43 pages • 1 hour read
Nic SheffA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Nic and Zelda begin to argue more frequently. Zelda is furious when Nic’s mother notifies her father that they’ve relapsed. She has a number of drug-induced violent episodes during which she attacks and injures Nic. Zelda is especially angry and upset when Nic asks her to get rid of her ex-husband’s things. Despite the fact that all of these things disturb him, Nic assures Zelda that he forgives and loves her.
Nic is distraught to learn that a close friend has died in a motorcycle accident. When he calls his mother about this, she confronts him about his addiction and his relationship with Zelda. The conversation turns into a screaming match between Nic, Zelda, and his mother. Later, in a drug-induced craze, Nic suggests that he and Zelda break into his mother’s car and steal his stepfather’s computer. Nic reasons that if he has a computer, he can write and earn money. After he leaves Zelda in a grocery store to wait for him, he breaks into his mother’s garage. In the garage, he loses all sense of time and purpose and goes into a drug-induced psychosis, “just totally tweaking out” (272).