I’d been found out following the graduation fiasco. Of course I had. The school had caught us on the camera inside the projection booth. They were trying to figure out who Leo was, and obviously I wouldn’t snitch, so they threatened to charge me with trespassing. Called me into some ‘disciplinary meeting’ and everything. But when I got there it’d been the same officer from the night of the crash. He’d just looked at me, shook his head, and let me leave without any questions.

But it had become one of the biggest scandals in town history. I’d been worried people wouldn’t really get it, or if they did they wouldn’t know what to do about it, but I was pleasantly surprised. There were Facebook posts. A petition to the local government. Granted, there were just as many posts in disagreement, calling Heath things like ‘responsible’ and ‘stand-up’ and berating people for potentially ruining the kid’s life over ‘one mistake’. The usual. Nobody was sure if anything would come of it – if anything could come of it – but generally, it seemed like people cared. The police definitely felt the pressure, I think. And because of it, Heath left for Connecticut two weeks earlier than he was supposed to. It was also rumoured that the big brick house on Longbrook was going to be put up for sale.

Now the two girls who had been trying to peel the shadow of what had happened from their lives were going to cleanse themselves for good.

I realized I had never actually said the words. Not when he died. Not at the funeral. But that was the thing – I wasn’t sure they were actually words. Goodbye was a feeling I’d been avoiding, band-aiding, trying to ignore. Now I was here to kiss Goodbye on the mouth and send it on its way.

June and I stood there for a moment, not really certain how to make that happen.

We just stared at the stone. The grass had grown back over his plot, which was difficult and welcome in equal measure. Difficult to see the Earth getting on without him. Welcome to see that something had grown.

Male shouting echoed in the distance. It wasn’t directed at us, it was just a sort of general happy commotion, but June’s head shot in that direction anyway. ‘Sorry. I thought …’

‘It’s OK.’ I didn’t really say what I meant. You’re OK.

Everything had changed in barely any time – although I should have been used to that by now. Weirdly, I’d been sleeping better since. Probably not what most people say after a near-death experience. I’d vowed never to go on the ToD again. But that wasn’t too hard; instead of thinking about June, I could just be with her instead.

She looked at me expectantly. ‘Do we say something?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so.’