A Distance Apart

A Distance Apart
Chapter	50 of 129 (list of chapters)
Published	November 18, 2009 (2009-11-18)
Page count	14
Major characters	Lucy, Mike
Minor characters	Daisy, Abbey, David, Paulo, Sue, Tess, Augustus, Jessica, Rachel, Lani Amalu, Mr. Noodles, Gym teacher (High School), Jordan, Haley, Justin, Jasmine, Mina, Alec McCain, Yashy, Chirpy, Lily, Blur
Locations	Lucy’s house, Roseville neighborhood, Roseville High School, Mike’s house
Collected in	Volume Two, Omnibus 1
Chapter navigation
← Wonderland	Unrequited →
Read chapter

It’s the first day of sophomore year, and Lucy has promised herself that this is the day she finally tells Mike how she feels. She gets the words out on the walk home, and Mike’s answer leaves both of them lying awake that night.

Synopsis

The chapter opens without a word, following Lucy through her morning and out the door for the first day of sophomore year. When she spots Mike on the sidewalk ahead, she runs to catch up, starts to snap at him for walking too fast, and catches herself mid-insult. Out comes awkward kindness instead, reassuring him that he’ll do fine in Honors English. Mike is left wondering, “She’s being so weird today..”

At school, Tess barely has time to take in her final year before Augustus appears at her side. She jumps straight into a fighting stance, but he waves her off, since she’s “Not the one I’m looking for.” He strolls away wishing her a safe year.

Lucy gets her best chance to talk during the mile run in gym class. She chases Mike around the track, screaming that yes, she does want a serious conversation. He runs backwards with his arms crossed to hear it, but she can’t get a single word out, and he speeds off with a scoff.

The walk home is where it finally happens. Mike notices Lucy is a million miles away and pushes her to spit it out. Her first attempt gets no further than telling him she thinks he’s kinda cool, before she stops. The page’s tint turns rosy pink around her: “I.. love you.”

Mike has no idea what to do with a confession. He fumbles, then asks whether she’d mind if he said no. He has Sandy now, and he can’t think of any way this works. Lucy asks whether he wanted her before, and their kiss at the end of Confrontation appears in flashback. He did, “But things happened..” Lucy covers with a crooked smile and tears, saying she just wanted to be honest for once. Her feelings, Mike admits, were always obvious.

They part ways with hollow goodnights. Lucy has one last question: does a girl hundreds of miles away really mean more to him than she does? Mike’s answer is “… Yes.” The chapter closes in silence on mirrored panels of their evenings — homework, tense family dinners, two reflections over two bathroom sinks, and two beds where nobody is getting any sleep.

Character dynamics

Lucy finally gets to the point.

• Lucy and Mike: Until now the friendship has run on insults, with one kiss at the end of Confrontation that Lucy brushed off as “repayment” and nobody has mentioned since. Lucy spends the whole day sitting on her sharp tongue, says the words outright, and hears a flat no. Mike admits he wanted her once, and that her feelings were never a secret, but Sandy is the one he chooses.
• Tess and Augustus: Everything Tess knows about Augustus tells her to put her fists up, and she does the moment she recognizes him. Back in Follow Me he threatened to expose her past. Augustus makes clear that she’s off his target list, if not off her guard. Whoever he actually is looking for goes unnamed.
• Daisy and Abbey: The gang’s newest couple, together since the kiss in New Beginnings, making their first public showing at school. So far the arrangement is pure devotion. Abbey carries Daisy’s bag all day and claims lunch tables on command, and Daisy could not be happier about any of it.

Trivia & observations

• Miss Amalu, back as the gang’s CP English teacher, is twenty years old. Veronica’s commentary explains why last year’s teachers keep turning up: “Why waste an already perfectly-designed adult?”
• Veronica’s commentary under the rejection page notes that Lucy “never had a chance so long as Sandy was in the picture.. though Mike has definitely soured on Lucy in recent times. At least he’s being nice here!”
• The dinner scene on the final page is Haley’s first appearance in the comic.
• A guest character named Kizuna originally sat in on the lunch scene. Per Veronica’s replies under the page, she was later edited out at her creator’s request.
• Veronica has named “A Distance Apart and Unrequited when read together” among her favorite chapters to draw, for keeping “a sense of drama and silliness.”

Related chapters

• Wonderland: The chapter right before this one ends with Lucy jolting awake from a recurring nightmare and telling herself she has to confess when school starts. This is the day she goes through with it.
• Unrequited: The very next school day, the rest of the gang finds out that Lucy told Mike she loves him.
• Confrontation: Mike’s flashback replays the end of this chapter, where a battered Lucy kissed him after the fight at Cinder Station and insisted it was just “repayment.”
• Enter High School: The freshman-year opener begins with alternating panels of Mike’s and Lucy’s parallel morning routines, both of them dreading school in unison. The panels of Lucy’s morning reuse that staging, while the final page inverts it with the desolate mirrored evenings.