In Chap­ter Nine of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the pro­tag­o­nist, Leighton, finds her­self in a lunch booth with Liam McNa­ma­ra, who sits next to her friend Sofia. Their con­ver­sa­tion starts casu­al­ly, with Liam com­ment­ing on the cold tater tots on Leighton’s tray. As the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, it becomes evi­dent that Leighton has been hid­ing some­thing from Sofia, and she feels the ten­sion of being found out.

Liam can­did­ly men­tions broach­ing a con­fronta­tion with Brody, who has been rude in class. Leighton appre­ci­ates Liam’s sup­port, espe­cial­ly since she typ­i­cal­ly avoids con­flict and hasn’t spo­ken to Brody since she turned him down. The dynam­ic shifts as Liam casu­al­ly asks Leighton out, which flus­ters Sofia and leads to an awk­ward moment. Leighton declines his offer, stat­ing her com­mit­ment to focus­ing on col­lege appli­ca­tions and home­work, which res­onate with her pri­or­i­ties.

Despite her rejec­tion, Leighton can’t help but feel drawn to Liam’s direct atten­tion and kind­ness, con­trast­ing it with her over­whelm­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties and the tur­moil of her home life. As they chat, Liam throws out com­pli­ments that sur­prise her, sug­gest­ing he sees poten­tial in her. Resist­ing her grow­ing affec­tion, Leighton insists she doesn’t have time for dat­ing, regard­less of the fun it might bring.

When Liam adopts a melo­dra­mat­ic, heart­bro­ken per­sona after her rejec­tion, Sofia finds it enter­tain­ing, and even Leighton strug­gles to sup­press her laugh­ter. As their exchange con­cludes, Liam leaves with a play­ful farewell, which height­ens Leighton’s aware­ness of the chem­istry between them—something both exhil­a­rat­ing and unset­tling for her.

Sofia’s com­ments after­ward reveal her belief that Liam gen­uine­ly likes Leighton, which makes Leighton uneasy. Although she enjoys their inter­ac­tions, she men­tal­ly berates her­self for hav­ing feel­ings for him. The back­drop of her fam­i­ly oblig­a­tions looms large over her, as she has less than a year to sta­bi­lize her home life to ensure her sis­ters’ safe­ty. This tick­ing clock com­pli­cates her feel­ings, as she grap­ples with the thought that romance could lead to heart­break. With the specter of a pic­ture com­mem­o­rat­ing a past “ever after” stuck in her liv­ing room, she reflects on the inevitable heartaches of life, hint­ing at the com­plex­i­ties that love entails.