Chapters 27–31

Summary: Chapter 27

Stella wakes up in the hospital and sees her parents, Dr. Hamid, and Barb. She demands to know where Will is until she realizes he is on a different bed in the same room. Will tells Stella she must take the lungs. Stella still feels reluctant, as she does not want to live without Will, but she remembers the vision of Abby she saw encouraging her to live and agrees to have the surgery. Will feels relieved, until he remembers to tell Dr. Hamid that he gave Stella mouth-to-mouth, so she may have contracted B. cepacia. Upon hearing Will’s news, Dr. Hamid assures him that he did the right thing and says they will go ahead with the transplant.

Summary: Chapter 28

While Stella is in surgery, Will waits with her parents, as well as Mya and Camila, until Dr. Hamid delivers the news that the surgery went well. Later, Barb tells Will that, for now, Stella does not have B. cepacia. Will’s mother asks about the drug Will has been taking, and Barb confirms that it is not working. Will apologizes to Barb for his and Stella’s reckless behavior, but Barb tells him that love can’t be helped. That night, Will stands outside Stella’s door, watching her sleep. He feels relieved that Stella made it through surgery and has a newfound determination to make sure she gets to live for as many years as possible.

Summary: Chapter 29

The next day, Will gathers Barb, Julie, his friends, Stella’s friends, and Stella’s parents to create a surprise for Stella. Will finishes a drawing of Stella spinning on the frozen pond and gives her mother a package to give to Stella when she wakes up. As Stella begins to awaken, Will leaves. Stella opens the package from Will, which contains a sketchbook titled “FIVE FEET APART” and drawings of different scenes from Stella and Will’s time together. On the last page, Will has written his to-do list, a list that contains only one item: “Love Stella Forever.” Julie plays a video of Will, who says his only regret is that Stella did not get to see the lights in the park. Then, after Julie turns off the lights in Stella’s room, holiday lights come on in the courtyard outside. Stella looks out the window and sees Will standing in the courtyard. She suddenly understands that he is leaving. Will puts his hand on the window, and Stella covers it with her own. Will calls Stella’s phone so they can hear each other, and he explains that seeing Stella nearly die made him realize that he needs to make sure she is safe. He asks Stella to close her eyes so that he can walk away, which she eventually does. When she opens her eyes, she sees a car pulling away and the print of Will’s lips on the window.

Summary: Chapter 30

Eight months later, Will is at the airport with Jason on their way to Brazil, the first trip of many as Will is finally getting to see the cities he has dreamed of. He has agreed with his mother to see a doctor in every city he visits and check in with her once a week. Will watches Stella’s latest YouTube video about the importance of human touch. He notes how much healthier she looks since her transplant surgery. Will reflects on how much he wishes he could be with her but knows that her health is his priority. As Will begins to board the plane, he turns when he hears familiar laughter, and his eyes meet Stella’s.

Summary: Chapter 31

Stella waits to board a plane to Rome with Mya and Camilla. She notes how much better she feels physically with her new, healthy lungs and how much better she feels emotionally now that her parents have reunited. While the girls stand at the gate, laughing and excitedly chatting about their trip, Stella suddenly feels Will’s presence. She turns to find him in the crowd. For a moment, both Will and Stella remain frozen in place. Then they walk toward each other until they are standing five feet apart.

Analysis: Chapters 27–31

Although Stella is reluctant to have the lung transplant at first, her instinct to survive, just like that of the babies in the NICU, wins out. She also knows that she would bring suffering to not only her parents and her friends but to the memories of Poe and Abby if she did not fight for her own life. As Stella has made it to her goal of getting new lungs, she has learned that taking a few risks can make life worth living. Will, meanwhile, knows he could not live with himself if he got Stella sick. Rather than choosing the path that would make him happier, Will chooses to do what is best for Stella’s health. In the end, both characters have reached a middle ground in the choice of surviving versus living. While both Stella and Will want to make sure to enjoy life, they are also determined to be around to live it for as long as possible. This is evidenced by their meeting at the end of the novel. At the airport, Stella is finally going off on adventures with her friends instead of remaining in the same town and same hospital she has always known. Will is at last fulfilling his dream of seeing the world but is making sure to take precautions to stay healthy.

The inevitability of love is once again addressed as Barb has no reprimands for Will and Stella’s behavior and only says she understands. Barb, who still feels the guilt of allowing former cystic fibrosis patients to be near each other, resulting in their death, seems to understand as much as anyone how much the illness can take away from a person’s life and how painful that can be. Although Barb was determined to protect Stella, she also saw that there was nothing anyone could do to prevent Stella and Will from falling in love.

Will’s final gift to Stella, the sketchbook, again shows the power of art to connect Stella and Will. Even though they were only together for a few short weeks, Will was able to immortalize their relationship with his drawings. The sketchbook reveals that, like his love for her, what they had together will never be forgotten. By decorating the courtyard with the lights from the park, Will has brought Stella’s dreams even closer to her, showing her that a life with beautiful experiences outside a hospital is now within her reach. Stella embraces this new reality by embarking on her own adventure to Rome with her friends once her body is strong enough. Before meeting Will, she might never have even considered such an experience.