They claim that they will stick together through it all. They will be together forever. Kath and Michael also deal with problems as their mutual friend, Sybil, becomes pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption and Michael's best friend, Artie, attempts suicide because he feels he may be a homosexual. After graduation, Michael goes to North Carolina for his summer job and Kath goes away to be a tennis coach at a summer camp. While she is at the camp, she starts to like a fellow counselor, Theo. She realizes that her first love with Michael may not really be forever since she so easily fell "in love" with Theo. Michael realizes that Kath likes Theo and they break up. Kath says that they never really talk again, but she will always hold a special place in her heart for Michael.
Honest Portrayal of the Problems Faced by the Main Characters.
According to Russell, one point to consider when determining whether a work should be considered "good" realistic fiction is "the writer is honest in the portrayal of the problems faced by the characters; sugarcoating is avoided" (218). Many critics have claimed that Forever . . . is melodramatic because Blume adds more issues than one teenager could possibly face; Kath deals with teenage drinking, sex, drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, and depression/attempted suicide. According to Gough, however, these issues only serve to establish the main theme of directing one's life and accepting the consequences-friendship, love, pain, guilt, and loss" (75). Kath faces all these things, friendship, love, pain, guilt, and loss, because of her actions and the things that are going on in her life. Her relationship with Michael is fulfilling; their relationship is more than the physical aspect. They truly become friends. She claims that "besides everything else he [Michael] really is my best friend now" (Blume, 136). She is beginning to feel closer to Michael than she does to Erica; she feels that she can tell him anything and wants to become even closer to Michael.