Nineteen Minutes: Part 1, Chapter 10: The Month Before Summary & Analysis

Like all couples, Josie and Matt have a “pattern,” a particular choreography of movement they always follow when they are together. However, on this particular occasion, Matt breaks the pattern by not pausing like he usually does to put on a condom. Josie protests, and although Matt tries to persuade her, he eventually gives in and gets a condom out of his wallet.

Lacy has taken to leaving corn on the lawn in order to feed the deer during winter, hoping to “cancel out” Lewis’ hunting. Today, to her surprise, Peter follows her out onto the lawn, wearing only a t shirt and vest. He has barely left his room in months. Lacy gives him the bucket of corn to help, and he asks if it’s true that she was the one who asked out Lewis, not the other way around. Lacy smiles and says it’s true. They met at a pro-choice rally, where Lacy struck up a conversation. They’d become separated in the crowd, but Lewis dropped a piece of paper that had his name and position at Sterling College on it, and Lacy contacted him.

When Peter keeps asking questions about how Lacy asked Lewis out, Lacy asks if he likes someone, and he immediately turns red. He admits that his feelings are “one-sided” and that “she barely even registers my existence.” Unfazed, Lacy says it’s up to Peter to change that, encouraging Peter to tell the girl how he feels. She concludes, “It worked for me.” Meanwhile, Josie and Matt are naked on the floor of her living room, both a little tipsy after drinking beer at Drew’s house. This time Matt is much more aggressive than he usually is, and it hurts Josie. She says, “Wait,” but he puts a hand over her mouth and keeps going until he comes. After, he tells her he loves her and Josie says the same, although she won’t look at him.

Peter has decided to send Josie an email confessing his feelings. He writes and rewrites the message, cringing at what he’s saying. After finally coming up with something, he manages to read it over once before hastily pressing send. Meanwhile, Courtney is at Josie’s house, feeling bored. She’s tried to quiz Josie for details about the sex she’s been having with Matt, but Josie refused to reveal much. Now Josie is in the shower. Suddenly, the email alert on Josie’s computer beeps, and Courtney goes to check it. She is stunned by what she sees, saying aloud, “This is too fucking good.” She forwards it to Drew, telling him to send it to “the whole wide world.” When Josie comes back from the bathroom, Courtney pretends she was checking her own mail. 

That night, Josie can’t sleep. She is panicking over the fact that her period is three days late. On Tuesday afternoon, Josie is at Matt’s house, writing a social studies essay for him. Matt and Drew are lifting weights and taunting each other. Drew makes a joking reference to there being “competition” for Josie’s heart. Josie is confused, and immediately feels anxious. Matt shows her the email, which he’s printed out, and Drew and Matt recite lines of it which they’ve memorized. Josie is horrified and humiliated. She is also upset that one of her friends must have shared the email from her account. She realizes that “popular kids d[on’t] really have friends; they ha[ve] alliances.” 

In order to save face, Josie forces herself to act casually about the email, calling Peter a “total loser.” She gets to work on Matt’s essay, and he kisses her hand in gratitude. Meanwhile, at school, Courtney confronts Peter in the rush between classes. She says that she has something to tell him—Josie likes him. She pretends to disapprove because it’s “social suicide,” but adds, “I guess that’s what people do for love.” Peter replies with skepticism, but he is also blushing. In the cafeteria, Josie disobeys the unwritten rule about what popular kids are supposed to eat and loads her plate with Tater Tots. Courtney touches the grease on Josie’s tray and exclaims, “Gross.” 

Josie rummages around in her bag for an apple, and at that moment Peter speaks to her from the next table, asking if she’d like to join him for lunch. She tries to ignore him, but her friends immediately start teasing them both, making references to Peter’s email. Peter realizes that he’s been tricked. Matt gets up and, in one quick movement, pulls Peter’s pants down, exposing his naked body to the whole cafeteria. After Peter runs out, Josie picks up his abandoned lunch, telling herself she will give it back to him, even though she never does. Peter, meanwhile, bangs his head against his locker, then opens it and removes a picture of him and Josie he’d been keeping in there. He runs to the bathroom, puts the picture in the toilet bowl, and pees on it.

Josie feigns illness so she can stay home from school. After Alex leaves for work, she Googles the word “abortifacient.” She doesn’t want to tell Alex about the pregnancy and have her take her to Planned Parenthood. She has even considered calling Logan, assuming he would be in favor of helping her have an abortion. However, she eventually abandoned that idea, too. Most of the herbal remedies Josie finds seem strange and disgusting, but she eventually sees that Vitamin C can also induce a termination. She retrieves some from the cupboard, then does the pregnancy test she’d bought the day before, which produces a positive result.

Peter is clearing his driveway with a snowblower when the machine runs out of gas. He decides to go to the house of his neighbor, Mr. Weatherall—who is a retired cop—in order to get more. Mr. Weatherall invites Peter in, telling him to wait while he gets the gas from the. basement. While Mr. Weatherall is down there, Peter pokes around the kitchen, and finds the handgun that he used to carry when he was a police officer inside one of the sugar canisters. When Mr. Weatherall comes back up the stairs with the gas, Peter hastily puts the gun back in the canister. 

Matt comes over after school to tend to Josie, who he also believes is sick. He brings her chicken soup and comics, because they are what his mom brought him when he was sick as a child. He says he hope she feels better in time for the party Drew is throwing on Friday night, and at this point Josie reveals that she is pregnant. Matt ignores her, then tells her she is “overreacting.” Eventually, he tells her that they are “in it together,” and that he would never leave even if she wanted him to. A few days later, Peter goes back to Mr. Weatherall’s house, claiming to need even more gas. As soon as Mr. Weatherall goes downstairs, Peter puts the gun inside his jacket.

Josie has a vivid dream that she is flying. Yet instead of falling to the ground, she seems to fall into water. When she wakes up, she finds a pool of blood on her sheets, and realizes with euphoric relief that she is miscarrying. Meanwhile, an employee at the gun shop Lewis sometimes goes to calls to say his hollow-point bullets are ready to be picked up. Lewis is confused, and he tells the man he never ordered them. After hanging up, he tells Lacy it was a wrong number. Matt has an away game, and Josie comes to see him in the locker room beforehand, something he hates. He makes a vulgar joke at her expense, and the rest of his team laughs. In coded language, Josie tells him she isn’t pregnant. He picks her up and kisses her.