Omar backed up a step, and Luca disappeared behind him completely.
“What do you want?” Omar demanded, shoulders back and chest puffed.
They were getting off on the entirely wrong foot.
Of course, Julian was no help. “My skateboard!” He went over to a very worn-out-looking skateboard leaning against the arm of the couch. It had cracks and raw edges. On the bottom, Julian’s name was written in large neon green letters. It was covered in several stickers, most of which had been nearly scraped off, but Yadriel recognized one of St. Jude.
Julian eyed the couch and tent. “Are they sleeping out here again?” he said to himself before scowling at his friends.
“We don’t want anything,” Maritza said, putting on her best look of nonchalance. “We were just passing through.” She glanced at Julian. “Everyone seems present and accounted for, so we’ll be off—”
Yadriel inwardly groaned.
“What are you talking about?” Flaca asked. Her attention shifted to Yadriel. Her lips parted. “I know you from school,” she said.
Yadriel’s face burned under her gaze. “Uh, yeah, I think so,” he said, even though he definitely knew her.
“You know each other?” Julian asked.
Flaca was the first openly trans person Yadriel had ever met. They’d had a couple of the same classes and had even worked on a history project together. He remembered the first time Flaca wore a skirt to school, and how he’d stared. Yadriel thought it was both incredibly brave and terrifying, all at once.
Flaca was unapologetically herself. They’d been sitting next to each other when she got pulled out of class by the teacher and sent to the principal’s office. While other students had oohed and jeered as the teacher ushered her out of the room, Flaca stood from her desk and walked out calmly, not sparing anyone a single glance.
That’s where he recognized Rocky from, too. He’d seen her standing guard outside the stall when Flaca used the girls’ restroom, throwing seething glares at anyone who so much as looked at Flaca the wrong way. More than once, he’d watched Rocky follow teachers down the hall, yelling at them as they escorted Flaca to the main office. Every time, Flaca held her chin high, statuesque in her confident walk.
It was seeing Flaca, her fearlessness, that encouraged Yadriel to wear a binder to school for the first time. No one else had seemed to notice, but when he sat down next to Flaca, she looked him up and down, smiled, and said, “Looks good.”
Yadriel’s face had burst into a white-hot flush, but Flaca had left it at that.
When she stopped showing up to school halfway through last year, Yadriel had noticed.
Now, Flaca gave him a once-over again. “What’s your name?” she asked.
It was a simple question, but it made Yadriel’s chest tight, like his binder was squeezing all the air from his lungs.
“Your real name,” Flaca corrected.
The tension popped like a balloon. “Yadriel,” he said, like a sigh of relief.
Flaca smiled. “Much better.”
Yadriel smiled back.
“Who are you?” Omar demanded, bringing Yadriel’s attention back to the matter at hand. There were still three other people giving him suspicious looks.
Yadriel hesitated, not sure how to respond. He flicked a look to Julian.
“Oh,” he said, as if he just remembered his job. “Just tell them you’re my friend.”
Yadriel tried to answer as quickly as possible, but the pause while he waited for Julian’s instructions was long and awkward. “We’re Julian’s friends,” Yadriel repeated.
“No, you’re not,” Rocky snapped. She shifted her skateboard in her grip. She wasn’t exactly brandishing it, but Yadriel fully believed she’d used it as a weapon before and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again.
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.