Summary

In Chapter 14, August and Wes share a joint together and talk about their disappointments and frustrating parental dynamics. August knows that Wes has been suppressing his love for Isaiah and allowing his fear of being a disappointment to limit his hope for reciprocal love. For the first time, August understands her mother’s pain and fear, by paralleling Suzanne’s and Wes’s experiences, and she realizes that fear leads to isolation and loneliness. She decides to stop avoiding Jane and face her fear of losing the first person she has ever loved in order to spend as much time as possible with Jane before she disappears into 1977.

In Chapter 15, August and her roommates throw the drag show benefit in an abandoned subway station. August is delighted to see Wes and Isaiah together at the party, but she knows she must turn...