Page 1 of Friendly Skies
Prologue
Darius
When they were sixteen
Luis had disappeared even though his sister’s quinceañera party was still going strong in the backyard, and Darius thought that was odd. Firstly, because it wasn’t like his best friend to ditch him, and secondly because this was a family event. The Herreras were serious about their family events. Even with a backyard full of people, someone was going to notice Luis wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Which was why Darius decided to look for him.
Rounding the corner of the house, Darius ran into Luis’ youngest sister, Donella, and a gaggle of girl cousins. Like Donella, they were all thirteen and fourteen and thought they were hot shit because of the way boys reacted to them. At sixteen, even if Darius had been interested in girls, he wasn’t keen to be flirted with by a dozen of them who giggled so much he barely understood what they were saying. He tried to back away, but they had him surrounded like a pack of wolves.
Donella stood right in front of him, stared him in the eye, and asked him if he wanted to truth or dare with them.
Oh, hell-to-the-no!he thought and said he needed to find Luis.
“I think he went inside,” one of the girls said, then giggled and blushed.
“Thanks,” Darius said and pushed his way out of the crowd of girls. He was five-eleven and towered over them, but it was still disconcerting to be leered at by a bunch of kids.
Once free, Darius scanned the backyard for any sign of Luis, then headed inside. The kitchen was full of aunts and younger cousins, along with Luis’ abuela, who would grab him by the arm and ask if he had a girlfriend yet, then pat his cheek and tell him the girls should be falling all over themselves for such a good-looking boy.
Darius backed out of the doorway, then rounded the house on the opposite side from where Donella and her crew were probably still lying in wait for their next victim. He re-entered the house through the front door, then sought out Luis’ bedroom, knowing the house almost as well as his own, which was only two doors down. They’d been best friends since Darius and his family had moved in when Darius was eight, and their parents always knew if they weren’t in one house, they’d be at the other.
Luis had the smallest bedroom, but as the only boy, he had it to himself and didn’t need to share like his sisters did. The door to Luis’ bedroom was closed, but Darius didn’t bother knocking. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The shades were down, and the room was dark, but Darius could still see Luis’ form lying on top of the bed, his left foot flat on the floor. His shirt was off, the waistband of his shorts pulled down over one hip as if Luis had fallen over while trying to get undressed and decided it was too much effort to get back up andfinish the job. Darius frowned at his friend because he shouldn’t be taking a nap in the middle of his older sister’s quinceañera.
“Hey.” Darius shook Luis’ shoulder. “Chico, are you all right?”
Luis responded with an unintelligible groan, so Darius shook him harder.
“Go 'way,” Luis said. “¡Vete al carajo y déjame en paz!”
He tried to curl on his side, but Darius kept him pinned so he could see Luis’ face. Like most of his family, Luis was slightly built with a compact frame and delicate features. His size belied his strength, but he wasn’t much of a match for Darius.
“Should I get your mom?” Darius asked.
That question roused Luis, and his eyes flew open. Even in the dimly lit room, Darius could see something was off by the way Luis’ eyes were moving back and forth. It didn’t seem like Luis could focus.
“Chico, you’re scaring me. Are you okay?”
“Please, don’t get my mom,” Luis whispered. “Just stay here.” He tried scooting to the side to give Darius room to climb onto the bed with him but couldn’t seem to get his body to work. Darius gently pushed him to the side and lay down alongside his best friend. Having grown up basically next door to each other, sleeping in each other’s beds was something they’d done since they were little. Even if their parents thought sixteen was too old to share a bed, they continued to do it, sleeping head to toe until the rest of the house was asleep, then switching so they could talk.
Darius wrapped his arms around Luis and pulled him against his chest, feeling the clamminess of Luis’ skin and the way his heart was racing.
“What did you do, chico?” Darius asked.
Luis moaned and curled his legs up to his stomach. “I don’t know. I think Andrés may have given me something.”
Andrés was the latest boyfriend of one of Luis’ cousins and someone both Darius and Luis avoided at all costs. Everyone in the neighborhood knew he dealt except, it seemed, for Gabriella’s parents. They thought Andrés was a perfect gentleman because he always brought gifts for both her and her mother, but the guy was bad news all the way around as far as Darius was concerned.
The idea that Andrés might have slipped something to Luis made Darius want to go find him and punch him, but he controlled his anger. It would be stupid to go after Andrés, and besides, his best friend needed him more than he needed to cause a scene at the Herreras’ party.
“My stomach hurts,” Luis said.
“Are you gonna puke?”
“I don’t think so.” He stretched his legs out and rolled onto his back so he could look at Darius, who kept his left arm draped lightly over Luis’ stomach. “It’s more like a cramp.”
“Maybe you ate some of Tía Aldona’s camarones a la diabla,” Darius suggested, though if Andrés was involved, his money was on drugs, and probably X, which meant Luis was going to be tripping in another thirty to forty minutes. Darius was no expert on drugs. He’d smoked a joint or two—he didn’t know a single kid in their neighborhood who hadn’t at least gone that far—but he had an older brother who spent most of his nights on something or other.
