Before We Were Strangers

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, substance use, and addiction.

Grace shows up late to Professor Pornsake’s class. She is usually focused when playing but feels distracted throughout practice. Then Pornsake criticizes her synthetic bow and tells her to stay after class. Before Tatiana leaves, she invites Grace and Matt to hang out that night. Grace is annoyed that Tatiana assumes she’ll be with Matt, even though she wants “to be with him every second of the day” (73).

Pornsake takes Grace to a bow shop nearby. He insists on buying her an expensive horsehair bow from the proprietor Orvin. Grace feels embarrassed because she can’t afford to pay him back; she admits she can barely afford to feed herself. A sympathetic Pornsake invites her out to dinner, assuring her it isn’t a date.

That evening, Grace practices until it’s time to meet up with Pornsake. In the lounge on the way out, two students tease Grace about Matt, insisting he’s probably participating in an orgy at the photo lab. Embarrassed and upset, Grace races out.