Page 44 of Cemetery Boys

“Ooh, that was him?” Maritza said, looping her rose-quartz rosary around her finger idly.

“Yeah, he was really annoying,” Patrice agreed as she braided a chunk of Maritza’s pink-and-purple hair. “Always messing around and kicking balls over to our side of the field.”

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Julian grumbled petulantly.

“He beamed me right in the back of the head once and then laughed about it,” Alexa said.

“Okay, that does sound like me.”

Yadriel did his best to turn his laugh into a cough, but Alexa noticed and sniffed indignantly, sticking her pointy nose in the air.

“Why do you care about Julian Diaz?” Patrice asked.

Maritza shrugged. “Yadriel was curious about him.”

All four sets of eyes swung to him.

Heat flooded his cheeks. “Uhhh.” He looked to Maritza for help, but the amused flash in her eyes said she was enjoying watching him squirm. “We, uh, we got assigned a group project together,” he finally managed to lie. “And I haven’t heard from him.”

“Good luck with that.” Alexa snorted.

Julian scowled. “I don’t like this one,” he said.

“He, like, never shows up to class,” she explained.

“That’s only half true,” Julian tried to defend himself.

“Hasn’t he flunked out by now?”

“I heard he got sent to juvie.”

“Hey!” Julian tried to interrupt. “I’ve only been arrested once, and that guy totally dropped the charges after my brother offered to fix his car!”

“I was going to try to get his number from one of his friends,” Yadriel cut in, trying to steer the conversation toward something useful.

Letti caught the ball and shook her head. “Nooo, you don’t want to go messing with them,” she warned. Unlike Alexa, she actually sounded sincerely worried.

Yadriel frowned. “Why not?”

“They’re, like, in a gang.”

Julian balked. “What?”

Yadriel looked to Maritza, who frowned back. Yadriel remembered hearing rumors about Julian and his group of friends. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, hearing them all listed off. Julian was clearly getting worked up, but was that because the rumors were true?

“He and his family are from Colombia,” Alexa went on, in a way that suggested a double meaning, but when everyone just stared at her, she added, “You know what they export from Colombia, don’t you?”

“Coffee?” Maritza guessed in a bored tone.

“Crack,” Alexa answered.

Julian let out a string of colorful curses.

“Don’t you mean cocaine?” Patrice asked, giving Alexa a dubious look.

“What’s the difference?”

“I’m half Colombian on my mom’s side, and none of us are drug dealers,” Letti pointed out.