A Love Letter to Whiskey

B avoids Jamie for a few days after their kiss, and things seem like they are going back to normal between them. Jamie dates other girls during this time, and B feels strange about it; all the girls are white, blonde, and curvy, while B has darker skin and a more athletic build. B starts to bond with one of her roommates, Marie, and gets better at surfing in California. One day, Ethan asks B if Jamie is more than her friend, and she feels both guilty and regretful about saying no. Ethan has been comparing himself to Jamie and wants more reassurance from B, so she knows that she needs to start pulling away from Jamie.

A few weeks later, when she is helping Ethan with his campaign for student government, she gets a text from Jamie and knows something is wrong. She meets Jamie that night, and he takes her for a drive without talking for two hours. They go to a small beach, where he finally tells B that his father’s accounting firm—the place where Jamie always planned to work—is going under. Jamie always depended on that accounting firm to ground his view of his future, and he feels desperate as B tries to reassure him that she believes in him.