Chap­ter 67 of All the Col­ors of the Dark opens with Saint start­ing her Sat­ur­day with a piano les­son under the watch­ful eye of Mrs. Shaw, who cri­tiques her attempts at play­ing Claire de Lune. Despite the ten­sion of her les­son, Saint’s atten­tion shifts as she notices Nix sit­ting beneath the okame cher­ry tree, sip­ping cof­fee. His sad smile evokes bit­ter­sweet mem­o­ries of the past year, which inspires Saint to return to her prac­tice with renewed deter­mi­na­tion. Yet, when Mon­day arrives, a sense of wor­ry emerges as Nix does not show up for class. Saint, bur­dened by the uncer­tain­ty of ado­les­cence, search­es for him in the hall­ways but finds no trace of him. Instead, she encoun­ters Patch, whose frag­ile demeanor reflects the toll of a recent alter­ca­tion, height­en­ing the sense of emo­tion­al weight in her life. Their shared silence and con­ver­sa­tion reveal not only the chaos in their school life but the deep emo­tion­al unrest they both expe­ri­ence in nav­i­gat­ing their tur­bu­lent teenage years.

As Saint and Patch sit togeth­er, the pas­sage of time feels par­tic­u­lar­ly heavy, illus­trat­ing the com­plex­i­ty of their emo­tion­al lives. Their con­ver­sa­tion soon turns to a con­fronta­tion that has shak­en their school: Chuck­’s involve­ment in steal­ing a tro­phy. The rev­e­la­tion of Chuck­’s trans­gres­sion pro­vides a stark con­trast to the emo­tion­al tur­moil that Saint feels inside. Her inner con­flict, par­tic­u­lar­ly about the chal­lenges of grow­ing up, is height­ened by the weight of wit­ness­ing Patch’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. When Chuck is brought out of the prin­ci­pal’s office, bat­tered and bruised, Patch’s teas­ing com­ment about the stolen tro­phy adds a lay­er of ten­sion to an already volatile sit­u­a­tion. The uneasy atmos­phere is bro­ken by the principal’s inter­ven­tion, nar­row­ly pre­vent­ing fur­ther vio­lence. Still, the bruis­es on Patch’s face, includ­ing the notice­able blue star over his eye, serve as a reminder of the phys­i­cal toll their actions have tak­en. In a moment of shared vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, Saint recounts the sto­ry of Hook-Hand­ed Pete, a pirate who wore a blue mark in trib­ute to a girl he had acci­den­tal­ly hurt. This sto­ry, filled with emo­tion­al weight, becomes an anchor for both char­ac­ters as they attempt to make sense of their trou­bled lives.

The con­clu­sion of the school day is marked by Patch fac­ing sus­pen­sion for his actions, a con­se­quence that adds fur­ther com­plex­i­ty to his already strained exis­tence. As the day ends, Saint silent­ly fol­lows Patch back to his home, where the qui­et weight of their shared strug­gles is felt in every step. Upon enter­ing his house, Saint notices Ivy asleep on the couch, a silent reminder of the fam­i­ly’s inner tur­moil and the bur­den each mem­ber car­ries. Despite the appar­ent calm­ness, Saint can sense the under­ly­ing ten­sion, a reflec­tion of the emo­tion­al chal­lenges they all face. Patch, though qui­et and with­drawn, seems resigned to the con­se­quences that lie ahead. When he starts the engine of his Fair­lane, Saint knows that they are on the precipice of a new chap­ter in their chaot­ic lives. As they dri­ve togeth­er, nei­ther speaks much, but the unspo­ken bond between them grows stronger. This qui­et under­stand­ing, forged in the midst of their shared pain and the tur­moil of their lives, offers a flick­er of con­nec­tion amidst the chaos that defines their worlds.

The chap­ter reflects not only the tur­bu­lence of Saint’s ado­les­cence but also the com­plex rela­tion­ships that shape her world. Her encounter with Patch, along with the events at school, empha­sizes the emo­tion­al strug­gles of grow­ing up. The ten­sion between the char­ac­ters, the secrets they keep, and the emo­tion­al scars they bear are woven through­out the chap­ter, pro­vid­ing a rich nar­ra­tive of inner con­flict and unspo­ken con­nec­tions. Patch’s sus­pen­sion serves as a cat­a­lyst for change, sig­nal­ing the begin­ning of a new, more chal­leng­ing phase in their lives. Through these inter­ac­tions, read­ers are giv­en a win­dow into the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties of nav­i­gat­ing teenage life, where every choice, every con­ver­sa­tion, and every silence car­ries weight. The devel­op­ment of Patch and Saint’s bond becomes a cen­tral theme, pro­vid­ing hope and a sense of shared under­stand­ing amidst the tur­bu­lence that sur­rounds them.