They go to a restaurant for lunch, and Mara notes how different Noah looks.

He didn’t look like the same person who picked me up this morning. Noah—sarcastic, distant, untouchable Noah—cared. And that made him real.

Cares about what? I thought the last two chapters were full of pretty much not caring: about his dad, the rest of his family, his money, etc. What does he suddenly care about that he didn’t before?

Noah gets nervous about something at the table and leaves for a moment. While he’s gone, Mara sees a hallucination of Jude, then some stranger walks up and tries to be all slick and smooth.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked as he slipped into the seat across from me. Apparently he had no intention of waiting for my answer.

Oh, so, Noah 2.0?

This is Alain.

I said, mispronouncing his name on purpose

Very mature.

The guy gives Mara his number, then Noah snatches it up and says something in French to drive Alain away. After he’s gone, Noah claims he just said that Mara is still in high school and that was enough.

Then Noah orders lunch for her, because of course he does. Of course he’s the kind of controlling douchebag idiot who thinks this is sexy. God, at least make the offer first. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with saying “hey, I know this place really well and there’s some surprising gems on the menu that most people wouldn’t consider, let me order for you? You won’t be disappointed!” That’s fine. That at least gives her a chance to respond with “I hate culinary surprises” or “I’m allergic to peanuts, so make sure it doesn’t have that in it.”

Instead we get:

“Guess I don’t have much of a choice.” A devious smile formed on his lips. I took a deep breath and, for the sake of peace, let it go.

So Mara is not happy about this, but she drops the subject because it’s too much of a bother to keep arguing with him. This is the opposite of a healthy relationship. Well, a few times isn’t bad, but this is basically their every interaction so far. Mara has never said she’s pleased with anything that Noah does. She plays along because she’s been bullied into it and does not enjoy herself every step of the way.

And yet it’s all done so blithely that it kind of makes me sick.

“Because I’m European, and therefore more cultured than you,”

And again I respond with “fuck you.”

By the way, this is in response to the fact that he can say ‘vagina’ in several different languages. Sorry, but if that makes you cultured, I’ve got a classroom full of giggling middle school boys who would like to join your club.

The food arrives and luckily Mara does not have any allergies. When it comes time to play, she snags the check, which seems to utterly flabbergast Noah.

A look of horror dawned on Noah’s face. “What are you doing?”

“I am paying for my lunch.”

“I don’t understand,” Noah said.

“Food costs money.”

“Brilliant. But that still doesn’t explain why you think you’re paying for it.”

Why horror? Why the confusion? I don’t understand this entire exchange.

Like, being a douchecanoe who thinks that it’s demeaning for a woman to pay, okay. I hate that, but I at least know where it’s coming from. But…how do you not even get the concept of a woman paying for a meal? Why is that so confusing to you? Are you unaware that females are allowed to have money? Was that not covered in your “cultured” education?

Mara gets food on her face, which Noah offers to get because she keeps missing it.

Noah indicated the napkin dispenser and leaned over the table at eye level, ready to wipe my face like a food-spattered toddler. Misery.I squinted my eyes shut out of shame and waited for the feel of the paper napkin on my skin.

Ah, yes. True love. Where one party is always miserable and constantly made to feel like a toddler.

You know what? Why is Mara so mortified all the time? She was embarrassed just because a group of people laughed at a party, she was shamed when Noah came into her house and acted polite, she’s miserable because she got a little food on her face. I get that teenagers are easily embarrassed, but that seems to be Mara’s default and only social feeling. Is it because the book is trying to play off that “oh, a cute boy looked at me, I’m blushing” feeling? ‘Cause I get that…you know, the first time, but eventually those butterflies are supposed to go away in a healthy pairing. To be replaced with other, less mortifying butterflies. Otherwise you just…feel bad all the time. Mara feeling bad all the time doesn’t mean “oh, a cute boy” times a thousand because extra hotness, no, it just means that Noah is utter shit at making her feel safe and comfortable.

Which he is.

For so many reasons.

While she’s busy basically addled with shame, Noah swipes the check to pay for the meal. Hello emotional manipulation.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I was warned about you, you know.”

And with that half-smile that wrecked me, Noah said, “But you’re here anyway.”

I want everyone and everything to die in a fire.

After lunch they got to the Miami Beach Convention Center and Noah parks in a no parking zone.

“A perk of being Baby Warbucks,” he said.

Yeah, you can really feel the morality, can’t you? God, he’s just so fucking moral for not using his family’s money to buy a fancy car. Moral through and through, that’s our boy, never abuses his money at all.

The center is getting ready for a big art showing, so the place is all done up full of artwork but no one is there yet. I guess since it’s a Sunday we can forgive the fact that there’s no employees there still setting up either? Anyway, Noah has a key because he’s just so fucking moral.

They wander around through all the artwork and wind up separated, and Mara starts hallucinating again. And, in fact, this part is really well done. She’s going through all these floor-to-ceiling sized photographs and thinks she sees her dead friends in them, then not, then she sees a picture of the collapsed asylum (though who knows what the picture is really of) and then the collapsed asylum starts acting like a movie on rewind and becomes the before-collapse asylum and then she’s in a full-on altered state dream/memory/whatever.

Honestly, I like it. It’s got a suitably creepy vibe and a decent bit of build up. There’s a part in there where you’re honestly not sure what parts of the pictures she’s talking about are real or not. If only more of the book had been moments of sureality instead of “woooOOOooOOOO my dead boyfriend is following me around!”