Miles finds him­self sit­ting in the truck beside Felix, with their dog San­dro wedged between them as they speed toward the hos­pi­tal. The jour­ney feels heav­ier than usu­al, car­ry­ing not only the weight of the antic­i­pa­tion of Wynton’s con­di­tion but also the emo­tion­al ten­sion between him and Felix. As they dri­ve, Felix sud­den­ly reveals the shock­ing news that he is like­ly to go blind, a fact that hits Miles hard­er than he antic­i­pat­ed. Miles, ini­tial­ly mis­un­der­stand­ing, assumes Felix is refer­ring to some­thing even more seri­ous, but as Felix con­tin­ues, the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion becomes clear­er. Their con­ver­sa­tion becomes a del­i­cate bal­ance between humor and fear, with Felix laugh­ing and find­ing joy in the world despite the over­whelm­ing odds he faces. His abil­i­ty to find moments of appre­ci­a­tion for life amidst such uncer­tain­ty is both inspir­ing and heart­break­ing to Miles, who watch­es his friend strug­gle with some­thing so mon­u­men­tal. Felix’s per­spec­tive on life begins to shift in Miles’ eyes, and the con­nec­tion between them deep­ens, even in the face of such a pro­found diag­no­sis.

Dur­ing their ride, as the truck hums along, Felix con­fides in Miles about some­thing that has been weigh­ing on him—the faces of his loved ones. Felix admits that he has become almost obsessed with the idea of mem­o­riz­ing the faces of those around him, espe­cial­ly his dear friend Eddie. This moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty reveals a side of Felix that Miles had not yet ful­ly seen, as his friend starts to con­front not only the phys­i­cal changes but also the emo­tion­al impact of his con­di­tion. Felix’s con­fes­sion sparks some­thing inside Miles—a mix of empa­thy and deep­er affec­tion. Despite the heav­i­ness of Felix’s sit­u­a­tion, Miles finds him­self drawn to him in a new way, feel­ing both pro­tec­tive and increas­ing­ly attuned to Felix’s emo­tion­al state. The space inside the truck seems to shrink around them, the air thick with the unspo­ken words and the grow­ing close­ness between them. The sim­ple, qui­et touch­es and shared moments in the con­fined space of the vehi­cle mark the begin­ning of a sub­tle but unde­ni­able shift in their rela­tion­ship.

When Felix reveals that he plans to leave for Col­orado and attend culi­nary school, a silence falls over the truck, and the air grows heav­ier still. The news lands like a weight on Miles’ chest, and he strug­gles to find the right words to express his dis­ap­point­ment and fear. Miles real­izes that the bond they had shared is now at risk of being stretched too thin, as Felix’s depar­ture looms large in his mind. It forces Miles to re-eval­u­ate everything—the con­nec­tions he has with the peo­ple in his life, espe­cial­ly with Felix, and the depth of their emo­tion­al con­nec­tion. As Miles con­tem­plates his feel­ings, he also faces the real­iza­tion that while his broth­er Wyn­ton bat­tles for his life, he too must con­front his own inner bat­tles. Miles resolves to sup­port Felix, even as his heart aches at the thought of the dis­tance between them. In a moment of sud­den clar­i­ty, Felix grabs Miles, admit­ting that despite the loom­ing sep­a­ra­tion, he feels an over­whelm­ing emo­tion­al con­nec­tion with him. This raw con­fes­sion sparks a kiss between the two, one that ignites some­thing deep­er with­in both of them, solid­i­fy­ing a bond that was pre­vi­ous­ly unde­fined but now unmis­tak­ably real.

The chap­ter ends on a bit­ter­sweet note, as the emo­tion­al inten­si­ty of the kiss lingers in the air between Miles and Felix. As the two boys part from each oth­er, Miles is left reflect­ing on every­thing they’ve shared—both the adven­tures and the deep emo­tion­al moments. He under­stands that the con­nec­tion between them, though com­pli­cat­ed and uncer­tain, has shaped him in ways he hadn’t expect­ed. The thought of vis­it­ing Felix in Den­ver gives Miles hope, though doubts about the future of their rela­tion­ship cloud his opti­mism. In this final moment, the chap­ter explores the com­plex­i­ties of love, friend­ship, and self-dis­cov­ery, as Miles comes to terms with his feel­ings for Felix while also real­iz­ing that life’s jour­ney is often unpre­dictable. The emo­tion­al farewell serves as a reminder of how fleet­ing moments can define a per­son, and how love, in all its forms, helps guide us through the most dif­fi­cult of times. This chap­ter per­fect­ly cap­tures the essence of nav­i­gat­ing per­son­al rela­tion­ships while con­fronting the chal­lenges of grow­ing up and fac­ing the unknown.