But they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t have done any of that, because in stories guys fight. They fight for the person they care about, and they don’t give up, ever. In real life, though, sometimes you beg for them to care, and they just don’t. And then they go quiet. And they let you walk away without much of a fight at all.
Ollie starts the story with a very naïve view of love. He has this childlike idea that he will meet the person he’s meant to be with, and he will be pursued, and everything will be extremely easy and romantic. Even though the opening lines of the book are Ollie declaring that he no longer believes in these ideals, we can see that it isn’t so, as he constantly expresses surprise and disappointment that Will has fallen short of the Prince Charming ideal. Throughout the story, Ollie continually allows himself to hope that everything will magically work out—for example, when he daydreams about Will coming out, and them ending up openly together—an idea that Aunt Linda points out is probably not so realistic.
This paragraph is both the moment that Ollie truly processes that relationships aren’t like the movies, and it’s also a scene where his unreliable narration becomes particularly obvious. The reader can see that Ollie’s interpretation of Will as uncaring and uninvested is far from accurate, from Will’s body language in this scene, through to his actions during the remainder of the book. In reality, Will’s actions are influenced by the level of fear and panic he’s experiencing—it isn’t that he doesn’t care enough about Ollie to consider his feelings, it’s that he’s become overwhelmed by the very real threat of people realizing he’s not straight, and the possible fallout from that, which can, on the negative end, range from unpleasant through to downright dangerous. As Lara points out, this isn’t an excuse for his actions (certainly, most of the behaviours Ollie takes issue with are things that were never necessary for Will to do in order to remain closeted), but it is an explanation—and it’s an explanation Ollie hasn’t really considered. Ultimately, though, it’s Ollie’s misconception that allows him to grow and discard this childish view of relationships. When he allows himself to view Will as a flawed human, rather than a fairytale figure whose every action will put Ollie’s wants and needs at the forefront, he learns some important lessons in how to set boundaries in a relationship, and also how to contribute to a relationship as something he’s participating in as an equal, rather than something that’s happening to him.
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