In The Dickheads Chapter 31-40, the emotional turbulence spiraling around Eli, Levi, and Marco each compartmental the emotions they hold for each other as their relationships begin to break apart. From cringey misunderstandings to heart-wrenching confrontations, these chapters cover the concepts of self and identity, the pain of unhealthy attachment, family trauma, and grief. Eli copes with the estrangement from Marco and her grandmother’s nagging voice, while Levi’s blind devotion escalates to a love he can’t contain, resulting in a very cruel truth. Relationships fall apart and explode into physical fights, with no return.
The peak of emotionally powered rage is defined when Eli goes to visit her grandmother, only to lose her in the coming hours, after having to empty her tears at home. Levi seems to be wishing for grace after his downfall, but instead receives a message that undoubtedly defines the crashing point of everything. In just these ten chapters, the intensity is unmatched, and the vulnerability heartbreaking, which serves to mark the shift in The Dickheads Chapter 31-40.
The Dickheads Chapter 31: Ghosted Texts and Growing Pains
The Dickheads Chapter 31 begins with Levi and Eli strolling together when Levi notices she’s busy texting. A quick wave of insecurity comes over him—he remembers Amy once ignoring him while going through text messages. Putting it behind him, he asks what the problem is. Eli is clearly worried because Marco has stopped paying attention to her. Levi tries not to be jealous and promises to talk with her whenever she likes. Even though Eli appreciates what Levi says, she’s concerned about telling him that her grandma doesn’t like him.
Building up her confidence, Eli asks Levi to come with her to see her grandma. Levi, feeling embarrassed, tells her, he should have met her parents before. Cue, awkward pause. She tells him in a gentle way that her parents died in a car accident. Levi immediately stiffens and gives her a hug. He thanks her for being so open. Eli is looking really forward to making Levi’s grandma.
At the same time, Marco is experiencing a meltdown—his sketchbook is full of crumbled pencils and emotions that he can’t release. The Dickheads Chapter 31 ends with Marco crumbling under emotional weight as Eli and Levi grow closer.
Chapter 32: Showdowns & Swing Set Tears
The Dickheads Chapter 32 begins with Levi nervously stepping into Eli’s home for his big moment—meeting the dreaded grandma. He greets her nicely and even uses a bit of Spanish to charm her. Eli’s impressed. Grandma? Not by much. Holding her frown even harder than Levi clenches his nerves, she coolly tells him that Spanish doesn’t turn a boy into a man. Ouch.
Still attempting to stay polite, Levi tells how he and Eli met, but Grandma surprises everyone by saying Marco was better. He almost suffocates from the air in his mouth. Eli stands there with his mouth open in shock. Grandma and her started arguing loudly. Levi is completely still as the yelling sounds like a powerful emotional earthquake around them.
Eli exits in anger, and Levi follows after. Grandma is unable to connect with them on the phone. At the playground later, Levi asks if Grandma is always so harsh, but sees Eli crying on the swing without saying a word. The Dickheads Chapter 32 ends with a teary-eyed Eli and a shaken Levi processing a family dinner that turned into emotional shrapnel.
The Dickheads Chapter 33: Cracks in Comfort Zones
The Dickheads Chapter 33 begins with Levi gently telling Eli she doesn’t need to apologize for her grandma’s tantrum tornado. He holds her as she cries, and she tells him she hoped her grandmother wouldn’t treat her this way. However, instead of a nice moment, she ended up even more devastated. Levi points out to her that if Grandma has always been so harsh, trying to change her could end up hurting Eli even more. He tells her, for the first time ever, she can choose herself first, even when family is involved.
Eli starts to fall apart, as her tears are now impossible to hold back. When he sees how much she is hurting, Levi gets a bit emotional, hugs her, and apologizes for acting too harshly. He tells her she can rely on him as much as she does on Marco.
At the same time, miles from there, Marco lies on his bed, exhausted and spent. He wants Eli to stop texting—he doesn’t want to take on anyone’s problems… let alone Levi’s. The Dickheads Chapter 33 ends with Marco shutting himself off completely.
Chapter 34: When Love Feels Like War
The Dickheads Chapter 34 begins with Levi and Eli parting ways after an emotionally draining day. Levi, making the conversation lighter, gives her a gentle forehead kiss and asks her to consider his advice on Marco. She nods, but her brain is moving at a pace faster than a racecar on high speed. Walking home, every memory is like a storm: Levi, Marco, and Grandma. She tries to think Marco is just a friend, but Levi’s question keeps coming back: Does Marco even look at her this way? She tries to let it go. Marco often seems open… yet she sometimes wonders if that’s true.
As soon as Grandma enters, she starts the next round of torture. She goes off about Levi not escorting her to her door, blaming white men for not meeting her standards, and mentioning Edgar (Eli’s dad). From that point on, things became harder. Grandma told her, even that Marco must be unhappy about her choice to date Levi. Eli gets upset and says that Granny can’t decide who she loves. Nadia, the girl she had feelings for, is mentioned, but Grandma soon makes it clear that she thinks liking girls is wrong.
Eli screams in anger and asks if God cares about Grandma. She claims that she broke her parents’ love and never truly worried about Eli. When the anger gets at its strongest, Grandma collapses, putting her hand on her chest and gasping in pain. Eli’s anger disappears instantly, turning into a sharp and intense fear.
The Dickheads Chapter 34 ends with Eli frozen in terror, watching her grandmother fall as everything comes crashing down—words, wounds, and love too heavy to carry.
The Dickheads Chapter 35: Fractures and Flares
The Dickheads Chapter 35 begins with Levi anxiously waiting for a text from Eli—it’s been radio silence since Saturday. He starts to think about many things all at once. Did something happen to her? Is she angry? Grandma problem? Although he feels increasingly worried, he tries to stay focused on schoolwork since a test is coming up. If he fails, his dad will punish him very harshly. But he is simply unable to focus at all.
He looks around—Marco is working smoothly through the exam, while Levi can’t seem to think clearly. He sees Marco get a text that obviously upsets him. He starts to wonder more, but for the moment keeps his thoughts to himself. With Marco on his way out after submitting his paper, Levi makes up his mind: he won’t wait any longer.
As they walk down the hall, Levi blocks Marco and asks if the text came from Eli. Marco and Levi sit down, and Marco admits that Eli’s grandma was taken away in an ambulance, so Eli might be feeling a lot. His heart sinks. Marco, for once being serious, advises Levi to leave her alone.
He then adds a sharp line and orders Levi to get Amy to stop bothering him for assistance. “I don’t wanna when she has an overprotective boyfriend..,” Marco says sharply.
Levi is stunned, and his anger is just below the surface of his confusion. He didn’t anticipate that Marco would end his friendship with Eli so abruptly. He is now confused with Eli being silent, and Marco throwing all his anger on him.
The Dickheads Chapter 35 ends with Levi’s fists clenched and his mind spinning, as everything he’s been trying to keep together starts fraying at the edges.
Chapter 36: The Things We Don’t Say
The Dickheads Chapter 36 begins with Marco walking away, snapping at Levi to stop dumping his issues on him. “Leave me alone…,” Marco demands in a cold voice. Levi is stunned by what he said, and he is quickly reminded of a younger version of himself crying after hearing, “You’re always dumping your problems on me!”
After being shocked and wounded, Levi defends himself. He tells Marco that he always thinks the world is running around him and runs off whenever he finds life tough, just like he used to do years before. Marco cannot take the comment anymore. He grabs Levi’s jacket with anger.
Levi shoves Marco away, yelling that Marco hasn’t changed; he always keeps to himself and pushes others, including Eli, away. Levi says he never instructed Marco to cut off his friendship with Eli. Marco decided all that by himself. Things rapidly get out of hand, with shoves and punches handed out, leading to both of them falling to the ground as their anger is finally released.
Levi grunts and finally admits, “I just wanted to make things right between us.” Levi stands up one last time, gives Marco a fierce look, and leaves him feeling both injured and heartbroken. The Dickheads Chapter 36 ends with Levi declaring that Marco never tries to fix anything and just picks fights while pretending Levi is the only one broken.
The Dickheads Chapter 37: Mixed Signals and Shattered Words
The Dickheads Chapter 37 begins with Marco nursing the bruise on his cheek, muttering to himself how he always forgets how hard Levi punches. Trying to get over the pain, he walks away from the school when he sees his mother’s car arrive. They look at each other. It is quiet, but still very heavy. Marco tells me, “You can get Eli yourself,” and then heads off.
His mother sits in the car, unsure whether to let him be or encourage conversation. Marco walks down the street, glancing at people smoking, remembering the way smoking would help him escape his thoughts. Yet, he is reminded: he told his mom he would do better. After taking a deep breath, Marco runs away from the temptation, hoping to catch his breath.
At that moment, his phone starts to vibrate. It’s Eli. She gently says Marco’s mom brought her and tries to speak to him. However, Marco is so tired and irritated that he breaks down. He advises her to leave him alone after that. He apologizes for what happened to her grandma, but he’s not going to be responsible for putting her life back together now. Marco goes on to say that if she has Levi, she ought to let him know how she feels and should stop giving Marco false hope. Eli is unable to answer because Marco has already disconnected.
The Dickheads Chapter 37 ends with Eli standing alone, phone in hand, stunned and devastated by Marco’s cold, final words.
Chapter 38: The Breaking Point
The Dickheads Chapter 38 begins with Eli lying in bed, drained and heartbroken, her phone buzzing beside her. She doesn’t clearly have any energy left. Shortly after, Levi arrives quietly, holding some of the schoolwork. He kindly explains that their teacher knows how she feels and will want to help her out.
While they both try to study, Eli isn’t there mentally. Frustration grows, and she can’t hold it in any longer. Levi proposes they pause for a minute and bring up a Halloween dance on Friday, hoping it will lift Eli’s mood, but she’s already upset. She breaks off, her eyes filling with tears, and says everything around her is falling apart. She cries as she explains how Marco left her and how much she hopes she can speak with him. Levi stares sadly, looking very upset. Then, Levi confesses that he did something not very good. Curled up, he says in a whispering voice, “I’m the one who made Marco stop talking to you…”
The Dickheads Chapter 38 ends with Levi haunted by guilt and Eli staring at him, stunned, as the cracks between all three grow deeper.
The Dickheads Chapter 39: Lines Crossed
The Dickheads Chapter 39 begins with Eli staring at Levi in stunned confusion. Tears in his voice, Levi admits that he and Marco got into a fight, traded angry words and that he thought Marco had changed for the better, since befriending her. He admits that he was no longer in control of the situation.
Upon asking if she is upset, she says, “Of course, I’m upset with you for beating up my best friend,” as her voice reveals how much it hurts her. Levi looks more upset as he softly asks, “Are you going to break up with me?” Yet Eli does not have an answer. She’s in too much pain and is feeling overwhelmed by it all. All she asks is for some space.
Eli goes to bed that night, feeling exhausted, and starts to ask herself how things got so out of control. Her phone keeps lighting up—Levi has sent dozens of texts, saying sorry again and again with each one and filling them all with the words “I love you.” The messages on Levi’s phone are all marked as read, but he doesn’t get a reply. The Dickheads Chapter 39 ends with Eli turning her phone off and curling into herself, silently wishing everything could stop hurting.
Chapter 40: The Breaking Point
The Dickheads Chapter 40 opens with Eli quietly sitting beside her grandmother’s hospital bed. Eli cries as she asks her grandma for forgiveness for yelling. They are both grieving, unable to help each other out.
Later on, when she’s alone in the car, Eli completely falls apart. She can still remember the night the ambulance arrived—all her worries, her fears, and her feelings of helplessness—and she sobs uncontrollably, as if the weight of it all has just hit her. Now, the once brave girl sits broken as her world seems to be falling apart.
Meanwhile, Levi and his father are together. His father suddenly seems more understanding. He appreciates Levi for always looking after things and asks him to dinner, which is unusual for them. The Dickheads Chapter 40 ends with Levi receiving a message from Eli, “I’m sorry, Levi, I can’t do this anymore.”
