On our way to wherever she was taking me on her little planet, she started to drill me. About my trip. About the studies I was trying to avoid. About my parents who didn’t know what to make of me. She asked if I had a girlfriend. At first I said no, but then I told her about Sivan. Either because some part of me still missed my ex, or because I wanted her to know I wasn’t the giant loser she thought I was. I told her we met three years ago. That I was sure we were going to get married at some point, but we ended up splitting six months ago via holographic call. She called me just as I had finished climbing the Olympus Mons on Mars, saying she couldn’t take my roaming and roving anymore, that she was beginning to feel I wasn’t so much trying to find myself as I was running away from her. I tried to tell her that wasn’t it at all, but she didn’t seem interested.

“So basically, you were too chicken to dump her so you waited for her to do it for you?”

“What? I just explained that she was the one who left me,” I replied. “I didn’t want to break up.”

“So why didn’t you go back to Earth?” she asked.

“Because I’m not done here.”

“So you dumped her for a few more hikes?” she scoffed. “Because you haven’t yet found the answers you’re looking for?”

I didn’t reply.

“It’s okay, it’s not like you owe me any excuses.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked her, making sure she caught the severe tone.

“No one’s willing to lose the girl he loves for a few shitty answers about life, it’s just not how it works,” she asserted. “It’s simply a matter of priorities. She probably didn’t mean enough to you.”

“How would you know? You don’t know me at all.”

“You’re right,” she replied. “But there’s one thing I do know. That you traveled all the way to the center of the solar system for some girl you met at a party, but haven’t bothered to visit your girlfriend even once.” Before I could reply, she quickly announced: “This is what I wanted to show you.”