Jodi Picoult's thrilling nineteen minutes follows the lives of two teenagers, Peter Houghton and Josie Cormier, who have both succumbed to bullying, whether either within their family or at school. Both unfortunately face external and internal hurts that come with the brutal action of bullying that can cause people to become reserved or reach a breaking point. Peter and Josie's relationship may contrast with how they were raised, but yet they strongly share a common case of pain. The issue of bullying brought the teens to a breaking point that caused them to cross a point of no return to find an unconventional way to end their pain. Peter's past is a series of tragic events that must be faced. bullying without protective interference. Growing up, she seemed almost perfect, but that was just a facade, reserving all her emotional turmoil inside. The pressure came in the form of two main characters, her mother and her boyfriend Matt Royston. Josie had to make her mother proud, which she accomplished. “Most of the accomplishments that Josie's mother was most proud of...were not achieved because Josie wanted them so much herself, but mostly because she was afraid of not achieving perfection. » (p. 9). She felt like popularity was the key to some form of conformity, and that being at the top of the high school social hierarchy would make her feel good knowing that people liked her. Yet as time went on, her lack of care became detrimental to her feeling that people would find out who she really was even taking precautions in case it happened with the book explaining her possible suicide methods. "It had taken Josie almost six months to sneakily gather together only fifteen pills, but she figured if she washed them down with a fifth of vodka it would do the trick. (p. 8-9) She felt like everything was going to fall apart like she was like Marie Antoinette with people following her, but instead she would take matters into her own hands. Matt, on the other hand, was. the source of his popularity, the relationship between him and Peter was noticeable, with Matt bullying him throughout their school life Yet the most shocking part is the abuse Matt inflicted on Josie by arguing and hitting her. This would make his love life with Matt toxic, like he was controlling it, which would add to his pressure to be perfect. On the day of the shooting, Peter went into the locker room where Josie and Matt were, he was fixated. at Matt but it was the scream that caused Peter to slip, dragging a gun to his side. This is when Matt truly shows himself, as summarized to Peter and Josie in a moment where. Matt says, "'Josie, for heaven's sake!'... 'Are you fucking stupid?' Peter replied, “Don’t talk to him like that” (p. 440) Peter, despite all this turmoil, still defends a friend he usually cares about, at this point, is finally able to abandon them all. his problems by shooting Matt as well as Peter making the last shot to