Miles and Felix con­tin­ue their jour­ney north, the hum of the truck fill­ing the silence as the road stretch­es end­less­ly ahead of them. Felix, always eager to share his expe­ri­ences, describes in detail his recent trip to Whis­per­ing Riv­er, Cal­i­for­nia, where Cas­sidy resides. He paints a vivid pic­ture of the town’s eccen­tric New Age cul­ture, where res­i­dents embrace uncon­ven­tion­al lifestyles, from for­go­ing cloth­ing to indulging in the tran­quil embrace of the hot springs. As he talks, Miles lis­tens with a mix of curios­i­ty and amuse­ment, momen­tar­i­ly dis­tract­ed from the thoughts that have been weigh­ing on him. The con­ver­sa­tion takes a sud­den shift when Miles glances at the gas gauge and real­izes they are run­ning dan­ger­ous­ly low on fuel. Felix, ever the drama­tist, imme­di­ate­ly spi­rals into a mild pan­ic, jok­ing about how this is the set­up for a clas­sic hor­ror movie, where two unsus­pect­ing trav­el­ers run out of gas in the mid­dle of nowhere, only to be pur­sued by some­thing sin­is­ter.

Miles smirks at Felix’s the­atrics but reas­sures him that they still have enough fuel to make it to the next town, at least for now. He sug­gests they keep an eye out for a ranch or farm where they might be able to get some extra gas if need­ed. As they dri­ve through the emp­ty high­way, their con­ver­sa­tion turns more intro­spec­tive, shift­ing from light­heart­ed jokes to deep­er top­ics. Miles begins reflect­ing on the parts of his life he has let slip away—the sports teams he quit, the friend­ships he let fade, and his strug­gles at school. The weight of past trau­ma looms over him, par­tic­u­lar­ly the inci­dent involv­ing his broth­er Wyn­ton that changed every­thing. He admits that ever since that moment, he hasn’t quite felt like him­self, as if a part of him had been lost in the chaos of it all.

Felix lis­tens intent­ly before shar­ing his own expe­ri­ences, par­tic­u­lar­ly about his friend Eddie, who has been strug­gling with depres­sion for years. He speaks about the dif­fi­cul­ty of watch­ing some­one bat­tle their own mind, try­ing to find hap­pi­ness in a world that often feels unfor­giv­ing. His words res­onate deeply with Miles, spark­ing a philo­soph­i­cal con­ver­sa­tion about the nature of hap­pi­ness, pur­pose, and whether either of them tru­ly under­stands what it means to be con­tent. The more they talk, the more Miles finds him­self drawn to Felix—not just because of his humor and charm but because of his abil­i­ty to see through the masks peo­ple wear.

As the con­ver­sa­tion deep­ens, Miles hes­i­tates before final­ly admit­ting to Felix that he has always felt like an out­sider, nev­er quite fit­ting into the expec­ta­tions placed upon him. He speaks of his father’s sud­den dis­ap­pear­ance and how his moth­er, despite her resilience, has always held onto the hope that he would return. Felix, sens­ing the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in Miles’ voice, doesn’t rush to respond but instead lets the words set­tle between them. Their con­nec­tion grows in the qui­et of the night, an unspo­ken under­stand­ing form­ing between them. They begin dis­cussing their per­son­al iden­ti­ties, their fears, and their desires, lead­ing Felix to casu­al­ly reveal his bisex­u­al­i­ty. This rev­e­la­tion feels sig­nif­i­cant, though nei­ther of them lingers on it too long, instead allow­ing the moment to sim­ply exist.

Just as they reach an easy rhythm in their con­ver­sa­tion, the truck sput­ters and slows to a halt—the gas tank is emp­ty. A heavy silence falls between them as they real­ize they are strand­ed on an iso­lat­ed stretch of road, miles away from the near­est town. Miles lets out a sigh, rub­bing his tem­ples as Felix chuck­les ner­vous­ly, try­ing to light­en the sit­u­a­tion. The sky above them is scat­tered with stars, the vast open­ness of the desert sur­round­ing them with an eerie still­ness. With noth­ing else to do, Felix leans back and decides to tell a story—one about Miles’ own fam­i­ly his­to­ry, an unex­pect­ed tale of Alon­so Fall and the hid­den love he had for anoth­er man.

The ten­sion in the air shifts as Felix delves into the sto­ry, weav­ing a nar­ra­tive that feels both dis­tant and eeri­ly close to home. Just as Miles is becom­ing ful­ly engrossed in the sto­ry, a sud­den noise star­tles them. Turn­ing around, they see Dizzy stand­ing there, her arms crossed and an exas­per­at­ed look on her face. Her unex­pect­ed arrival inter­rupts the moment, forc­ing them back into real­i­ty. The chap­ter clos­es on an unre­solved note, leav­ing the audi­ence with a sense of antic­i­pa­tion, as rela­tion­ships, per­son­al rev­e­la­tions, and famil­ial his­to­ry con­tin­ue to inter­twine, shap­ing Miles’ jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery.