- That night only the twins show up for band practice, and Torey feels fed up with how his friends don't take anything seriously. The twins take off to Wawa, the corner store.
- He decides that he doesn't need Alex anymore since he's the one who writes his own songs anyway, so he goes into the basement alone to write.
- He thinks about an old song he wrote that is stupid—the lyrics don't even say anything—and then he tries to write about Leandra, but comes up dry. Next he tries for a sad song, and Chris's story is as sad as it gets for Torey.
- While writing the song about Chris, Torey gets a creepy-crawly feeling that makes him freak out and leave the basement. Is it Chris's ghost?
- Right then, Leandra calls, wanting to gossip about Ali. Torey tries to change the subject and let her know he doesn't want to talk about Ali several times, but Leandra is determined.
- She says that Ali was late to cheer practice because she was having sex in the woods with a boon. Or so she's heard, anyway—she doesn't actually know.
- But Leandra doesn't want to let it go, and it really gets on Torey's nerves, so he snaps at her, saying that he doesn't think Ali was doing that. And that is was not a boon, anyway.
- Leandra gets hurt because he doesn't want to listen to her complain and is sticking up for Ali; then she goes on a rant again about which boon it could be.
- Torey has totally had enough. He gets off the phone and realizes how much of his time is spent listening to Leandra go off about someone else.
- He lies there thinking about Chris and whether he is alive. It's reflection time, yo. And as he does, he comes to the conclusion that Chris totally could have written the note even though others doubt it, and realizes that it's easier for people to point the finger elsewhere rather than take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror to see what their role in the tragedy is and what they could have done differently.
- It is easier to blame the outcast. The boons. Christopher Creed.
- At this point in his life, and for a reason that is unclear to him, Torey thinks he is ready to be nice to all the hated ones.
- But he hopes that Ali wasn't with a boon in the woods because it might destroy her life.
- Torey sleeps a ton that night, which is good, since this is the last good night of sleep he will get in months.