In this chap­ter, Hold­en calls Mr. Antoli­ni, his for­mer teacher, feel­ing anx­ious about being caught by his par­ents. Mr. Antoli­ni assures him that he can come over any­time, which sig­ni­fies the strong bond they share. Hold­en reflects on Mr. Antolin­i’s char­ac­ter, describ­ing him as humor­ous and respect­ful, recall­ing an inci­dent where Mr. Antoli­ni com­pas­sion­ate­ly helped a stu­dent, James Cas­tle, who had died by jump­ing from a win­dow.

Lat­er, at his broth­er D.B.‘s apart­ment, Hold­en finds his younger sis­ter Phoebe lis­ten­ing to music and sit­ting cross-legged on the bed, cre­at­ing a light-heart­ed atmos­phere. He encour­ages Phoebe to dance, boast­ing about her danc­ing skills, which she indeed pos­sess­es. They share a play­ful moment, danc­ing togeth­er in a way that feels inno­cent and famil­ial. Unlike most adults who dance poor­ly with chil­dren, Hold­en appre­ci­ates that Phoebe can fol­low his lead seam­less­ly, illus­trat­ing their close con­nec­tion.

As they dance, Phoebe gets tired, and they sit down togeth­er. She play­ful­ly insists that her fore­head is fever­ish, try­ing to impress Hold­en with her abil­i­ty to make her­self feel hot. How­ev­er, this light­heart­ed exchange turns into a tense moment when Phoebe hears their par­ents return home. Hold­en quick­ly hides in the clos­et, his heart rac­ing with fear of being dis­cov­ered.

Their moth­er’s entry into the room reveals her strict­ness and vig­i­lance, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing Phoe­be’s actions. She ques­tions Phoe­be’s late-night activ­i­ties and address­es her about smok­ing, though Phoebe clev­er­ly down­plays it. This inter­ac­tion show­cas­es the con­trast between child­hood inno­cence and adult con­cerns, deep­en­ing the chap­ter’s emo­tion­al weight.

After a moment of ten­sion, Phoebe urges Hold­en not to leave, lead­ing him to reveal that he needs mon­ey, which she reluc­tant­ly offers despite want­i­ng to keep it for Christ­mas presents. As they nav­i­gate these exchanges, Hold­en unex­pect­ed­ly bursts into tears, over­whelmed by the grav­i­ty of leav­ing Phoebe and the emo­tion­al bur­den he car­ries. This poignant moment empha­sizes their sib­ling bond and Hold­en’s strug­gles with guilt and despair. Regard­less, as he pre­pares to leave, he gives Phoebe his favorite hunt­ing hat, sym­bol­iz­ing care and a wish for her to remem­ber him, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing his depar­ture from the safe­ty he feels with her.