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“Not new. Just newly the focus,” she muttered. “All right, Logan, we’re ready!”

The pitch of her voice shifted so dramatically when she spoke to him, I almost burst out laughing.

“Cool,” he said, powering back on and returning to human form. I was convinced I’d see a panel where his circuit board wasif I looked hard enough. “Do you need to go by your house, or do you want to go straight to the hospital?”

“Me?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Actually, there is somewhere I’d like to go,” I said.

“Can we all just ride together?” Tamara asked. “I had Mom drop me off.”

“Sure,” Logan said.

“I call front seat!”

“It’s a truck,” Logan said. “All the seats are front seats.”

“Oh. Well, I call middle!”

Logan glanced at me, and I shrugged.

We made our way to his truck, which was surprisingly old, and hopped inside. Rolling the windows down all the way to fight the oppressive heat, he cranked the car on and backed up. Jesse’s voice came out of the speaker, and I smiled.

“Sorry,” he said, turning it down. “I like to crank it when I’m alone in the car.”

“Was that Jesse?” Tamara asked.

“Yeah, it’s a bootleg he made me. They don’t have a record yet, but he recorded me all their studio stuff they have so far.”

“Sounds great,” I said.

“Yeah, it does,” Logan said. “He should keep pursuing it.”

It was a test. I could feel it. Logan was testing me to see how supportive I would be of his brother. It was cute.

“He should,” I said. “He could be a big star one day.”

“So where do you want to go?” he asked, nodding as if I’d passed his impromptu hurdle.

“Madie’s,” I said. “The sandwich shop up the block.”

“I don’t think I’ve been there in years,” Logan said. “Not since the old lady died. I thought they shut down.”

“They did,” Tamara said. “But her daughter opened it back up.”

“Still make the same sandwiches?” I asked.

“Pickle and all,” Tamara said.

“Good.”

When we arrived, I went inside and felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. Tamara and I used to go to the shop when it was the original at least once a week as kids. The pickle on the side, which came with every order, was my favorite food item in the world. It was so silly. I had pickles all the time, but there was something so special about the ones I got from Madie’s.

I ordered a slate of sandwiches, enough for not only Jesse and me, but for the entire crew. It took them only ten or so minutes, and when they were done, I had to enlist Tamara to help me carry them all out to the truck.

After the second trip, we were all packed in, and Logan put the truck into drive.