In Chap­ter Sev­en­teen of *If These Wings Could Fly*, the atmos­phere in Leighton’s home is tense fol­low­ing a series of prob­lems, includ­ing fam­i­ly argu­ments and a lost con­struc­tion bid. Leighton finds her­self over­whelmed, jug­gling a mas­sive stack of papers relat­ed to crow myths from var­i­ous cul­tures that she’s been print­ing due to issues with the news­pa­per room print­er. As she nav­i­gates the busy space, she acci­den­tal­ly col­lides with Liam, a fel­low stu­dent, caus­ing her papers to scat­ter.

Their inter­ac­tion reveals a grow­ing famil­iar­i­ty between them; they exchange play­ful ban­ter about each oth­er’s com­mit­ments and pres­sures, high­light­ing the inten­si­ty of their respec­tive lives as they pur­sue aca­d­e­m­ic and extracur­ric­u­lar goals. Liam express­es admi­ra­tion for Leighton’s writ­ing, which she ini­tial­ly brush­es off as flat­tery, but he insists it’s gen­uine. Their exchange cap­tures a moment where friend­ship seems to deep­en, and Leighton allows her­self to day­dream about a roman­tic con­nec­tion.

As they arrive at the news­room, Liam sur­pris­es Leighton by offer­ing an open line for con­ver­sa­tion, a pro­pos­al to lis­ten if she ever feels the need to talk. This moment brings on a wave of emo­tions for Leighton, com­pelling her to con­front her feel­ings. In a moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, she admits to lik­ing Liam under dif­fer­ent cir­cum­stances but explains the com­plex­i­ty of her life with her sis­ters, indi­cat­ing her sig­nif­i­cant respon­si­bil­i­ties that pre­vent her from pur­su­ing a rela­tion­ship right now.

Their con­ver­sa­tion brings Liam to rec­i­p­ro­cate, shar­ing his own expe­ri­ences with fam­i­ly, yet Leighton feels the weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ties heav­i­ly on her. She grap­ples with the strong pull of emo­tions, want­i­ng to say yes to Liam but ulti­mate­ly pri­or­i­tiz­ing her famil­ial oblig­a­tions over her feel­ings. The chap­ter ends with a poignant reminder of Leighton’s com­mit­ment to her fam­i­ly, sig­nal­ing an inner con­flict between per­son­al desires and her role as a care­giv­er.