In the chap­ter titled “Miles,” we fol­low Miles as he grap­ples with his emo­tions, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing his comatose broth­er Wyn­ton. He finds solace in his dog, San­dro, who pro­vides com­pan­ion­ship in the wake of their trou­bling cir­cum­stances. The chap­ter begins with Miles con­vers­ing with San­dro under a wil­low tree, reflect­ing on their cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and his yearn­ing to find a girl named Cas­sidy, who may have heal­ing qual­i­ties.

Miles is entan­gled in mem­o­ries of events lead­ing to Wyn­ton’s acci­dent and feels a deep sense of guilt and con­fu­sion. San­dro express­es con­cern about Miles’s emo­tion­al state, sug­gest­ing that they might need med­ica­tion or ther­a­py. Miles is con­front­ed by Dean Richards regard­ing his aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance and social behav­iors, which fur­ther exac­er­bates his feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy and dis­ap­point­ment. He observes his family’s sor­row and feels dis­con­nect­ed, buried in his own tur­moil.

The nar­ra­tive shifts as Miles recalls moments from a par­ty where he was reck­less, under the influ­ence, and how he inad­ver­tent­ly caused Wyn­ton’s trou­bles, cul­mi­nat­ing in his broth­er spend­ing a night in jail for him. Miles encoun­ters Madi­son, a girl from that night, who reveals the extent of the chaos involv­ing them. Learn­ing that Wyn­ton act­ed hero­ical­ly for him opens up a swirl of emo­tions, com­pli­cat­ing his already tumul­tuous thoughts about him­self and his fam­i­ly.

As he process­es this new infor­ma­tion, Miles decides to seek a con­nec­tion on the dat­ing app Lookn, push­ing through the chaos in his mind. He final­ly meets Rod, a guy he matched with, but the encounter is inter­rupt­ed by Felix, a stranger who inter­venes dra­mat­i­cal­ly, sav­ing Miles from pos­si­bly dan­ger­ous com­pa­ny. Felix’s over­whelm­ing pres­ence and enthu­si­asm stir some­thing in Miles, lead­ing to a bizarre yet mean­ing­ful com­pan­ion­ship that seems to enrich Miles amidst his despair.

Felix’s care­free explo­ration of their sur­round­ings con­trasts sharply with Miles’s trou­bled thoughts, pro­vid­ing a flick­er of hope and con­nec­tion, sug­gest­ing that per­haps he does­n’t have to face his chal­lenges alone. The chap­ter con­cludes with the two of them head­ing deep­er into the woods, estab­lish­ing a grow­ing bond that Miles hadn’t antic­i­pat­ed, as he begins to rede­fine his under­stand­ing of friends and fam­i­ly.