They Both Die at the End: Mateo, 12:58 p.m. Summary & Analysis

Mateo and Rufus pass a bookstore, and Mateo thinks he needs some books after seeing a scary man with the gym bag. Rufus agrees to go in. Mateo knows this is a bad idea since he can’t read all the books. He wonders if a bookshelf will crush him. Instead, Mateo knocks into a display table and knocks books over. A man whose nametag says “Joel” assures Mateo that it’s fine. Rufus shadows Mateo as Mateo reads staff recommendations. In front of the romance section, he stops in front of books wrapped in brown paper. Rufus asks if Mateo has ever dated. Mateo hasn’t. Rufus shares that Aimee was his first relationship, but he tried to date at his last school. He suggests that Mateo sends postcards to his past crushes.

Mateo grabs a dozen postcards and one of the wrapped mystery books, and Joel checks him out. Mateo thinks that with the postcards, he can apply Rufus’s advice to use his voice. Mateo tells Rufus that when he was nine, he asked Dad if love was hiding under the couch or in the closet. Dad told Mateo that love is a superpower, but not one that they can always control. Blushing, Mateo says he shouldn’t have said such a stupid thing, but Rufus smiles and says that he loves it. Mateo looks up, noting how much he likes Rufus’s eyes, and he asks how he knows when love is love. Before Rufus can answer, glass shatters, and the boys are blown backwards. Mateo slams into a car and almost passes out. Rufus’s eyes are closed, and the postcards are scattered. Rufus and a woman with brightly colored hair are alive, but other people aren’t.