Words on Bathroom Walls

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Chapters 24-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 24 Summary

Adam and Maya enjoy their first Valentine’s Day as boyfriend and girlfriend. They go out to dinner, gaze at the sunset over the water, and watch Casablanca at an old theater. During the movie, Adam starts to feel strange. The movie merges with the theater around him, and when guns go off, Adam’s ability “to hide my crazy disappeared” (170). He yanks Maya to the floor to protect her from the bullets.

After a moment of shock, Maya kisses him. As they make out, Adam’s panic recedes, and by the time the movie’s over, the incident doesn’t feel as bad as it was. He convinces himself that his mind “played images that had absolutely nothing to do with what I actually did” and moves on (171).

Chapter 25 Summary

Adam is cast as Jesus in St. Agatha’s Easter production of Stations of the Cross, which is not a popular role to play in the school. The casting is done by popular vote, so since Adam isn’t really disliked, he suspects Ian had something to do with rigging the voting. Dwight, who is even less popular than Adam, volunteered for one of the background roles. When Adam asks why Dwight didn’t tell him they could volunteer for smaller roles, Dwight laughs, “it’s every man for himself, dude” (174).

Chapter 26 Summary

Life progresses pretty normally for Adam. He still meets Dwight for tennis on Monday nights, and at home, Paul and his mom prepare for the baby’s arrival. Academic Team has its last meet of the year, and afterwards, Adam hangs out with Dwight and Maya. At one point, Maya rests her hand on Adam’s leg. The gesture makes him feel like he “was being claimed” in a good way (182).

Chapter 27 Summary

Adam is showing signs of resisting ToZaPrex, so the research study scientists decide to take him off the drug and terminate him from the research study. The news leaves him nervous. In response, he pulls at the skin around his cuticle because it causes “the kind of pain that felt satisfying” (185). When he sees the damage he’s done to one finger, he stops because if he does any more, his mother will notice.

At the store one day, Adam sees one of his best friends from childhood. They haven’t spoken since Adam’s diagnosis. Adam wants to believe it’s because the guy’s mom forbid it, but he knows the kid “always did stuff his mom didn’t like” (187). Rather than confront the guy, Adam finishes his shopping and leaves. Rebecca shows her approval by doing cartwheels.

Chapters 24-27 Analysis

ToZaPrex is slowly working less and less well for Adam, who clings to the hope that the drug is still effective, which will cause him to make poor decisions. Adam’s hallucinations are worse than they were a few chapters ago, but Adam still has confidence in his ability to keep his schizophrenia a secret. However, scenes like the movie theater incident show that Adam is losing the ability to tell whether his hallucinations are real. Desperate to pretend that everything is fine, Adam manages to convince himself that he didn’t respond to his hallucinations when he sprang up from his seat to evade the on-screen bullets, so he chooses to believe there was nothing odd about his actions. Up until now, rearranging events in his memory has been harmless—the same way that Maya’s rose costume story harmlessly displaced her embarrassment onto a fictional student—but here, Adam endangers himself by ignoring what’s happening. His denial will lead to his overdose on ToZaPrex and subsequent breakdown.

The old friend Adam sees in Chapter 27 reinforces how people treat individuals with mental illness differently. The friend intentionally cut ties with Adam after Adam’s diagnosis. Adam’s choice to move on rather than confront the former friend shows character growth: He understands now that he doesn’t need to engage in this negative interaction; Rebecca’s joyful reaction celebrates his decision to let it go.