Stéphanie and Clémence's Friendship and Mutual Support

Stéphanie and Clémence’s friendship gives shape to the ordinary hours of Stéphanie’s adolescence: they talk whenever they can, return repeatedly to the same confidences, and stand beside one another when a public slight turns hostile. Clémence’s support is most visible in her willingness to listen and in her intervention at the skate park. That care is not always gentle or perfectly judged, but it is practical and sustained, set against Stéphanie’s family’s retreat into separate corners of the house.

Everyday Closeness

The friendship is not confined to occasional outings. When the girls are apart, they spend their time on the telephone; when they are together, they continue talking. Stéphanie sits in the shade on the balcony, leaning on the railing as she chats with Clémence. The ease of this scene makes their companionship feel habitual rather than ceremonious: conversation is an ongoing part of their days, not an event that needs a special occasion.

That constant contact has a cost within Stéphanie’s family. Arguments regularly break out between Stéphanie and her mother over the telephone bills, with Stéphanie’s father instinctively defending his daughter and then becoming the target of his wife’s anger. The underlying rivalry between mother and daughter remains unresolved. Stéphanie’s father, Pierre Chaussoy, avoids addressing it, and the household falls into silence, each person retreating to a different part of the large house. Against that domestic dispersal, Stéphanie and Clémence’s continuing conversations mark a contrasting form of closeness: the connection persists across physical distance even as communication within the family breaks down.

A Patient Confidante

Clémence is the person to whom Stéphanie repeatedly brings her uncertainty about Simon. The two have been in the same class since third grade, but Stéphanie now sees him as changed: he wears a leather jacket, smokes, and seems sad. Through him, she has discovered Leonard Cohen and the Doors, whose music she listens to constantly. Her interest in Simon gathers together attraction, fascination with his changed appearance, and a new musical world; she does not know what to do with those feelings.

Rather than offering a quick resolution, Clémence lets Stéphanie work through the uncertainty aloud. Stéphanie returns to each encounter, examining Simon’s smallest gesture and inflection, and revisits the analysis again and again, as if yesterday, the previous night, and tomorrow were all part of the same ongoing question. Clémence listens for nearly forty-five minutes. Her patience is a concrete form of friendship: she makes room for repetition without requiring Stéphanie to turn confused feelings into a settled decision. At the end of the conversation, she says she will come to pick Stéphanie up at around three, as usual, carrying their ordinary routine forward.

Intervention at the Skate Park

At the skate park, the friendship becomes visible as action. Simon and Rodrigue skate bare-chested while Romain Rotier and the girls sit at the top of the ramp with their legs hanging over the edge. The boards’ trucks slam repeatedly against the structure, and their vibration travels through it. In this charged public setting, Romain begins making advances toward Stéphanie. His attention makes her feel ugly, sweaty, and diminished, especially with a new Belgian girl present whom she sees as a rival to her own appearance.

When Romain tries to put a hand on her back, Stéphanie tells him to leave her alone. He answers angrily, and everyone hears the exchange. Clémence steps in at once, telling him to stop. Her response is not detached advice delivered afterward: she acts while the others can hear, refusing to leave Stéphanie alone with the insult and the unwanted approach. The scene gives their friendship a public dimension. Clémence’s loyalty takes the form of putting herself into a confrontation that Stéphanie has already tried to end directly.

Care and Its Limits

Clémence’s history with Romain helps explain why she believes she can challenge him. She went out with him in seventh grade, and that experience has left her with a kind of hold over him. If she acts quickly and accurately, she can usually put him in his place. But this intervention goes too far. Her sharp rebuke provokes Romain; he stands and walks to the far end of the ramp, where he urinates. The episode does not undo the loyalty behind Clémence’s defense, but it shows that protection can intensify a situation as well as interrupt it. Her familiarity with Romain gives her confidence, yet does not guarantee that she can control his reaction.

Narrative Significance

Across these scenes, the friendship is built from repeated, specific acts rather than declarations: talking on the balcony, maintaining contact by phone, listening through another long analysis of Simon, keeping the usual plan to pick Stéphanie up, and stepping in when Romain crosses a boundary. The contrast with Stéphanie’s silent household clarifies what this companionship provides without making it a cure for her family conflict or her uncertainty about Simon. Clémence cannot settle those problems for her. She can stay present while Stéphanie circles them, and, when the pressure becomes public, she can answer it directly. The friendship’s support is therefore both everyday and imperfect: reliable in its attention, forceful in its defense, and not immune to misjudgment.