I walk into my house and lock the door behind me. My watch reads 3:00. Mom and Dad won't be home for a few hours. It also hits me that I don't have any homework. Awesome.

I sit on the couch in the living room, feeling some discomfort below me. I fish my hand between the cushions.

"Damn remote."

I pull something out. To my surprise, it's not a remote, it's an iPhone. Bewildered, I examine it. It doesn't belong to me, mom, or dad. I open it.

"No password."

I go into the settings and look up the name of the phone. It reads, Brendon's iPhone X.

"This is Brendon's. Must've left it here."

I think about waiting until my parents come home so one of them can run it over to him. Then I realize, he's probably tearing his house apart looking for this. Also: HE LIVES NEXT DOOR!

I grab my keys. It may be the dead of winter, but I'm not going far, so my hoodie should be enough. The phone is safely in my pocket. The second I walk outside, I'm hit with a blast of cool air. I place both my hands in my hoodie pockets, picking up the pace until I arrive at his porch. I ring the doorbell.

"Coming!" I hear Brendon yell from it sounds like the other side of the house.

My body starts bouncing in an attempt to keep myself warm.

The door opens. He's wearing a black tank top and shorts. "Ruby," he smiles. "What a surprise."

"Hi, I believe this is yours." I take the phone out of my pocket.

"No way!" He says sounding relieved, taking it. "Where'd you find this?"

"In between the couch cushions."

"I've been driving myself crazy looking for this. Thank you! Would you like a cup of coffee? You've been so kind!"

"Oh, I don't wanna be a burden."

"Please, I insist."

"I'm not a coffee person."

"Tea?"

"Well..."

"I'm not just gonna let you leave empty-handed." He says lightly.

I shrug. "Tea sounds good."

"Come in!"

I walk inside and shut the door. My body shudders from the cold as I enter the kitchen.

"You have no idea what I was going through when I thought it was missing." Brendon says while moving around the room.

"You might want to keep a password on that thing."

"Yeah, I should. Especially considering how irresponsible I am with my things."

I giggle.

"How's school going?"

"Pretty well."

He scoffs. "You're one of those kids, aren't you?"

"What?"

"Saying it's 'pretty well' when you're one of the top students."

"You sound like my father."

Brendon laughs. "I'm glad you came over, Ruby. I'm not really having the best day."

"I wouldn't be able to tell. How so?"

He stops and gives a sort of solemn look. "I had to write an article this morning about... something brutal. It was just difficult to inscribe."

"Did someone die?"

"Yeah. A young woman -"

"Sarah Orzechowski?"

He gives me a look of surprise. "You read it?"

"A friend showed it to me. Reading it alone made me feel uneasy."

He nods. "I guarantee writing was worse. I'll let you in on a secret, for this article specifically, I had to meet with her parents."

"Oh, shit."

"Exactly. It took everything for me not to burst out crying as I was sitting there."

"I'm sorry. That's why I could never be a reporter."

"What do you want to be, then?"

"An author."

"I can see that. You have a writer's quality about you."

"Thank you."

"What would you write about?"

"I aspire to write works of fiction. I know it's low-level, but I feel the fictional world allows people to escape the horrors of reality. At least, for some time, we can forget it exists."

He smiles. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah, it's kind of a longshot, but I have high hopes."

"Attitude, I love it! With that brain and determination, you can do anything."

"Thanks."

"Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"In the back room, there's an array of tiny drawers, and one of them contains wooden mixing sticks for the tea. Grab two?"

"Yeah."

I head in the room to be met with a 3x4 cabinet of small, light brown drawers. I open one filled with coins, another with paperclips. I open the bottom one, and my heart stops momentarily. I feel my pupils dilating at the sight before me.

It's a gold pendant. Exactly like Sarah's, the girl who died. I look over to the kitchen where Brendon's adjusting the fire under a glass teapot on the stove.

Taking it out, I turn it over. Her name is on it. I lightly trace my fingers over the engraved letters.

"Ruby?" He calls. Startled, I put it back and close the drawer. "Did you find them?"

I open another one to reveal wooden sticks. "Yeah!" I take two out and head back to the kitchen.

Brendon takes two cups from the cabinet, handing one to me. I give him one stick. He fills my cup with a green-colored tea from the pot, then does the same for his own.

I take a sip, slightly burning my lips. "I've never had this before. What is it?"

"Matcha. It's Japanese, from the matcha leaf itself." He sips.

I stir my tea with the stick. "That girl, Sarah, did you know her at all?"

"No. It feels like I did while talking to her folks, you know?"

"What about her necklace?"

"What necklace?"

"In the photo, she had a gold pendant with her name on it."

"Oh, that. The police report said it was nowhere to be found."

"Do you know if she had another one?"

"Her mom said that was the only one they had engraved for her. It was a goodbye gift before she left for college."

This is unnerving. A bad feeling arises in my gut.

"Wanna know a secret?"

I nod.

"The case is closed."

"Who killed her?"

He shrugged. "No one knows."

"So the murderer just... got off?"

"Pretty much." He seems really bothered by this.

I take an elongated sip, rapidly thinking of something to change the subject. "So, do you have a girlfriend - or boyfriend?"

Brendon laughs into his cup. "No, I've kind of been on my own for a while. It's cool, I'm not looking for anyone right now. How about you?"

"Same."

"What kind of watch is that?" He motions to the blue band on my wrist.

"Oh, it's a Fitbit."

"Do you do sports?"

"No, but the vibrating alarm wakes me up in the morning because I don't sleep with my hearing aids."

Brendon sips his tea and I'm able to see his knuckles noticeably discolored.

"What happened to your hand?"

He sets his cup down and looks for himself. "I used to do boxing back in Pennsylvania, whenever I was under some stress. Maybe I need a FitBit." He laughs.

I give a fake smile.