Summary

This section begins with Hannah and Ben shopping for a new cellphone. She asks them to repay her not with money, but by agreeing to visit the psychiatrist Dr. Bridgette Taylor. During a tender communicative moment between siblings, Hannah apologizes to Ben for having left them suddenly “to fend for themselves” with their Mom and Dad, suggesting that living there was extremely difficult (47). Ben narrates that after that, “Mom and Dad changed. I sort of became the punching bag for all of Dad’s issues” as an only child focal point (47).

The morning of their first session with Dr Taylor, Ben looks at themselves in the mirror and thinks about their relationship to their body and name, feeling like their body is ‘taunting’ them by not presenting the gender that Ben feels inside themselves. They say, “Hell, even my name isn’t very...