Wade

Wade is a high-school friend and lacrosse teammate of Brendan Fletcher whose behavior is marked by a sharp contrast: affectionate, laid-back familiarity when sober, and aggression when drunk. A party confrontation with his on-and-off girlfriend Fiona Rattigan, followed by his later intimidation of Julian Spitzer, makes that contrast consequential rather than merely temperamental.

Identity and Background

Wade belongs to Brendan Fletcher’s circle at Haddington High and shares its lacrosse culture. Brendan recalls Wade as a friend who was physically demonstrative in the school hallways: he kissed Brendan on the cheek or side of the head and sometimes squeezed his backside. The gestures were treated as a joke among the players because the group understood itself as straight. The recollection establishes their ease with one another while also showing how the group’s shared assumptions about sexuality shaped the meaning it assigned to physical intimacy.

Wade is also involved in an unstable relationship with Fiona Rattigan. At one point she has broken up with him, only for the two to get back together soon afterward; by the following summer they are again at odds. Their relationship repeatedly provides the immediate setting for his anger.

The Party Confrontation

At a party at Kim Mangano’s house, Wade tries to talk to Fiona in the kitchen while Brendan is upstairs with Becca. Fiona appears to be ignoring him, and Wade becomes upset. He grabs her arm and refuses to release it. When she says that he is hurting her, other partygoers try to intervene, but Wade tells them to stay out of it. Fiona then loudly identifies his conduct as abuse and calls for someone to contact emergency services.

Julian Spitzer, who is in the kitchen filling a cup at the keg, responds by throwing beer in Wade’s face. Julian tells him that Fiona has asked to be left alone. Wade is briefly stunned; by the time he recovers, two lacrosse teammates have hold of him to prevent the confrontation from escalating. The team is doing well in the middle of its season, and the players fear that police intervention could get the party broken up and key teammates suspended for drinking and fighting. Wade is furious, but the immediate danger is contained by other people stepping in.

Aftermath and Escalation

The incident becomes school gossip for a week or two, then recedes as other parties and conflicts take its place. Wade and Fiona reconcile, the lacrosse team reaches the state quarterfinals, and summer begins. For Wade, however, the beer thrown in his face does not fade into the same past: he continues to brood over it. Brendan’s account distinguishes that resentment from Wade’s ordinary manner, describing him as one of the sweetest, most laid-back people when sober but capable of being nasty when drunk.

In August, Wade is again on the outs with Fiona. Brendan, Wade, and their friend Troy drink a bottle of Popov vodka in the woods by the golf course, hoping to improve their spirits. Instead, the evening leads to a confrontation with Julian. Troy drives up behind Julian, swerves around his skateboard, and blocks the road with the car. Wade gets out and orders Julian into the vehicle, framing the demand as a ride. The account ends with Julian asking what would happen if he refused and Wade repeating the order with an insult; it establishes the threat without describing what follows.

Relationships and Narrative Role

Wade’s connection to Brendan combines physical warmth, shared school and sports life, and the knowledge that drinking can change his conduct. His relationship with Fiona likewise moves between separation and reconciliation, but the party scene makes clear that her refusal to engage does not stop him from grabbing her. Julian’s intervention interrupts that act, and Wade’s later demand that Julian enter the car gives the earlier public humiliation a darker afterlife. Through Brendan’s retrospective account, Wade emerges as neither simply a relaxed friend nor only an antagonist: the same social world that remembers his tenderness also has to contend with the harm and intimidation associated with his drunken anger.