“What if we all just block him at the same time?” Esha suddenly broke the silence, leading to every gaze falling onto her.

“Yeah!” Randy shouted with unbridled passion, “Give him a taste of his own medicine and pretend his sorry ass never existed!”

Of course Val kept her mouth shut as this was discussed. Her mind drew to a blank as she stared at the river with a faraway look. She realized she shouldn’t excuse herself before she realized she could try.

Already, Randy and Esha were opening his profile on their phones. The former scowled at his picture, while the latter grimaced. Val simply didn’t want to look.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Val, what about you?”

She reluctantly made eye contact and smiled sheepishly. “Oh, um…”

All she could think of was the irreversible permanence of removing someone from her life. Didn’t any of those memories mean anything? She wished she knew if he would even care. And she considered how awkward it would be around their mutual friends after this. She didn’t want to hurt him, but at the same time, she did. Did that make her a bad person?

“You know what he did to you.” Esha began gently. “I promise you that someday, this pain won’t matter as much as it does today, but any hopes of that ‘someday’ coming can only be if you let him go… I mean, what more do you want from him?”

Val considered the question before answering. “I guess for him to know how much damage he’s done, and for him to applogize.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Randy scoffed sympathetically.

“I know.” Val chuckled emptily.

Esha had a bitter comment to make about his ego preventing him from even uttering a “sorry,” but she bit it back. She knew that wasn’t needed right now. She said something else instead.

“If you’ve been waiting for a sign to put your foot down, this is that sign. Don’t wait for him to hurt you again. Do this for you.”

As awful as it made Val’s heart feel, she knew her friends were right. They cared about her, so she should too. “…Okay. Okay, let’s do it.” She declared.

“Woo!” Randy cheered, enthusiastically hopping off the picnic bench. “Phones out, everyone! Block him in three…

two…

one!”

All three of them blocked him.

“Happy new year!” Esha joked lightheartedly.

“It’s August.” Val furrowed her brows in playful confusion.

“Happy new year!” Randy laughed anyways, doing a little dance.

Val couldn’t help but giggle at her friends. She looked down at her phone, his blocked profile, hesitating before turning it off. She took a deep breath. Then, a satisfied smile came to her lips.

She would later come to tell this story to her other friends, but she never told them his name. It wasn’t worth mentioning.