Chapter 28 Summary: 2007

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens in 2007 with the narrator arriving at Shauna's house to pick her up for lunch. Shauna, still in a hot-pink bathrobe, is sorting through clothes Kendi left behind, packing them into garbage bags labeled for donation. Among the pile are black oversized garments from what Shauna calls Kendi's only-wear-black phase, which she says lasted nearly a year during high school, the same year he refused to cut his hair.

The narrator is surprised—she has only a vague memory of Kendi's long hair and no memory of his all-black wardrobe. Left alone in the foyer, she rifles through the clothes and reflects on how little she remembers of her own high school wardrobe, which consisted of whatever her grandmother gave her or whatever she had slept in. She connects this to her mother's absence, noting that her mother used to dress her in matching outfits.

Shauna suggests Ol' South for pancakes, and the narrator agrees. While waiting, the narrator experiences a sudden urge to purge her stomach, along with impulses to call Kendi and ask if he was okay, and to go back to her ninth birthday party to tell her mother she'd never outgrow their matching outfits. She keeps these reactions to herself.

Shauna explains that during that period Kendi lost himself: he abandoned aviation, quit soccer, stopped going out, and played video games exclusively. She credits Michael with sitting Kendi down and talking about the choices in front of him, drawing on his own past. After that conversation, Kendi looked into aviation programs and resumed soccer, though his wardrobe took months longer to show color. Shauna describes squeezing Michael's arm in relief the first day Kendi came downstairs in plain blue jeans.

The narrator does not tell Shauna that she disagrees with the good-riddance framing. Internally, she would rather say that this phase was also part of Kendi, that none of it should be forgotten.

Later, the narrator texts Kendi about his grunge phase. He replies by reminding her of her sixth-grade phase of wearing a shirt featuring the musical duo K-Ci and JoJo every single day. The narrator smiles at the memory and reflects on what phases might still be ahead, feeling—for the first time in this moment—that imagining the future does not exhaust her.

Key Events

The narrator arrives at Shauna's house for lunch and finds her sorting Kendi's old clothes into donation bags.
Shauna reveals Kendi's year-long all-black phase in high school, which the narrator does not remember.
The narrator experiences a sudden urge to purge and other internal reactions she does not act on.
Shauna explains that Kendi abandoned aviation and soccer during that period, staying home to play video games.
Michael's conversation with Kendi about choices led to his recovery: aviation programs, soccer, and eventually color in his wardrobe.
The narrator internally rejects Shauna's good-riddance attitude toward that phase.
A text exchange with Kendi about his grunge phase and her K-Ci and JoJo shirt phase ends the chapter on a hopeful note.

Character Development

The narrator: This chapter shows the narrator's ongoing struggle with disordered eating impulses—the urge to purge surfaces when her stomach growls. It also reveals her grief over her mother's absence, as she connects her own forgotten wardrobe to the mother who used to dress her. Her refusal to dismiss Kendi's black phase shows a deepening empathy and a commitment to holding the full complexity of people's histories. The final text exchange and her reflection on future phases suggest a shift toward hope.

Shauna: Shauna's relief at Kendi's recovery is palpable—she describes squeezing Michael's arm when Kendi wore blue jeans again. Her framing of the phase as something to say good riddance to reflects a mother's worry and relief, but also a tendency to want to erase the difficult period.

Kendi: Though absent from the scene, Kendi is characterized through Shauna's account and through his own text reply. His willingness to joke about his grunge phase and to remember the narrator's sixth-grade shirt phase shows a shared history and a lightness about the past.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Letting go of the past: The Goodwill bags and the pile of black clothes symbolize Shauna's desire to discard a difficult period. The narrator's internal disagreement complicates this—she would rather keep the memory.

Memory and forgetting: The narrator's failure to remember Kendi's phase, and her reflection on how little she remembers of her own high school years, highlights how grief and absence can blur the past.

Identity phases: Both Kendi's black-clothes phase and the narrator's K-Ci and JoJo shirt phase are presented as temporary expressions of self that don't define a person permanently.

Maternal absence: The narrator's reflection on the mother who used to dress her in matching jumpers and bows ties her forgotten wardrobe to her grief.

Disordered eating: The narrator's urge to purge when her stomach growls is a quiet but significant signal of her ongoing struggle.

Shared memories and connection: The text exchange between the narrator and Kendi shows how remembering each other's phases becomes a way of staying connected.

Hope for the future: The final line—that imagining future phases doesn't exhaust her—marks a meaningful shift in the narrator's emotional state.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the portrait of the narrator's inner life, revealing the persistence of her disordered eating and her grief over her mother. It also expands the reader's understanding of Kendi's history, showing that his struggles predate the events of the novel's present. The chapter's ending offers a rare moment of lightness and hope, as the narrator and Kendi share a joke about their past phases and she looks toward the future without exhaustion. The contrast between Shauna's desire to discard the past and the narrator's wish to hold onto it raises questions about how we remember and honor the people we love.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does the narrator disagree with Shauna's good-riddance attitude toward Kendi's black phase?

The narrator believes the phase was part of Kendi and should not be forgotten. She would rather say things like this is you too and don't forget any of it, suggesting she values the full arc of a person's history rather than only the comfortable parts.

2. What does the narrator's urge to purge reveal about her state in 2007?

The urge surfaces when her stomach growls, suggesting her disordered eating is still present even years after the events of the novel's earlier chapters. It also connects to her emotional overwhelm—she wants to purge not just food but the feelings stirred by Shauna's account of Kendi's difficult year.

3. How does the text exchange at the end of the chapter change the chapter's tone?

The exchange—Kendi joking about his grunge phase and reminding her of her K-Ci and JoJo shirt phase—turns the chapter from a heavy meditation on loss and forgetting into a moment of shared humor and connection. The narrator's reflection that imagining future phases doesn't exhaust her signals a hopeful turn.