50 pages • 1 hour read
Rachael LippincottFive Feet Apart
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Stella”
Stella returns to her room in a panic: “all the pain and the guilt I’ve been pushing further and further down rears its ugly head, making my knees buckle under me” (120). She recalls how, last minute, she was unable to attend the trip to Arizona, a trip from which Abby never returned. Stella remembers her disbelief over Abby’s death, her complete abandonment of her regimen, and the intensified strain on her parents’ marriage. She reflects, “My parents couldn’t talk to each other. Couldn’t even look at each other” (121). Despite Stella’s best attempts to hold her family together, her parents “were separated after three months. Divorced in six” (121). The emotional strain resulted in Stella’s strict adherence to her routine as a means of prolonging her life for the sake of her parents.
Stella reminisces on how Abby gave her three gifts that have helped her survive so many of the difficult trips to the hospital: her stuffed panda named Patches, the many drawings she has collected over the years, and her friendship with Poe, whom Abby introduced to Stella on her first day at Saint Grace’s. Distressed, Stella asks Poe to meet her in the hospital lounge. She admits to Poe her immense guilt over Abby’s death, saying, “She was always there. To stand by me when I needed her. And I wasn’t there when she needed me most” (124). Poe is reassuring Stella and calming her down when she feels a sudden burning in her side. She lifts her shirt to “see that the infection has only gotten way worse, the skin red and puffy, the G-tube and the area around it oozing” (125).
Dr. Hamid examines Stella and informs her that she needs surgery to keep the infection from getting into her bloodstream. Stella is aware of the severity of potential sepsis but also of the fact that if she is anesthetized, her “lungs might not be strong enough to pull […] through to the other side” (126). Dr. Hamid informs Stella that they must operate tomorrow morning. Stella convinces Dr. Hamid to allow her to tell her parents about the surgery herself. As Stella prepares herself to make the calls, she sees Will placing another drawing under her door—his apology for their earlier fight. Stella clutches the drawing and ponders whether she’s strong enough to survive the surgery.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Will”
Will agonizes over Stella’s lack of response to his drawing. He feels terrible about bringing up Abby’s death. On his way to the cafeteria to distract himself from Stella’s silence, he discovers Poe in the hospital chapel talking to his mother over FaceTime. Poe reveals that to Will that he has not seen his mother in two years: “They got deported back to Colombia. But I was born here and they didn’t want to take me away from my doctors. I’m a ‘ward of the state’ until I’m eighteen” (131). Poe shares his mother’s desire to have him visit her in Colombia, but they don’t have the money to cover Poe’s airfare. Will offers to give Poe the money he needs, but Poe declines. Will realizes, “This isn’t just about money. Besides, I know more than anyone that money can’t fix everything” (132). He contemplates how Poe and Stella have made him realize he wants to cherish every moment like they do; this newfound desire scares him.
Later that night a distraught Will decides to knock on Stella’s door, as he has yet to hear from her. Will sees Stella has been crying and asks what is going on. She informs him about her impending surgery; she will be going under general anesthesia despite her significantly lowered lung function. Overcome with compassion, Will expresses his desire “to reach out and take her hand,” to reassure “her that everything will be okay and that this shouldn’t be a bad one” (134-35). Stella dismisses him, and Will returns to his room. After seeing his own version of Abby’s lung drawing on his wall, he realizes that this is Stella’s first surgery without Abby’s support. Instantly, a plan forms in his mind, fueled by his understanding that he still needs “to make things right” (136). He plans to wake up early the next morning.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Stella”
Stella prepares for surgery with her parents by her side. Tension permeates the room as Stella attempts to mediate between them. An orderly comes to transport Stella for her surgery. Once in the surgery room, Stella contemplates the futility of her previous attempts at control: “All of my obsessing over my regimen for nothing” (139). She now realizes why Will has acted the way that he has and feels her own newfound desire to escape.
Will enters the surgery room in scrubs, surprising Stella. She sees a new expression in his eyes that is “not mocking or jokey, it’s totally and completely open. Almost earnest” (140). Will begins to sing Abby’s song, which he has learned from obsessively watching of all of Stella’s YouTube videos. He sings, “I love you, a bushel and a peck…A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck” (140). Stella begins to cry and shares that the song was sung to them as children by their grandmother. Will reassures Stella that she is going to be fine, and they touch for the first time as they interlock pinky fingers. Dr. Hamid enters the room to begin the surgery, and Will hides behind a curtain. Stella feels a sense of reassurance that she will be fine. As Stella breathes in the anesthesia, she sees that Will placed Abby’s lung drawing on the wall where she can see it. She envisions the drawing coming to life around her. As she falls deeper into unconsciousness, she sees Abby.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Will”
Will escapes and hides from a man and woman sitting on a bench outside the operating area. He soon recognizes that they are Stella’s parents. Will observes their tense conversation and Barb’s ignored entrance into the room, where she stands waiting for their acknowledgment of her with “her face steadily growing angrier and angrier” (145). Barb confronts Stella’s parents, reprimanding them for their inability to remain civil while their daughter fights for her life.
As Will watches this scene and reflects on the ways he, too, must take ownership of his actions rather than relying on Stella. Barb notices his presence and pulls him away. Will, feeling “the anger literally radiating off her,” asks, “What is your deal, Barb?” (147). Barb tells Will about a young couple with cystic fibrosis from her early days at the hospital who had similar backgrounds to him and Stella. Despite Amy Presley being infected with B. cepacia, just like Will, Barb allowed Amy to break the rules with Trevor Von “because [she] wanted them to be happy” (148). Because of Barb’s leniency, Trevor contracted B. cepacia and died two years later after being removed from the lung transplant list. Amy lived for another decade. Shaken by Barb’s words, Will realizes, “With just a cough, with just a single touch, I could ruin her entire life. I could ruin any chance she has for new lungs. I could hurt Stella” (149). He also realizes that he that he does not want to live in a world without her.
Chapters 11-14 Analysis
Raw after sharing the details of Abby’s tragic death with Will, Stella wallows in her unattended grief. She unveils how Abby died and Abby’s promise to return with so many pictures and stories that Stella would feel she’d been there herself. Stella’s guilt is rooted in her absence from the trip to Arizona as well as in living vicariously through Abby’s adventures, which ended in Abby’s death. Her mother’s confession—“I don’t know what I’d do without you” (127)—rings like a refrain in Stella’s head and weights her down under the pressure to survive.
In Chapter 12 Will learns about Poe’s past as a child of a deportee. He reflects on how his relationships with Poe and Stella have already affected him, noting, “Stella and Poe are making me want every second more that I can get. And that terrifies me more than anything else” (132). He recognizes his privilege in being able “to give up,” admitting, “It was easy to fight my treatments and focus on the time I do have” (132). It is not as easy for Poe and Stella.
Despite his fear over his growing connections with Poe and Stella, Will continues his journey toward greater empathy and selflessness when he surprises Stella before her surgery with the sole goal of comforting her. Before her surgery, Stella also recognizes a change in her perspective when she remarks, “I think I get it now. Why Will would go onto the roof. I’d do anything to get up from the gurney and run far, far away” (139). Aware of the futility of her rigorous attempts to maintain her health, Stella now sees the benefits of Will’s rebellious ways. She desires to escape too, “[t]o all the things [she has] avoided out of fear of getting sicker, only to find [herself] lying here anyway, about to go into another surgery [she] might not come out of” (139). Despite the danger, Stella and Will touch for the first time in Chapter 13 and solidify their deeper connection. Stella does not fear this touch that once terrified her.
In Chapter 14 Will confronts a barrier to his desire to pursue his relationship with Stella. Barb, a symbol of reality, shares with Will the tragic parallel story of Amy Presley and Trevor Von. Faced with the reality of their cystic fibrosis, Will realizes that, to Stella, he represents death: “That’s what I am. That’s what I am to Stella” (149). Rather than focusing solely on his desire to be with Stella, Will sees the need to take responsibility for his actions and consider their dangerous consequences. As he inches closer to his 18th birthday, Will moves closer to adulthood.
