Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza’s parents support her decision to take a gap year and focus on her health, and they make plans as graduation approaches. Eliza refuses to attend her graduation ceremony, but she sees the pictures Lucy takes of Wallace accepting his diploma. She goes to Wallace’s house and waits for him to come home from the ceremony. They talk outside, and Eliza tries to apologize again for everything. Wallace is still angry and tells her they can’t be friends again. He will be too busy, anyway—he now has to work to pay for college. She worries that if Wallace can’t forgive her for being herself, then no one ever will. She sends a message to Emmy and Max, but they don’t reply.

Eliza sits in her car at Wellhouse Turn and contemplates what it would be like to drive her car over the cliff. She decides to put off the decision and go home. Just then, Wallace arrives to stop her from doing something irrevocable. He wraps her in his arms as she tells him she was on her way home, and he begs her not to become someone else he loses on this turn. They cry, and Wallace tells her that nothing is more important than her life.