Chapter 67: 'We Kept the Beds Together' — Summary, Themes, and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

With ten days remaining before the production of Much Ado About Nothing, the group rehearses scenes in the college space they have built together. Georgia narrates the chapter from a place of quiet observation, noting how much work remains—lines, costumes, set pieces—and how determined everyone is to make it work anyway.

Before one rehearsal, Rooney spends twenty minutes changing outfits and fixing her hair. Georgia asks directly whether this is about Pip. Rooney denies it loudly, then admits it is, and asks Georgia for help with romance. Georgia offers the only advice she can think of: be yourself, talk to her, say nice things. Rooney tries, awkwardly, during the rehearsal, delivering her lines with a flirty edge that Pip deflects with her own sharp wit.

Five days before the play, the group runs the entire production. There are mistakes—missed cues, Jason hitting his head on the papier-mâché pillar, Georgia blanking on her final speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream—but they finish, and it is not a disaster. Pip is genuinely surprised they might pull it off. Rooney claims sole credit as director, and Pip jokingly demands her co-directorship back. Their banter escalates into a playful chase around the room, both of them laughing and shrieking. Georgia smiles watching them, though she still is not sure Rooney is truly okay.

In the days that follow, Rooney stops going out at night. She takes down the photo of Beth from her wall, not throwing it away but tucking it safely inside a notebook. The two keep their beds together. They rehearse, eat in the cafeteria, sit together in lectures, walk to and from the library in the cold, and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine one Saturday morning until noon, buried in the covers. Georgia waits for Rooney to break again, to run away, but she does not.

Georgia senses something unspoken between them—something neither has addressed. She has figured out who she is; Rooney has told her who she was. But there is something more, and Georgia does not know whether it is Rooney holding back or herself. Sometimes she wakes in the night, terrified of the future, unsure what it will look like for her now. Sometimes Rooney wakes too, and says nothing, just lies there shuffling under the duvet. Georgia finds comfort in that—in Rooney simply being awake with her.

The night before the play, Georgia, Pip, and Rooney gather in Pip's bedroom for a final rehearsal. Sunil and Jason already know their lines, but the three of them want one last run-through. Pip's room is messier than before, but she has cleared a patch of carpet for acting and made a comfortable area with cushions and snacks. Georgia sprawls on the cushions while Pip and Rooney go over their scenes, bickering about line delivery and interpretations. Rooney tries to correct Pip's reading of a line; Pip pushes back; their banter is familiar and warm. When Pip calls Rooney by the nickname