Let's talk about BFFs, shall we? In What Happened to Goodbye, Mclean has pretty much given up on the concept of friends—let alone best friends. As she tells Dave, she doesn't have the kind of friend that she can call at 2:00AM no matter what—her life just isn't configured that way right now. Instead she makes surface-level acquaintances when she moves into a town… and then leaves them behind when she moves onto the next place.
But in Lakeview, Mclean makes real friends and finds them indispensable. She starts to form serious connections with Dave, Deb, and Riley… and finds that it's not so bad after all.
Questions About Friendship
- Why does Mclean decide to befriend Deb even though she's an outcast and a weirdo?
- Are Mclean's friends in Lakeview just like the friends she made in all the other towns she lived in? Why or why not?
- How does Dave turn into Mclean's 2:00AM by the end of the novel? Do you think that he would really do anything for her?
Chew on This
Mclean sets out to make as few connections as possible when she moves to Lakeview, but soon she's as inextricably a part of the community as her friends.
Even though Mclean initially doesn't want to get close to Dave, she eventually comes to rely on him as one of her best friends—and this allows her to finally feel at home in a new place.