Cas and I end up staying up half the night watching movies and eating through what meager supply of junk food I have on hand. I call it quits when he starts dozing on the couch and I have to usher him upstairs to bed, where he immediately passes out. It doesn't take me long to follow.

     I wake up, disoriented, unsure what time it is and what's woken me until Cas, who's tucked under my chin, mumbles, "Dres, your phone."

     I can barely open my eyes, so it must be early. "That's not my phone, that's your phone."

     Cas groans, turning over and fumbling for his phone on the nightstand. "Hello?" he answers, voice heavy with sleep.

     "Calvin Sumner you better be lying dead in a ditch somewhere," his mother screams loud enough for me to hear her like I'm on the phone, too.

     "Well, that's just not even plausible," he responds.

     "Imagine my surprise when I come in today and find out that you did not, in fact, pull a double, and actually called out of your night shift. Where are you?"

     I'm confused why I can hear her so clearly and open my eyes to see Cas lying very still on his back, the phone balanced on his chest. His eyes are shut. I'm not even sure he's awake. I shove him and his eyes burst open.

     "I am imagining very surprised," he says dryly. "I got snowed in at Lucy's."

     "Really, because I'm standing across from Lucy right now, who is definitely not snowed in, so why don't you try another lie?"

     "How about we just leave it at I'm safe and I'm fine?" he responds rolling his eyes. I thought the tension between them was because of me, because I'd bought his mom into my lie, but now I'm thinking it's something else completely.

     "How about we don't," Olivia snaps.

     "Alright, fine, Dres would you like to say hi to my deranged mother who treats me like I'm five years old still and can't spend the night out without her permission?"

     I gape at him and then at the phone like Olivia is staring right at me. I open and close my mouth multiple times. "Well," Cas says after a moment. "Dres is here but he's currently disposed."

     I think that my expression can't get any more deranged but neither can this conversation.

     "We will talk about this when I see you at home," Olivia responds crisply. Cas hangs up, tossing his phone towards the end of the bed as he turns over onto his shoulder and looks at me.

    "'Twas the only way," he says before I can speak.

     "I think there were some other options on the board."

     "I'm pretty sure Dolores knows, which means my mom would've found out sooner or later."

     "No, yeah, Dolores definitely knows. I think she has secret cameras set up in Weston's."

     "She doesn't need cameras. She's like a hawk or something. Sees and hears everything."

     "So what's going on with you and your mom?"

     Cas rolls his eyes again. "Other than the fact she treats me like I'm five years old?"

     "Is that the reason you're treating her so bad?"

     "Am I treating her badly, though?"

     "Like a fifteen year old girl badly, I would say."

     "Ouch," Cas says with a laugh. "I don't know. We haven't been seeing eye to eye on a lot of things lately. I think it's time for me to move out and live on my own." He yawns, but doesn't cover his mouth so I'm hit with morning breath. I don't even mind. "I have to get going. I'm on shift at noon."

     I blink at him. "Do you want breakfast before you go?"

     "Is that even a question?"

     I make breakfast wraps stuffed with eggs, turkey sausage and diced peppers and cheddar cheese. Cas eats two before he leaves, taking a container of the leftover pizza with him. I want to ask what is this? What are we doing? Because it feels like somethings changed, something's shifted but I don't know what. And I'm afraid of saying the wrong thing and ruining it so I say nothing at all.

     When I get to work, Dolores greets me in the kitchen, saying, "Have a nice snow day?"

   . I glance up from the mixing bowl I have in front of me, scanning her face. "Olivia called you," I say finally.

     She nods. "Hysterically, actually. Did you know Cas was spending nights over at Dresden's? I told her I had an idea but I wasn't aware of the extent of it."

     "He got stuck there because his car wouldn't make it through the snow," I respond and I don't know why I'm explaining myself.

     Dolores places her hands on her hips. "But why is Cas going to your place to begin with? What are you doing, Dresden? Haven't you done enough to that boy?"

     I gape at her accusations. "Why do you assume it's what I'm doing? Not that it's any of your business, but I'm trying to do what's right."

     "So then, what, you and Cas are seeing each other again?"

     I respond quickly, "No. No, it's not that."

     She shakes her head, wildly. "You're leading that boy on," she says.

     "I'm actually really not." My tone is defensive.

     "You know what? It's absolutely none of my business. I said I wasn't going to get involved and I'm not. Whatever you two are doing I just hope you both realize it is not nearly as subtle as you think it is."

     "What's that supposed to mean?"

     "It means this is a small town and people talk. And while you managed to skate through fine after the first Cas-fiasco, people may not be all that forgiving a second time around."

     "People or you, Dolores?"

     Dolores shrugs her shoulders. "You already know how I felt about what you did. But you're an adult, so you're going to do what you're going to do and I have to just accept that."

     "Just say you're on team Cas, Dolores."

     "I don't want you to hurt him again," she says. "Whether you do it intentionally or not, you still do it. You can't help but run away when the going gets tough."

     "That's hardly fair," I say suddenly feeling very small.

     "Isn't it, though?"

     I don't answer and she walks out without another word about it.

     I try not to let what Dolores said bother me, but they sit like a second skin, a film over me I can't shake. Tomorrow's After Hours is all prepped and ready to go, so I take off after work, heading home to call it an early night.

     Weston's After Hours moves in a blur. Cas is there and he sits with my friends and family. Olivia is working, which I'm thankful for because I'm not ready to face her yet. Not sure what I'll say when she points out she asked me to help, not fuck, her son.

     I half expect Cas to stick around after I close Saturday night but he stands with everyone else at the table, stretching his arms over his head as he yawns. "Long day. I'm heading out."

     I find myself wondering, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, what are we and what are we doing.