Chapter 1

At a coastal cottage in Knott’s Harbor, Maine, the narrator recalls the sensory comfort of the place and the close friendship with Sabrina and Cleo that began freshman year at Mattingly College. A random housing assignment brought together three seemingly mismatched women who quickly became inseparable.

The narrator sketches each friend: Sabrina, a Manhattan heiress with classic style and a love of horror; Cleo, an artist from New Orleans; and the narrator, a premed student from southern Indiana. Their early days are marked by inside jokes, custom T-shirts, movie nights, shared study rituals, and Cleo’s art, including a nude painting of Sabrina and the narrator hung above their door.

Through daily routines and noisy celebrations, the trio creates a new understanding of quiet and loud—comfortable silence and joyful chaos—contrasting with the narrator’s tense childhood home. Their bond becomes a source of identity and happiness.

Sabrina eventually brings them to her family’s summer home in Maine, a place the narrator comes to love even more than college. The chapter closes with a foreshadowing turn: at this cottage, the narrator will meet Wyn, signaling a pivotal change ahead.