Saving 6

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical and emotional abuse, bullying, suicidal ideation, substance use, and addiction. 

Joey dunks his head in his sink full of water to try to wake himself up. He then uses drugs, thinking how regular it has become. He goes out of his room where Shannon is waiting, and then he takes her to BCS for her first day of secondary school.

Aoife sits at dinner with Paul and his family, annoyed at how pretentious they are. She tries to get Paul to let her leave, but he makes a snarky comment about how she should enjoy eating in a restaurant her “family could never afford to eat at” (197). She thinks of how much energy she has put into their relationship over the last several months, doing her best to make it work but still not being happy.

Joey gets to work and is shocked that his father is there. His dad tells him that Granda Murphy—his mother’s grandfather—is at the hospital and dying. His dad offers to take Joey to the hospital but asks for money in exchange, so Joey angrily dismisses him.