What the heck am I supposed to be doing!?!?!?

So I’ve been talking to a boy for a while and I kinda like him, I’ve only met him in person once but we text quite a bit, he’s had a friend pass away recently and I don’t know how to help, I’ll ask how he is and he’ll say he’s shit but then will turn it into a joke we have, I don’t know how to help or what to say or even if I’m supposed to just distract him from it for a while. How do I approach this???