The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Chapter 18 Summary

  • Epigraph: "Wish for what you want. Work for what you need."—Carmen's grandmother
  • Effie is giddy because she kissed the waiter, even though she has a boyfriend back home; Effie runs circles around Lena when it comes to boys.
  • Instead of scenic landscapes, Lena starts drawing Kostos wading in the water. Wait… Is that him standing below her bedroom window?
  • Back at soccer camp, Bridget's gal pals want to hear the gory details of her night on the beach with Eric, but feeling more for Eric than just sexual attraction, Bridget sadly tells them that nothing happened.
  • Her fellow campers get worries when Bridget won't get out of bed and stops eating—this girl goes from one extreme to the other.
  • Back in Maryland, Carmen tries to write to her father, but can't apologize without ultimately telling Lydia she has fat underarms; to pay for the broken window, she shoves her life's savings in an envelope and sends it to her father.
  • Lena is thinking about Bridget's highs and lows, and she remembers a dream she had in which she was hanging off a cliff. Sounds more like a nightmare though, don't you think?
  • Chilling on the sofa with Grandma, Lena asks why Kostos still lives with his grandparents. What follows is quite a tragic story—Kostos used to live in New York City with his parents and little brother, but they all died in a car accident, so Kostos had no other choice than move to Greece to live with his grandparents. The entire town helped raise him.
  • Lena finally confesses that Kostos never hurt her; her grandparents figured as much.
  • Lena wishes she were more like Kostos and Bridget, because even though they have felt loss, they are still open to love.
  • Filled with sadness, she cries.