My stomach is turning.

"Stay at home and pass out candy," I mutter at my plate.

Robert glances at Casper. It's a quick look, but I catch it from the corner of my eye. "You're welcome to do that here this year, if you want. We'll rent you two some movies, get you snacks..."

I see what he's doing: if I stay in, then Casper won't push as hard to go out because she won't want to go alone. I chew and swallow to buy myself some time before having to speak. "Yeah, um. I think that would be fine."

Casper finishes off her corned beef, says she's full, places her dishes in the sink and retreats from the kitchen. I always feel awkward being left behind with her folks, so I scarf down the rest of my meal until the plate is empty, thank them for dinner, and hurry after her.

She's in the bathroom, throwing up everything she just ate.

And I stand in the doorway like an idiot, unsure what to do. I could hold her hair back, except her hair is so short there's nothing to hold back. Instead I keep my eyes politely on the wall.

Only when she's dry-heaving do I turn on the sink and fill a cup. She takes it without a word, using her other hand to flush the toilet before she sits back and gulps the water.

"God, I don't know how much longer I can do this."

I swallow back the lump that forms in my throat and sink down beside her, arms looped around my knees, our hips touching. "You okay?"

Casper swallows noisily and leans her head back with a heavy sigh. "Corned beef does not taste good when it's coming back up."

"Thanks for the mental image. Now I'm going to hurl."

"Toilet's right there."

We look at each other and grin.

Casper pats my knee and slowly gets up. "Just so you know, you don't have to come over on Halloween. Don't let my parents bully you into stuff."

I push myself to my feet. "They aren't bullying me. I don't have any plans, and I want to spend it with you. We can dress up."

She splashes cold water on her face, takes another drink, and looks at me in the mirror. "What about Adam?"

My smile fades. "What about Adam?"

"Going to invite him?"

We step out of the bathroom to relocate to Casper's bedroom across the hall.

"He hasn't returned either of our calls or emails. I doubt he wants to spend Halloween with us."

"You never know." She shrugs, collapsing wearily onto her bed. I guess all that getting sick wore her out. "His mom probably grounded him until he's thirty. For all we know, his phone and internet were taken away."

I want to believe it. Except Adam's mom is never home and I can't imagine, even after what he did, Mrs. Rockswell stuck around to make sure he stayed away from his phone and computer. In fact, if she had, it might have made Adam happy just to get some attention from her. It's all the things she doesn't do that hurt him so much.