The Kathy and Ruth friendship roller coaster (Never Let Me Go- 16)

"Tommy's been telling me about his big theory. He says he's already told you. Ages ago. But now, very kindly, he's allowing me to share in it too." (page 193)

There is an external conflict between Ruth and Kathy in this chapter. As always, Ruth seems to be upset about something that Kathy has done. However, this time it is a little different because it is jealousy that is feeding the anger that Ruth has towards Kathy. Ruth is jealous that Tommy told Kathy about the idea he has about the artwork in the gallery. Out of anger and jealousy, Ruth tells Tommy about how Kathy laughed at Tommy's farm animals. Obviously, this hurts Tommy. Tommy has always been able to turn to Kathy with everything. Kathy was Tommy's go to girl and now he feels betrayed by her reaction to something he was proud of. Now, a conflict may occur between Kathy and Tommy. I'm actually upset about this. I wish that Kathy and Tommy would have gotten closer, especially because of the friendship and bond that became even more apparent when they went to Norfolk. However, I don't think that anything will get better from here because of the foreshadowing at the very beginning of the book. It was very apparent that the relationship between Tommy and Kathy and Kathy and Ruth wasn't the same as it used to be, and maybe this is the reason why.