Chap­ter 8 begins with Phoebe being abrupt­ly awak­ened at noon by a loud knock on her door. Lila, eager to show off a hat she’s con­sid­er­ing for an upcom­ing sail­ing trip, walks into the room, spark­ing Phoebe’s reflec­tion on Lila’s appar­ent lack of curios­i­ty about oth­ers. Despite the grav­i­ty of her own feel­ings of despair, Phoebe finds it hard to com­pre­hend how Lila could enter her space with­out ask­ing how she’s tru­ly doing, par­tic­u­lar­ly when she’s strug­gling with thoughts of sui­cide. This moment high­lights the emo­tion­al dis­con­nec­tion Phoebe feels, as she grap­ples with the insen­si­tiv­i­ty of oth­ers towards her inter­nal tur­moil.

As the con­ver­sa­tion shifts, Lila reveals her own vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly her con­cerns about what oth­ers think of her. She explains how a mishap at the pre­vi­ous night’s recep­tion left her feel­ing humil­i­at­ed, expos­ing her inse­cu­ri­ties despite her oth­er­wise com­posed appear­ance. Phoebe, still grap­pling with the after­math of a secret encounter from the night before, reflects on her own expe­ri­ences of feel­ing small or mis­un­der­stood, sim­i­lar to how she once felt when meet­ing her hus­band. The con­trast in their emo­tion­al states prompts Phoebe to reflect on the com­plex­i­ties of their friend­ship and her own feel­ings of iso­la­tion.

The con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues as Lila opens up about her rela­tion­ships with her friends, Nat and Suz, while also express­ing her frus­tra­tion with her mother’s unre­al­is­tic expec­ta­tions. Lila reveals how her moth­er often shares dis­tort­ed, exag­ger­at­ed sto­ries about her at pub­lic gath­er­ings, which only deep­ens her sense of frus­tra­tion. Phoebe, sens­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­vide insight, ques­tions the con­cept of “won­der­ful” in Lila’s descrip­tion of her rela­tion­ship with Gary, chal­leng­ing the authen­tic­i­ty of the con­nec­tion. This leads to a deep­er, more philo­soph­i­cal dis­cus­sion about love, friend­ship, and the expec­ta­tions placed on them by oth­ers. Through this con­ver­sa­tion, Lila is forced to con­front the real­i­ties of her rela­tion­ship with Gary and the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties that come with it.

As the dia­logue unfolds, Lila jok­ing­ly admits that she strug­gles with the con­cept of true emo­tion­al con­nec­tion, yet still finds humor in the absur­di­ties of life. This leads to a light­heart­ed exchange about their mutu­al expe­ri­ences, though the con­ver­sa­tion is abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed when Lila announces that she needs to address an issue with her mother’s room. Before leav­ing, she casu­al­ly sug­gests Phoebe try mak­ing her bed to improve her mood, a piece of advice Phoebe dis­miss­es with humor, though tinged with bit­ter­ness. Lila’s unaware­ness of Phoebe’s deep­er strug­gles high­lights the ongo­ing dis­con­nect in their friend­ship and serves as a reminder of the emo­tion­al walls Phoebe feels.

After Lila leaves, she acknowl­edges her need for cof­fee, order­ing room ser­vice to make their day eas­i­er. With a cheeky ref­er­ence to a dish called “Patri­ot­ic French Toast,” Lila light­ens the mood, though Phoebe’s thoughts remain cloud­ed. As Phoebe con­tem­plates her inter­nal strug­gles, includ­ing the dark thoughts that linger in her mind, she begins to recon­sid­er her out­look. The prospect of sail­ing and the chance to try on new clothes that Lila has left behind sparks a small but notice­able sense of hope with­in Phoebe, offer­ing a flick­er of pos­i­tiv­i­ty in her oth­er­wise despair­ing jour­ney.

The chap­ter ends with Phoebe prepar­ing for the day ahead, feel­ing a mix­ture of emo­tions. On the one hand, she feels a deep sense of dis­ap­point­ment in her­self, but on the oth­er hand, there’s a hint of excite­ment about the day’s poten­tial. Reflect­ing on the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of life and the small moments that can shift her per­spec­tive, Phoebe begins to see how even the small­est changes, such as a day out on the water, can lift her from the depths of her despair, even if only for a short while. This sub­tle shift in her mind­set marks the begin­ning of a pos­si­ble change in Phoebe’s jour­ney, a shift from deep sad­ness to a more hope­ful out­look.