by Aiden Thomas
“I guess that makes sense?” he mused. “I mean, if he was last seen starting his graveyard shift, then he should’ve been there, right?” Yadriel offered Maritza the spoon.
“Vegan?” she asked.
He nodded, and she took a bite.
“But we can’t find any sign of him,” Maritza said as she chewed.
Yadriel’s stomach churned. “Where the hell is he?”
Maritza tugged on the gold hoop through her ear. “No spirit. No tether. No trace,” she murmured, staring off into the distance.
“Doesn’t make sense,” Yadriel said.
“Do you think Julian is somehow involved?”
At first, the question seemed completely out of the blue, but then again …
“Maybe.” Yadriel frowned. “They did die on the same night, maybe just a couple hours apart.”
“There could be some connection, but what?”
Miguel was a grown adult. He was a good man who helped take care of his elderly parents. Yadriel didn’t think he’d even gotten a ticket for speeding on his motorcycle before.
Then there was Julian, who—well, Yadriel didn’t really know much about him other than he got into trouble a lot at school. He was pretty sure Julian had been suspended at least once for getting into fights, and there were rumors that he was affiliated with one of the local gangs.
How could Julian’s and Miguel’s deaths be related?
With an aggravated groan, Yadriel scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know, but the sooner we get through today, the sooner we can take Julian to his friends.”
“Maybe they’ll have some answers,” Maritza added, but she didn’t sound very convinced.
The closer they got to school, the more crowded the sidewalks got. Julian veered toward a boy and girl leaning against a wall, chatting. He waved his hand between their faces. They continued to talk to each other, not even so much as blinking. Julian laughed.
Yadriel hitched his backpack higher on his shoulder and quickened his pace. “Julian,” he hissed.
Maritza snickered behind his shoulder.
“Hey!”
Julian finally turned. “What?”
Yadriel cut his hand through the air, motioning for him to come close. “Would you knock it off? Get back here,” he snapped, trying to not draw the couple’s attention.
Reluctantly, Julian retreated.
Maritza laughed.
“You’re not helpful.” Yadriel glared at her, and Julian wound his way back to them.
“Hey, he’s your ghost.”
“I ain’t never been this excited to go to school.” Julian beamed as he fell back into step next to them.
“You need to stay close,” Yadriel told him sternly. “I don’t want people thinking I’m talking to myself.”
“Gotcha.” Julian hovered right behind Yadriel’s shoulder.
Cold pressed from Yadriel’s neck down to the small of his back. He shivered. “You don’t have to stand that close.”
Julian took a step back. “Got it, got it, got it,” he said, bobbing his head along in a nod as they melded in with the sea of people heading through the front doors of the school. It was a large cement building that was two stories tall and a dull shade of beige.
Maritza bumped her shoulder into Yadriel’s. “We’ll figure it out; don’t worry so much,” she told him.
“It’s like you don’t even know me.”
She laughed and gave him a shove.
Walking through the halls, it was impossible not to be jostled every few feet by other people. There were too many students, and the school was too small.
“This is really weird,” Julian said as a girl walked right through him. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. The good thing was that, this time of year, someone running into Julian would just think it was the late October chill. Even though it was only in the high sixties, it was cold enough for students in Los Angeles to be walking around in puffy coats and fur-lined boots.
They reached the turnoff for Maritza’s class. “All right, you two behave,” she said, heading down the hall. She grinned over her shoulder and waved. “Be good and learn something!”
Julian moved closer to Yadriel’s side. “I don’t actually have to pay attention in class, do I?”
“No,” he murmured quietly, trying to move his mouth as little as possible to not attract attention, but everyone seemed quite content to ignore him, just like any other day.
“Good,” Julian said. “’Cause I can’t sit still for that long.”
“I’m shocked.”
Yadriel ducked into his first class, and Julian chased after him.
Turned out, sitting still for “that long” meant all of five minutes before Julian was up and roaming the classroom. While Yadriel did his best to take notes on the judicial branches of the United States government, Julian passed the time staring out the window and moving people’s pens when they weren’t paying attention.
At one point, Julian crouched in front of a boy and shouted in his face as loud as he could.
Of course, the boy didn’t move. Unlike Yadriel, who jumped so hard he knocked his textbook to the floor, then everyone turned to look at him. Yadriel face burned crimson. “S-sorry.” He scrambled to pick up the book and shot Julian a glare.
Julian clamped his hands over his mouth, dark eyes wide. “I’m so sorry,” he said, but Yadriel could see his smile peeking around the edge of his hands. Saw the way the corner of his eyes crinkled, not to mention his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
When the lunch bell rang, Maritza met them behind the science hall. There was an open-air hallway that was always deserted, since half the students went off campus for lunch, and the rest of them hung out in the quad. It was a good place for some privacy.
And for Yadriel to lecture Julian.
“You’re going to get me in trouble!” Yadriel told him.
Maritza sat against the wall, eating a bag of Doritos Blaze, her eyes pinging back and forth between the two.
“I wasn’t trying to!” Julian said, holding his hands up defensively and clearly trying very hard to keep a straight face.
Yadriel glared. “It’s not funny!”
Julian pressed his lips between his teeth, but laughter escaped through his nose.
Yadriel turned to Maritza. “Will you do something?” he demanded.
Maritza licked the Doritos dust off her fingers and rubbed her palms together. “Should I curse him now?” she asked, wiggling her fingers at Julian.
Julian scrambled back “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
The sudden panic on his face was satisfying, Yadriel had to admit.
When Maritza laughed, Julian scowled. “Y’all play too much; that’s not funny.”
“Oh, we play too much?” Yadriel threw his head back. “Hah!”
“Wait.” Julian squinted at Maritza and tipped his head to the side. “I thought you said you couldn’t do magic?”
“I said I wouldn’t do magic, not that I couldn’t,” she clarified.
“Because of the vegan thing?”
“Yup, because of the vegan thing.” She nodded.
“It’s at least locally sourced—the Lopez family runs the local butchery, and they supply the community with animal blood,” Yadriel pointed out.
“That doesn’t make it better.” Maritza scowled.
“Why don’t you use your own blood?” Julian asked.
“It’s forbidden.”
Julian looked to Yadriel. “Why?”
“It’s too powerful,” he said, leaning his back against the wall as he let out a heavy sigh.
Julian arched an eyebrow. “And that’s a problem?”
“It’d be like trying to light birthday candles with kerosene,” Yadriel tried to explain. “It’d be overkill. The candles would catch on fire, and then the cake would burst into flames,” he listed off. “But then the kerosene is tied to your life force, so you end up using all your energy and magic reser
ves just to light some dumb birthday candles, and then you’re dead.”
“That seems like a bad metaphor.”
“It’s an analogy.”
Julian waved him off. “Can we just go find my friends now?” he asked. “I told you they wouldn’t be at school.”
“I still have to take my math test,” Yadriel told him for the hundredth time.
Julian opened his mouth to complain, but a voice cut him off.
“Hey!”
Yadriel jumped and turned.
Patrice stood at the end of the hall, giving him and Maritza a curious look. “What are you guys doing?” She was one of their friends, or, well, she was mostly Maritza’s friend. During lunch, Yadriel sat with Maritza and her group of friends, which was always some level of awkward. Maritza had way more friends than him, most of them fellow members of the girls’ soccer team. Yadriel used to play soccer, too, but not anymore.
“Oh, you know, just plotting,” Maritza said casually.
Yadriel glanced from her to Patrice, once again wondering how she could remain so calm and lie so easily under pressure when he always broke out into a cold sweat.
Patrice just laughed and shook her head. “Okay, weirdo.” She smiled before waving at them to follow. “Come on, we grabbed one of the picnic tables in the quad.”
“Coming!” Maritza scooped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She gave Yadriel a shrug.
He sighed but followed her lead. There was no reason not to, and, besides, ignoring Julian for the next twenty-five minutes sounded like a good idea.
Julian groaned his protest but trudged after them anyway.
The girls piled up on a picnic bench in the quad, laughing and talking together while Yadriel sat on the edge, forcing himself to eat the sandwich he’d bought from one of the snack stands on break.
Julian leaned against the tree that provided the table with shade, arms crossed and expression surly, but his dark eyes continuously searched the crowds of students as they walked by.
“Is everyone going to the Halloween bonfire at the beach?” Alexa asked the group, and it exploded into excited chatter.
Yadriel rolled his eyes, which caught Julian’s attention.
“What, you don’t like bonfires?” he asked with an amused grin.
Yadriel gave a small shake of his head as he took another large bite of turkey and white bread.
“Or do you not like parties?”
The flat look Yadriel discreetly cut to Julian said, Both.
The Halloween bonfire was a tradition. Students from all the local high schools ended up there. It was a game of cat and mouse with the cops, on account of the loud music, huge crowd, and, of course, illegal substances. A secluded part of the beach was chosen last minute and sent out via a wildfire of text messages.
Maritza was always trying to talk him into going, but Yadriel avoided it like the plague. The last thing he wanted to do was hang out with a bunch of drunk and high idiots running around near fire and riptides.
Not to mention, Día de Muertos started at midnight on Halloween, so he had his own tasks and responsibilities with his family back at the cemetery.
Julian chuckled and wandered over to Yadriel’s side. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Do any of you know Julian Diaz?” Maritza suddenly asked, interrupting the conversation about Halloween costumes.
Yadriel sat up straighter but tried to not look too interested in the topic.
Meanwhile, Julian appeared all too eager to listen to what a group of girls thought about him.
Alexa, who always wore high-end hair extensions and a permanently sour expression, made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat. “Ugh, yes,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He’s got a hot face—”
Julian’s smug grin was unbearable.
“But he’s so obnoxious,” she added.
Yadriel’s sharp laugh made him choke on his sandwich.
Julian scowled. “Tch, whatever,” he huffed indignantly. “The important part is I’m hot.”
“He used to play on the boys’ team with that other guy, Omar, right?” said Letti as she juggled a soccer ball between the toe of her shoe and her knee. “They’re like best friends or something.”
Omar? Yadriel tried to conjure up the face that matched the name in his head, but failed. He could remember seeing Julian around school, but he couldn’t remember what his friends looked like.
“Ooh, that was him?” Maritza said, looping her rose-quartz rosary around her finger idly.
“Yeah, he was really annoying,” Patrice agreed as she braided a chunk of Maritza’s pink-and-purple hair. “Always messing around and kicking balls over to our side of the field.”
“That doesn’t sound like me,” Julian grumbled petulantly.
“He beamed me right in the back of the head once and then laughed about it,” Alexa said.
“Okay, that does sound like me.”
Yadriel did his best to turn his laugh into a cough, but Alexa noticed and sniffed indignantly, sticking her pointy nose in the air.
“Why do you care about Julian Diaz?” Patrice asked.
Maritza shrugged. “Yadriel was curious about him.”
All four sets of eyes swung to him.
Heat flooded his cheeks. “Uhhh.” He looked to Maritza for help, but the amused flash in her eyes said she was enjoying watching him squirm. “We, uh, we got assigned a group project together,” he finally managed to lie. “And I haven’t heard from him.”
“Good luck with that.” Alexa snorted.
Julian scowled. “I don’t like this one,” he said.
“He, like, never shows up to class,” she explained.
“That’s only half true,” Julian tried to defend himself.
“Hasn’t he flunked out by now?”
“I heard he got sent to juvie.”
“Hey!” Julian tried to interrupt. “I’ve only been arrested once, and that guy totally dropped the charges after my brother offered to fix his car!”
“I was going to try to get his number from one of his friends,” Yadriel cut in, trying to steer the conversation toward something useful.
Letti caught the ball and shook her head. “Nooo, you don’t want to go messing with them,” she warned. Unlike Alexa, she actually sounded sincerely worried.
Yadriel frowned. “Why not?”
“They’re, like, in a gang.”
Julian balked. “What?”
Yadriel looked to Maritza, who frowned back. Yadriel remembered hearing rumors about Julian and his group of friends. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, hearing them all listed off. Julian was clearly getting worked up, but was that because the rumors were true?
“He and his family are from Colombia,” Alexa went on, in a way that suggested a double meaning, but when everyone just stared at her, she added, “You know what they export from Colombia, don’t you?”
“Coffee?” Maritza guessed in a bored tone.
“Crack,” Alexa answered.
Julian let out a string of colorful curses.
“Don’t you mean cocaine?” Patrice asked, giving Alexa a dubious look.
“What’s the difference?”
“I’m half Colombian on my mom’s side, and none of us are drug dealers,” Letti pointed out.
Alexa waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t count. They’re street kids.”
Julian seethed and Yadriel tensed.
“His older brother took over the family drug trade,” Alexa went on. “He runs it out of his mechanic shop.”
“Rio is not a drug dealer!” Julian barked, but, of course, they couldn’t hear him.
“Yeah, I don’t remember his name, but he was really hot, too.”
“Too bad he’s a drug dealer preying on high schoolers.”
Julian stepped forward. “No, he isn’t!”
“Yeah, you really shouldn’t mess with those guys,” Letti said to Yadriel, her delicate eyebrows drawn together in concern.
Julian turned to face him. “This is complete bullshit!” he said, throwing his hands up.
Yadriel sent him a furtive glance. This was escalating too quickly, but he couldn’t find his voice to put a stop to it. Julian was losing his temper, which Yadriel couldn’t really blame him for, but he also didn’t want him to do something stupid.
With everyone around, he couldn’t exactly say something to Julian to calm him down.
“I think his parents are in jail,” Patrice added, thoughtfully tapping a finger against her cheek.
“No, his mom is in jail, pendeja.”
“I thought his mom ran off when he was, like, a baby?”
Julian visibly paled.
Oh no. That was a step too far. “Uh—” Yadriel tried to come up with something to derail the conversation, but they were off and running.
“He turned into a real asshole, like, a year ago, right around when he stopped playing soccer,” Letti went on, setting the soccer ball down by her feet. “Always getting into fights and starting trouble in class. Remember when he broke Pancho’s nose in biology?”
Julian snapped out of his daze. His face went from white to bright red in a matter of seconds. A cool gust of wind kicked up the fallen leaves that littered the ground.
“Oh yeah.” Patrice nodded. “I almost forgot about that!”
“That’s because—” Julian started, seething between his bared teeth.
“The violent gene must run in the family,” Alexa told them, flicking her hair back over her shoulder. “Apparently his dad was a sicario. He ran away to Los Angeles, but they found him anyways and killed him in the middle of the—”
Julian’s shout drowned out the rest of her words. “SHUT UP!”
Yadriel and Maritza both jumped. The other three didn’t seem to notice, but then Julian moved, and a gasp caught in Yadriel’s throat. There was a sharp gust of wind as Julian swung his leg. His foot connected with the soccer ball, and it went flying across the quad. Yadriel couldn’t see where it landed in the sea of students, but he did hear the disgruntled shouts in the distance.
Alexa, Letti, and Patrice all gasped, looking around wildly for an explanation of what had just happened.