Lincoln

Lincoln is Kelly Waititi’s brother and one of the people with whom Ava Spirini tries to live through the aftermath of Kelly’s death. He and Ava move from exchanging texts and spending time together to an intimate relationship, but neither the comfort nor the closeness makes their bond simple. Their history leaves them connected, sometimes reassuringly and sometimes unpredictably, long after the relationship itself has passed.

Identity and Context

Lincoln is part of Kelly’s family, and his father is among the people who call Ava’s father with news of Kelly’s death. The call comes early in the morning; Ava learns of the death shortly afterward from her father. The scene establishes that Lincoln, like Ava, is bound to Kelly not only by grief but by family ties, though the account does not describe his immediate response to the news.

Six months later, Ava visits Kelly’s house and finds Lincoln in the backyard. He explains that his mother is making him deal with clothes that smell of smoke. The brief domestic detail places him within his family’s household and gives Ava a reason to be with him in a space still closely associated with Kelly.

A Refuge in the Aftermath

Soon after Kelly dies, Lincoln and Ava begin texting, initially about the foolish or hurtful things people say and do. Their messages lead to spending time together, and their relationship becomes intimate. Ava believes that Lincoln is the person who most understands what she is feeling, while qualifying that belief: even with him, understanding is only partial. Her uncertainty extends to whether she likes him romantically, and she is unsure how he feels about her.

Being with Lincoln gives Ava brief relief from grief and from the pressures waiting beyond their time together. She does not describe him as making the loss disappear; rather, his company lets her feel something other than misery for a while. That relief carries an uneasy contradiction: Ava reflects that their intimacy would not have happened if Kelly were alive. Their connection is therefore bound to the absence that brings them together as well as to whatever affection exists between them.

One night, Lincoln collects Ava so her father will not know she is going out. They leave a party and go to MacGreggor Park, where they drink and kiss. Ava refuses to have sex in the park, and the evening continues without that happening. Later, when she becomes upset and asks to go home, the night has shifted from an attempt at fun to an encounter marked by distress. The episode presents Lincoln as a companion in Ava’s reckless choices, but also shows that her grief can overtake the temporary escape she seeks with him.

Uncertainty and Conflict

Ava’s relationship with Lincoln is less predictable than the one she experiences with another boy. She describes their connection as burdened by history and expectation: Lincoln can flirt with her and then become angry, leaving her unsure what to expect. Their shared past gives their interactions an intensity that is not the same as ease or stability.

Their intimacy also brings Kelly’s absence into the room. Ava asks Lincoln whether Kelly would be angry with them; he avoids engaging with the question and says he does not care what Kelly thinks. Ava believes that he does care, but the exchange leaves the subject unresolved. It shows how rarely they speak directly about Kelly, even as their relationship is inseparable from the loss of her.

The Bond After the Relationship

At the gathering marking a year since Kelly’s death, Lincoln approaches Ava and hugs her so tightly that he lifts her feet off the ground. The gesture feels awkward, familiar, and changed all at once. In the months that follow, they do not talk much, though he sometimes texts her a joke and she replies. Ava understands their continuing connection as neither quite friendship nor quite family, but something complicated that the history between them has made its own.

Ava does not regret sleeping with Lincoln, though she does not feel proud of that choice either. In therapy, she later considers it a poor decision while distinguishing it from her decision to end her relationship with Gideon. Her retrospective judgment does not erase Lincoln’s place in her life: the relationship remains part of a period when grief, comfort, and impulsive decisions were closely entangled.

Narrative Role

Lincoln’s importance lies partly in the difference between temporary relief and lasting repair. His company helps Ava feel less overwhelmed, but it cannot resolve their shared loss or give their relationship a settled shape. The novel’s later glimpse of their occasional messages and awkwardly familiar embrace resists a clean separation: Kelly’s death remains a continuing bond between them, while Ava’s account allows affection, regret, and uncertainty to coexist.