Overwhelmed, Daniel struggles with how to proceed, but he doesn’t want to miss lunch and worry Six. He goes to lunch, taking a seat at the table and seeing Six with her nose buried in a book. She does not stir when he sits, although he knows that she senses his presence.

He cannot eat or pay attention to the conversation around him, and Holder suggests that he go home for the day. Sky adds that Daniel should take Six with him since she also looks unwell. Daniel’s eyes fall on Six, and he sees tears landing on the pages of her book. He tells Breckin to get up from his seat next to Six. Daniel sits down next to Six, whose face is now buried in her arms. He wraps an arm around her and hears her whisper that she is sorry. He tells her not to apologize, wrapping his arm tighter around her and scooping her up from her seat, carrying her out of the cafeteria.

In the hallway, he waits for her to stop crying before he tells her that he is sorry for letting her walk away the night before. He tells her that he was not judging her for her choices: He was struggling with not being able to be there for her. He admits that he is sad about the entire situation and that she needs to give him time to process everything he has learned in the last day. He wipes away Six’s tears, telling her that he still has questions for her but that he will wait until she is ready to answer them.

Six responds that the baby is his son and that she will answer any questions she has. She admits that she thinks she made the wrong choice in putting the baby up for adoption, but it is too late to go back. She says that if she had known Daniel was the father or that they would be together, she would not have given him up. Now, she does not know where he is. Daniel assures her that she made the best choice she could for their baby at the time and thanks her.

He goes on to state that this whole experience does not change how he feels about her, and he professes his love for her, even though it has only been a month. They embrace and kiss as Six cries, telling him when they break apart that she is “so happy it was [him]” (110). They stand in the hallway holding each other as the bell rings—the hall fills with students and empties once more. Six tells Daniel that their son looks like him, and they hug again. Daniel never wants to see her hurt like that again.

Daniel shares one more revelation: After meeting Six, he applied to college in Dallas, Texas, the same place that Holder, Sky, and Six plan to attend in the fall. When she asks if he has been accepted, he tells her that he and Holder already have plans to live together. She smiles and states that the connection between them is serious, and she thinks it might be time to introduce Daniel to her brothers. Daniel jokes that he does not love her that much. They hold hands and stare at each other. Daniel thanks Six for never asking him to change and silently thanks the universe for putting her back in his life.

Daniel’s sister, Chunk, watches Daniel nervously drumming his fingers on the counter and asks him what is wrong. He reveals that he is going to Six’s house to meet all four of her older brothers. At dinner, Daniel hopes that the brothers will be more interested in eating than an interrogation, but his hopes quickly fall. One brother asks about his plans after high school, and Daniel responds that he is going to attend college at the same school as Six. Another brother asks what will happen if they are not dating after high school graduation, and Six tells him to shut up. Daniel assures the brothers that he understands their reservations about him, as he has a younger sister himself.

The brothers continue teasing Daniel, asking why he calls Six “Cinderella” and forcing Daniel to quickly fabricate a story about Six being so beautiful that she is “reserved for fairy tales and fantasies” rather than share the real story (121). They admit that they are giving him such a tough time because Six has never introduced them to one of her boyfriends before, which makes Daniel kiss her and say, “Dammit, I love you, girl” (121). This elicits smiles from all the brothers.

After dinner, Daniel goes over to Sky’s house briefly to tell his friends that he survived meeting Six’s brothers. Six decides to stay home, which troubles Daniel. He notices the pained look on Sky’s face and realizes that something is going on between Sky and Six. Sky admits that Six has been avoiding her for the past few days, but Sky does not know what she did. Daniel begins pacing, stating that Sky and Six cannot be fighting because of their plans to go to college together next fall.

Sky begs Daniel not to, but he leaves her room, going next door to Six’s house to ask her why she is angry with Sky. Six is lying on her bed when he arrives. She insists that nothing is wrong and that she is not mad at Sky. Daniel notices that she has been quieter than normal the past few days and looks worried. Daniel suddenly fears that Six might be mad at him, so he apologizes, which confuses her. Six assures him that he is “perfect” and did nothing wrong but admits that she has to tell him something if he promises not to tell Holder (124).

Six opens her laptop and shows Daniel a webpage featuring articles about a child that looks exactly like a younger Sky, with words like “missing child” and “reward” mentioned (124). Six tells Daniel that she left her computer behind when she was in Italy, and when she returned, these articles were in the browser history. She assumes that if it were Sky looking up the articles, she would have said something, so Six guesses that it was either Six’s aunt and adoptive mother, Karen, or Holder. Six is scared to tell Sky that she has seen the articles for fear that she will be divulging information that Sky does not want to know. Daniel hugs Six close, telling her that this is not information that she can keep to herself and that withholding the information from Sky could hurt their relationship overall.

Daniel and Six bring the laptop back to Sky’s room and show her and Holder. Sky and Holder read together, and Sky puts her hand over her mouth as they stare at the screen. Six apologies, admitting that she did not know whether to bring this up to Sky. Sky looks up and over to Holder. Holder closes the laptop and tells Daniel and Six that they already know this information and that if it gets out, it could harm Karen, who rescued Sky from her abusive father as a child. Holder is the one who told Sky because he lived next door to her when they were kids and saw Karen rescue Sky.

The weight of this knowledge is too much for Daniel, and he feels the need to reciprocate by divulging a secret of his own: He blurts out that he got Six pregnant the year before. Six is upset that Daniel tells them without her consent, but he argues that things “wouldn’t be even between [them]. Things would be weird” if they hid their secret (128). Things remain uneasy between the four friends as they adjust to all the information they’ve shared, and Daniel asks them to swear to each other that they will keep each other’s secrets. After some discussion, they agree to pinky swear.

After this, Daniel asks if Six wants to make out at the park, and she agrees. Daniel pulls everyone into a hug and tells them that he loves them. As he and Six leave, he knows that they will not have sex tonight but wonders how long it will be until they do.