Silas finally calls Casey, apologizing for the delay. He’s been sick with a virus passed around on the field trip. They meet for dinner but neither eats much. Casey wants to tell Silas about Oscar. She decides that she wants “to know if it matters to him. It seems like the only way to find out his feelings for me” (265). She hesitates, and when they part without even a kiss at the T station, Casey still hasn’t told him but decides that Silas’s pat on the shoulder as a goodbye says enough.

Casey’s first rejection letter arrives, but Muriel encourages her to keep her hopes up, confident that Casey’s book will sell. Casey is again starting to feel the crunch of need for money. Loan sharks have started calling her work to try to seize wages, and Adam wants to increase her rent. Ultimately Adam decides to sell half of his property and to evict Casey in three weeks.

Casey makes her choice and stops calling Silas back. She decides that she’s “done with the seesaw, the hot and cold, the guys who don’t know or can’t tell you what they want.