Yadriel went into the bathroom to change out of his clothes and binder and into an oversize sleep shirt and pajama pants. When he got back to his room, he awkwardly dove under the covers of his bed. He didn’t like being seen without his binder on, and that was especially true with Julian.
Luckily, Julian seemed unfazed, or, at the very least, uninterested.
“Do ghosts even sleep?” he asked, lounging comfortably on the floor with his hands tucked behind his head.
“I have no idea,” Yadriel said, pulling his blankets up to his chin.
Julian refused to settle down. As Yadriel stared up at his ceiling in the pitch-black room, Julian’s sighs and huffs floated from the floor. They were quickly followed up by the most asinine questions Yadriel ever had to endure at three in the morning.
“If you turned into a ghost, where would you wanna haunt?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m pretty sure the Jack in the Box on Whittier is haunted.”
“Mm.”
“One time, we were chillin’ in the parking lot, and there was definitely some haunted-ghosts stuff happening in the dumpster.”
“Mhmm.”
“But it turned out to just be a raccoon.”
“Cool.”
“It almost bit me.”
“Wow.”
“Damn, when’s the last time you cleaned under your bed?”
And on and on it went. When Yadriel refused to respond, Julian just went on talking to himself. Yadriel didn’t know it was possible for someone to have so little filter between their brain and their mouth. When Julian spoke, it was a constant stream of consciousness.
Even in the wee hours of the morning, Yadriel knew sleep wouldn’t come easy. His relationship with it was always tenuous at best. The events of the night buzzed through him restlessly.
In the span of a few hours, he’d gotten his own portaje and been blessed by Lady Death with the powers of the brujo. And he was still worried about Miguel. The grief of losing his cousin didn’t feel real yet. On top of all that, he’d summoned a spirit and was now harboring a dead boy in his room.
Yadriel didn’t manage to fall asleep until he put a pillow over his head with Julian’s muffled voice wondering whether ghosts got wet when it rained. A couple of times, rummaging sounds nearly pulled Yadriel back to consciousness, but then he always slipped back under.
When his alarm went off in the morning, Yadriel groaned into his arm. He felt even more exhausted than before he’d fallen asleep. He rolled over, hand blindly reaching to hit snooze on his phone. With effort, he forced his bleary eyes open.
To find a black pair staring back at him.
Yadriel thrashed and scrambled back, hitting the back of his head on the edge of the window. In his panic, he’d accidentally kicked Purrcaso off the foot of the bed. As his alarm continued to blare, Purrcaso cried from the floor.
“FINALLY!” Julian burst out, annoyed but smiling as he leaped to his feet. “I’ve been—dude, stop screaming—I’ve been waiting for FOREVER!”
Yadriel’s heartbeat hammered painfully in his chest, unable to comprehend anything Julian was saying. He snatched his phone and killed the alarm. Purrcaso stopped her indignant meowing and sat on the dresser, cleaning her paw. Yadriel squeezed his eyes shut, willing the throbbing in his head to stop.
He strained to listen for any signs from his family, wondering if someone had heard his shout, but there was only the distant bumping of his abuelita’s Tejano music from the kitchen.
“Are you even listening to me?” Julian demanded.
“No.” Yadriel squinted an eye open to look up at him. In his sleepy daze, it took a moment for Yadriel to remember he was a spirit. Standing there in the middle of his room, arms crossed and frowning, Julian looked very real and alive. But then Yadriel blinked, refocusing his vision enough to spot the telltale signs: blurry edges and the cool draft in the air around him.
“I said, I’ve been practicing!” Julian huffed. The amount of energy he had this early in the morning was obscene.
Yadriel sat upright, pushing back the mass of dark hair that had flopped into his eyes. “Practicing?” he croaked.
Julian’s scowl was quickly replaced with a sharp smile.
He swung back and forth between his emotions so quickly, Yadriel was bound to get whiplash.
“Look!” Falling into the chair, Julian hunched over the desk and pinched his fingers around a crumpled-up ball of paper. It was one of Yadriel’s failed attempts at math homework from the day before.
“Look, look, look!” Face screwed up in concentration, slowly, he lifted the ball of paper. Julian turned to Yadriel, a triumphant grin splitting his face. “See?”
Julian’s eyes burned with wild energy. Yadriel was starting to think it was less up-all-night delirium and more just, well, Julian.
“Good job,” Yadriel grumbled, sitting up and rubbing at his temples, warding off a headache.
The ball of paper dropped back to the desk. Julian scowled. “I worked on that all night, man!”
“What? I said, ‘good job,’” Yadriel replied, thumbing through the notifications on his phone to make sure he hadn’t gotten any important messages. Nothing about Miguel. Worry dug into his headache. Had they really not found him yet?
“Tch,” Julian hissed between his teeth. He slumped moodily in the chair, propping his shoes up on the mattress. The white rubber of his Converse were dirty and cracked, and there was a large hole torn in the bottom of one.
When Yadriel moved to the edge of his bed and put his feet on the floor, he stepped on something sharp. “Ouch—what the—?” Yadriel’s eyes bulged when he finally took in the state of his room.
Well, now he was awake.
It looked like a bomb had gone off. Or maybe just a human hurricane named Julian Diaz.
“What the hell happened in here?” Yadriel demanded, picking up the unfolded paper clip stuck to the bottom of his foot. It was just one of maybe two dozen that lay scattered across the carpet.
“Got bored,” Julian said simply.
Yadriel shifted through the debris. Had he really been tired enough to sleep through all this? “Right.” His room was a little messy, sure, but it was organized chaos. The mess Julian had made was just … chaos.
“You got shitty taste in music, by the way,” Julian told him, his tone matter-of-fact as he nodded to Yadriel’s ancient iPhone that lay on the rumpled sleeping bag. The earbuds were dirty, and they crackled if he turned the volume up too loud. It had been a hand-me-down from his brother, and Yadriel used it to store his music, since there wasn’t enough space on his newer phone.
“No I don’t!” he said, feeling oddly defensive as he picked it up and stuffed it back into a drawer. His yearbook and old notebooks were on his unmade bed next to a Sharpie and more balls of paper.
Yadriel held up the tattered notebooks and glared at Julian. “Did you go through my stuff?”
Julian blinked. “Uh … what?” His ears burned red.
It was the guiltiest face Yadriel had ever seen.
“Don’t go through my stuff!”
“I didn’t!” Julian spluttered.
“You’re a terrible liar,” Yadriel growled and stuffed the notebooks back in their place on the shelf.
“It’s not like I had anything else to do,” Julian groused, kicking his feet up onto the bed.
“Don’t put your shoes on my bed!” Yadriel snapped.
“They’re ghost shoes, they can’t get your bed dirty!” Julian pointed out.
If Yadriel could’ve shoved Julian’s legs, he would’ve. But he had to settle on a death glare instead.
“So, what’s the plan, patrón?” Julian asked, unbothered.
Yadriel stood and went to the closet. “The plan is for me to go to school,” he said, digging around for a clean shirt. “And for you to stay here.”
“Wait, wait, wait—what?” Julian demanded, waving his hands. “Are you serious? Why are you going to school? We need to go find my friends!”
“I’ll look for them at school,” Yadriel said.
Julian gave him a withering look. “They’re not gonna be at school!”
Yadriel ignored him and tried to straighten up the mess. He grabbed his jeans off the floor and gave them a shake. There was some cemetery dust on them, but other than that, they were clean enough.
“Hey, are you listening to me?” Julian stood up. “I will lose it if you try to keep me here all day!” He held up a finger. “You wanna be haunted? ’Cause, swear to God, you ditch me here I’ll haunt you for the rest of forever!”
“You are being so dramatic right now,” Yadriel told him, shaking his head.
Julian groaned and smacked his palm against his forehead. “Look at me! Begging to go to school!” He collapsed onto the bed, his arm thrown over his face.
“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.
Lisa had passed away the year before from an extreme case of the flu over the course of just a couple of days. It had been sudden and unexpected. The floppy-eared dog had become the tether to her spirit.
Yadriel remembered being inconsolable in his grief, crying and clutching his mom and refusing the comfort of his father, thinking he was going to kill Lisa. As Camila rocked him in her lap, rubbing his back in slow circles, Enrique tried his best to explain.
His dad told him that Lisa was already dead, but that was okay. They didn’t force peaceful spirits to cross over. He told Yadriel he had actually helped Lisa—now that Enrique knew about her, he could check in on her and make sure she was okay. If she started to get “sick”—the word he used when Yadriel was little to describe spirits who turned maligno—then he could help her cross over to the other side. It would be painless, and she would be happy.
But when Yadriel went back to school the next day, there was no unknowing that Lisa was a spirit. His classmates were making fun of him because, to their eyes, he was talking to himself and playing with an imaginary friend. Yadriel decided to ignore Lisa. She followed him around; sometimes she would get angry, but mostly she would just cry.
Eventually, Yadriel stopped seeing her. Even now, he didn’t know if she’d crossed over on her own, or if his dad released her spirit. He never went near the floppy-eared dog again.
The idea of bringing Julian to school stirred up all the bad memories of Lisa. What if he slipped up? What if someone caught him talking to Julian? The last thing he ever wanted was to draw more attention to himself.
Yadriel let the mundane tasks of getting dressed, washing his face, and styling his hair calm his frayed nerves.
When Yadriel opened the door, Maritza was standing with her hands on her hips, staring down at Julian. He sat with his hands in his lap and his chin tucked to his chest. They both looked up when Yadriel walked in.
He crossed his arms. He was calmer, if a bit embarrassed.
“We talked it over and came to a compromise,” Maritza said.
“She threatened to put a curse on me,” Julian supplied.
Maritza shook out her curls and continued on, as if Julian hadn’t said anything. “Julian says he’ll behave himself and not cause any trouble.”
Yadriel’s skepticism must’ve showed, because she added, “Or he’ll suffer the consequences.”
Julian squinted up at Maritza. “I don’t know if I believe she can do that.” Then, to Yadriel. “Can she do that?”
“Probably best not to push your luck and find out,” Yadriel said.
The corner of Julian’s lips pulled into a smirk.
“Deal?” Maritza interrupted.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Julian stood, waving her off. “I’ll keep my hands to myself, no ghost stuff, no being a nuisance, blah, blah, blah. Now can we please go? I’ve been trapped in this room long enough!” Yadriel could practically feel Julian’s pent-up energy come off him in waves.
Yeah, leaving him here alone would definitely end in disaster.
“All right,” Yadriel sighed in concession. Julian’s face lit with a bright smile. “Just one second.” He grabbed his backpack and pulled out the mezcal and his portaje. “Last thing I need is to get caught by campus security with alcohol and a knife in my backpack.” Yadriel wrapped his portaje in a T-shirt and stuffed it into the bottom of the drawer in his bedside table. It was the only place he knew Lita’d steer clear of.
“Okay, let’s go.” Yadriel opened the door, but before Julian could step through, he held up a finger. “You two sneak out the front door while I distract Lita, okay?”
Maritza nodded. “Let’s go, dead boy,” she said to Julian.
He pretended to look offended, but he held his tongue for once and silently followed her down the stairs. Maybe he was a little worried about getting cursed.