Seventeen-year-old Blade Morrison wakes up from a recurring nightmare about his late mother, afraid to open his eyes. To calm himself he thinks about Chapel, his girlfriend, and grabs his guitar to start composing. Blade met Chapel and fell in love two years ago at his sister Storm’s sweet 16 party. As Blade is composing, he receives a series of texts from Chapel telling him to buy headphones on his way over to see her because hers broke.

Chapel’s father is a pastor who has forbidden Chapel to see Blade because of Blade’s father’s reputation, so they only meet when Chapel’s parents are out. Blade’s father is Rutherford Morrison, a former rock star who “has always craved / the spotlight, / needs it / like a drug” (14), and who struggles with substance abuse disorder. Blade thinks about the time he ended up in the ICU after taking drugs that he thought were powdered sugar and Rutherford was arrested for “reckless endangerment of his child” (17). He also fondly remembers the games that his mother used to play with him and Storm on their father’s tour bus.

Blade describes himself as “the wretched son / of a poor / rich man” (18) who finds life inconvenient.