Lauren is the main character and first-person narrator of the novel. Because the novel is written from her perspective, all of the narrative conflicts and thematic explorations contain elements of bias. In the narrative present, she is married to Ryan Cooper, her college sweetheart. When she first meets Ryan in college, Lauren discovers a sense of stability and comfort that she has lacked since leaving her family home. She is 19 years old when she meets Ryan, and her romance with him makes her feel safe and secure. For these reasons, she commits to their relationship and is convinced that “adulthood [is] going to be great” (23) because she’s sharing her life with someone she loves. Over time, however, Lauren’s relational conflicts with Ryan compel her to reexamine what love means to her and who she is beyond the context of her marriage.

Lauren is an introspective, self-reflective character who changes greatly over the course of the novel. When she and Ryan first decide to take a year apart, Lauren feels lonely and afraid because she doesn’t know what it means to be on her own. The separation challenges her to discover herself on her own terms for the first time in her adult life.