Craig, Harry, and their crew of friends and supporters set up for the kiss. Harry and Craig are given gag gifts by Harry’s parents and their friends Rachel and Smita. Tariq presents them with a bust of Walt Whitman and recites the poem “We Two Boys Together Clinging.” He also gives them an iPod with exactly 32 hours, 12 minutes, and 10 seconds of music downloaded, perfectly curated for each moment of their kiss.

Cooper drives out of town and pulls into a Walmart parking lot. He looks through his phone for someone to reach out to, but he feels the names in his phone are just contacts: “That’s what they feel like to him—contacts. People he has contact with. Contact in class. Contact in the hallways or at lunch. Not friends. Not really. Not if being someone’s friend means not being fake” (42). He opens a dating app, instead, looking for strangers to talk to.

Avery arrives in Kindling, and the chorus anticipates his meeting with Ryan just as much as Avery does. “We count down the minutes until Avery pulls into Ryan’s driveway. We count down the seconds until Ryan opens the door, comes stepping outside.