Five Feet Apart

The next morning Stella enters Will’s room in a hazmat suit and begins to organize his medications and download her app to his phone. Will is impressed that Stella built the app herself. Stella retreats to the bathroom and disinfects herself, as she has exposed herself to contracting Will’s B. cepacia. She hides what she’s done from Barb, who after exiting Will’s room suspiciously remarks, “His setup looks…awful familiar” (88). Stella successfully evades Barb’s suspicion and protests to Poe that she does not have any romantic interest in Will despite her concern about whether Will will follow his new routine.

Will draws in his room when he receives a FaceTime call from Stella. She confronts him for not wearing his AffloVest and informs him that they will now be doing their treatments together to ensure that he is actually doing them. Will and Stella begin completing their treatments together via Skype, and he notes how “for some reason me doing my treatments is helping her to relax. Gradually she’s becoming less and less uptight” (92).

As they continue their treatments, Stella shares her sadness over her missed senior class trip to Cabo. Will shares how his father left, surprising himself. He asks himself: “Why did I tell her that? I never tell anyone that.