Christopher is the other protagonist and narrator of the novel, though he’s somewhat less of a fleshed-out character than Larissa. Chris is characterized primarily by his loyalties to his friends like Mike, whom he has known since childhood. Little is revealed about Chris’s childhood in the novel, aside from the fact that Chris and Mike were rarely apart. Chris appreciates his job as a pharmacist because he loves to help people, though he’s annoyed by the retail pharmacy job he has in the novel because it often forces him into awkward situations with customers.

At the beginning of the novel, it’s been three months since Chris’s mother died, something that he’s still grappling with throughout The Night We Met. Although he has friends, he often feels lonely because they don’t always give him the same support he offers them. Chris also feels guilty for his mother’s death because he didn’t know she had an alcohol addiction until it came to the final weeks of her life. He feels like he should have noticed the signs earlier and wishes he could go back in time to change things, as he also deals with his best friend’s covert alcohol addiction. Chris thinks of his mother often and especially wonders what she would think of Larissa and how he’s dealing with Mike, letting these thoughts occasionally influence the way he acts.

Chris is loyal to a fault, letting his allegiance to Mike cloud his judgment and get in the way of his own happiness. Even after Mike and Larissa break up, Chris can’t see the possibility of a future with Larissa since Mike loved her. His loyalty also often gets in the way of Mike’s healing, as he enables Mike’s bad habits by hiding them from Larissa. Though Chris constantly thinks of his disloyalty to his friends once he starts dating Larissa, he believes that having Larissa is enough, given his strong feelings for her.

Chris’s loyalty to his friends and his love for Larissa jointly guide all his actions throughout the novel, though they also put him in conflict. He has complex feelings about Larissa and Mike’s relationship and often works too hard to uphold it despite wanting to be with Larissa himself. Chris only sees the ways that his dedication to others gets in the way of his own happiness toward the end of the novel when Mike tells Chris about how he’s changed without Chris’s support. Chris ultimately realizes that his own wishes also matter and decides to put himself and Larissa first.

Mike is Chris’s lifelong best friend but also Chris’s foil, as they’re always compared throughout novel. Before the start of the novel, Larissa had the choice of driving home with Mike or with Chris, and this choice haunts all three of them for the remainder of the story. Mike is initially described by Larissa as charming and exuberant, whereas she first thought Chris was grumpy and irritable. However, the first description in the novel of Mike is when Chris describes him as “loyal to a fault” (11), though the chapter opens by highlighting Chris’s loyalty and Mike’s dependence on him.

Larissa also often contrasts herself with Mike, especially in regard to their financial circumstances. Unlike Larissa, Mike grew up with money and has much more of a safety net than she does. He lives in a separate house on his parents’ property, which he doesn’t have to pay for, and works as a personal trainer, though he has a plumber’s license and is expected to take over his stepfather’s plumbing business. In spite of this, Mike doesn’t want to be dependent on his parents and have his life laid out as they want for him. He planned to play sports professionally after high school, but an injury got in the way of his dream. As he tells Chris, “This wasn’t supposed to be my life” (100).

Mike’s anxiety and depression cause him to drink heavily as a coping mechanism, something he started doing in high school after his injury shattered his dreams. At one point, he was on medication to help with this, but he had stopped by the time he met Larissa, and Chris wants him to start again and to supplement it with therapy. While Mike is often willing to ask for help, he also denies it when it’s forced on him, especially when Chris tries to help him with his depression and drinking. Mike hides this dependency from the people he loves most, often drinking so much that he forgets even doing it the next morning.

Mike is the character who changes the most throughout the course of the novel, particularly in the final chapters. His separation from Chris and Larissa after the events at the cabin allows him to see his problems on his own and start to work on them. His apology to Chris in the final chapter is a major turning point in the novel, allowing both characters to grow. One of Mike’s most important realizations is his inability to say or do the uncomfortable thing, something that Chris often does for him, and he notices that this has ruined many of his relationships. Rather than dealing with his problems, Mike ignores them throughout most of the novel, but he becomes a dynamic character when faced with losing Chris, the person who is most important to him.