Will begins the novel with a devil-may-care attitude toward his illness. As he has developed the almost certainly fatal complication of B. cepacia, Will believes he doesn’t have much time left and would like to see the world before he dies. However, his mother feels determined to find a treatment for him. At the start of the novel, Will is two weeks away from his eighteenth birthday and eager to escape from under his mother’s thumb and make his own decisions about his health. While Will may seem flippant about death on the surface, his slip on the roof shows that he is not quite as nonchalant as he makes himself out to be.

Upon meeting Stella and taking his regimen more seriously, Will begins to feel better, both physically and emotionally. Once Barb confronts Will about the danger he poses to Stella, Will tries to stay away from Stella, but she will not let him. As Stella becomes more reckless, Will begins to act as the responsible one. He is always there to save Stella, even risking his own life by rescuing her after she falls through the ice into a pond. Although he desperately wants to be with Stella, in the end, Will knows that her survival is more important than his feelings. He leaves the hospital after Stella receives her lung transplant and eventually does get the opportunity to travel. Will’s commitment to following his regimen and seeing doctors while traveling shows that Stella has changed him and encouraged him to value his own life.