Daphné

Daphné is a confident, socially direct college student who becomes Billie Fay’s friend and confidante. Her decisive role is to see through Billie’s romantic bravado: she names Billie’s fixation on Pierre Forêt, warns her that she is vulnerable, and offers concrete help when the hoped-for romance turns painful. Daphné’s friendship gives Billie companionship without requiring her to pretend she is ready for adult intimacy.

Identity and Introduction

Daphné first approaches Billie after a class, having spoken with Pierre earlier in the day. She introduces herself as a student in the social sciences program, while Billie is studying arts and letters, and asks whether Billie knows Pierre. Billie claims to know him only by sight, although her attention to him is already intense. Daphné’s brisk familiarity contrasts with Billie’s uncertainty: she gives her name, smiles, and moves quickly to invite Billie out rather than waiting for a closer acquaintance to develop first.

Daphné’s appearance and manner reinforce that contrast. Billie notices her dark eyes and striking nose, and reads her as beautiful and unembarrassed. Because Daphné has been speaking with Pierre, Billie initially assumes he must be in love with her; learning that Daphné has a boyfriend, Olivier, brings Billie a small, inward sense of relief. Daphné’s invitation is therefore both an opening into a new friendship and a source of early misunderstanding: Billie cannot tell why a near-stranger is including her in a night out.

Friendship and Social Confidence

Daphné invites Billie to join her, Olivier, and Pierre on an outing to Sherbrooke. Billie refuses, dismissing the city as unattractive, but the invitation establishes that Daphné is willing to make room for her. Later, Daphné’s ease with other people becomes a counterpoint to Billie’s self-consciousness. She can move directly into conversation and social plans, while Billie keeps measuring what Pierre’s gestures might mean and how she appears beside other girls.

The friendship is not presented as uncomplicated admiration. Billie finds Daphné irritating at moments, yet she also trusts her enough to stay close. When they are dancing, Daphné draws Billie into the girls’ washroom and tells her plainly that Pierre is written in her eyes. Billie tries to brush off the warning and claims she knows how things work, then admits to herself that she does not. Daphné’s response is not to shame her. She smiles, takes Billie’s arm, spins her around, and turns the washroom into a brief dance floor, helping her laugh and forget, for a while, the longing that has made the evening feel so charged.

Recognizing Billie’s Vulnerability

Daphné’s insight matters because Billie’s desire to appear grown-up outruns her confidence about what she wants. Billie is seventeen and imagines transforming herself into a girl on the verge of womanhood; she envies Annette’s apparent maturity and brilliance, and worries about whether her own body and manner are adult enough. Against that uncertainty, Pierre’s questions about whether she has made love make Billie feel exposed. Daphné, by contrast, understands that Billie’s attraction does not mean she is prepared for every step that might follow.

Her warning is affectionate but unmistakable: she tells Billie to stay careful and wrap herself in bubble wrap. Billie answers that there is no danger and that she knows how it works, but the confidence is a performance even to herself. Later, when Billie speaks privately with Annette, Annette immediately identifies both her love for Pierre and her wish to do more than kiss him. That exchange confirms how visible the conflict has become to people close to Billie. Daphné had already seen the fixation in the way Billie looked at him; what she cautions against is not having feelings, but mistaking those feelings for readiness.

Care During the Night Out

After a painful incident with Pierre, Billie calls Daphné while crying and struggling to explain what happened. Daphné does not demand a full account over the phone. She tells Billie she had expected something like this to happen and invites her to come over, offering tea and directions. Pierre calls back three times after Billie hangs up; she ignores him, and he eventually stops. Daphné’s response gives Billie an immediate alternative to answering him alone while distressed.

On another night, Daphné organizes an outing intended to keep Pierre away. She promises Billie that Pierre will not be at the bar, saying she has forbidden him to show his face there. Billie objects when Daphné calls her Billie-Lou, because the name sounds like Pierre and feels unpleasant to her. The exchange shows how closely Pierre’s influence reaches into her social life, even as Daphné tries to create an evening apart from him.

Daphné and her friends gather in Daphné’s car, where they dance, share a homemade drink, joke, and talk about girls’ concerns. Daphné herself drinks plain grape juice because she is the designated driver. Billie is grateful for this practical care: she wants to drink and enjoy herself, but Daphné remains responsible for getting the group around safely. The car becomes a temporary refuge in which Pierre seems to disappear from Billie’s thoughts. When his message draws him back into the night, however, Billie’s feelings return at once.

Support and the Limits of Rescue

After speaking with Pierre, Billie becomes agitated again, as if anger and sadness have briefly vanished. She pulls Daphné aside and tells her about the conversation. Daphné cups Billie’s face in her cold hands, chilled from holding a glass of grenadine Seven Up, and looks directly into her green eyes as she cautions her to protect both her body and her fragile heart. She writes directions to Pierre’s home on a cardboard coaster and slips it into Billie’s pocket. The gesture is practical, but it also shows Daphné’s limits: she does not forbid Billie to go or pretend that a warning can extinguish her hope. She tries to make sure Billie has care and a way to find her if needed.

Billie kisses Daphné’s left cheek before leaving. She then retrieves the plastic bottle from the car because she wants to numb herself further for the long walk to Pierre’s home, high on the mountain. The departure exposes the distance between Daphné’s protective intentions and Billie’s impulse to pursue the encounter anyway. Daphné can offer companionship, caution, and help; she cannot make Billie ready or prevent her from choosing to go.

Aftermath and Narrative Role

When Billie leaves Pierre’s house in the night, she does not yet feel ready to tell Annette what happened. Instead, she calls Daphné, who is still at the bar, and talks with her for a while. Billie hopes the noise will wake Pierre and make him run outside after her, but the light in his room remains off. Daphné’s continued availability matters in the silence that follows: Billie can remain on the stairs of Pierre’s blue house, wait to feel her body fully again, and speak to a girl she regards as closer to her own age rather than immediately confiding in her older sister.

The next morning, Billie still has not told Daphné the story in full. When Daphné came to collect her, Billie had been unable to speak; she wanted time alone to revisit, analyze, and make sense of the experience. Their closeness therefore does not erase Billie’s need to keep part of the event private, nor does Daphné force disclosure. In the novel’s portrait of Billie’s transition toward adulthood, Daphné is a friend who recognizes risk without taking control of Billie’s choices. Her care is made of specific acts—an invitation, a warning, tea, a designated-driver role, directions on a coaster, a face held gently between cold hands, and a phone call answered—rather than promises that romantic hurt can be avoided altogether.