Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

On Christmas Eve, Simon feels as though things are off despite the fact that his family has observed all of their typical traditions. The family sits in their pajamas in the living room, participating in a Facebook scavenger hunt. They have to find friends on Facebook who are on vacation somewhere tropical, posting about breakups, or posting about being Jewish on Christmas. When Simon reads a classmate's status out loud about having a perfect night, complete with a winking emoji, he thinks it's gross but he also cannot stop thinking about Blue signing his emails with "love." Alice receives a phone call, leaves to take it, and is gone for two hours. The scavenger hunt fizzles.

Simon gets a text from Leah that she's outside. He goes to let her and Nick in and finds them standing awkwardly on the step. They suggest they take a walk, and Simon detects something strange in her tone. Simon changes and grabs his dog Bieber. Before they're even out of the driveway, Leah asks Simon if he's okay in a strangely gentle voice. Simon knows something is going on, but neither Nick nor Leah will tell him what. Finally, Leah decides she's leaving and walks away. Nick stands with Simon for a minute, but still refuses to tell him what's going on. Simon thinks he's never seen him look like this. Nick touches Simon's arm, which he never does, and wishes him a good Christmas before heading back to his house.

Simon's family has French toast for Christmas Eve dinner on nice china, per tradition. Simon still feels as though things aren't the same, and thinks he's felt this way all week. He wonders if it's because Alice is at college or if it's because he's spent his week pining over Blue, who isn't ready to meet in person. After dinner, Simon joins Nora and his parents in the living room to watch a movie. He squints at the lights to try to make them look like he remembers, but decides to go upstairs to listen to music.

Soon after, Nora knocks on the door and lets herself in. She reaches for Simon's computer and says she needs to show him something. Simon snatches his computer from her, but does as she says and navigates to the creeksecrets Tumblr page as she settles in beside him on the bed. Simon stops dead when he finds a post, seemingly written by him, announcing his sexuality and his sexual availability to any interested guys. The post makes sly references to Blue. Nora explains she already reported it, and Simon knows that Martin did it. He hopes Blue hasn't seen it.

After a few minutes, Simon says it's true that he's gay. Nora said she could tell from Simon's reaction to the post. Simon insists he can't do anything but wait for the administrators to take the post down. He says he thinks that Nick and Leah already know, and he insists he doesn't want to deny the fact that he's gay. He becomes suddenly angry at Nora when she tries to tell him that people would be okay if he came out. She hands him his phone, which shows notifications of multiple texts from Abby assuring him she didn't tell anyone.

On Christmas morning, Simon wakes up relatively early. He sits with Bieber on the couch until everyone else gets up, thinking about Blue. Everyone else is up by nine, and Mom makes a big fuss when Simon pours himself coffee. Simon thinks his parents are so against any changes he makes, and reasons it'll be a big morning for them if they're even interested in his new coffee drinking habits.

Everyone opens their presents in a frenzy of paper and bows. When all the gifts are opened, Simon tries to casually tell his family he has something to talk about. Dad starts joking and suggests that Simon is either gay, pregnant, or got someone else pregnant. Simon plays along for a moment before saying that he is indeed gay. Mom and Alice are happy and proud, but Dad asks which girlfriend turned Simon off of women. Alice calls Dad out, and Simon thinks that these reactions are exactly what he expected.

Later, Alice follows Simon into his room. She refuses to let him put on his depressing playlist aptly titled "The Great Depression" and insists that they can talk about boys. Simon asks Alice to tell him about her boyfriend and Alice grudgingly says his name is Theo. Simon immediately pulls up Facebook to find him, and Alice tells Simon to stop—this is why she didn't want to tell anyone in the first place. Simon gets it, and Alice promises to tell Mom and Dad about Theo.