Cemetery Boys(55)

Luca, meanwhile, was distracted. “Can I pet your dogs?” he asked Maritza with a hopeful lift of his eyebrows.

Maritza laughed. “Yeah, sure,” she said moving closer. “They’re friendly.”

Luca immediately put down his skateboard and dropped into a squat, small arms in long sleeves held out to his sides. Donatello and Michelangelo bowled Luca right over, knocking him off his feet. He was practically swallowed up by the large dogs as they nudged and licked at him happily.

As he laughed, hands giving them both a good scratch, Donatello’s lolling tongue gave him a particularly good swipe. It slicked back Luca’s mass of light brown hair, revealing a large scar running down the side of his face. It was a patch of marbled skin.

Yadriel’s heart made a hard thump in his chest. He’d seen scars like it on Maritza’s dad’s arm. Burns.

She noticed, too, the grin on her face slipping to a look of shock.

Julian didn’t say anything.

There was a lot about Julian and his friends that Yadriel still didn’t know.

When Julian remained silent, Yadriel said, “I don’t think he wants us to see Rio.”

Luca stared up at Yadriel with his large deep amber eyes while Michelangelo lapped at his ear. “So you can hear him? And see him?”

Yadriel nodded. “Yes.”

Luca looked around, twisting his fingers together. “Where is he?”

Both Yadriel and Maritza looked at Julian.

Julian stood there, motionless as he watched Luca. Even his silence was loud. His stillness was unsettling. Yadriel didn’t like it. He almost preferred Julian yelling to this.

Luca searched the empty air, squinting, even venturing to take a step closer. “Can he hear me?”

“Yes, he can hear you,” Yadriel said softly.

Hesitantly, Luca held out his hand. “Can he touch me?”

Julian’s expression was slack, his spine bowed and eyes dull as they studied Luca. He stepped forward and reached out. His hand hovered just above Luca’s. Yadriel held a breath as Julian’s face pinched in concentration.

Julian lowered his hand, and his fingers slipped right through Luca’s palm.

Luca shivered, his arm quaking inside the large sleeve, but otherwise didn’t react.

“It doesn’t really work like that…,” Yadriel said as Julian stepped back and turned his head away.

Pink bloomed in Luca’s cheeks. He dropped his hand to his side and rubbed his arm. He gave that apologetic little smile again.

“Fine.”

Julian’s voice was so small, at first Yadriel wasn’t sure he’d heard right.

“Really?” Yadriel asked, trying to get a look at his face, but Julian kept it turned away. Instead, he gave a jerky nod.

“What?” Luca asked, looking around again. “What’d he say?”

“He said yes,” Yadriel said. The relief crashing over him felt so good, he smiled.

Luca smiled back. “I could meet you guys tomorrow morning, give you the night to think it over?”

“It would need to be the afternoon, we’ve got school.” Yadriel nodded toward Maritza.

“Oh, right. Afternoon, then.” Luca nodded. “Where should I meet you? Do you live nearby?”

“Yeah, I live there,” Yadriel said, motioning through the large gate. The lights were on in his house. The church loomed on the other side.

Luca’s eyes went wide. “You live in there? Whoa, no wonder you can see ghosts.”

Maritza laughed.

Yadriel grinned and bit back the urge to correct him.

“I’m Maritza, by the way,” she cut in. “And that guy is Yadriel.”

“Oh.” Luca’s eyes did that quick little dart to Yadriel’s chest.

On instinct, Yadriel curled in on himself, tightly crossing his arms as heat crawled up his neck. He hated that glance, and he hated the mix of embarrassment and shame that came with it.

“I’m Luca.” His lips tugged in a lopsided smile. “But I guess Jules told you that already?” He laughed. “Okay, well I’ll meet you guys here, then, tomorrow afternoon.”

Julian straightened as Luca hopped onto his skateboard. “He can’t walk back on his own, it’s dark out—”

“Do you need somewhere to stay the night?” Yadriel asked quickly. He was already housing one boy in secret, he didn’t think he could handle another, but Julian was right—it was dark out, and if someone was going around picking off kids from the street—

“You could stay at my place,” Maritza offered, toying with her rosary. “I bet if I talked to my parents—”

“Oh, no, that’s okay!” Luca waved her off, rubbing at the back of his neck. “My parents live a few streets over—”

Yadriel saw Julian tense.

“I’ll just stay there tonight.”

Before Yadriel could think of something convincing to say, Luca was already rolling down the sidewalk and around the corner.

For a moment, all three of them stood there, not saying anything.

All the ferocity Julian had shown earlier seemed to have drained out of him. And, to be honest, Yadriel felt too exhausted to be combative, either. “Julian—”

He spun on his heel and glided right through the iron bars of the gate.