We drive about an hour north before Dres pulls into a dirt parking lot and turns the truck off. I climb out of the passenger's seat, shielding my eyes as I do from the bright sun. It's warm out, so I shrug out of the light jacket I threw on over my tee shirt, tossing it onto the seat before I grab my bag.

     When I close the door, Dres is waiting in front of the truck. He's rid himself of the hoodie he was wearing, now only sporting a white shirt of similar athletic material.

     "I like your music," he says so quietly I almost miss it.

     My head jerks upwards to look at him, surprised, and I say, "Yeah?" He doesn't respond, just starts walking. There isn't a path, just trees and shrubs, at first, and I have to push my way through, behind Dres.

     I try thinking of something to say because it feels like we're in this weird place and I don't want things to be weird. Dres moves through the forest easily, like he does this all the time. Maybe he's done this specific hike before. I have to focus not to trip on tree roots and shit.

     The path opens up, making it wildly easier for me, and I jog to catch up with him. "Fig," I blurt. "Ginger spice and oatmeal." He glances at me, and there's an amused glint in his eye like he knows where I'm going with this. "The Hiker's cupcake."

     This makes him smile, a small one, but still a smile. "Not this again."

     I cross my arms. "You know I'm going to sell these ideas to a competing cupcakery and put you out of business." The sun is still blinding me, making me wish I'd worn a baseball cap or some sunglasses, so I start lagging behind Dres to use him as a human shield.

     He laughs. "Are you now?"

     Rolling my eyes, I say haughtily, "You'll see when Sprinkles starts scouting me." Dres stops walking abruptly, and I barrel into his back and shoulder, before I catch my footing, and step around him. "What?" I ask confused by the sudden hold up.

     He turns to me and goes, "Did you put your sunscreen on?"

     I make a face of shock and offense. "Seriously?"

     "You burn."

     "Maybe I want some color," I retort.

     "You'll still get color with sunscreen on. Just without the permanent skin damage," Dres responds logically. I roll my eyes, deciding it's a not a battle worth fighting and turn around so my back is facing him.

     "It's in the first pocket," I tell him. I feel him rooting around before he unearths the bottle.

     He goes, "This is prescription?" I nod, turning around to face him and take the bottle. "How badly do you burn?"

     I make a snorting sound, popping the cap on the bottle and squirting some into my hand. "Pathetically bad. When I was a kid I guess I got really sick with pneumonia and they gave me some strong antibiotics to kick it. And they think that messed up the way I absorb UV rays or something. Either way, ultra sensitive to the sun."

     I slide the lotion down one arm and use the excess for my other arm before rubbing them both in. Dres looks at me like he's annoyed. "Shouldn't you have put that on in the car then?" Oh. He is annoyed.

     I shrug. "I mean, I don't really care. Burns turn into tans. And anyway, I look better with some color."

     He makes a growling sound from the back of his throat, and I hope he's not disagreeing with me because I'm still working my summer tan and I really do believe I'm ten times more attractive when I've got some color. It's the Spanish from my dad's side that helps me turn a soft buttery brown. Grace says I have gold undertones. She says its the reason I look sallow in the winter. I always complain and say I look pale, and Halston who actually is pale gets all confused.

     "Don't forget your face," he says flatly. I roll my eyes, before dotting some into my hand and rubbing it along my cheeks and nose. "Forehead," Dres says watching me the same way I imagine my mother would in this moment. "And the back of your neck."

     "You're actually killing me," I say as I begrudgingly lotion the back of my neck. I hold the bottle out of to him, asking, "Do you want some?"

     He shakes his head. "I put on sunscreen before I left this morning."

     I turn around, giving Dres my back, and hold the bottle above my head for him. He figures out my intentions and puts it back into my bag. "So you're a stickler about sunblock?"

     Dres starts walking and this time I maintain his pace, and stick by his side, close enough that our shoulders brush.

     "I try to put it on every morning. The sun will fade my tattoos faster."

     "Ohhhhhh," I say nodding my head with a small noise. That makes sense. A fly lands on my arm and gets stuck to the sheen of lotion and sweat there. I have to wipe it away with my finger. I wrinkle my nose at it, and I try to ignore the thought that a bunch of bugs are probably sticking to me right now.

     Dres hikes at a substantially faster pace than I think is normal. It's like he's trying to get somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where that is since we're in a forest. It's not like there's a Starbucks at the end of this path. I have to walk faster than I'm used to, or even want to on a path that is ridden with rocks and branches and shit that's really trying to take me down.

     "Oh shit." I reach out to halt Dres, my eyes going wide as I stare through the trees at two deer. "Look," I whisper as I point.

     Dres looks down at me and says, "Really?" I shhh him reaching for my phone in my front pocket, and unlocking it quickly. "You've never seen deer before?"

     "Let me live." I open Snapchat.

     "Do you really need a photo of some deer on your phone?"

     "It's for Snapchat," I answer.

     Dres goes, "Snapchat?"

     I look at him quizzically. "You don't know what Snapchat is? Ugh of course you don't, you listen to Louis Armstrong unironically. I'm surprised you even have an iPhone."

     "Why would anyone listen to him ironically?"

     "It's a hipster thing. That's beside the point. You've never Snapchatted before? Oh we have to make you a Snapchat. It's a right of social media passage. Give me your phone." Dres is clearly not complying as I hold my hand out to him. "Come on. You don't even have to use it but you should definitely at least see what all the fuss is."

     Dres frowns but hands over his phone. I slide to the passcode, and hold it out so the screen is facing him. He says, "0 2 0 1." I'm surprised he's offering his passcode to me, but don't say anything hastily unlocking it and opening the app store.

     I have to hold his phone up to get enough connection for Snapchat to download. Once it does I make him an account, moving closer to him to show him what I'm doing. "You can add other people through their phone numbers." He doesn't have too many contacts to begin with so I add myself, somebody named Jack, and his sister. In the back of my head I wonder who Jack is but file it away for another time.

     "So basically you can send photos or videos directly to your friends, and you can post things on your story for your friends to view. Oh look your sister has a story." I click it, angling the phone so he can see better.

     The first photo is of a foamy cappuccino with a leaf drawn in it. Her hand is in frame, nails painted a dark blue with a chunky gold ring on each finger. The second is a full body mirror selfie. The photo is there for a few seconds but I'm able to tell immediately that Dres and Amelia resemble each other quite a bit with the same dark hair and obscene height. She's devastatingly pretty, too.

      The next photo is a dog selfie with who I guess is her friend. She's sticking her tongue out at the camera while her friend pouts. A video comes up next of his sister running and jumping onto a man's back. That's when Dres snatches the phone away. "Who in the..." he mumbles as the story keeps playing, revealing more videos of his sister with the unknown male.

     "I take it you didn't know about this guy," I say with a small grin. So Dres is overprotective of his sister. That's cute. "Here, you can send her a message on the photo." I take the phone back and open the chat with his sister on a photo of her and the guy. I hand it back to Dres.

     He stabs at the keys, expression pulled tight as he stares down at his phone. He makes a noise like a grumble but maybe slightly more friendly than the word implies.

     "What'd she say?" I ask glancing at the screen. "Ha, she's funny." Dres wrote to her Who is that guy and be wise in how you respond and she answered oh my god welcome to the 21st century let's commemorate this day. It's weird because Dres doesn't feel that old, early twenties isn't old, but it's totally suiting that he doesn't use instagram and Snapchat.

     "Wait, what is she doing? What is this?" Dres says turning the phone slightly so I can see.

     "She's – no, don't click tha—ugh." His sister's face pops up on the screen freezing slightly as Dres's phone attempts to find service.

     "Who are you?" Her voice rings through the phone sharply and I quickly step behind Dres's phone to get out of the frame. Dres is looking at his cell phone like it's an alien that's just abducted him or something.

     "She was video chatting you," I say as I press a hand to my head.

     Dres still looks whiplashed, and I don't know if I find this situation horrifying or hysterical. "Hellloooo?" she's saying exaggeratedly before Dres hits a button on his phone and her voice cuts off completely.

     "Did you just hang up on her? Because that just makes everything more sus."

     Dres ignores me, and holds his phone out. "She sent a thing." I swipe his phone to the chat, and push his hand back so he'll look. She said This isn't over big brother. Dres types back and then shoves his phone his into the pocket of his shorts.

     His eyes settle on me. I raise both my hands. "Hey, don't blame me. You're the one that answered the video chat." Dres shakes his head, and I know there are a thousand things he can say, one being I'm the one who made his Snapchat and added his sister, but doesn't.

     He pulls his phone back out and groans. "She's sending me a thousand Snapchats."

     "Do you want to delete it? I can if you want," I say trying to be helpful as we start walking again.

     Dres shakes his head. "No. I want to see who this guy she's with is."

     I laugh. "I could be reaching here, but I think he's probably someone she's seeing."

     Dres glares at me. "She's not allowed to date." Now I'm really laughing because Dres is so protective of his sister, it is strange seeing him like this.

     "So how many times have you done this hike?" Dres looks at me questioningly so I clarify, "You seem very comfortable with it."

     "You just follow the path," he responds. I raise an eyebrow. "You've never been hiking before?" I shake my head. I almost ask what's the point of hiking, but don't. Dres starts explaining trail blazes to me. It sounds like a concept that should go over my head but it actually makes sense. He stops at a tree that has a marking on it, and says that it means there's a turn up ahead.

     "And this stops people from getting lost?" I ask as we continue walking, and reach the turn the tree demarked. The turn is sharp, and leads to a narrow uphill path.

     Dres shrugs. "It helps those who are looking to follow a trail. If you decide not to, you can end up lost."

     We keep walking.

     "Hey, look! Is that a hawk?" I shield my eyes as I look up between the trees at a pretty distinguished looking bird perched on one of the branches.

     "No, I think that's an owl," Dres responds amusedly.

     "Damn."

     This leads to a good portion of our hike being consumed by my unending need to locate a hawk. We come across a litany of animals but no hawks in sight, unfortunately. I realize that they might not be native to here? I don't know enough about hawks to tell you if they live in certain regions or what.

     Dres says, pointing, "Well, there's a snake if that makes you happy?"

     I jump away from the general direction he's pointing, saying, "What, where?" He grins at me and points to the snake sliding along a mossy log. I grimace. "I hate snakes."

     "Why? What'd they ever do to you?"

     I glare at him before trudging ahead. "If that makes me happy?" I repeat with a shake of my head. "Who would be happy to see a snake?"

     Dres catches up to me easily. His strides are longer or something. He gets close enough that our shoulders touch. "Maybe I'd be happy to see a snake."

     "You were unimpressed by the rabbit we saw, and the deer, and the salamander but the snake? That's what you liked?"

     Dres shrugs with a smug expression. I roll my eyes exaggeratedly. "Maybe I don't like snakes. Maybe I just like disagreeing with you, too."

     He catches me off guard and I turn to look at him, to gauge the honesty of his statement from his expression. It's a stupid move on my part. There are too many rocks to look out for and the ground is unleveled. I'm not really surprised when I trip over a root. I am surprised when Dres says, "Watch," and grabs my arm to steady me.

     He still has his fingers wrapped around my bicep when I say, "If we both like disagreeing with each other isn't it like agreeing?"

     "I don't think so," Dres answers.

     "Are you saying that because you really don't think so or because you're trying to disagree?" He doesn't answer, shooting me a smile that I want to freeze-frame on, and keep forever. I just nearly tell him that he should smile more often. Instead, I rifle my hydroflask from the side pocket of my bag and start drinking.

     "So," I say deciding to disregard everything, like, for instance, how long Dres held onto my arm after I'd righted myself. "I already gave Dolores my meet schedule but I guess I'll reiterate that I have meets every day this coming week."

     Dres hums thoughtfully, titling his head back so the sun warms his face as we make our way downhill. The path is tight, with trees and shrubs on each side that we're forced close together. Dres smells so strong and heady, this intoxicating mix of sweat and musk, that I force my breath through my mouth in a futile attempt to ignore it.

     "Home or away?" he asks.

     "Tuesday and Thursday are away. Halston said she'd work while I'm at the meets and I should be done in time to help you close on the days they're home." I say all of this too quickly, with more nerves than I was expecting because despite everything I still don't want to inconvenience Dres and this feels like an inconvenience even though I warned Dolores before she hired me about my schedule.

     "Why do you do that?" he asks, the question coming out of left field. He glances at me with an expression that reinforces his question.

     "Do what?"

     "Act like I'm going to fire you."

     "Because I feel bad for not being able to work this week."

     Dres makes a hesitant noise from deep in his throat, and then doesn't say anything at all. I try to glance at him but the way the sun's situated blinds me. I wish for my sunglasses again. Finally, he says, "You aren't very good at making coffee."

     I go to agree, to say, "Believe me, I know."

     But he says, "And I have Dolores there."

     I butt in before he can make his point or finish making his point or whatever it is he's doing. "So you don't need me?"

     He shakes his head. "No, what I'm trying to say is I don't keep you around because you're some barista prodigy or because I need a bunch of help."

     My voice is one solid high pitch when I say, "Huh." I make a point of focusing on the ground as I walk.

     Dres gives this short noise, like a laugh but without all the embellishment, and then says, "It's funny how that happens."

     "How what happens?" I ask curiously.

     He considers his words before saying, "How I say one thing and it makes you speechless." I don't say anything. "Kind of absurd considering how much you talk and all."

     "Yeah well," is all I say and Dres looks at me, eyebrows raised, like well what? "Well, its like you're intentionally saying things that will produce that effect."

     Dres grins in a way that tells me that is exactly what he's doing and yeah, wow, cool. Dres is a little bit of an asshole, too. It's good to know. I'm storing that away for proper examination later.