Chap­ter 9 of If These Wings Could Fly begins with Leighton sit­ting in a lunch booth with Liam McNa­ma­ra, who is seat­ed beside her friend Sofia. Their con­ver­sa­tion starts off casu­al­ly, with Liam mak­ing a light­heart­ed com­ment about the cold tater tots on Leighton’s tray. How­ev­er, as their chat con­tin­ues, it becomes clear that Leighton has been con­ceal­ing some­thing from Sofia, and the ten­sion of her secret is pal­pa­ble. The unease grows as Leighton feels the pres­sure of being caught in a lie, real­iz­ing that her attempt to keep things hid­den may not be suc­cess­ful. Despite her dis­com­fort, the sit­u­a­tion becomes a turn­ing point in their inter­ac­tion, where the stakes of hon­esty and trust come into play.

Liam, in his usu­al can­did man­ner, brings up Brody, a class­mate who has been rude to Leighton in class, men­tion­ing that a con­fronta­tion might be nec­es­sary. Leighton appre­ci­ates Liam’s straight­for­ward sup­port, as she typ­i­cal­ly avoids con­fronta­tions and has not spo­ken to Brody since she turned him down. His will­ing­ness to stand by her in this sit­u­a­tion con­trasts sharply with her usu­al avoid­ance of con­flict. As the con­ver­sa­tion shifts, Liam casu­al­ly asks Leighton out on a date, an unex­pect­ed move that flus­ters both her and Sofia. The awk­ward­ness is pal­pa­ble, and Leighton declines, explain­ing that her focus must remain on her col­lege appli­ca­tions and the over­whelm­ing home­work demands that have come to define her pri­or­i­ties. This rejec­tion, though polite­ly stat­ed, reveals the ten­sion between her desires and her respon­si­bil­i­ties, show­ing the strain of bal­anc­ing per­son­al life with aca­d­e­m­ic and famil­ial oblig­a­tions.

Despite turn­ing Liam down, Leighton can’t help but feel a grow­ing attrac­tion toward him, drawn in by his direct­ness and kind­ness. His atten­tion feels refresh­ing com­pared to the chaos of her home life, where her respon­si­bil­i­ties weigh heav­i­ly on her. As their con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, Liam offers her unex­pect­ed com­pli­ments, sug­gest­ing that he sees some­thing spe­cial in her that oth­ers might over­look. This atten­tion unset­tles Leighton, as she tries to resist the pull of affec­tion, remind­ing her­self that she doesn’t have the time for a roman­tic rela­tion­ship. Her pri­or­i­ty, in her mind, should be focused on her future—her col­lege appli­ca­tions and ensur­ing her sis­ters’ safe­ty at home. Yet, as Liam con­tin­ues to express admi­ra­tion, the con­flict between her desire for con­nec­tion and the over­whelm­ing pres­sures of her real­i­ty deep­ens.

Liam’s reac­tion to her rejec­tion adds anoth­er lay­er to the encounter, as he adopts a melo­dra­mat­ic, heart­bro­ken per­sona, which Sofia finds amus­ing. Leighton, too, strug­gles to sup­press her laugh­ter, rec­og­niz­ing the play­ful nature of the sit­u­a­tion despite her inner con­flict. The inter­ac­tion leaves her with mixed feel­ings, as she becomes acute­ly aware of the chem­istry between them, some­thing both excit­ing and unset­tling at the same time. Liam’s play­ful exit only ampli­fies her aware­ness of their con­nec­tion, leav­ing her to ques­tion what it might mean for her future, espe­cial­ly as she grap­ples with the weight of her exist­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties. The flir­ta­tion she feels could lead to joy, yet it is shad­owed by the harsh real­i­ty of her life, where sta­bil­i­ty is not guar­an­teed.

After­ward, Sofia hints that she believes Liam gen­uine­ly likes Leighton, which makes her uneasy. Although she enjoys their inter­ac­tions and the way Liam makes her feel, she men­tal­ly scolds her­self for allow­ing any emo­tion­al attach­ment to form. The loom­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty of her fam­i­ly oblig­a­tions weighs heav­i­ly on her, remind­ing her that she has lit­tle time to sta­bi­lize her home life to ensure her sis­ters’ safe­ty. With less than a year to make sure every­thing is secure, the idea of a rela­tion­ship feels like a complication—one that could lead to heart­break rather than hap­pi­ness. This inter­nal con­flict under­scores Leighton’s emo­tion­al tur­moil, as she reflects on the past—particularly a pic­ture in her liv­ing room that com­mem­o­rates a failed “ever after.” This imagery serves as a reminder of the com­plex­i­ties of love, rein­forc­ing the narrator’s reluc­tance to get involved emo­tion­al­ly. It hints at the painful inevitabil­i­ty of heart­break, even as she is drawn to the excite­ment that Liam brings into her life.

This chap­ter cap­tures Leighton’s strug­gle with the con­flict­ing desires of romance and respon­si­bil­i­ty, show­cas­ing the com­plex­i­ties of grow­ing up and try­ing to bal­ance per­son­al hap­pi­ness with famil­ial duties. It empha­sizes the dif­fi­cul­ty of nav­i­gat­ing emo­tions, espe­cial­ly when exter­nal pressures—like her family’s needs—complicate the pos­si­bil­i­ties of a care­free life. As Leighton con­tem­plates her feel­ings for Liam, she is also forced to face the weight of her future and the sac­ri­fices she may need to make in order to pro­tect the ones she loves. The ten­sion between her long­ing for con­nec­tion and the weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ties offers read­ers a relat­able, poignant reflec­tion on the chal­lenges of young adult­hood.