Maritza looked to Yadriel.
“This isn’t going well,” Julian observed from the sidelines.
Not helpful.
“You’re right, we’re really more like acquaintances,” Yadriel tried. No one looked very convinced. It was better to get out now before something bad happened. Even if they were Julian’s friends, Yadriel knew nothing about them.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to bother you, we just thought he’d be here.” He backed toward the stairs.
Flaca watched him carefully, calculatingly.
“But obviously he isn’t, so we’ll just—”
“Wait!” Luca stepped out from behind Omar. “Have you seen Jules?” His voice was hopeful. Luca spoke with his chin tucked down, glancing up at them through the fringe of his hair. The wide neck of his sweater slid down his collarbone.
“Luca,” Omar warned, catching the smaller boy’s arm.
Yadriel glanced to Julian for some direction.
“No, you haven’t,” he said with a vigorous shake of his head.
“No, we haven’t,” Yadriel echoed.
Luca’s shoulders fell. “Neither have we. Not—not since last night—”
Omar gave him a tug. “We don’t know them—” he hissed, but Luca twisted out of his grasp with such expertise, his sudden absence made Omar stumble.
“We’ve been looking for him.”
Julian stiffened. “Jesus, Luca.” He moved to his friend, reaching as if to grab his chin, but he stopped, probably remembering he couldn’t touch him.
Yadriel gave the boy a closer look, not knowing what Julian saw that was making him so upset. But then he realized.
The smudge across the bridge of his nose wasn’t dirt but a bruise. There was also a red cut in the corner of his mouth. And was his bottom lip swollen?
“He’s missing,” Flaca finally said.
Luca nodded while Rocky shifted her weight between her feet, her gaze dropping to the ground.
“¡Cállate, Flaca!” Omar warned.
Flaca brushed him off with an irritated wave of her hand.
For a moment, the pretense and defenses slipped. They were just four kids worried about their best friend. Yadriel released some of the tension he was holding. There was no drug paraphernalia, no guns or weapons that he could see. He was the one with a dagger tucked into the waist of his jeans.
If they only thought Julian was missing … “What happened?”
Flaca spoke first. “He got jumped by the park.”
“We don’t even know them!” Omar was still trying to keep their secrets, but it was obvious he’d lost control over the situation. Their concerns for Julian outweighed anything else.
“I got jumped,” Luca corrected. His shoulders hunching up to his ears. “Jules tried to stop them. It was dark, he told us to run, so we scattered.” He twisted his sleeves between his fingers. “We can’t find him.”
This wasn’t good. There were no leads for them to go off of. If they thought Julian was missing, that meant they hadn’t found his body. And it also meant—
“They don’t know I’m dead.”
Julian stood there, his arms limp at his sides. He stared down at Luca, and his expression—the upturned brows and painful grimace of his lips—made Yadriel’s heart ache.
“When we regrouped, he wasn’t there, so we went looking for him, but he’d disappeared without a trace,” Luca explained.
Disappeared without a trace.
Yadriel’s mind raced, fitting the pieces together. Julian had died last night. He got jumped in the park, and when his friends tried looking for him, he was gone. There was no sign of his body.
Just like Miguel.
“Have you guys talked to Rodrigo?” Luca asked, a hopeful lift in his voice.
Julian tensed, but Yadriel tried not to look at him, still under Omar’s careful watch.
“My brother,” Julian said tersely.
“No, we haven’t,” Yadriel replied.
Flaca sighed. “Rio probably thinks Jules ran away, too. They got into a huge fight a few days ago, and Jules hadn’t gone home yet.”
“That’s none of their business,” Omar hissed.
The thundering approach of a train filled Yadriel’s ears. As it passed overhead, the wheels clacked loudly, buffeting the air and reeking of diesel. Rocky, Flaca, and Omar seemed to be arguing, their voices impossible to hear with the passing of the train. Luca stood there cringing, plugging his ears with his fingers.
Donatello and Michelangelo tugged nervously against their leashes, and Maritza dropped to her knee, giving them scratches and offering comfort.
In all the commotion, Yadriel stole a look at Julian. He was staring at the ground, his hands balled into fists at his sides. The wind whipped his jacket and tugged at his white tee.
By the time the train passed, Omar looked just as disgruntled, but his mouth was clamped shut.
“Someone needs to tell Rio what happened,” Luca said. “But…” He trailed off.
They all looked ashamed, even Omar.
“Their place is right by Belvedere,” Flaca stepped in to explain. “And we’re too freaked out to go back…”
Yadriel inwardly sighed. He couldn’t really blame them for being afraid, could he? But at the same time, he was frustrated. Knowing Julian, there was probably nothing frightening enough to keep him from making sure his friends were okay. But still. Not everyone was as fearlessly reckless as Julian Diaz. Even his best friends.
He almost asked why they didn’t just call or text Rio, but he caught himself. Obviously, if they hadn’t done that yet, it was because they didn’t have cell phones to call or text him on.
“Have you told the police?” Maritza asked.
Omar’s laugh was sharp as knives and dark as coal.
“They wouldn’t listen to us,” Flaca said. “We made a police report this morning when he never showed up, but we couldn’t even give a description of the guy who jumped him. It was too dark to see anything.”
“I don’t remember, either,” Julian confirmed in a gruff voice.
What was it about his brother that set Julian off like that?
When Yadriel glanced at Julian, Omar’s eyes narrowed, trying to track what he was looking at.
“They wouldn’t even put out a missing-person alert for Jules,” Flaca continued.
“What?” Yadriel shook his head. “Why not?”
“Because he’s a Latino boy living in East Los Angeles with no parents,” Omar said, seething.
“They decided he was a runaway,” Rocky explained. “When a kid goes missing, they assume they’re at risk, so you get AMBER Alerts, calls in the media, and police searching and asking around. But if you’re a runaway?” She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“We can try talking to him—” Yadriel ventured.
Julian spun toward him. “No!” he barked.
Yadriel looked toward Julian on instinct. Quickly, he tried to turn away, but Omar’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe he’s heard something.”
“I said NO!” Julian shouted, so loud that Yadriel and Maritza both jumped, hit in the face with a wall of cold. Both their attention snapped to Julian. The muscles in his jaw jumped, nostrils flared and body rigid as he glared at them. His edges flickered.