“My family showed up,” Yadriel blurted out. “Tío saw my portaje—”
Maritza’s eyes bulged. “What?”
“Uh-oh,” Julian said, glancing back toward the house.
“No, no, it’s okay!” Yadriel rushed to add, delirious laughter bubbling through his words. “I didn’t get in trouble! He even distracted Lita and my dad so I could get away without them seeing me!”
Maritza shook her head in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Julian grinned. “Awesome!”
“He was seriously chill about it?” Maritza asked, frowning. “Do you think he’s going to tell your dad?”
“No, I don’t think so, he wouldn’t out me like that,” Yadriel said. Julian beamed back at him, but Maritza was uncharacteristically worried. “Seriously, Itza,” he said. “My tío gets me, he’s the only one who does—”
Hurt flashed across her face.
“Aside from you, of course!” he added quickly, giving her an affectionate nudge.
“Are you going to tell him everything?” Maritza pressed, her delicately lined eyebrows tense with worry.
“I mean, yeah, probably.” Yadriel shrugged. It’d be good to have an adult on his side. When it came time to reveal everything to his dad and Lita, it would be good to have his tío standing in his corner. “Obviously, not right now,” he added. “We need to get to school and then see Rio.” Yadriel started to walk down the street, gesturing for them to follow. His smile was so big, it was hurting his cheeks.
Julian bounded after him, but Maritza stood there for a moment frowning, her arms crossed over her chest.
“I guess,” she finally sighed before following after them.
“See? Everything’s working out!” Julian said, dimples flashing as he grinned over at Yadriel.
“It is,” he agreed, heart racing. It was one more step in the right direction. One step closer to becoming a brujo. One step closer to being himself.
He was still riding the adrenaline rush when he got to his first class. He was in a great mood, and Julian was in an even better one. Yadriel didn’t even mind when Julian, after immediately becoming bored in math class, got into some light mischief.
Julian waited for Ms. Costanzo to write math problems up on the whiteboard and then once people stopped paying attention, which didn’t take long, he would erase a random number when Ms. Costanzo wasn’t looking. Three times she had to reference her notes, a confused look on her face as she tried to figure out where the mistake was.
Julian perched on the edge of his desk and cackled. Yadriel had to stuff his fist against his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud.
During lunch, Maritza joined them behind the bleachers. She helped Julian practice his ghost skills by flicking a triangle of paper back and forth, lining up their fingers like goal posts to aim for.
Yadriel sat back, eating a dry cheeseburger from the cafeteria. He liked watching Julian when he was focused in on something. His heavy brow got all scrunched up, eyes sharp as he caught the very tip of his tongue between his teeth. He was so animated. When he made a goal, he’d punch the air and let out an excited whoop. When he missed, he’d throw his hands up and dramatically flop onto his back in the grass. Yadriel caught Maritza eyeing him more than once. Each time, he tried to force the stupid grin off his face, but it always came right back.
By the end of the day, exhaustion was starting to win out. After two nights of very restless sleep, it was a miracle he’d made it that long. To make matters worse, the last class of the day was history, and Mr. Guerrero was the absolute worst. He spoke in a monotone completely devoid of inflection.
Slowly, Yadriel sank in his seat until his textbook was functioning as a pillow, chin propped on his folded arms. Keeping his eyes open took effort, and his hoodie was warm and soft, clearly working against him as it tried to lure him into taking a nap right on his desk.
“Hey! Wake up!”
Julian had wandered back from poking around in students’ backpacks.
Yadriel let out a dismissive rmph in reply.
Julian dropped into a squat in front of him. He gripped the edge of the desk and rested his chin on his fingers, bringing himself to eye level with Yadriel, their noses a few inches apart. “Can we go on a walk? Let’s go on a walk. Doesn’t that sound nice?” he asked, a barely contained ball of energy shoved into the body of a teenager boy.
Yadriel focused on the dark eyes staring at him expectantly. He gave Julian an unamused look. He wasn’t going to ditch class, especially not this close to the end of the day. He just needed to survive a little while longer.
“Just a quick one!” Julian argued, as if reading his mind. “Around the school?”
When Yadriel blinked slowly at him, Julian amended it to “Okay, okay, okay, just down the hall and back?” He drummed his fingers on the desk and bounced on the balls of his feet.
Yadriel hated to admit it, but that did sound appealing. If he could get up and move around, maybe it’d wake him up a bit. It wasn’t like he’d be able to rest any time soon.
Yadriel huffed a big sigh and sat up. “Mr. Guerrero?” he asked, raising his hand. “Can I use the restroom?”
“Yes!” Julian was on his feet and out the door before Mr. Guerrero could hand over a hall pass.
Yadriel stretched his hands over his head, twisting his back this way and that as they walked down the empty hallway.
“Good Lord, how do you sit through that every day?” Julian demanded with a mystified shake of his head.
“It’s not that bad, usually,” Yadriel said through a yawn. “When I’m more awake, it’s downright tolerable.”
“I would die,” Julian told him. “Like, again.”
Yadriel chuckled.
“You’re really into this school stuff, huh?” Julian asked with an amused grin.
Yadriel shrugged, rubbing his fist against his eye. “I want to get into a good college, get a good job, help support my family, be successful.”
Julian cut him a cross look. “Tch, you don’t have to be good in school to be successful,” he told him, annoyed.
“No, you’re right,” Yadriel backpedaled, suddenly much more awake. “I just meant—”
“Carlos—the guy my dad opened his mechanic shop with?—he didn’t even finish high school!” Julian went on. “He got an appendixship—”
“Apprenticeship—”
“Got a job right off the bat, learned all the tricks of the trade, made hella money,” Julian continued, punching his fist into his palm for emphasis. “Eventually opened his own shop and did it all without a degree and zero student-loan debt.” Chin tilted proudly, he gave Yadriel a challenging look.
For a second, Yadriel didn’t know how to respond. He was a little caught off guard by Julian’s very valid observation, and felt ashamed of himself for saying something so obviously classist.
Maritza would be ashamed of him.
“You’re totally right, I apologize,” Yadriel said, holding his hands up in surrender. “I just meant—”
Julian stopped. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, I missed it, what was that?” he asked, holding his hand up to his ear with feigned confusion.
“Oh my God,” Yadriel groaned.
“Something about me being right?” Julian preened.
The hallway ended, and Yadriel stopped. “You’re insufferable,” he said, glancing around.
“Yeah, but I think you’re kinda into it,” Julian replied with a casual shrug.
Yadriel chose to ignore him.
There was a water fountain and restrooms on either side. Yadriel headed for the girls’.
“What are you doing?” Julian asked with a critical arch of an eyebrow.
“Using the bathroom,” he said.
Julian hooked his thumb toward the door to the boys’ restroom. “Uh, wrong one, dude.”
Yadriel hesitated. “Uh … I haven’t ever actually used the boys’ bathroom,” he confessed, face growing hot.
“What?” Julian frowned. “Why?”
Sometimes, Julian surprised Yadriel by how knowledgeable he was.
Other times, not so much.
“Several reasons,” Yadriel said, crossing his arms. “Including, but not limited to: people harassing me, calling me names, pushing me around, general humiliation,” he listed off. Truthfully, he’d never worked up the nerve to use the boys’ bathroom. In public, he always tried to find a gender-neutral stall, which was difficult. They didn’t have those at school, so Yadriel just held it for as long as he could before forcing himself to use the girls’, and only during class, when it was less likely he’d run into someone.
“Oh.” Julian expression softened for a moment, which Yadriel hated, but then it contorted into anger, which was much less humiliating. “People are assholes.”
A surprised laugh leaped in Yadriel’s throat. “People are assholes,” he agreed.
“Well, there’s no one around right now,” Julian pointed out. He went up to the metal door to the boys’ bathroom and literally stuck his head through it, earning another laugh from Yadriel. “And nobody inside!” Julian’s voice echoed from inside. He straightened and turned to Yadriel. “I mean, if you wanna see what all the fuss is about, now’s your chance,” he said with a grin.