"Avery."

I broke out of my trance and opened my eyes. Avan was standing in front of me with his hand on my shoulder.

"Hi," he said with a gentle voice. "You didn't move for a while. I was worried."

"I didn't notice you were already here."

He glanced down at my shoes in my hand and gave me a puzzled look. I put them back on and he chuckled.

"Want to sit down?" he asked, nodding toward a large tree behind us.

Orange tinted its leaves even though we were just approaching spring.

Although there were several benches surrounding the park, Riley always preferred sitting on the grass, leaning against the beautiful oak tree. Its sturdiness and rough exterior seemed able to weather the worst of storms and instilled the confidence that it could handle our problems as well.

Bruises and marks covered the trunk of the tree, testifying to its extensive understanding of pain; yet it still stood.

My fingers brushed over the carvings and unsolicited memories rushed back, as Avan and I sat against the trunk.

"He probably thinks I don't care," Riley said out of the blue.

We were walking to the park after school in silence as she anxiously bit her nails.

"And why would he think that?" I tried to remain emotionally detached from their couple issues but it was quite hard to achieve when she told me everything.

"Well—" She gave me a sheepish smile—"because I told him I didn't care."

It may have been because I was an uninvolved third party but it occurred to me that they would have less problems if they were more direct with each other.

"I mean, I know he's only a junior this year and probably doesn't care about prom," she continued, turning to face me to make sure I was still listening. "Not that I care that much about it..." She interrupted herself when she deciphered the skepticism on my face. "Fine, I do care a little. It's my last year and I want to take advantage of these little moments I get to spend with him."

"Maybe you should tell him all that," I pointed out.

I didn't mind her rants. In fact, it almost felt like I lived through her stories to avoid living my own life.

Maybe this explained why my life was so dull without her.

This park was full of evidence that she existed and I could no longer see its random elements without feeling her presence.

The leaves falling onto the grass were not just that anymore; they were the leaves that adorned her sketching pads in autumn. The gentle breeze caressing the branches was not only that; it was the breeze in her hair as she ran onto the grass early in the morning.

Why on earth did I choose to meet Avan here?

Avan didn't interrupt me. He looked just as preoccupied as I was.

"What are you thinking about?" he finally asked after a while, breaking through the awkward silence that had settled between us.

"Her," I answered. There was no point in lying to him. "I'm always thinking about her."

"Do you remember when she fell asleep here?" he asked.

Of course I remembered. I couldn't forget anything about her... I didn't want to.

Riley usually had her head in the clouds. We shouldn't have been surprised when she forgot her phone home and didn't come back for five hours but it still sent Dad, Avan, and I into a frenzy.

Funnily enough, she never forgot her mp3 and her earplugs.

I smiled at that memory. I always admired her ability to fall asleep regardless of her surroundings; at the movies, on the couch at a pizza party, in class, under a tree. She had this amazing ability to be at peace even when everything around her was chaos.

"It didn't take that long to find her since she always hung out here, but I was scared out of my mind," he said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. "And she was just peacefully sleeping."

I could see his eyes tearing up as he talked about her, a tinge of sadness lingering in them.

Riley used to say that the main reason she fell in love with him was because of the life she could perceive in his eyes; a fire dancing in them almost claiming that he could match her energy.

If she could see him now, she would probably have a hard time recognizing the eyes she had fallen for.

He shook his head, as if chasing away the memory, and jumped onto his feet. He offered me a hand to help me up.

"Where are we going?" I asked, reluctantly taking his hand to stand up.

"Since we're here, we might as well make the most of it." He pulled me toward the playground's swing sets a couple feet away from where we were sitting.

I shot him a quizzical look. "You're kidding, right? I don't think that's such a great idea."

The creaky old metal swing sets stared back at me. They seemed quite innocent but they were going to need a lot more confidence if they wanted me to board.

"Come on," the onyx-haired loser said, the familiar hint of challenge detectable in his tone. "What's the worst thing that can happen to you?"

"Well, I could get dizzy, fall to my death, smack my head against the metal bars, or get my head eaten by crows."

He chuckled before nodding, as if actually considering my arguments.

"Reasonable perspective... for a child," he said. 

"Really? So you weren't checking for crows when you looked up a second ago?"

"It was a reflex," he replied, uncertain. "Crows are the least of my concerns."

A tense silence settled between us and suddenly it was awkward standing there with my sister's boyfriend in front of the swing sets.

My sister's boyfriend, that's how I still saw him.

I watched the kids scream with glee as the swing carried them up, allowing them to briefly disregard gravity.

"Fine, let's do it." I hopped on one of the free swings and grabbed on to the chains.

Avan moved to the side, away from my trajectory to avoid accidents.

"Just relax," he said, a mocking glint in his eyes. "They say crows can detect fear."

I rolled my eyes but a silly smile crept up my face. I pumped my legs to reach higher and rivalize with the seven-year-olds beside me.

As I soared through the air and closed my eyes, the wind slapped against my face and made a tangled mess of my hair but I couldn't care. I soon forgot I was on the swings and only felt the sensation of flying.

It must have gone on for a while because when I opened eyes, the swing had significantly slowed down with a squeak.

"What's the verdict?" Avan asked when I jumped down, my feet unsteady as they met solid ground.

"Jury's still out," I said even though I had enjoyed feeling like a carefree child again. "You might facilitate the decision process if you try it as well."

"I am not getting on that swing," he scoffed and dismissed the idea with a small wave.

"You think you can get me to look like a 7-year-old while you just stand there, looking normal? Not happening, Carter."

He shook his head at the mention of his last name and hopped on the swing without moving.

"What is it? Do you need a little push?" I teased him.

"The strength of a 7-year-old is probably useless to me."

He pushed himself in the air with his legs extended in front of him so as to not trip since his legs were longer than that of the children the swing set's engineers expected when they were building it.

Barely a minute after he began, he slowed to a stop.

"I think I went higher than you did," he joked, nudging my shoulder as he walked away from the swing sets.

I smiled at his childish statement. "What should we do next?"

"Let's try the slides."

I thought he was joking but his face looked as serious as ever, as we walked over to a line of children, waiting for their turn on the slides.

After the slides, we also went to the sandbox, the photo booth, and almost got stuck in the tunnel. Elementary school children stopped in their tracks to send us curious stares as we made fools of ourselves.

"This was fun," Avan said, skimming the ridiculous pictures we took.

"I look silly. You are so not keeping those pictures," I told him as he was about to put them in his pocket.

"What are you going to do about it?" he challenged me, raising them in the air out of my reach.

"Oh, you don't want to find out."

He laughed and ran away from the photo booth. I sighed and jogged after him even though I hated running. I didn't make it very far before my lungs ran out of breath, forcing me to slow down.

I glanced up at the dimmed sky. The afternoon had slipped by faster than I expected. I walked the rest of the way to Avan.

"I thought you'd never get here," he said with a teasing smile when I finally caught up with him next to the ice cream truck.

He handed me the pictures I had worked so hard for and I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment as I inspected the roll of ridiculous pictures.

"What would you like?" Avan asked, looking at the list of available flavors posted on the truck.

The owner, Gabriel, stuck his head out of the open window of the truck. The sun setting on the horizon illuminated his warm brown skin tone.

He gave me a wide smile after fixing his rectangular-framed glasses on his nose. "I don't believe this! I haven't seen you in so long, Riley!"