>>90536652Not in the classic sense. The misunderstandings are more under the surface
- Abbey misunderstands Paulo's closeness to Daisy as a "use her and dump her" relationship instead of a genuine friendship
- Paulo misunderstands Abbey's aggressive nature as him just "being a dick" instead of something Abbey genuinely struggles with (though quite shittily)
- Mike misunderstood Lucy's jumping to Paulo and Augustus as her finding "replacement hosts" instead of her desperately looking for distractions to keep herself from thinking about how much Mike hated her.
I sure there are more, but whether or not these count as the same cliche as "No wait! This isn't what it looks like! I can explain!" depends on who you ask. Personally, I think all these misunderstandings aren't ones that can be simply explained away with because each one of them are already exceptions to the rule:
- Paulo has broken the hearts of plenty of girls and flirting them up, but we, as readers, know he would never do anything to hurt Daisy.
- Abbey has historically beaten the shit out of people he views as malicious / abusive and can't comprehend grey areas, so Paulo has no reason to think acting like a different person around him should be a valid solution
- Lucy historically only ever showed dependency on Mike, but never love, despite being that's how she felt. It's not until he starts pushing her away that she drops the "I love you" bomb which just came off as a move of desperation instead of sincerity.
The phrase "We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior." is especially true here. Nobody else can judge your intentions, the characters have to demonstrate their true nature instead of putting up fronts and knee-jerk reacting to shit, which they fail at repeatedly.
That said, they're fucking teenagers. They barely understand their own feelings at that age, let alone knowing how to deal with it. That's what growing up is all about.
