Tony and Joel’s lifelong friendship is the foundation for this story. They are foils to each other, the strong differences in their personalities balancing each other but also leading to conflict. While Joel is serious and cautious, Tony gets a thrill out of dangerous situations. Despite their contrasting personalities and different interests, they have a foundation that runs deep, going back to their infancies. While Joel and Tony are seemingly very different, they have far more in common deep down than meets the eye. They are quite similar in the brotherly love they have for each other, their loyalty to their families and unwillingness to back down from a fight, and their sense of humor. They were born within a week of each other and have known each other since before either of them remembers, and Joel thinks that they “could be twins…the kind that didn’t have to look alike or be alike either” (14). However, Joel sometimes wonders why he is friends with Tony, particularly when Tony is insisting on a risky adventure. He ultimately loves Tony like a brother and wishes he could trade “Bobby-the-Whiner” (14), his real brother, for Tony.

As they are growing up, their friendship dynamic is becoming more fraught under the pressures of adolescence.