It Ends with Us: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

A few days later, Lily arrives home to find Lucy in tears. She tells Lily they need to talk. Lucy explains that she and Alex are getting married, and she wants to break her lease to move in with him. She expects Lily to be furious, but Lily is secretly thrilled to have her own space. Now that she and Ryle are trying to make things work, privacy is even more important to her. Lucy leaves to tell Alex the good news.

Lily hasn’t heard from Ryle since they agreed to try dating. Instead of breaking and being the first one to reach out, Lily looks through her diary to distract herself. In the letter she reads, Lily wrote about the day she asked Atlas where his name came from. He didn’t know, so Lily wondered aloud if he could ask his mother; Atlas told her that wasn’t possible any longer. Lily realized that she knew nothing about his family She was still too afraid to ask. Mostly, her were overwhelmed by her concern for his safety as winter approached. The days were growing colder.

Lily’s next letter to Ellen describes how she and Atlas had dug up the garden in anticipation of the coming snow. After finishing their work, Atlas had asked her what made her want to garden. His interest in her passions made her realize that she’d never had a friend like him. Her parents didn’t let her have people over in case her father lost his temper, and she had never slept over at a friend’s house either. Though Atlas was the closest friend she had ever had, how little they actually knew about each other bothered Lily.

Lily responded to Atlas, explaining that her grandmother had sparked her desire to grow things. What had held her interest, however, was the way plants grow or die in direct response to how well they are cared for. Atlas replied that plants and humans are the same that way. Kids who have loving parents thrive, while kids whose parents neglect them wither and end up homeless. The sadness in his words hurt Lily. Longing to make him feel better, she pointed out an oak tree nearby, explaining that some plants like trees survive on their own against all odds.

Atlas was encouraged by Lily’s comparison, and he responded that she and he were just the same, too. He got up to leave, but Lily told him he should shower because the compost he helped her with had manure in it. At the mention of manure, the two got into a compost fight. Atlas rubbed Lily’s arms with the manure, and she was surprised at how deeply it turned her on. When he finally showered, Lily was left to wonder what he meant by saying they were the same.

In the present, Lily moves on to the next entry in her diary. In it, she recounted for Ellen an altercation that happened between her parents earlier that day. Her mother parked in her father’s garage spot to unload groceries while it was snowing. When he came home to find her there, his anger flared. Lily walked out to help her mom carry things in and was shocked to find him choking her. She tried to pull her father off her mother. He threw Lily off, knocking her head against the concrete before drove away. Her mother apologized to Lily even though she did nothing wrong. She also asked Lily to lie and say she slipped when they got to the hospital. Lily had hoped that her mother would leave her father now that he hurt her too. Instead, Lily became convinced that nothing would change her mother’s mind.

The morning after, Lily had tried to hide her stitched up forehead from Atlas. When their hands touched on the bus, Lily felt how cold he was. She had forgotten to take him blankets the night before, distracted by her father. Lily tried to warm Atlas’s hands up on the bus, growing more upset that her father’s episode prevented her from ensuring Atlas would be okay in the snowstorm. He didn’t notice Lily’s forehead until their ride home. Atlas didn’t believe her when she said she fell. Instead, he showed her the cigarette burns on his arms to explain he knew what abuse looked like. When they had gotten to their neighborhood, Atlas walked home angrily before she could give him the blankets.

Later that night, Lily had waited until her parents fell asleep to sneak next door with blankets for Atlas. She had been surprised to find the abandoned house somehow colder than the outdoors. Lily insisted Atlas come home with her. From her spot on the bed and his on the pallet she made for him on the floor, the two talked about how Atlas ended up homeless. His mother’s new husband had kicked him out, and after a friend moved away, he didn’t have anywhere to stay. He had six months until he planned to join the Marines, so he was just trying to survive until then.

Lily had asked Atlas why he didn’t get help, but he explained that he was over 18. This limited his options. There were no nearby shelters, and his mother couldn’t get in trouble since he was a legal adult. So far, he’d been unable to find a job. Atlas’s situation gave Lily a new perspective on the realities of homelessness. She also became enraged at the selfishness of rich people like her father. He refused to help others because he believed it was their fault for being poor.