Cemetery Boys(43)

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Let’s look and see if yours is any better!” Julian demanded, gesturing for him to turn the page.

The laughter died in Yadriel’s throat immediately. He snapped the yearbook shut. “Let’s not.” He crossed the room and shoved the book back into its place on the shelf.

Julian remained where he sat, his brow pinched and his laughter uneasy, confused by Yadriel’s abrupt departure.

The truth was Yadriel didn’t want to show Julian his yearbook picture because it did not read Yadriel Vélez Flores. Without legally changing his name—which took time and money—the school refused to use his real name, forever embossing his deadname under his painfully awkward photograph.

As if on cue, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

We’re outside.

Julian perked up. “Now?”

“Yup.” Yadriel grinned. “Come on, let’s—” When he opened the door, voices and the smell of food cooking wafted from downstairs. “Dammit,” he hissed. “Lita’s back.” He could hear her voice loudest among the rest, as usual.

Julian made a disgruntled groan.

“Just hold on a second,” Yadriel told him before slipping out the door. Carefully, he crept down the first few steps to get a view of what was going on downstairs. Lita was bossing around three other brujas as they carried boxes of supplies into the kitchen.

Annoyed, Yadriel pulled out his phone and texted Maritza, asking her to come help sneak Julian out.

Can’t. The boys aren’t allowed inside, remember?

“Dammit.” He was going to have to figure it out himself, then. Create a distraction so Julian could sneak out the front door unnoticed. Yadriel slipped back into his room. “Okay, we’re going to—”

Julian jumped. The yearbook was in his lap and he shut it quickly with a snap.

“What are you doing?” Yadriel demanded.

Julian blinked. “What?”

“What are you—?”

“Nothing!” The wide-eyed look on his face, accompanied by rosy cheeks, was so guilty that it was almost comical. “Look!” Julian said, jumping to change the subject as he haphazardly opened and closed the cover.

Yadriel’s face screwed up in confusion.

“I can pick it up and move it!” Julian told him, flashing a smile.

“Oookay.” Yadriel stepped closer. “Why are you—?”

Julian quickly stood up from the bed, tossing the yearbook to the side. A Sharpie fell through his lap. “Maritza’s waiting for us, right? Come on,” he said, making for the door. “Time to sneak out and go find my friends,” Julian told him as he walked out into the hall.

Yadriel shook his head and picked up the yearbook. Before putting it away, he flipped it open to his picture. His own face looked up at him, smiling in a way that made him look like he was in physical pain. He wore the same black hoodie, his hair carefully styled.

He was about to snap it shut when he noticed.

Beneath his photo, his deadname had been scribbled out with black marker. Under, written in lopsided letters, it read, YADRIEL.





NINE


“I can just jump out the window,” Julian suggested as they stood at the top of the stairs, trying to come up with a plan.

Yadriel spun to face him. “What?” he said, giving Julian a bewildered look as he toyed with the St. Jude pendant.

Julian stared at it, his fingers brushing the same spot on himself.

“You’re not serious,” Yadriel said.

Julian rolled his eyes before locking them onto Yadriel’s. “What’s it gonna do, kill me?”

“I think a bigger problem would be people seeing a body falling out the window.”

“Then you come up with something!”

“Shh!” Yadriel paused to listen, but the chatter continued downstairs, undisturbed. “As tempting as it is to throw you out the window—”

Julian’s mouth flew open, but Yadriel cut him off. “I think the best option is to just walk out the front door.”

“You just said we can’t let anyone see me—”

“Right, so we’ve got to be sneaky about it.” Yadriel huffed a breath in an attempt to steady his nerves. “I’ll go into the kitchen and distract them, and you sneak out the door, okay?”

Julian looked doubtful, but he bobbed his head in a nod.

“Stay close,” he said as they slowly moved down the stairs. A shiver rolled through Yadriel, like icy fingers trailing up his spine.

Julian’s voice said in his ear, a cool breeze ghosting against his neck, “You got it, patrón.”

Maybe that was too close.

They went down the stairs, and Julian pressed himself against the wall next to the entryway to the kitchen. Yadriel cut him a glance before walking into the kitchen.

“Hi, Lita,” he said, and he was greeted by a cacophony of hellos. Every set of eyes swung to Yadriel, and he shrank at the sudden attention.

Lita ushered him forward, and Yadriel moved to the other side of the room, angling himself so Lita and the brujas turned their backs on the living room.

“Are you hungry?” Lita asked. “We’re making tamales!”

The brujas lined the counter, making an assembly line of tamales. One of them spread the masa into the corn husk, the next laid the filling, the third wrapped the husk and then handed it to Lita, who placed it in a large pot to be steamed.