Because it's Leonard's 18th birthday, he's giving presents to the few people he's close to: the elderly neighbor with whom he watches Bogart movies; the evangelical girl who hands out tracts at the train station; the one teacher who seems to get him. For his former best friend, he has a plan, and a bullet. For himself, the same. By the end of the day, everything that's happened will be behind him. 
 This was a difficult read--painful to watch a teenage boy dealing with everything he's dealt with, his crappy mother, his lack of friends, the abuses he's suffered. I have no idea who I would hand this to, because I could see it being SO trigger-y for high-schoolers. Meanwhile, most adults aren't going to want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. 
 I want to say this had a hopeful ending, but I also see a lot of hope in The Road, so I don't know that I'm the best judge of a hopeful ending.