If He Had Been with Me
by Laura Nowlin
Contents
Chapter 76
Overview
Autumn and Finny sit in his car, reminiscing about childhood and school while confronting conflicting memories about why Autumn left her old friend group. Finny admits discomfort hearing boys talk about Autumn, revealing buried feelings. The scene reframes their shared history as subjective and exposes quiet tension beneath their closeness.
Summary
Late at night in Finny’s car, Autumn and Finny linger outside, too awake to part. They trade childhood memories—Charlotte’s Web, a baseball injury, icy Christmas adventures, and a foiled prank—reaffirming their long history and comfort together.
The conversation shifts to school years and popularity. Autumn claims teachers favored Finny, while Finny insists he was nerdy and that Autumn was the one boys liked. Finny admits it was unsettling to hear other guys talk about Autumn, hinting at his own complicated feelings.
When Finny asks why Autumn left her middle-school clique, Autumn says she and Sasha were pushed out; Finny reports the girls told him Autumn dismissed cheerleading as shallow and stopped returning calls. Their conflicting accounts underscore how memory and perspective diverge.
Autumn argues that memory isn’t objective; Finny counters that they used to remember things the same way because they thought the same. As the windows fog, they sit with the realization that their shared past may not match, exposing gaps—and desire—beneath their nostalgia.
Who Appears
- AutumnNarrator; shares childhood memories with Finny, disputes his friends’ account of her leaving the clique, questions memory’s objectivity.
- FinnySits with Autumn in his car, recalls shared past, admits discomfort hearing boys talk about her, presents a conflicting version of her clique exit.