All We Ever Wanted

Tom feels as though “something bad was happening” to his daughter, Lyla, before he learns what that something is (13). He tries to convince himself that he is simply worrying over her now that she is a teenager.

He worries about the “skimpy” clothing she is wearing to hang out with friends. Lyla tries to convince Tom she is partaking in a study group and will be spending the night at her friend Grace’s house. Not having any reason to distrust Lyla, Tom watches her leave and spends most of his night working for Uber.

When he gets home at 1:30 in the morning, he fixates on how he has not heard from Lyla at all that night. A few minutes later, Grace calls Tom regarding Lyla, who is drunk and unresponsive. Although she reassures him that Lyla did not do any drugs and did not drink a lot, he hurriedly goes to bring his daughter home. He takes care of her and puts her to bed while thinking about his wife, Beatriz.

Still at the gala, Nina talks to Kathie Parker, who comes from familial wealth like Kirk. She discovers that Finch sent a picture of a sleeping, half-naked girl on Snapchat to his friends. The caption reads: “Looks like she got her green card” (25). After someone took a screenshot of the picture, it was sent around their community, and some of the parents at the gala see it. Finch spent his evening with Beau, Melanie’s son, who threw a party at his house. Melanie recognizes the background as her son’s room, and both sets of parents rush home to their children.

Kirk and Nina discuss the potential consequences Finch will face and the impact on his future. Nina worries about why her son took the picture and captioned it with a racist comment. Kirk tries to rationalize that “maybe there’s more to the story” (27).

When Finch gets home, he does not understand why he is in trouble. He tries to convince his parents that the picture is not a big deal. Kirk tells Finch that he could possibly be expelled, and Nina voices her worries that he could be sued for causing emotional distress to the young girl in the photo. Nina is taken aback when Kirk and Finch dismiss the girl’s potential emotions about the pictures. It feels as though a lot has changed within her family dynamics. 

Tom thinks about the first time he saw Beatriz at a bar in Five Points. Tom had told his friend John that he wanted to marry her. He introduced himself to Beatriz and learned she was from Rio, Brazil, and wanted to be a singer. After three months of knowing each other, they were married and she became pregnant. They did not speak to many of their friends and family.

Their marriage became strained and temperamental. During one of their arguments, Tom was angered that Beatriz wanted to spend the day with her friends rather than with him and Lyla, who was four. Beatriz took Lyla to her friend’s cookout, and when Tom picked them up, Beatriz went swimming and had left Lyla playing with other children next to the pool. He worried that Lyla could fall into the pool, and he was angry with Beatriz for not watching her more closely. Tom accused her of being a “drunk,” and Beatriz did not deny this. The next morning, she left a note on the table informing Tom she was leaving him and Lyla. When Lyla was nine, Beatriz came back to their house to speak to Tom.

In the present, Tom wakes up in an armchair next to Lyla’s bed. He had started to go through her phone while she still slept. He feels conflicted and guilty about this, but he starts to text Grace pretending to be Lyla. He discovers that the picture Finch took the night before is of his daughter, and he deletes the text thread before Lyla can see it. When she wakes up, he tries to get more information out of her. She reveals that she knows he texted with Grace. Lyla tries to convince him not to go to her school about the photo.

The headmaster at Finch and Lyla’s school leaves Nina a voicemail that he wants her to meet with him at the school as soon as possible. This leads to an argument between Nina and Kirk about Finch’s car, a Mercedes G-Wagon, which Nina finds to be too extravagant. Kirk tells Nina to call back Walter, the school’s headmaster, to inform him they are already punishing Finch for his actions. Nina angers Kirk when she tells him that he needs to go with her to the school before he leaves for his business trip.

Kirk is annoyed that he now has to fly in coach rather than business class. He comes to the meeting and is upset to find out Finch has been taken out of class to join them. Kirk lies to Walter and tells him Finch showed his parents the picture because he was upset about his behavior. Nina realizes how much she and Kirk lie in their interactions with other people, and she gets angry when Finch furthers the lie. Kirk tries to remedy the situation before Finch can be suspended or worse; he plans to call Lyla’s father and have Finch apologize so things will not move forward with the honor board. Finch’s ability to act sincere despite not taking the situation seriously causes Nina to “shiver a little inside” (68). 

Lyla feels that her situation could be worse. She knows her father would forgive her for drinking. However, she is upset because Finch, her long-time crush, was the one who spread the picture around their school. She thinks about how she watches him at school and how he holds eye contact with her, which gives her hope that he can return her feelings despite having a girlfriend.

She thinks about the events leading up to the party. Finch asked her and Grace to come to Beau’s home. Lyla was optimistic at receiving the invitation, and remembers how she spent a lot of time at the party watching him. She claims she tried to be careful and wanted to feel like a grown up. However, Lyla’s nerves intensified at the party; she started drinking more alcohol to help with her anxiety. As Lyla watched Finch, they made eye contact and smiled at each other. Grace and Lyla thought he was flirting with her, even though Polly, his girlfriend, was with him.

Lyla remembers hanging out in a bedroom upstairs listening to music while others smoked weed. Grace left to join everyone else downstairs. Lyla claims not to remember anything until she woke up on her bathroom floor next to her dad.

Lyla keeps asking Tom not to report Finch for taking the photo, but Tom knows he will be unable to “just drop it” (74). Lyla claims that if he says anything she could get in trouble for drinking.

When he drops her off at school the following Monday, Tom decides to call the school to report Finch. Walter tells Tom that he has already seen the photo and the racist caption and that he plans to address the situation accordingly. He reminds Tom that drinking alcohol, even off the school’s campus, is a violation of their code of conduct. Lyla, he says, may face backlash for having the photo reported due to Finch’s popularity. She will also have to face consequences for underage drinking.

Tom tells Lyla that the headmaster had seen the picture before he reported it. Lyla tells Tom that it will be better to drop the issue. Tom feels that Lyla is worth more than the way she was treated. They argue, and Lyla informs Tom that she has been talking to her mom about the situation. She wants to visit her mom in Brazil, but Tom refuses to fund her trip. She tells him that her mom will buy her ticket, and she is already working on getting her passport. In a moment of anger, Tom suggests that Lyla spends her summer in Brazil.