Life's Too Short

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, substance use, and mental illness.

Vanessa’s right hand is numb, and based on her research on ALS plus her experience with family members, she assumes this is the onset of the disease. Once symptoms begin, most people don’t live longer than three years, and there is no cure. Vanessa considers what is ahead and cries.

Vanessa knocks on Adrian’s door and asks if he wants to help her go through her fan mail. Though they’re both in pajamas, he agrees and offers to cook them breakfast. Vanessa produces a large bag of mail, just two weeks’ worth, and her popularity shocks Adrian. He notices her wrist brace, but she lies and says she has carpal tunnel. With Grace napping in the swing, they go through the mail, sorting through the kind and sometimes bizarre things fans send Vanessa. Adrian genuinely enjoys himself.

Vanessa makes a separate pile for all the “dick pics” and jokes that Adrian is the type of “super-confident, self-assured, brooding alpha male” that sends nude photos (72). Adrian disagrees, and Vanessa demands access to his phone to confirm. They swap phones and get to know one another through scrolling pictures and looking at each other’s music.