Burnt Bridges

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Burnt Bridges
Chapter111 of 129 (list of chapters)
PublishedJuly 21, 2021 (2021-07-21)
Page count28
Major charactersMike, Augustus, Lucy
Minor charactersMadison, Jordan, Jessica, Matt, Rachel, Stacy, Katie
LocationsRoseville High School, Lucy’s house
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Still reeling from the events of Eternal Flame, Mike follows an anonymous note out to the snowy bleachers, where Augustus, of all people, is waiting to hear his side of the story. Why Augustus would care at all is a question the chapter saves for its final stretch, and the answer has everything to do with Lucy.

Synopsis

Madison is strong-arming her senior friends into reviving their lapsed Friday movie night, ideally at Jordan’s house for the sake of his mom’s cookies.[1] Mike shuffles past the group in the halls of Roseville High School looking like he hasn’t slept, then hides around a corner until they’re gone.[2][3] When he opens his locker, a note flutters out. Somebody wants to talk to him by the bleachers at the start of lunch.[4] That somebody is Augustus, sitting out in the snow with a book.[5]

Augustus just wants to hear Mike’s side of the story.[6] Mike leads with “I’m a piece of garbage,” but Augustus isn’t interested in what Mike thinks he ought to say.[7] He wants to know why.[8] So Mike tells him. He’s been terrible to everybody, Lucy most of all, and he misses her more than he can stand.[8][9] But Sandy had been calling all night, guilt-stricken, the audition already called off, and he couldn’t bring himself to say no to her.[9][10] Augustus grabs him by the shoulder and tells him exactly how he could have.[10]

Augustus tells Mike that he owed Lucy something after that night and that going back to Sandy undid every bit of growth Lucy had shown. He says she only fell for it because she cannot stand seeing Mike suffer.[11] “So please just leave her the fuck alone for once,” he finishes.[11] Mike shoves him back, then sinks onto the bleachers and sobs into his hands.[11][12]

Through tears, Mike promises he will never talk to Lucy again, and asks Augustus to look after her. Augustus gives him his word.[13] Augustus sits down beside him and says he had braced for a fight. His questions get Mike to admit Sandy is not as perfect as he thought she was.[14] The lunch bell sends Mike off to clean himself up, but he stops on the track for one last “I won’t bother her again.”[15][16]

On an earlier night, Lucy slips into Augustus’s room in her family’s house, dead-eyed and silent.[17] She ignores his worried questions, climbs onto his bed and kisses him.[18] Augustus pushes her away hard. When she presses forward anyway, he threatens to scream loud enough for her whole family to hear.[19][20] He reminds her of her own lessons about consent, and she crumples into sobs: “I wanna die so bad..”[20][21]

Augustus lies across Lucy’s back and gently tells her it is not true.[21] Lucy rages about Mike and despairs that Sandy will never go away.[22] When she calls herself unlovable, Augustus answers simply, “Shut up. I love you.” Then he kisses her forehead and adds, “Because I don’t love you like that.”[23] Back in the present, Lucy storms up to the bleachers, bright-eyed again, to chew Augustus out for playing hooky. The two of them head back to school trading jabs.[24]

Character dynamics

Augustus grips Mike's shoulder and glares at him against a red background, saying "You know how."
Augustus runs out of patience.
  • Mike and Lucy: Mike and Lucy never share a present-day panel. Mike still insists Lucy means more to him than anyone,[9] but he took Sandy back the same night she coached him through the breakup.[25] Augustus has already told him to leave Lucy alone. Mike then volunteers a permanent promise never to talk to her again and repeats it on his way out.[13][16]
  • Lucy and Augustus: Augustus refuses Lucy’s kiss and scolds her, then comforts her through the breakdown that follows.[19][21] He tells her that his love is not romantic, and his “Shut up. I love you.” answers her belief that she is unlovable.[23] In the present, Augustus gives Lucy a shining-eyed smile before they walk back to school trading jabs.[24]
  • Mike and Augustus: Mike dreads finding Augustus waiting for him,[6] while Augustus says he had braced for the Michael who reportedly explodes whenever someone criticizes his girlfriend.[14] After Mike admits what he has done and breaks down, Augustus sits beside him and asks whether he will be alright.[14] Mike asks Augustus to look after Lucy, and Augustus agrees.[13]
  • Mike and Sandy: Mike spends most of the conversation defending their reconciliation as a response to Sandy’s genuine remorse.[9] He later admits for the first time that she is “not as perfect as I thought she was”, and allows that saying it aloud might be a little freeing.[14] His relationship with Sandy does not change on panel.

Trivia & observations

Augustus gently kisses Lucy's forehead as she closes her eyes.
Augustus loves Lucy, just not like that.
  • The first page went up on Oliver’s birthday, and Veronica’s commentary under it is largely a birthday tribute to him.[1]
  • This is the first appearance of the fictional slasher franchise “Knifeman” (Madison is counting the days to “Knifeman 4: The Reknifening”), and of the group’s Friday movie night tradition.[1]
  • Veronica says the punching match Madison and Jordan get into over movie-night snacks was based on her own arm-bopping matches with a friend. She also calls it “not a very fortunate comparison to a certain pink-ribboned cat”, so the resemblance to Mike and Lucy is intentional.[26]
  • The man Sandy promised never to see again is Francis, the hairdresser she admitted falling in love with in Eternal Flame.[10]
  • Oliver’s commentary has a name for the logic Mike falls back on, that giving up now would mean the whole relationship was pointless: “The sunk cat fallacy”.[27]
  • The transition into the flashback is nearly wordless, six panels of Augustus alone on the bleachers that end on his closed eyes.[16]
  • Lucy calling herself unlovable echoes Mike’s words in December, “Nobody can love you for who you are”, and Augustus’s declaration answers them directly.[23][28]
  • The chapter sits in the middle of a run of fire-themed titles, between Eternal Flame and Fuel Economy.

Related chapters

  • Eternal Flame: Everything Mike recounts on the bleachers happens here. Sandy’s months with another man come to light, and Lucy spends the evening at the tree coaching Mike through the breakup. By the next morning he has taken Sandy back, and Lucy wants no part of any of it.
  • Another Shoulder: Lucy has been in the flashback’s situation before. In that chapter it’s Paulo comforting her through a breakdown over Mike when she kisses him and pushes for more, and Paulo who has to turn her down. The authors’ commentary under this chapter’s kiss page brings it up by name.[18]
  • Love Again: This is where Augustus came to live in the guest room at Lucy’s family’s house. He found her on a rooftop the night she tried to end her life, and her family took him in afterwards.
  • Link Play: Chapters later, Lucy repeats Mike’s promise back to him: “You told Augustus you wouldn’t talk to me again.”[29]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 1
  2. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 3
  3. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 4
  4. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 5
  5. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 7
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 8
  7. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 9
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 10
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 11
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 12
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 13
  12. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 14
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 17
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 18
  15. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 19
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 20
  17. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 21
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 22
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 23
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 24
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 25
  22. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 26
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 27
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 28
  25. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 52
  26. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 2
  27. ↑ Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 16
  28. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 31
  29. ↑ Chapter 116: Link Play, page 24
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