Tell Me Three Things

Theo arrives in a chauffeur's outfit to pick Jessie up from the airport. He has heard gossip of her and Liam, and she admits that she does not want Liam to ask her out. He assumes correctly that it is because she likes Ethan, and he reveals that Xander, the member of Oville who overdosed on heroin last year, was Ethan's older brother. Jessie realizes now that the sadness and insomnia she always sees in Ethan must be grief. 

She wants to ask SN if he is Ethan but does not want to make the mistake of assuming incorrectly again. Instead, she tells him she has new theories and searches for clues in old messages with Ethan before “[sending] out a wish to the universe” that it is him (284). SN wants to meet her at an IHOP tomorrow, which confuses her even further because she has her project meeting with Ethan. Despite her anxiety, Jessie tells herself to not be afraid, sure that “whatever this is, whoever this is—Ethan-or-not-probably-not—is worth fighting for” (286).

After school on Monday, Jessie and Ethan go to Starbucks to continue their project. Jessie gets lost in thought, trying to figure out who SN might be. She works up the courage to ask him about his insomnia, and when she suggests he try medicine to help, he shares that he “[doesn't] like to take anything.