When You Were Everything

In the midst of Cleo’s attempts to redefine herself, she must come to terms with a stressful confluence of major life changes. Gigi’s death, the end of Cleo’s friendship with Layla, and her parents’ divorce challenge her to cope with loss and to move forward in a mature, adult manner, and it takes a while before she is able to accept the necessity of this approach. Although her grandmother died four years prior to the narrative present, Cleo constantly “hear[s] Gigi’s voice in [her] head,” and her “memories of [Gigi] still hit [her] in waves” (4). These descriptions indicate that Gigi was Cleo’s support system, and she also helped Cleo to navigate her complex relationship with her mom. Upon losing Gigi, Cleo also loses her archetypal guide, leaving her with no clear path through the challenges that are now set before her. As a result, her feelings of alienation redouble when she realizes “that Layla is really lost to [her]” (5), and she starts to realize how easy it is to lose the people she loves and how difficult it is to face these losses on her own. Bereft of her original support system, her first attempts to move on involve building a new one, and this is why she turns to Dom and Sydney. These new friends offer her a way to escape her loneliness, and they gradually bolster Cleo’s spirits and give her the courage to confront her losses and heal from her sorrow.

Although Cleo does make some progress in this regard, her parents’ divorce complicates her journey towards emotional healing. Throughout the novel, Cleo’s encounters with loss make her realize that it is possible to “lose someone in slow motion” (207), and this revelation further destabilizes her confidence in the people around her. She also feels this dynamic in her own family. When Cliff Baker and Naomi Bell tell Cleo that they are separating, Cleo finds it difficult to accept her parents’ split because she has always thought that “[i]f you love someone you’re supposed to love them forever” (213). Cleo’s emotional response to her parents’ divorce is therefore complicated by her youth and her ongoing search for understanding. She is still trying to make sense of her own intimate relationships and has yet to learn how to say goodbye to loved ones and let them go. Her parents’ split challenges her to reinvent her understanding of friendship, love, and truth, and ultimately, their divorce helps Cleo to realize that she cannot control others or prevent life’s losses. Once she reconciles with these facts, she is better able to make peace with the people she has lost and to move forward with her life on her own terms. Her friendships with Dom and Sydney are particularly influential in this regard, as both friends prove themselves to be loyal to Cleo and eager to support her through her loss and grief.