Just when their connection starts blooming into something more, Auden and Eli hit a rough patch. In the film, it happens the morning after their first kiss. Auden is running to get them coffee when she finds Robert sitting at the coffee shop, bags packed, getting ready to separate from Heidi for a while. This kicks up Auden's lingering pain and guilt from her parents' divorce and she rejects Eli's gift of a bike and offer to teach her to ride it. Embarrassed and defencive, Auden begins to question why Eli won't open up to her about his friend Abe's recent death. The argument gets ugly, with Auden accusing Eli of using her as a "do-over" after Abe.
Their split in the book happens more quietly. Several days after their first kiss, Auden overhears Robert and Heidi arguing while she and Eli are delivering newspapers (again, for the quest). Though shaken, she tells Eli what happened and stays the night with him at his apartment, with both insomniacs manageing to fall asleep together. The next morning, Auden runs into her dad while he's leaving the house, preparing to move out for a while, and she starts to slip back into her shell. She skips a kickball game that Eli organises that night, not telling anyone why, and then runs into her high school classmate Jason, her would-be prom date who stood her up for a school commitment. Scared by the turn of events with Robert and Heidi, Auden quietly disappears into her old habits, texting Jason, staying home at night to study, and avoiding Eli and her new friends.