Summary
Part Three, Truth or Dare, Chapter 25
On Saturday, November 3rd, Brownyn is still reeling after Nate’s arrest. She calls Eli from Until Proven and he agrees to offer some legal advice to Nate’s mom. When news cameras show up at her house, too, Brownyn has to admit her romantic involvement with Nate to her parents.
The same day, Cooper goes to an exhibition game, although most teams have lost interest since he’s been outed. When news cameras ask him about Nate’s arrest, he genuinely feels Nate must not be guilty—he’s the only person who defended Cooper in the school cafeteria. Bronwyn calls Cooper and encourages him to follow up with Luis on the red Camaro.
Part Three, Truth or Dare, Chapter 26
Bronwyn goes to the Until Proven offices with Mrs. Macauley and her mom. Mrs. Macauley tells Eli that EpiPens and Simon’s water bottle were found in Nate’s locker. Based on that, the police got a search warrant and found a computer in Nate’s room with the Tumblr posts saved. Both locations had been searched a few weeks before. Eli agrees to take the case, and tells Brownyn that means they can’t talk.
On Monday, Addy’s day is surprisingly normal. TJ stops by, and her mom encourages her to pursue him, but Addy insists that she doesn’t need a man to be happy. Bronwyn invites her over, and she’s happy to escape her house. They meet up together along with Cooper.
As they scan the Tumblr posts together, they have a sudden realization. The author wrote that “the four of us even caught Detective Wheeler eating a pile of doughnuts in the interrogation room.” Addy realizes that that never happened—but she told Jake that it did when she was over at his house.
Part Three, Truth or Dare, Chapter 27
The narration resumes on Tuesday from Bronwyn’s perspective. She had texted Nate’s mom a link to the Tumblr post. Bronwyn remains perplexed as to how Jake got involved in Simon’s death, and wonders if he killed him. With Addy, Maeve, and Cooper, she tries to make sense of the clues.
It makes sense that he would want to get revenge on Addy—but why was everyone else involved? That afternoon, Bronwyn tracks down the owner of the red Camaro that crashed in the school parking lot. He reveals that Simon paid him to have the accident.
Analysis
Nate’s arrest raises more questions than answers, but above all, it reinforces the injustice of the criminal justice system. Nate had already been searched, twice, yet the police immediately act on very thin evidence.
These three chapters create abundant situational irony. Throughout, both the readers and the character have believed that one single person is responsible for the car accident with the red Camaro, Simon’s death, and the Tumblr posts taking responsibility for it. However, the clues in this chapter throw this into disarray: it is revealed that Jake writes the Tumblr posts, and Simon himself paid for the car crash.
Jake is one of the last obvious suspects in the novel because he seems genuinely shocked and hurt when he learns Addy has cheated, and because Cooper is his best friend. If he had knowledge about Addy’s indiscretions and Cooper’s sexuality, he has been acting otherwise for some time, showing a high degree of deception. This further characterizes him as one of the novel’s main antagonists.
As Addy learns the truth, her character continues to transform. Once convinced by her mother’s belief that she needs a man to be happy, she has asserted her independence. Moreover, when she realizes that Jake knew the truth about her cheating for weeks, she realizes that he was much more manipulative than she ever imagined. She was formerly under a toxic influence, and she is increasingly breaking free.
These chapters also further develop Eli as a kindhearted lawyer, less cynical than the other players in the criminal justice system (especially the police). He takes on Nate’s case, despite his full caseload, out of pure altruism.
