Five Feet Apart

by Rachael Lippincott

And then I know. I know he’s there even before I see him. Will.

Both Will and Stella have very seminal lines of dialogue in the pool scene. Not only do they share with each other their external scars, they also share their internal scars: Stella’s deepest wound and Will’s greatest fear. Stella is haunted by Abby’s death. She can’t let go. In this moment, Stella tells Will, “I keep imagining it, over and over, wanting to know what she felt…” She constantly obsesses over the way Abby drowned, helpless and alone. Will then shares his greatest fear when he tells her, “I think about that very last breath. Sucking for air. Pulling and pulling and getting nothing.” This is what haunts Will. The fear of that last breath, the pain of it, knowing that it will mean the end of everything. These are important lines on their own, as they speak to the internal struggles the characters are trying to overcome. But when Will and Stella get to the pond, those lines are brought to life. With Stella’s fall through the ice, those two secret fears that Will and Stella have held onto for so long are made manifest in the most literal way possible. Stella finds out exactly how Abby felt when she drowned, and Will experiences the fear and agony of that last breath. Next, if I may, I’d like to answer the second and third most common questions I get in my DMs. I really can’t answer the first most common question (Will there be a sequel?) because of the real-world implications of B. cepacia and all the CFers who suffer from it. But here are the answers to the other two questions: 1. Why did Poe have to die? I knew from the outset that I didn’t want this story to end with the death of Will or Stella. I wanted Will to learn to love so deeply that he could walk away for love’s sake. And I wanted Stella to learn to have the strength to let go of someone she loves so much. But this story would not have been an honest one if it hadn’t included an illustration of just how devastating CF can be. So… it was Poe’s fate to die. Now, the reason he died when he did, just when it seemed he was about to move into the best part of his life, was because it was important for us to understand the insidious nature of CF, to feel the uncertainty these patients live with from day to day, minute to minute, second to second. They never know if their next breath is going to be their last. 2. What happened to Will? I can tell you that (in my inner story-world) Will walked away from Stella determined to seek out every treatment available, with Meredith beside him all the way. Since Five Feet Apart is so grounded in reality, we need a real-world cure for B. cepacia before Will will ever be healthy. So, until then, I keep him safe in my story-world. In there, he’s still fighting, still hanging on, still breathing, waiting for a cure. Fun fact: We screenwriters, in the course of building a script, oftentimes write many scenes that are useful for character building and backstory, but so many times a lot this work doesn’t make it into the final cut of the movie. There is finite time to tell a story in a feature film and only the most vital aspects of that story generally make it to the screen. No work is ever wasted, but alas, some of it is never seen. So it was a real treat when Rachael was able to include those additional scenes in the book. I was so happy to see the scenes with Tom and Erin, Meredith and Will, and especially Abby there at the pond for that last goodbye. Those were some of my favorite moments in the script and I hated to see them cut from the movie, but they got to live in the pages of the book, and for that I am grateful. Thank you Rachael!