“You know,” Yadriel said, kicking some shoes into the closet, “if you’d just let me release you, we could end this here and now.”
Julian snorted.
“I know you want to check on your friends, but we also can’t let you turn maligno, okay?” Yadriel warned, peering down at Julian, who pointedly ignored him. Yadriel frowned. “You won’t be you anymore, you’ll turn into a—a monster.”
Julian peeked up at him from under his arm. “Bold of you to assume I’m not one already.”
Yadriel stared at him, trying to gauge if he was being serious or not.
Julian met his gaze, unblinking.
Knock, knock.
Both their heads snapped to the door.
Yadriel’s eyes went wide. That had to be Lita. She knew. She could sense he had a spirit in his room. He was totally screwed. If Lita found Julian, she’d tell his dad, and Yadriel would get in deep trouble for disobeying him and going behind his back and—Oh God, would they kick him out for disrespecting the ways of the brujx?
Yadriel panicked. “Hold on!” he called, grabbing the sleeping bag and tossing it over Julian, but it fell right through him, landing in a heap on the chair.
Julian arched an eyebrow and pointed at himself. “Ghost, remember?” he whispered.
“Shh!” Yadriel hissed, flapping his hands at Julian uselessly. “Hide in the—”
The bedroom door swung open.
Maritza leaned against the doorjamb.
Yadriel let out a breath and clutched his chest. “Jesus, Maritza!”
“Good morning!” she greeted cheerily. Her eyes swept back and forth between the two of them—Julian lying on the bed, Yadriel clutching his jeans. Her dusty-rose-painted lips curled into a smirk. “How was the sleepover?”
Yadriel dragged her into the room and slammed the door closed behind her. “You’re going to get us caught!”
“Chill, Yads!” She laughed, crossing the room to sit on the dresser.
Julian was on his feet. “Going to school is a waste of time!” he repeated, as if Yadriel had forgotten.
“No, it’s not,” Yadriel said as he snatched a clean pair of underwear and a fresh binder from the dresser. “I’ve got a math test—”
Julian scoffed.
“And unlike you and your friends, I actually care about my grades.” Yadriel closed the drawer with a snap and spun to face Julian.
“Then you gotta take me with you!”
“No way, we are not taking you to school with us.”
“You can’t just ditch me here!” Julian whined.
Yadriel clenched his jaw, his patience wearing thin. “Look—” he said, rounding on Maritza for some backup. There was a highly amused look on her face. “We’ll take a vote!”
“That’s not fair!” Julian scowled.
Yadriel ignored him. “Maritza.”
She arched an eyebrow in response.
“Do you think that Julian should stay here while we go to school?” he asked, sounding perfectly logical and even-tempered.
“Of course she’s gonna side with you!” Julian objected, gesturing wildly. “No voting!”
“Actually.” Maritza thoughtfully twisted a pink curl around her finger. “I think he should come with us.”
Julian blinked, arms still aloft. A satisfied smile broke across his face. “Well, you heard the bruja!” He sat down in the desk chair and locked his hands behind his head. “I’m going!”
It was Yadriel’s turn to splutter. “What?!” He shook his head at Maritza. He must not have understood her correctly. “You’re not serious.”
She shrugged. “I mean, it makes the most sense, Yads—”
“Traitor,” he hissed.
Maritza looked like she was trying not to laugh. “Mira! We’ve got to take him with us.”
Julian grinned.
“If we leave him here, he’s going to get caught,” Maritza reasoned. “He’s too loud and can’t be trusted not to get in trouble while we’re gone.”
Julian’s grin quickly vanished.
Yadriel groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “We can’t—”
“If he stays here, he’s one hundred percent getting caught by Lita,” Maritza pointed out. “She’s a Cuban abuelita who’s got nothing better to do than hang around the house and pick up after a house full of boys.”
Yadriel didn’t want to admit it, but she had a point. By the time he got home from school almost every day, his room was straightened up, or his laundry cleaned and folded on his bed.
Well, at least today Lita would have plenty to keep her busy.
He looked over at Julian, who appeared hopeful, though mostly desperate. Logically, Yadriel knew Maritza had a point. He knew it was dangerous to leave Julian at home unsupervised, but still.
“Maybe we could just leave him in the cemetery,” Yadriel tried, which was met with another series of groans from Julian.
“Yads,” Maritza said firmly, standing upright and frowning at him. “What’s the deal?”
Heat clawed up Yadriel’s throat. “I don’t want to take him to school.”
“But why?”
“Because of what happened with Lisa!” he lashed out.
Maritza’s shoulders sank. “Yads…” Her expression softened to a look of pity. It made his skin crawl.
Meanwhile, Julian was looking around, annoyed. “Uh, should I know who Lisa is?” he asked, voice edged with impatience.
“She was a dead girl who haunted my elementary school,” Yadriel snapped at him.
Julian’s thick eyebrows shot up toward his buzzed hair.
“Except I didn’t know she was dead,” he went on, words spilling from his mouth. “So I was just the weird kid who was talking to himself, who also lived in a cemetery and had no friends!” Yadriel clenched his hands into fists at his sides, turning to Julian. “There, is that a good enough reason?” he demanded.
Julian leaned back. “Oh,” he said, his voice awkward and small, cheeks turning red.
“Yads,” Maritza said gently, moving to touch his arm, but Yadriel quickly twisted out of her reach.
“I’m going to get dressed,” he said. He went into the bathroom with the clothes clutched in his arms. When he closed the door behind him, he let out a long breath, trying to exhale all the tension from his shoulders. Yadriel closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the mirror, letting the cool glass soothe the throbbing in his head. It’d been a long time since he’d thought about Lisa.
When he was only seven and just starting to understand what the brujx were and how they were different from everyone else, he was friends with a little girl named Lisa. They would play together during recess in the field and hang out during free time in class. Lisa loved to play with the stuffed animals. Her absolute favorite was the floppy-eared spotted dog. Yadriel told his parents about her and always drew pictures of them during art. When other kids in class started teasing Yadriel, he didn’t understand why.
A couple of weeks later, his teacher had a meeting with his mom and dad. When they got home, they asked him about Lisa.
Even now, sometimes Yadriel could be looking at someone and not realize they were a spirit. If he wasn’t paying attention, it could be easy to overlook. When he was little, it was even harder to spot.