My brother pushed his fingers through his messy bedhead hair. “Dad’s taking me golfing this morning,” he said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey.” Mom shook her head. “We just got a call.”

Nate knew what that meant. Without another word, he turned around and started back toward his bedroom.

“We’ll need you to update the website later,” Mom called after him.

He grunted in response. Mom shook her head.

“Are all teenagers like zombies?” I asked. “Am I going to turn into one too?”

Mom laughed. “Let’s hope not.”

I made myself some peanut butter toast, got dressed and then found a spot in the living room to watch for Oren to arrive.

Mom and Dad were still upstairs getting ready, so when he came walking down the street, I jumped up and opened the door so he didn’t have to knock or ring the doorbell.

He was wearing a green T-shirt with some sort of superhero emblem on it.

“Hi!” I said.

He gave me a wave and a tiny smile. I stood back and gestured for him to come inside, closing the door as he kicked off his sneakers.

“We can’t go to a movie today, unfortunately,” I said. “So we’ll have to figure out something else to do instead. Mom said I should let you decide.”

He stared at me for a long moment and then shrugged.

It is going to be a loooong day.

“TV?” I suggested.

That got me another shrug but also a nod, so I led him toward the stairs.

Just then Dad came around the corner in his suit. “Good morning, Evie,” he said and then noticed we had company. “Oh hey, Oren. Great to see you. Sorry about the movie—we’ll have to go some other day. But luckily you’ve got the whole summer ahead of you.”

Oren nodded.

“Okay, Evie, I’m heading next door to get the…” He glanced at Oren and then back at me. “To pick up Syd and…Ecto.”

It was nice of him to work around the word hearse so Oren wouldn’t get upset. He didn’t seem to notice.

“Okay,” I said. “Bye, Dad. Come on, Oren.”

Once we got to the basement, we sat down on the couch. I grabbed the remote. “It’s a weekday, so mostly talk shows right now. Unless there’s something you want to watch. We could try to find a movie on Netflix.”

Oren shrugged.

I sighed.

And then I remembered what my mom had said. “Sorry,” I muttered. “It’s just…it would be a lot easier if you could tell me what you want.”

He nodded. For a second I thought he was finally going to speak.

Instead he pulled out his phone and held it up before he started tapping away at it.

“You know, it would be a lot easier if you would just talk,” I said.

He stopped typing and looked up, narrowing his eyes as he shook his head slowly.