels distant and out of touch with her son, which makes her emotional. Ryan Dean ends the conversation by simply asking her to send him some new running shoes since Annie couldn’t find the ones he tossed away on their run. 

As Chas and Megan arrive, looking harried and disconnected from each other, Ryan Dean realizes he’s still attracted to Megan. He rides in the backseat of the car on the way back to school and begins playing footsie with both girls simultaneously. Disgusted with himself for pursuing Megan, he then ignores her and focuses his attention on Annie, making Megan pursue him even more. Chas begins to catch on to the dynamic between Ryan Dean and Megan.

Meanwhile, Ryan Dean begins to sweat and lose his voice. Although he thought it was from the excitement of sitting so close to the girls, everyone realizes he’s actually coming down with something. 

The travelers return to the campus and part ways to go to their dorms. As Ryan Dean and Annie say goodbye to each other by clasping hands, JP and Seanie come up. Although Ryan Dean pointedly makes it clear that he and Annie are together, JP and Annie hug as Ryan Dean and Seanie talk, which makes Ryan Dean even more upset with JP. 

That night, Chas wakes Ryan Dean up at midnight for the traditional after-hours poker game. At first, Ryan Dean tries to get out of playing, but Chas’s behavior makes it clear that he doesn’t have any leverage with Chas because of Megan. As the players settle in, Kevin, Casey, and Joey bad-mouth each other. Casey becomes aggressive and defensive, which again foreshadows his involvement in Joey’s murder later in the book. This time, Joey and Casey bring whiskey. 

Ryan Dean drinks some of the whiskey and likes it better than beer. He tries to numb his feelings—both the physical feelings of being sick and the emotional feelings of being upset about JP and Annie. Chas complains about how the whiskey tastes when he drinks it alone. Having convinced Chas that the urine he still has in the Gatorade bottle from several nights ago is actually Gatorade, a drunk Ryan Dean pours some in with Chas’s whiskey. Casey asks for some too, and Ryan Dean has the satisfaction of watching his two tormentors drink his own urine. Joey, who knows about the “Gatorade,” watches with impressed amusement. At the end of the game, Chas and Ryan Dean both lose, forcing them to take on another “consequence”.