Jacob turns Simon's torment into a public spectacle, and a hundred phones go up to film it. Something in Simon shatters for good — and the boy who silently endured doesn't come back.
Simon retreats to the empty locker room to wash off the humiliation — but Jacob is waiting, and in the steam the line between hatred and hunger finally snaps.
Simon's kiss attempt detonates Jacob's rage. Pinned by the throat, his years-long secret dragged into the light, Simon learns the cruelest truth: no one would ever believe him.
The secret is out — and each of them is left alone with it. Jacob decides to share his prize with no one, while Simon, at the very edge, finds the one thing worth waiting for tomorrow: a single conversation.
Hollowed out after the cafeteria, Simon dreams of chains and total control over Jacob. When Ashley offers to get him expelled, Simon turns on her in fury: he will give Jacob up to no one.
Jacob is summoned before the director: Ashley's reports have him facing expulsion. Simon is called in to confirm the charges — but the one who appears is a different Simon, calm and unrecognizable, for whom this is no trial but a rehearsal.
