Unrequited
| Unrequited | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chapter | 51 of 129 (list of chapters) |
| Published | December 21, 2009 |
| Page count | 12 |
| Major characters | Mike, Lucy, Paulo, Sue, Tess, Daisy |
| Minor characters | David, Abbey, Haley, Ellen, Sandy, Katie, Mr. Noodles, Blur |
| Locations | Roseville High School, Mike’s house, Roseville neighborhood |
| Collected in | Volume Two, Omnibus 1 |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← A Distance Apart | Another Shoulder → |
| Read chapter | |
Lucy confessed, Mike said no, and both of them planned to keep it quiet. That plan survives about half a school day. By the end of lunch the whole table has seen Sandy’s photo, and only Sue thinks to check on Lucy.
Synopsis
The day after he turned Lucy down,[1] Mike drags himself through a wordless morning routine and walks to school alone.[2] At his locker he wonders how long it’ll be until anyone finds out.[3] Paulo storms over screaming that Mike is an idiot. Mike’s panicked “H-how did you know..?!” turns out to be premature, since Paulo only means his tryout for Sue’s play.[3] Then Lucy wanders up. When Paulo needles Mike about being in denial over her, she answers flatly: “He’s never been in denial.” Mike bolts for class.[4]
Paulo spends every class after that bellowing “Whaaaaaat?!?” at the stone-faced pair.[5] At lunch, Mike complains that people make a big deal out of everything. The argument ends with Lucy pounding the table in tears. “Stop acting like my feelings aren’t a BIG DEAL!!”[6] Daisy blurts out “Girl talk!” as an excuse for the girls to pull a protesting Lucy away from the table.[6]
Out by the cafeteria doors, Lucy refuses to explain herself, and Sue, of all people, backs her up.[7] The talk drifts to boys anyway.[8] Out of nowhere, Lucy says, “I told Mike I love him.” The girls scream for the rest, and they get it. “He doesn’t love me back.”[9]
The girls storm back inside and round on Mike. Tess demands to know how he could possibly say no, then spells the whole thing out for a stunned Paulo, who bursts out laughing.[10][11] Pressed for his reason, Mike snaps that it’s Sandy, same as always. Paulo scoffs at the “imaginary girlfriend” and demands proof, so Mike hands over a photo.[11] The whole table crowds in behind Paulo to gawk. The photo proves that Sandy is real, and Paulo is so taken with her beauty that he immediately asks to keep the picture.[12][13]
Nobody notices Lucy falling apart at the edge of the frenzy except Sue. Lucy admits she regrets saying anything, and sobs that Zach “was RIGHT..”[13] Sue apologizes, tells her that at least now she can move on, and leads her away with the offer of a slushie. “Mike isn’t your only friend in the world, you know.” Behind them, the others are still fighting over Sandy’s photo.[13]
Character dynamics
- Mike and Lucy: Only Mike and Lucy know about yesterday’s rejection at first. By the end of the chapter, the whole group does.[1][9] At the start of the day, Mike dreads being exposed. Once the secret is out, he defends his choice of Sandy to a table full of angry friends who treat him as the villain.[3][11] Lucy, for her part, goes from stonily pretending nothing happened to wishing she had never been honest at all.[13]
- Lucy and Sue: Before today, Lucy didn’t trust Sue enough to accept a kindness without asking whether it was “some reverse psychology thing.”[7] Sue wins her over anyway. She defends Lucy’s right to keep quiet, checks on her when nobody else thinks to, and walks her off for a slushie at the end as a friend in her own right.[7][13]
- Paulo and Mike: Paulo’s needling has always leaned on the idea that Sandy is Mike’s “imaginary girlfriend,” a joke he was making long before this chapter.[14][11] Paulo drops the joke for good when he sees the photo. He immediately switches from mockery to open admiration and concedes “no wonder you can wait.”[13]
- Tess and Paulo: Nothing changes between them. Tess admits Paulo is “a really cool, funny, handsome kid” in her eyes, but still just a kid — the same verdict she handed him on prom night.[8][15] Daisy’s lobbying on his behalf gets nowhere.[8]
Trivia & observations
- Per the authors, the full-page photo of Sandy was made as an extra page for Volume Two. It “used to be the top corner” of the page that follows it.[12]
- Mike’s old scarf in his locker is drawn in its original blue, standing out against the chapter’s blue-and-pink toning.[3]
- The geometry classroom’s poster reads “Geometry. Get Used to This Goddamn Triangle”, which is sound advice for this cast in particular.[5]
- Daisy’s story about Alegria, the baby doll from the group’s middle-school health class, plays out in a sepia flashback set apart from the rest of the chapter’s palette.[9] The doll itself dates back to The Burden of Parenthood.[16]
- The authors’ commentary under the photo reveal jokes about how strange it is “for the majority of a table to ship a couple that isn’t going to freaken happen.”[11]
- Veronica has said she “really really love[s]” A Distance Apart and Unrequited, and that Lucy is the character she most loves writing because she relates to her despite her flaws.[17]
- Answering an ask meme, Veronica shared her personal headcanon that Lucy “never really cared for Sue before the events of Unrequited,” and that the two afterwards grew closer until Sue became the person Lucy most trusted.[18]
Related chapters
- A Distance Apart: The confession and rejection everyone is reacting to happened there, just the afternoon before. It also opens with a wordless page of Lucy’s morning routine. Mike’s wordless morning here mirrors it.
- Return: The talk Lucy is remembering when she sobs that Zach was right happens there. On the beach at night, Zachary called her feelings for Mike a one-way obsession and warned her that Mike would eventually leave town for his other girlfriend.
- Another Shoulder: On the next school day, Mike and Lucy avoid each other while Zachary’s words still ring in Lucy’s ears. The shoulder of the title turns out to be Paulo’s, not Sue’s.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 12
- ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 2
- ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 3
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 4
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 5
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 6
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 7
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 8
- ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 9
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 10
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 11
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 12
- ↑ Chapter 47: Pick Me Up, page 9
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 7
- ↑ Chapter 5: The Burden of Parenthood, page 2
- ↑ “Ask response on writing Lucy”. 2016-10-30.
- ↑ “Ask meme response on Lucy and Sue”. 2017-02-25.