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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tell Me Three Things, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Blended Families
Intimacy and Growing Up
Wealth, Fitting In, and Bullying
Home
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Dri makes Jessie swear to text her whenever Liam says anything cute. Jessie understands; information like this will help Dri pretend she knows Liam. Liam says nothing interesting as he and Jessie sit in the bookstore. She asks him about his band and he jokingly says they’re kind of like Lou Reed, but modern and better. Jessie texts Dri and when Liam asks who she’s texting, tells him. He shows no interest. Jessie thinks that there are girls like Gem and Crystal who are “fearless about guys and orifices and secretions,” and then there are girls like Jessie and Dri who are terrified. Jessie thinks that she may own her vagina, but that doesn’t mean she’s not terrified of what it wants (romance novels and Ethan). She can imagine having sex and in her mind, it’s fine, but actual sex seems terrifying.
On some level, Jessie recognizes that Dri’s imagined romance with Liam is a way for her to experiment with what intimacy feels like. She’s at a different point in her development than Jessie, Gem, and Crystal are (though it’s important to keep in mind that Jessie is only assuming that Gem and Crystal are sexually active; the novel never confirms this). Even if Jessie has moved on to the next step of having a crush on someone who knows she exists, this still doesn’t mean that a future step like sex isn’t scary for her. It also doesn’t invalidate the kinds of intimacy she’s experiencing now, both platonically with Dri and more romantically with SN.
Themes
Liam asks Jessie how she likes it in L.A., which makes Jessie wonder how he knows about her and if he might be SN. He offers to introduce Jessie to Gem and Jessie feigns casual interest. Liam says he knows what it’s like to be new, since he just started with his band last year after the rest of them had been together for years. Jessie texts Dri, who says that there was some sad “Oville” drama. Jessie wonders how a high school band could have drama, but she thinks that even rich kids experience sadness. She suddenly thinks of her mom, bald and sick, and Liam invites Jessie to their upcoming gig at Gem’s house. Jessie texts Dri about it and Dri says they have to go—Gem is nice when Liam is around.
Jessie moves through the world with some prejudice of her own; Gem isn’t the only one who holds questionable beliefs about people of different socioeconomic classes. However, because Jessie is of a lower class than Gem is, Jessie doesn’t have the power to bully others like Gem does. This drives home that even in a school setting among minors who aren’t the ones responsible for earning their family’s money, wealth is still everything—and not having it marks someone as less than.
Themes
