Ear­li­er that day, Olivia, tasked as a brides­maid, nav­i­gates the periph­ery of a wed­ding mar­quee with the inten­tion of becom­ing as ine­bri­at­ed as pos­si­ble. Her method involves con­sum­ing left-behind drinks from the atten­dees’ tables, seek­ing to numb her­self against recent dis­taste­ful rec­ol­lec­tions involv­ing Will, anoth­er guest. A dis­tress­ing dance with Will has left her seek­ing soli­tude, punc­tu­at­ed by his warn­ing regard­ing a pri­or inci­dent between them, which he omi­nous­ly demands to be their last. Their shared secret adds a lay­er of unease to Olivi­a’s expe­ri­ence, mak­ing his prox­im­i­ty dur­ing the dance espe­cial­ly repul­sive.

The dance floor, over­run by guests awk­ward­ly embrac­ing their youth to out­dat­ed music, stark­ly con­trasts Olivi­a’s cur­rent state of alien­ation and dis­con­tent. Reflect­ing on her sur­round­ings, she notes the youth­ful­ness of some of the wait staff, per­ceiv­ing their col­lec­tive dis­dain towards the wed­ding par­ty, a sen­ti­ment she increas­ing­ly shares. Olivi­a’s dis­com­fort extends beyond the emo­tion­al; phys­i­cal encoun­ters with over­ly famil­iar male guests add to her dis­sat­is­fac­tion, prompt­ing her to stern­ly rebuff unwel­come advances.

Her night con­tin­ues to spi­ral as she con­sumes more alco­hol, striv­ing to escape her real­i­ty through intox­i­ca­tion. A fleet­ing reunion with her cousin Beth on the dance floor cul­mi­nates in Olivi­a’s phys­i­cal and social down­fall as she trips and falls, an inci­dent that feels both phys­i­cal­ly and metaphor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant. Beth’s con­cerned call for assis­tance, sug­gest­ing Olivi­a’s con­di­tion sur­pass­es mere drunk­en­ness, marks a piv­otal moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and expo­sure for Olivia, sur­round­ed by a crowd yet pro­found­ly iso­lat­ed.

This chap­ter intri­cate­ly frames Olivi­a’s inter­nal tur­moil against the back­drop of a fes­tive yet super­fi­cial­ly joy­ous wed­ding set­ting. Her strug­gle with past actions, uncom­fort­able social inter­ac­tions, and the pur­suit of obliv­ion through alco­hol paints a poignant por­trait of a woman con­flict­ed and in pain, stark­ly iso­lat­ed amidst a sea of cel­e­bra­tion.

Ear­li­er that day, Olivia recounts her pre-wed­ding expe­ri­ence as a brides­maid with a sense of dread. She starts her day with a phys­i­cal discomfort—both a lit­er­al headache and a fig­u­ra­tive heartache that prompts her to seek soli­tude. Her prepa­ra­tion for the wed­ding is hin­dered by her reluc­tance to don the brides­maid dress, marred by a small blood­stain from an acci­den­tal cut. This inci­dent trig­gers a dis­tress­ing mem­o­ry relat­ed to blood, hint­ing at a deep­er, lin­ger­ing trau­ma.

Despite the fes­tiv­i­ties, Olivia feels claus­tro­pho­bic and over­whelmed by the loom­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties and the prospect of social inter­ac­tion with the guests, many of whom are strangers. Her anx­i­ety peaks as she con­tem­plates walk­ing down the aisle, embody­ing her role in the cer­e­mo­ny, and fac­ing the crowd’s atten­tion.

In search of solace, Olivia recalls a com­fort­ing con­ver­sa­tion with Han­nah, an enig­mat­ic fig­ure who, like Olivia, appears mar­gin­al­ized from the wed­ding’s cen­tral hap­pen­ings. Han­nah’s pres­ence offers a tem­po­rary reprieve from her iso­la­tion, prompt­ing Olivia to con­sid­er a con­fes­sion­al meet­ing to divulge her full sto­ry and pos­si­bly alle­vi­ate her emo­tion­al bur­den.

With resolve, she dress­es in casu­al clothes and stealth­ily exits her room, dri­ven by the neces­si­ty to share her ordeal with Han­nah before it dri­ves her to insan­i­ty. How­ev­er, upon near­ing Han­nah’s door, Olivia over­hears a tense exchange between Han­nah and Char­lie, a fig­ure from Olivi­a’s past toward whom she har­bored a juve­nile crush.

Olivi­a’s attempt at seek­ing out Han­nah is abrupt­ly halt­ed by the real­iza­tion that she is inad­ver­tent­ly intrud­ing on a pri­vate moment, which rais­es her anx­i­ety and height­ens her sense of intru­sion and impro­pri­ety. The chap­ter clos­es with Olivia at a cross­roads, her inten­tion to con­fide in Han­nah thwart­ed by unex­pect­ed cir­cum­stances, leav­ing her caught between her need for cathar­sis and her respect for pri­va­cy.