Chap­ter XIII opens in the live­ly and bustling set­ting of New York City on Octo­ber 23, 2013, where Hen­ry, Rob­bie, and Bea gath­er in Henry’s apart­ment for an antic­i­pat­ed movie night, which marks the begin­ning of the Hal­loween fes­tiv­i­ties. With the air turn­ing crisp and the city’s streets dec­o­rat­ed for the hol­i­day, they decide to watch the clas­sic hor­ror film The Shin­ing. Rob­bie, as always, ampli­fies the cel­e­bra­tion, extend­ing the Hal­loween spir­it well beyond what Hen­ry and Bea had ini­tial­ly imag­ined, both of whom humor him with gen­tle amuse­ment. The evening, while begin­ning as a light­heart­ed way to mark the hol­i­day, soon becomes a space where deep­er thoughts are revealed, start­ing with their Hal­loween cos­tume ideas. Rob­bie is set to dress as the flam­boy­ant David Bowie’s Zig­gy Star­dust, Bea’s choice is a wit­ty and clever ren­di­tion of the Dread Pirate Roberts, while Hen­ry, fac­ing a peri­od of uncer­tain­ty in his life, is unsure about what cos­tume to choose. His inde­ci­sion reflects an under­ly­ing issue of iden­ti­ty, which is fur­ther empha­sized by his lack of a clear direc­tion in life—a sit­u­a­tion that leaves him caught between the desire for some­thing new and his cur­rent feel­ings of being stuck in his own skin. Hal­loween, often seen as a time to embrace trans­for­ma­tion, presents a chal­lenge for Hen­ry as he strug­gles with the idea of tru­ly embrac­ing change.

The mood becomes more play­ful as the night goes on, and the trio’s ban­ter grows lighter. In between moments of laugh­ter, they delve into cos­tume ideas for Hen­ry, with Rob­bie act­ing as both a host and a com­ic relief, enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly snap­ping pho­tos, even though his cam­era lacks film. Bea, ever obser­vant, teas­es Hen­ry about his aban­doned hob­by of pho­tog­ra­phy, prompt­ing him to reflect on a skill that he once loved but left behind, much like many aspects of his past. The humor in the moment brings a sense of ease to the gath­er­ing, yet there’s an under­ly­ing cur­rent of missed poten­tial and unspo­ken dreams that still linger in Henry’s mind. This sub­tle exchange reveals the com­plex­i­ty of their dynamics—what appears as a casu­al con­ver­sa­tion is actu­al­ly an explo­ration of the gap between Henry’s present self and the per­son he once aspired to be. As the group pre­pares for the movie, Rob­bie ensures that the ambiance is per­fect, care­ful­ly set­ting the stage to make sure every moment is as chill­ing and thrilling as the movie itself. Yet, for Hen­ry, the eeri­ness of the film seems to mir­ror the more per­son­al uncer­tain­ties he is grap­pling with beneath the sur­face of their jovial con­ver­sa­tion.

The inten­si­ty of The Shin­ing ampli­fies the unspo­ken ten­sion among the friends, espe­cial­ly as the movie’s most famous scary moments lead to phys­i­cal reac­tions that blur the lines of per­son­al space. Hen­ry, hav­ing spent so much of his life sup­press­ing his emo­tions, finds him­self caught off guard when Rob­bie sud­den­ly kiss­es him. What starts as a spon­ta­neous, emo­tion­al­ly charged kiss between the two is abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed by the sound of pop­corn pop­ping in the kitchen, an ordi­nary noise that con­trasts sharply with the height­ened emo­tions of the moment. The kiss, both a cul­mi­na­tion of pent-up desire and a reflec­tion of their com­pli­cat­ed past, high­lights the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty between Hen­ry and Rob­bie. Robbie’s con­fes­sion that he had been wait­ing for this moment expos­es the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and deep emo­tions that Hen­ry had long buried, reveal­ing that while Rob­bie is ready to con­front the past, Hen­ry still strug­gles with the real­i­ty of their rela­tion­ship’s clo­sure. This kiss, born out of long­ing and inter­nal con­flict, forces Hen­ry to reflect on the unre­solved feel­ings he has for Rob­bie, as well as his own inter­nal strug­gles about love, con­nec­tion, and self-iden­ti­ty.

The chap­ter cap­tures the raw emo­tion­al con­flict Hen­ry faces as he tries to rec­on­cile his past with his present desires. Hen­ry is torn between his yearn­ing for the com­fort and famil­iar­i­ty of past rela­tion­ships and the harsh truth that some things can­not be reclaimed. Despite Robbie’s open expres­sion of his feel­ings, Hen­ry remains hes­i­tant, unable to ful­ly accept or under­stand the depth of their bond in the present. The sit­u­a­tion becomes even more com­pli­cat­ed as the two nav­i­gate their shared his­to­ry while Hen­ry also grap­ples with his own feel­ings of self-doubt and uncer­tain­ty. The night, ini­tial­ly planned as a sim­ple movie night, becomes a piv­otal moment in Henry’s per­son­al jour­ney, filled with regret, reflec­tion, and the real­iza­tion that some con­nec­tions can nev­er ful­ly be sev­ered, no mat­ter how much time pass­es. Ulti­mate­ly, this chap­ter speaks to the com­plex­i­ty of love, friend­ship, and the strug­gle to find peace with­in one­self. The fleet­ing moments of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and emo­tion­al exchange reflect Henry’s inter­nal bat­tle, high­light­ing the ten­sion between his desires and the real­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion. As the evening unfolds, it becomes clear that their rela­tion­ship, while root­ed in the past, still holds a pow­er­ful influ­ence over Hen­ry’s cur­rent emo­tion­al state, and the choic­es he must make in the future.