The Truth About Forever

Kristy gives Macy a makeover in the doublewide trailer she shares with Monica. The makeover is so unlike Macy, and she becomes worried of the consequences if the night turns out poorly. Macy has the sudden urge to flee, to return to “[her] schedule as if [she]’d never strayed from it” (121). However, upon seeing the result of Kristy’s makeover, Macy is calmed by “seeing the familiar in all these changes” (122).

They head to a party in a remote clearing. The anonymity Macy has enjoyed with the Wish Catering team, who don’t know anything about her past, is fractured when Rachel Newcomb, a girl Macy used to run middle school track with, divulges Macy’s past with winning track meets and her father’s tragic death. As Rachel departs, Macy worries about the group’s reaction, but they don’t acknowledge it or express the pity Macy has come to dread from others. Instead, they support her by joking about how oblivious Rachel is. While Macy appreciates their understanding, she can’t help but mourn how quickly everything has changed; she can no longer pick and choose what to show them about herself.

An hour later, Kristy, Monica, and Macy lay on the couch in the back of the Bertmobile, talking about boys. They find out about Macy and Jason’s “break,” and Kristy mentions immediately knowing Macy was in a relationship the night they met because she didn’t swoon over Wes like other girls do. Monica and Kristy provide a different perspective on Macy’s relationship, opening her eyes to the ways in which Jason is far from perfect for her. When Monica and Kristy leave to mingle, Wes approaches Macy. They have a heart-to-heart about their deceased parents and bond over their shared hobby of running.

Caroline slowly walks Macy and Deborah through pictures of the family beach house, suggesting possible renovations. Deborah wonders if they should just tear it down and rebuild, but Macy is beginning to see its potential. A few days later, Macy and Caroline take a trip to the farmer’s market, where they find Wes selling his homemade sculptures. While Caroline admires the angels made from junkyard scraps, Macy is drawn to a small angel studded with sea glass. Wes offers it to her for free, despite Macy’s insistence on paying, while Caroline excitedly pays for several sculptures for herself.

Wish Catering works an event with Jason’s parents in attendance. The Talbots pull Macy into a patronizing conversation about Jason. Kristy, who overhears the exchange, pulls an ashamed Macy to the kitchen, outraged on her behalf by their behavior, and details the situation to the crew who does their best to comfort her. Afterward, Delia leaves for dinner with her husband and the rest of the crew heads to a party in Lakeview. Wes and Macy, who’d taken the Wish van, break down in the middle of nowhere. On their walk to find the nearest gas station, they play a game of “truth,” where they must answer any question asked with complete honesty, and the winner is determined by who refuses to answer a question first.

The game reveals a lot about themselves. It turns out that Wes went to Myers School for four months after breaking into someone’s house with friends. He also has a girlfriend named Becky, who he met at Myers and has since been moved to Evergreen Care Center after being busted with marijuana; like Jason and Macy, their relationship is on hold until she’s released at the end of summer. Meanwhile, Macy is forced to admit the details behind her complicated break with Jason and the reason she stopped running. An old man eventually comes upon them on the side of the road and brings them to a gas station.

Deborah’s stress about work continues to skyrocket as she continues her luxury townhomes project and Caroline flies through renovations on the beach house. Deborah has a gala planned on August 7 for the grand townhomes opening but agrees to a family trip to the beach house starting on August 8.

Since the night they were stranded on the side of the road, Wes and Macy have become friends. She doesn’t feel the need to be perfect around him like she does around everyone else because he already knows all her secrets.

One day, while working at the library, Monica and Kristy visit to invite Macy to lunch. Macy wavers on whether to accept because Amanda and Bethany don’t like it when she leaves for lunch. Kristy points out how miserable they look, “all milky and uptight-looking” (197), causing Macy to realize how miserable she is at the library day after day, prompting her to agree.

Kristy and Monica attempt to convince Macy to sneak out after curfew to meet up with some guys they met at a recent catering job. While getting ready, the girls stop to ogle at Wes, who is their neighbor and routinely runs by their doublewide on his nightly jogs. Macy is disinterested in going out with Kristy and Monica’s mystery guys, and Kristy believes it’s because she and Wes are secretly pining for each other, which Macy vehemently denies.

After the sisters leave with their dates, Macy heads to her car but is distracted by one of Wes’s nearby sculptures. Wes notices her on his way out and calls out to her, scaring her. He takes her to World of Waffles as an apology. They bond over the loss of Wes’s mother and Macy’s father. When Wes mentions finding his mother’s lists everywhere and attempting at first to decipher their meaning like they’re “some sort of message from beyond” (212), Macy admits to doing the same with her father’s EZ Products subscription. Wes manages to drop Macy off at Kristy and Monica’s just before they return. While Kristy complains about their disastrous night, Macy feels the opposite about her own.

Deborah ambushes Macy’s return home the following morning, and she mentions seeing the Talbots and how they informed her of Jason’s break with Macy. She expresses her concern for Macy’s recent behavior and her new friends. While Macy has become happier with her recent freedom, her mother makes her feel like it’s a bad thing. When Macy retreats to her room, she finds a note from Caroline with a package she found in the beach house, addressed to Macy from their dad. Macy can’t bring herself to open it just yet and hides it in the attic with her father’s EZ Products.