They follow the rest of the Pack up a series of switchbacks until they’re out of the trees again and looking across a wide bench of rock toward another far ridgeline. It juts out to their right, and in the distance lies the Raven’s Claw. It looks incredibly close now, even though Dawn knows they still have nearly a full day’s hike before they’re even at the bottom.

“I guess it isn’t so bad,” Warden says, and it takes Dawn a moment to realize he’s still talking about Oregon. “My mom’s an ER nurse and she’s busy all the time, so I can pretty well do what I want. It just sucks that everyone in town is either some douchebag surfer or a materialistic asshole.”

“What about your dad?” Dawn asks.

Warden doesn’t look back at her, but she can tell how his shoulders hunch up that it was the wrong thing to ask. “I don’t want to talk about him,” he says, and his voice is flat and dull. “He’s not worth the effort.”

“Okay,” Dawn says. Warden doesn’t say anything else, and they follow the trail toward the far ridgeline in silence.

Finally, near the top, Warden heaves a sigh, and his posture relaxes a little. “What about you?” he asks, glancing back at her. “What did you do to get stuck here?”

“Ran away,” Dawn replies. She’s half out of breath from the climb, so it’s all she can manage. She’s really hoping Warden doesn’t look back again and see how gross and sweaty and out of shape she is.

But he does look back, his head cocked and his expression quizzical. He doesn’t seem to notice she’s gross.

“That’s all?” he asks.

“I mean, habitually,” Dawn says. She lets it sit a beat. “Plus, there was a little bit of a drug problem.”

“Pot?”

“Pills.”

“Nice,” Warden says. “Your parents must have loved that.”

Dawn forces a laugh. “Not even a little bit.” She really isn’t sure she wants to tell Warden about her dad. She doesn’t say anything else.

“Why’d you run?” Warden asks once they’re atop the ridge. “What was so bad that you couldn’t stay home?”

Nothing, Dawn thinks. Nothing was bad at home. Not until I fucked it all up.

“I just don’t get along with my stepdad,” she tells Warden. “He didn’t think I should be partying all the time. And I didn’t think it mattered what he thought.”

She’s putting up a front, trying to sound brave and confident like she’s all out of fucks, but it’s pretty transparent, and Warden probably sees right through it.

He doesn’t let on, though, doesn’t push the point. “Parents suck,” he concedes, and they leave it at that.