Avocado licks her face, and she lets out the little laugh I used to adore. She looks up at me, the dog still in her arms.

“How are you?” she says.

It’s the first nice thing she’s asked me since we broke up. We were pretty mean to each other and threw a lot of guilt around. It didn’t help. If a relationship comes to an end, it’s normally the fault of both people.

I shrug, “Pretty good.”

She nods, kissing Avocado again. “Have you met anyone?”

My mind flicks to Indigo. “Yes, but not in the way you think.” I place my hands in my jeans pockets and she smiles. “What?”

“Then it’s definitely that way.” I frown, and she shakes her head at me, putting Avocado down. “That’s the same thing you said about me.”

I try to remember when I said that, but I come up empty. As far as I can recall, I liked Ava since I was fifteen. She kept refusing me until I turned sixteen. Something changed that year. I’m not sure what, though.

“If there wasn’t anyone, you would’ve just said no.”

“Then, no.”

“If you say so,” she shrugs. The guy joins us again, this time with a shirt on.

After that, we chat about mundane things while I pack Avocado’s things and some other stuff I left.

I don’t know if I should move back to Lynbrook. If I do, I don’t want to live with my parents. I should find my own place. That’d be good for Avocado and me. Silence. A fresh start. I just need to figure out how to do it.

I check if I have everything and put the house key on the table. They lead me to the door, Avocado walking beside me.

“Goodbye, Ava.” I smile. “Bye,” I say to the guy, so he knows there are no hard feelings.

Avocado and I leave and relief washes over me. I was expecting this to be a lot harder, but I feel like I can finally let go of everything.

I get into the car and Avocado jumps onto my lap. While I pet him, I do something I’ve never done before: I search for Indigo on social media. An account pops up with a profile picture of her next to the tree, smiling.

I tap on the little icon, surprised to see how many followers she has. Weird. I’ve never seen her spending time on her phone.

Most of her feed is green. Plants. Nature. Mushroom. There’s one that stands out, though. One of her, when she was little with an old lady who I guess was her grandma. She has beautiful, gentle eyes. The woman is hugging Indigo tightly to her chest, grinning. The caption says: ‘Fly high, but not too far’.