I looked down at the pile of paper strips in front of me and started to separate them into piles by color. “Unless you’re keeping it clean on purpose. Or saving it for your actual friends or something. Ha ha. Forget I even asked. It’s no big deal. Never mind.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oren push back from the table. He got up, and for a split second I panicked, worried he was going to leave. “Wait, I—” I stopped talking because he was pulling his chair closer to mine.

He sat back down and placed his cast on the table in front of me with a thud.

“You want me to sign it?” I asked, a little breathless all of a sudden.

He nodded.

I looked down at the long cylinder of plaster. It was a bit dingy, but way cleaner than Nate’s had been. I’d done a good job of helping Oren keep it clean. By the time Nate had his taken off, it was filthy and gross and smelled so bad.

What will I even write? I wondered as I tried to find the best spot on the cast. I didn’t want to mess it up. Especially since I would be the first.

“Do you want your friends to sign it? Maybe they’ll want to pick their own spots.”

My old friends are weird around me now.

He was pretty good with the one-handed texting, I have to say. “They probably don’t know what to say,” I said. “Probably next time you visit, they’ll be better.”

He shrugged.

I don’t want to visit. Everything back home reminds me.

“Of your parents?”

His head dropped until his chin was tucked into his chest.

So many things came into my head that I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him it would be okay. But I remembered Mom saying to just be there for him. And anyway, how could I tell him it would be okay? His parents were dead. He was an orphan. It would never be okay.

Mom was right. All I could do was be there for him, even if it didn’t feel like enough.

“It’s okay to cry,” I said. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. Crying is natural when you’ve lost…when you’ve been through hard stuff.”

He sniffled.

“Do you need a hug?” I asked softly and then held my breath, worried that offering one hadn’t been the right thing to do. But if it were me, I would want a hug.

Without lifting his head, Oren nodded again.

I got off my chair and closed the gap between us. Careful of his cast, I put my arms around him. I rubbed his back the way my mom did to me when I was sick or needed comforting. I didn’t know if it was what he needed, but it had always helped me, and it wasn’t like he was pushing me away, so I kept doing it. I didn’t know what to say, so I did the hardest thing—I said nothing.