"I don't wanna do this." Auburn let out a sigh loud enough for her boss, Penelope to hear from across the office.
"Why not? There'll be plenty of hot, tanned, shirtless men there."
"Yeah, but I don't like—"
"—There's plenty of women there too—"
"—Horses."
Penelope smiled, and tried her best not to laugh. "Look, one of the guys will keep you on track down there."
Auburn sighed and rolled her eyes. "What if they want me to ride, and I fall off the horse?"
"You won't."
"What if the guy's a jerk?"
Penelope stared into her eyes. "That won't happen. I promise you. The guys down at the ranch are lovely."
"Yeah, whatever you say."
Penelope smiled. "So will you do it?"
"If you pay for my lunch, yeah."
"Deal."
Soon enough, she was carted across town in the news jeep, and at the outskirts walking into the claustrophobic ranch.
Rows of stalls, seats, people dressed in Vaquero regalia, kids running around, a band playing music, roosters squawking; horses and riders running wild in the center of the pit. The smell of fried pork, cafe con leche, alcohol, elote, tortillas, sweat, weed and horse crap wafted through the air.
Auburn paused to take a break at one of the stalls handing out free water. She stood, red-faced, staring across at a taller than average shirtless man with a buzzcut, shiny, tanned skin and a grumpy expression etched across his face.
Another man, who looked like his brother stood next to him:
"Why'd I agree to do this?" The man hissed. "I coulda been at home, chillin' with a few beers, checking out the heinas, but nah. You dragged me out to this pinche contest."
"Leo, you needed to get outta the house." His brother rolled his eyes. "You were rotting away inside that stupid apartment of yours."
Leo glared back. "I was enjoying myself away from everyone else, until you interfered, Alan."
"You need to move on," Alan said, "and get laid. You can't be sad forever. Even if she took your truck, Lily and half of the furniture. You still get to see her on the weekends."
Leo rolled his eyes. "Shit, I must be depressed if you're being positive."
Alan smirked. "Go out there and get 'em. You're a great rider. Go and get the grand prize."
Leo rolled his eyes. "Aight."
"You gotta go and see that news chick, too."
"Don't remind me." He hissed.
"Go put your shirt on too."
Leo sighed and untied his shirt from around his waist, and put it on. He tucked it into his jeans, and left the top button open. "Look after Misty while I go find her."
Alan nodded. "You know what she looks like?"
"Penelope said she was a gringa with red hair. Red face. How hard can she be to find?"
"You never know? She could be hiding somewhere."
Leo nodded. "Aight, hasta luego."
Alan nodded as Leo marched away. He looked across at the stalls, but there were too many people. He couldn't zoom in on the crowd.
The sun was beating down, and there wasn't a cloud for miles. Squinting was his only choice as he moved closer towards the hoards of people.
Moments later, he was lost in the sea of chaos. He didn't know where to turn to next; the taco stall, the band's stage, or the man selling authentic leather hats.
Taking a leap of faith, he dived towards the churro stall, accidentally knocking into Auburn, and spilling her half drunk coffee over her white blouse, into her chest area.
Leo paused for a moment. He looked up at her and shook his head. "Watch were you're going."
She glared back at him. "You were the one who banged into me."
Leo scoffed before examining her. "You're the gringa with hippophobia, aight?"
She raised her eyebrow. "What the hell is that?"
"You're afraid of horses, aren't ya?" He said, as he unbuttoned his shirt. "And you gotta do that stupid journalist thing."
She nodded back. "How'd you know?"
"Penelope told me." Leo added as he handed her his shirt. "Look, take this, go to the bathroom and put it on. And hurry up about it. The shows gonna start soon."
Auburn rolled her eyes. "Don't you need something to wear too?"
Leo nodded. "I'll worry about myself here. Brought a spare change of clothes."
"Okay."
"Come to the stable. Meet me there in fifteen minutes."
"Okay, fine." She said, her voice trailing off into the distance as she approached the 'bathroom' porta potty.
Leo started whistling to himself as he waited and rummaged through the bag in the back of his truck for a new black t-shirt.
He slipped it on and slowly strolled back to the ranch, where Auburn was already waiting:
"You're late," she shook her head and checked her watch, "three minutes, what kept you?"
He shrugged. "Nothing. I had to go to my truck to get a new t-shirt. You ready?"
She nodded. "Let's go."
They made their way over to the ring. Auburn held her bag tight, making sure that her camera and notepad were well away from the horses.
"Do you need a pic of me posing with Misty?" Leo said.
She scoffed. "What makes you think you're gonna be the headline act?"
"Well, Penelope send me to help you around."
"Yeah, but the main event is the contest after all. Not just you. And if it was you, you'd be here with your winners medals." She looked around. "Where are they? All I see is a stinking horse."
He glared. "Misty's the best girl. She doesn't smell at all. I washed her and braided her hair this morning."
"Then the smells you. Did you forget to wash?"
He sniffed under his arms. "It ain't me."
She laughed. "You're dumb. You actually fell for that."
He glared back. "A hombre of my calibre always tries his best to be presentable."
"You should try harder. You look like a redneck."
"Shut up, gabacha. At least I ain't red all over."
She rolled her eyes, and felt the heat permeate throughout her face. Sweat dripped from her forehead. She reached into her pocket and took out a spare tissue to rub herself with.
He raised an eyebrow. "You never been outside before? Sweat dries up faster in the desert."
"I want to look my best, too."
Leo smirked. "You already lost the game."
"You both lost the game." Alan said as he walked over with a pack of beers. "Is this the—"
"—Journalist? Yes. I've had the displeasure of meeting Leo, before you ask. He's gonna show me around as soon as he gets his head out of his ass."
Alan laughed. "Yeah, that's him."
Leo shook his head. "This is my hermano, Alan."
Auburn offered her hand. "Nice to meet you, Alan. I'm Auburn."
He shook it back. "For real? That's your actual name?"
"Yeah."
"That's weird. It would be like calling a blonde kid Barbie, or Blondie or something like that."
Auburn rolled her eyes. "Oh great. Now I have to deal with two idiots from the same family."
"I'm not like Leo. I, for one have a brain."
"That's a good sign." She said under her breath. "When does this event start?"
Alan looked over at the stage. "It's been delayed by half an hour. Technical difficulties."
Auburn rolled her eyes. "Great, just what I need! Another half an hour with him!"
"We can always ride to pass the time." Leo smirked at her. "Misty's a good girl. She won't touch you. She's well trained. You won't break your back if that's what you're worried about."
Auburn folded her arms. "Sure."
Leo sighed. "What? You don't trust me?"
"I'll go walk beside you and you can do the tour on your horse. Let's go and get some photos. You can talk to these people for me, right?" Auburn tucked her camera under her arms. Leo was staring off into space."Yeah? Answer me."
He nodded. "Aight, sorry."
She looked over at Alan. "Are you coming too?"
Alan shook his had. "You can go together. I'll get other things organized."
"Your loss." She mumbled under her breath as Leo set off on the horse.
She followed alongside him, and almost tripped over him when she ran towards the mariachi band setting up. "Okay, we need to go and get this."
Leo rolled his eyes. "Fine."
"Please talk to them thanks."
"Aight." He added as they approached the band, and got off the horse. "Rodrigo, this is Auburn. She's the journalist that Penelope sent to cover the event. Can she take some pictures of your band?"
"Auburn, nice to meet you." Rodrigo smiled and nodded. He offered out his old, wrinkly hand to her. "You can take photos, of course."
She smiled and shook it back. "Thank you."
"De nada." He said with a stronger accent, and straightened the sleeves of his blazer, before running his fingers through his grey mustache. "Vamos, come and stand over here."
The rest of the band nodded and stood in a line in order of height; the taller ones to the right, and the shorter ones to the left. Rodrigo stood in the middle of them all, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Some of them held guitars, trumpets, and maracas awkwardly as they tried to follow Rodrigo's lead.
Auburn snapped several images on her digital camera, looking through them to pick the best one. "That's lovely, Rodrigo, thank you."
Rodrigo nodded. "When will it be in the paper?"
"Sometime next week." She said. "Probably Wednesday."
"Okay, thank you."
"No problem, I'll see you again." She waved at him. "I'll be back to listen later."
Rodrigo ripped his hat at them both as they moved off.
Leo scoffed at her. "Ay, you're so damn nice to him."
She smirked. "Because he's nice?"
He glared at her. "I'm bringing you 'round here."
"Only cause you're getting something out of it."
He shrugged. "So? Since I'm a part of this, I'm gonna pick the next one. We're gonna go to the tattoo and piercing booth."
"Okay, let's go."
Leo marched toward the booth, and was greeted by a grumpy looking man in his early thirties. He had a shaved head, a goatee and was muscular with folded arms.
"Yo, Leo. Sup?" He said as he looked at them both. "Who's the gringa?"
"Auburn. She's the journalist. She wants to take some pictures for the paper."
The man rolled his eyes. "Verdad?"
"Uh-huh. It'll only take a moment, Gino."
Gino sighed and unfolded his arms. "Aight, fine, I'll go get a prop."
Leo nodded. "You have someone half done in there?"
Gino grunted. "Sure. Come in Auburn. I'll get K.J to pose, along with Lana. She can hold the tattoo gun, or something. And don't let the damn horse near the bodies."
Leo saluted as they left him and Misty outside. Inside the tent, they walked over to K.J and Lana.
"Yo, can we get a couple of photos here? The newspaper lady's standing beside me." Gino said to Lana, who nodded back. "Aight, perfecto."
Auburn took out her camera again, and set up the perfect angle without getting too close. She quietly snapped a few images of Lana finishing off the skeleton vaquero chest tattoo of the patient gentleman, who seemed like he'd been here since the opening.
"Thanks." She said once she was done. Lana nodded again.
"No problem."
Auburn was about to leave when Gino grabbed a spare gun, and led her outside, and around the back of the tent to a less crowded space.
"Take a few pics, black and white only. Make 'em look badass, aight?"
"Alright. Pose for me."
Gino held the tattoo gun up in the air, pretending to shoot it, then down by his side, and finally pretending to paint something.
"These are wonderful." She said.
"Can I get a copy once you print them?"
"Of course. Call into the office, and ask for Auburn Summer, and I'll be with you."
He scoffed. "That's your real name?"
She raised her eyebrow and sighed. "And Gino's yours?"
"Si," he nodded, "Gino Ventana."
"Your name is Gino Window?"
He glared. "I come from a long line of window cleaners."
"Fair enough." She said before starting to walk away.
"Yo, wait a second. What's your number? I wanna call you to ask about the photos."
Auburn ripped out a corner of a page from the notepad in her pocket and scribbled it down. "There you go. Don't lose it."
"I wont." He said, as he smiled for the first time. "Aight, I'll see ya around then."
"You too." She added before wandering off to the other side of the tent to meet Leo again. His arms were folded up, and he was glaring at her. "What's wrong?"
"What kept ya? Where you helping Gino with the damn tattoos or something?"
She rolled her eyes. "No. He wanted some extra photos, so I took them."
"Oh."
"Anyway, is Gino your friend or something?"
"Cousin." Leo said as they began to walk toward another band. This time, they were Mexican Regional, with a twist. "These guys slap. They're the best thing ever."
They had electric guitars, keyboards, an actual drum kit, trumpets, saxophones, acoustic guitars , and their faces painted like Luchadores and Aztec gods.
"What's the band called?"
"His!Panic!"
Auburn smiled. "That's creative."
"Yeah, I know the singer, Eddie. We can go and get some pics."
"Sure."
Before they could go toward them, the announcer came on to say: "Could all competitors make their way to the main stage? The show starts in three minutes."
"Mierda." Leo hissed under his breath.
"We can get them later. Just focus on bringing Misty over there."
"Aight." He said "Let's go."
They ran toward the stage. Auburn could barely keep up as he dragged her along.
When they got there, they almost missed entering through the gate. It had closed over, but they swung through it in time.
The gate slammed, as Leo lined up. Auburn stood beside Alan, who whooped and threw his hat up in the air.
"Are you ready to see him kick ass?"
Auburn nodded. "Of course I am."
"Me too. It's been a while since he's been outta his head, and bed." Alan added. "He always does well here."
Auburn smiled. "Good to hear."
"Yeah."
As Auburn faced toward the front, she heard someone standing beside her. A familiar scent of cologne, and beer filled her nostrils.
She looked over and saw Gino standing beside her, smiling and raised her eyebrow.
"Gino, what are you doing here?"