In the final chapter, the narrator returns to the abandoned playground where the friendship began. The swings squeak in the wind, and the paint on the slide has peeled into pale stripes. Earlier, the narrator insisted the breakup with their best friend ‘didn’t matter,’ yet their steps slow at the chain-link gate. They find the friend’s old name carved into the bench and trace the letters with a thumb. A new sign reads: PARK RENOVATION STARTS MONDAY. The narrator pockets a small screw from the broken swing—not as a trophy, but as proof the place was real—and finally texts: “Can we talk before it changes?”