Not Even Close (A New Generation) by Elizabeth Reyes (books to read in a lifetime txt) 📗

Turning up to where he first motioned, Vannah saw two guyssticking their heads out the window cat calling some of the girls down front. Shethen turned to the bumper-to-bumper unmoving car lot on the street. Unbelievably,she felt her heart speed up a little with the excitement that he might betelling the truth, and he hadn’t turned out to be a horny douche after all.

“Vannah, I don’t feel good at all.” Vannah turned back to Xochitlwho was touching the beads of sweat on her forehead now with a wince. Her speechwas getting more slurred with every word too. “My head is throbbing.”

“I wouldn’t put it past those assholes to have spiked her drink.”Byron’s comment made the feelings of panic squash the warm fuzzies Vannah had begunto feel.

Xochitl’s eyes looked ready to roll to the back of her head. Vannahglanced out into the parking lot of a street in front of her again. Even firstresponse vehicles would have a hard time getting to them if they needed to.

“I can get you out of here fast,” Byron assured her in a suddenlymuch nicer tone. “Everyone here is cruising this street all the way up. As soonas I get us to that first street right there, I’d turn off this mess and we’dbe moving.”

Her parents’ warnings echoed in her head again as Vannah tried todecide. He seemed nice enough and there was no way this guy would have toresort to drugging girls to get in their pants, right? But what if he waslying? What if he’d really been up to no good when she caught him? What if hewas just one of those guys who didn’t need to, but got off on drugging girlsand raping them? She’d seen enough Dateline mysteries to know good looks didn’tnecessarily rule out deranged.

As Xochitl began to slide down the side of his car, Vannah gaspedreaching out for her. Completely passed out now, her friend’s weight was toomuch for tiny Vannah.

“I got her,” Byron reached out and easily lifted Xochitl. “Whattayou gonna do? You want her on the grass somewhere, the sidewalk, or in thebackseat of my car?”

Vannah bit her lip as her mind raced and then she had a thought.“Okay, your car.”

Helping him open the backdoor, Byron got Xochitl in and then workedon getting her buckled up. Vannah hurried to the back of the car and took apicture of his license plate before he could see her. Everyone around them wenton their merry way as if seeing a passed-out girl being carried into thebackseat of a car around here was the norm. What in the world had Vannah and Xochitl’slightweight asses been thinking when they decided to drink hard liquor in thefirst place?

Vannah put a text together for her sister Nena before attachingthe photo of the license plate to it then read it before sending it off.

Check on me in about an hour. If you can’t get a hold ofme this is the license plate of the guy who’s taking me home from a party. I’llexplain later. I’ll call you as soon as I get a chance. Love you!

She trusted her sister knew better than to mention this to herparents unless she really thought something was wrong. But Vannah would becalling her the moment she was home safe. She did not need her overprotectiveparents getting a whiff of what was going on or God forbid her hot-headed brothers.They’d for sure be banging on her dorm room door before the night was over ifthat happened.

Byron opened the door to the front passenger side. “Ready to go?”

Nodding, Vannah explained she and Xochitl lived in the dorms andgave him general directions. She remembered something else, as she got in andByron closed the door. She set his gym clothes that reeked of puke by her feetwanting them as far from her as possible, and began texting Joseph, thenthought better of it. The poor guy was technically being stood up now afterhe’d so willingly offered to take them home. At the very least she owed him acall.

Joseph answered just as Byron got in the car. “Joseph, it’s Vannah.Listen, sweetie, we had to leave. Xochitl started throwing up again and then passedout. I needed to get her out of there ASAP. But thank you for offering to takeus home.”

“Did you get an Uber?”

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment because she knew he’d thinkher an idiot for jumping in with Byron since he hadn’t heard Byron’sexplanation. Vannah didn’t want to get into all that now, so she decided tojust go along with Joseph’s assumption. “Um, yeah. We got lucky and there wasone close by. Just picked us up.”

Feeling Byron’s eyes on her, Vannah lifted her chin but staredstraight ahead. Who cared if he’d just heard her lie, right? She still wasn’tone hundred percent sure she could trust him.

“I guess it’s for the best.” Joseph said. “I was getting ready tocall you and let you know it was gonna be a while before I got there.”

“I figured as much. It’s why I called an Uber instead.”

“I’m glad you got one quick then.” She heard him clear his throatbefore asking. “So, when can we hook up again?”

Vannah felt her face warm. Byron wasn’t staring at her anymoresince he was busy trying to merge into that nightmare traffic. But she knew hecould hear every word she was saying. Since she’d never been good at flirtingor talking to guys about hooking up, she’d hate for Byron to be witnessto anything lame she might say. She could kick herself now for not having gonewith her first thought and just texted Joseph.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she kept it as simple as possible.“I don’t know. Text me and we’ll compare schedules.”

“That pizza place I was telling you about would be a good placeto hang out.

Vannah nodded listening to Joseph go on about the pizza placewith the live bands he’d been raving about earlier. She wanted nothing morethan to get him off the phone before she said something to embarrass herself.

“Sounds like fun. Text me and