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Summary
Mateo and Rufus enter Clint’s Graveyard at 5:14 PM. The party atmosphere makes Mateo regret not doing more fun things in his life. Rufus encourages him sing karaoke, and Mateo says he needs to work up to it, but he knows he will do it even though it’s scary. The boys and Lidia toast to enjoying every minute of the time they have left, and then Mateo tells Rufus to sing “American Pie,” a song commemorating the deaths of music legends Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens in 1959, with him. After their performance, Mateo grabs Rufus’s hand, leads him offstage, and kisses him. Rufus asks why Mateo waited so long to do it and kisses him back.
At 5:23 PM, Howie Maldonado reflects on his life as a movie star in the back of a limousine where he’s being interviewed by Delilah and her boss Sandy. When Delilah takes over the interview, Howie becomes more honest and says he wishes he’d spent more time doing what he loves. He finally admits to himself that he could have been happy, perhaps happier, without his stardom and success. Just as Howie has that epiphany, Peck and his gang run through traffic. The limousine crashes, Howie dies, and Delilah survives to continue questioning if it truly is her End Day.
Back at Clint’s Graveyard, Malcolm, Tagoe, and Aimee arrive. Rufus apologizes to Aimee and introduces his friends to Mateo and Lidia. They all dance together, and Rufus pulls Mateo close despite the fast music. The two of them dance face to face, whispering to each other how much they wish they had more time. They mention places they’d like to go and things they’d like to do. They kiss again, and when they leave the dance floor, Mateo takes Lidia to a quiet area to come out to her and tell her that he’s with Rufus as more than a friend. Mateo and Lidia write their names on a graffiti wall and say goodbye to each other, but then Mateo sees something happening near the dance floor. Peck and his gang are there, and Peck has a gun pointed at Rufus. Rufus knows he started this fight, and he doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. He sees Mateo behind Peck and is terrified he’ll get hurt. Mateo punches Peck in the face as Rufus runs to protect him. Kendrick swings at Mateo but stops short as he recognizes him as the boy who gave him his shoes the year before. Malcolm runs in and knocks over Peck and Kendrick, and the gun falls to the floor. Rather than shooting Peck after he retrieves the gun, Rufus fires all the bullets into a wall. In the ensuing chaos, Mateo and Rufus run from the club.
Meanwhile, Dalma, the creator of the Last Friend app, talks with her half-sister Dahlia. It is now at 6:20 PM. The two speculate on what their Last Message would be if it were their End Day and the ways they’d want to be remembered. Dalma remembers seeing the two girls, Zoe and Gabriella, on the train and feels proud of her app. She knows it’s not perfect, as no social media ever is, but she’s reassured that overall, her app is a force for good. As Dalma continues to consider Dahlia’s question about her Last Message, they see two boys—Mateo and Rufus—run by, and she’s inspired by how connected they look. She tells Dahlia that her Last Message would be to spend life with people who understand and love you and live each day as if it’s your last.
Analysis
Mateo’s courage is central in the section leading up to the brawl in Clint’s Graveyard. Deciding sing and dance in public brings his development full circle as he is finally living the life he envisioned when he posted his picture in his Luigi hat on the Last Friend app at the beginning of the novel. Most crucially, Mateo is finally brave enough to embrace his true identity as he first kisses and then tells Rufus that he loves him. Mateo offering love without any clear assurance of the feelings being reciprocated shows he understands that life is defined by the risks that one takes, and he is rewarded for his bravery in Rufus’s response. Similarly, Mateo is finally honest with both himself and, Lidia, the person who know him best in the world. Mateo’s actions illustrate that the bravest thing a person can do is be authentically themself. By claiming his identity, Mateo’s actions are the definition of living a truly rich and good life.
The importance of living life to the fullest is revealed tragically through Howie Maldonado’s End Day Interview with Delilah. In contrast to Rufus and Mateo, Howie has spent his life and his last day in the company of strangers with whom he has little connection. His interview reveals his deep regrets about choosing fame over love and a private life. Ironically, Howie is able to open up to Delilah over Sandy because Delilah has connected with him through his artistic body of work. Delilah’s challenging questions parallel the existential questions the novel poses about what makes a life truly worth living. Like Mateo, Howie substituted a virtual world for the risks and rewards of a real one. While Howie lived through social media and interactions with his fans, Mateo read blogs and lived vicariously through others. Unfortunately, Mateo and Howie’s stories have divergent endings that illustrate the power of fate as Mateo gets his happy ending through, but Howie dies before reuniting with his pre-fame sweetheart.
The motif of human connection is demonstrated through various relationships in this section. The fact that Howie intends to spend his End Day with Lena, his first love whom he left for fame, illustrates the loneliness and lack of meaningful relationships Howie chose when he prioritized his fame. Howie’s admission that he wishes he’d spent more time with family and friends reinforces the motif of human connection. Howie’s realization echoes that of Mateo when he first got his Death-Cast alert. The difference is that Mateo had the epiphany in time to connect with Rufus and have a perfect End Day, filled with love and friendship. Even anonymous connections are powerful as shown when Mateo’s past kindness to Kendrick winds up sparing him during the brawl at Clint’s Graveyard and when Dalma unwittingly crosses paths with several Deckers who’ve benefited from the Last Friend app. Ironically, Peck’s fixation on revenge reveals an inability to show compassion for others that leads to him getting arrested. Peck’s lack of empathy only reinforces its importance when it comes to authentic human connection.
