Not Even Close (A New Generation)

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “Wait I wasn’t planning on—”

  “Can’t you see she’s completely wasted?”

  “Yeah, that’s why—”

  “Oh, I bet that’s why,” she retorted finally turning to look up at him but then quickly turned to Joseph because she could hardly stand to look in those hardened, yet infuriatingly sexy eyes for even another second. She was used to most guys towering over her, like Byron did but, in his case, he didn’t just tower, he had a huge presence about him. One she’d been beyond attracted to before, only now she hated it.

  “Joseph. Can you help me out here, sweetie?”

  “We were just gonna go park my car somewhere legal,” Byron urged.

  Vannah scoffed at the irony. That he’d be thinking about legalities when he’d been ready to take advantage of a young, obviously very drunk girl was a joke.

  “Listen, I don’t know what you think I was—”

  Xochitl spewing out all her liquor suddenly as Byron jumped out of the way just in time interrupted whatever BS he’d begun to say. Even as Vannah held Xochitl’s hair as she continued to throw up by the side of the car, she couldn’t understand why she felt almost hurt.

  For a moment, when Xochitl had begun to giggle, Vannah had started to feel hurt with her. If anyone knew how utterly infatuated Vannah was with this guy it was Xochitl. But then she reminded herself the girl was wasted. Watching her friend hurl out her guts made Vannah feel guilty about what she’d begun to think.

  Byron handed her a handful of napkins. The kind you get from fast food places. “It’s all I have in my car.”

  Ignoring her conflicting feelings, she took the napkins from him and handed one to Xochitl. Her spewing had finally ceased, but she needed to clean up. “Well, at least this happened here and not in an Uber on the way home.”

  “You Ubered here?” Byron asked.

  Vannah nodded as she smiled at her mortified looking friend. “Better?”

  It was obvious Xochitl was still completely out of it, but at least she wasn’t hurling anymore.

  “I can give you a lift home.” Byron offered just as the words begun to assault Vannah again.

  It was obvious he wanted in her pants bad.

  “No, way.”

  “What? Wait—”

  “I’ll take you home,” Joseph said interrupting Byron, then glanced down at Xochitl. “Can you walk? I’m parked a few blocks away.”

  Xochitl started to pull away from Byron’s car, but immediately clutched onto Vannah’s arm and leaned back against the car again. “Oh my God. I’m so dizzy.”

  “That’s okay, I can go get my car.” Joseph reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Will you be okay here without me?” He glanced at Byron then back at Vannah. “I shouldn’t be too long.”

  “That’s fine,” Vannah said again determined to not look into those probing eyes. “We’ll wait for you.”

  “Take my number down just in case.”

  Tapping at her phone screen, Vannah added Joseph’s number into her contacts. She hadn’t decided on whether she’d be giving him her number yet, but she had no choice now, when she’d call or text him later, he’d have it. It wasn’t until Joseph was far enough away, that Byron spoke up again.

  “You just met this guy?”

  Glancing at him, Vannah refrained from breathing in deeply. As much as she’d fantasied about him, she hated how much better looking he was up close, damn it. She nodded but didn’t offer anything else.

  “And you’re jumping in a car with him?”

  With her jaw dropping open, Vannah shook her head. “As opposed to jumping in one with you? Someone who was about to take my drunk friend to park somewhere?”

  “Yeah, so that we could—”

  Byron jumped out of the way in time when Xochitl threw up again, but Vannah wasn’t so lucky this time. Xochitl got her right in the arm before she started whimpering. “Oh, Vannah, I’m so sorry.”

  Holding her arm away from herself and glancing around for something, anything she could wipe it down with, Vannah shook her head. “It’s okay, hon.”

  Byron wore that same soured expression Vannah knew she was making, as he rushed to the back of his car and the trunk popped open. “Here,” he said pulling out clothing and handing to her. Vannah took it and quickly started cleaning her arm. “I have more if you need more. I forgot I had my gym bag back here.”

  Realizing she was cleaning up with his gym shorts, Vannah did her best to stay composed. “Maybe one more,” she said reluctantly but Xochitl had gotten her good.

  This time he handed her a white tank like the one she’d seen him looking so delectable in at the gym.

  “There’s no way that guys getting back here anytime soon,” Byron said. “Look at that backup.”

  Glancing up at the parking lot of a street, Vannah had to admit he had a point. She frowned pulling her own phone out of her pocket. “Maybe I should just call an Uber.”

  “Because it’s gonna be able to get through this traffic sooner than the other guy?”

  “You can’t possibly expect me to be stupid enough to get in a car with you, can you?”

  “Fine,” he said slamming his trunk shut and stalking toward the driver side door. “Suit yourself. My cars already here, but if you wanna wait an hour or more until you can get someone out here to pick you up, go right ahead.”

  He got in his car as Vannah stood there struggling to pull Xochitl away from it, wondering how long they’d really be out there waiting. Just as fast as he’d gotten in his car, he opened the door and popped out. “No. This is bullshit!” He started around the car again and toward Vannah, looking just as much as a daunting hard ass, as his brother did in all those photos online. “I was trying to help your friend tonight.”

  “Oh really? I heard you were all over her before you walked out of that party with her.”

  “I was never in that party. I saw two guys trying to take advantage of her as I drove by.”

  Vannah felt her bottom lip drop but recovered fast enough and turned to Xochitl. She was leaning against the car again looking like she might pass out. “Is that true?”

  Xochitl looked right through Vannah, like she hadn’t the slightest idea what they were discussing.

  “Yeah, it’s true.” Byron sounded even more annoyed now. “They were about to take her back inside and upstairs at the request of those idiots up there. You really think I could’ve just left the party, jumped in my car, and gotten back here that fast in this traffic?”

  Turning up to where he first motioned, Vannah saw two guys sticking their heads out the window cat calling some of the girls down front. She then 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 be telling 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 Xochitl who was touching the beads of sweat on her forehead now with a wince. Her speech was 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 begun to feel.

  Xochitl’s eyes looked ready to roll to the back of her head. Vannah glanced out into the parking lot of a street in front of her again. Even first response 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 suddenly much nicer tone. “Everyone here is cruising this street all the way up. As soon as I get us to that first street right there, I’d turn off this mess and we’d be moving.”

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

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

  “I got her,” Byron reached out and easily lifted Xochitl. “Whatta you gonna do? You want her on the grass somewhere, the sidewalk, or in the backseat 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 worked on getting her buckled up. Vannah hurried to the back of the car and took a picture of his license plate before he could see her. Everyone around them went on their merry way as if seeing a passed-out girl being carried into the backseat of a car around here was the norm. What in the world had Vannah and Xochitl’s lightweight asses been thinking when they decided to drink hard liquor in the first place?

  Vannah put a text together for her sister Nena before attaching the 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 of me this is the license plate of the guy who’s taking me home from a party. I’ll explain 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 her parents unless she really thought something was wrong. But Vannah would be calling her the moment she was home safe. She did not need her overprotective parents 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 if that happened.

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

  Nodding, Vannah explained she and Xochitl lived in the dorms and gave him general directions. She remembered something else, as she got in and Byron closed the door. She set his gym clothes that reeked of puke by her feet wanting them as far from her as possible, and began texting Joseph, then thought better of it. The poor guy was technically being stood up now after he’d so willingly offered to take them home. At the very least she owed him a call.

  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 passed out. I needed to get her out of there ASAP. But thank you for offering to take us home.”

  “Did you get an Uber?”

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

  Feeling Byron’s eyes on her, Vannah lifted her chin but stared straight ahead. Who cared if he’d just heard her lie, right? She still wasn’t one hundred percent sure she could trust him.

  “I guess it’s for the best.” Joseph said. “I was getting ready to call 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 throat before asking. “So, when can we hook up again?”

  Vannah felt her face warm. Byron wasn’t staring at her anymore since he was busy trying to merge into that nightmare traffic. But she knew he could hear every word she was saying. Since she’d never been good at flirting or talking to guys about hooking up, she’d hate for Byron to be witness to anything lame she might say. She could kick herself now for not having gone with 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 place to hang out.

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

  “Sounds like fun. Text me and we’ll plan it.”

  A few minutes later, she was finally off the phone. No sooner had she put her phone down when Byron turned to her. “Why’d you lie?”

  “Hmm?” she glanced out the window feeling her already warm face heat further.

  “You said you got an Uber. Didn’t you just meet this guy tonight?”

  “Yeah, so?” Vannah turned to him confused.

  “So, what does it matter if you left with another guy?”

  Left with Byron? Even though technically she had, the very idea that this is how Byron saw it, had her insides awakening in nervous excitement.

  “Not just another guy, Byron.” Now her face was on fire because she just let it slip that she knew his name. Before he could comment because he looked ready to, she went on quickly willing her blushing away. “I left with the guy he’s still under the impression was trying to take advantage of my friend back there. He’d think me an idiot, so I just went with his assumption that I got an Uber because it was easier than explaining the whole truth.”

  Inching along in the traffic, Byron was able to stare at her for a moment unnerving her to no end, before lifting his finger. “We’ll get back to how you know my name later, because this is interesting. Ironic that your response to why you lie is so honest. Because it’s easier than telling the truth?”

  “Why I lie?” Vannah asked welcoming her annoyed reaction. It was better than squirming in the unease she’d begun to feel. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  Byron chuckled, though he looked anything but amused. “It’s just a new one for me. Is all.”

  “What’s a new one?”

  “I’ve heard liars justify lying in other ways. Usually by—”

  “So, you are calling me a liar?”

  “Did you, or did you not, just lie to this guy you’re already making plans on getting together with again?”

  Vannah could hardly believe this. For weeks she’d been fantasizing about what her first conversation with this guy might be—if ever. First, she’d been highly disappointed that he was a douche trying to get into Xochitl’s pants. Then she’d been relieved it appeared to have all been a misunderstanding, but now it may’ve turned out he was a douche of an entirely different kind.

  “First of all, the only reason I lied.” She stopped to inhale and nodded. “Okay I should’ve said it was faster to just go along with the Uber thing than to clarify the truth. Not that it was easier to lie because I was afraid he might be mad. It’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything.”

  “Fair enough.” He turned onto that first street finally. “So, will you be telling your boyfriend the whole truth about tonight?”

  Feeling the flush again, only this time clear down her neck, Vannah swallowed hard. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “You don’t?” Staring straight ahead because she could feel him looking at her again, she nodded. “Oh, I see,” he went on. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  Now she turned to him, because she didn’t like the condescending way he said that last part. Despite his douchey intrusiveness about her personal life, something about his interest in it was strangely thrilling.

  “What makes sense?”

  “You’re a freshman?”

  “Yeah?” she asked even more curious about where he was going with this.

  “You live in the dorms so you’re not from around, here right?”

  “I’m from San Diego.”

  “First time away from home?” She started to shake her head until he added. “Trips don’t count. I’m talking about living away from mommy and daddy.”

  Pursing her lips at the pretention in his tone again, Vannah nodded. “It is,” she agreed with caution.

  “You’re a beautiful—” He stopped and c
leared his throat glancing away as Vannah’s insides went wild. “You’re a pretty girl. I take it you’ve had a boyfriend?”

  “I was in a relationship in high school.”

  “So, let me guess, now that you’re out here—an out-of-towny—you don’t do the relationship thing anymore?”

  Confused by this line of questioning, despite her still dancing insides, Vannah shook her head. “All I said was I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “But do you do the boyfriend thing?” He turned to face her full on as they reached a red light.

  Feeling a little ruffled because she finally got what he was getting at, and he was right. She hated to admit it, but he’d already labeled her a liar, so she decided just to be honest. “No, I don’t. Not right now.” He chuckled in that way he had earlier, sounding more annoyed or even disgusted than amused. “I’m trying to focus on my grades and getting all my ducks in a row.”

  “So, you just have friends, not boyfriends. Multiple friends you don’t owe explanations to about what you do with other friends. Do you meet them all at these frat parties?”

  “This is the first frat party I’ve ever been to, okay? And it’ll likely be my last given how this one turned out.”

  Vannah had never gone from feeling so excited to so annoyed in a matter of sentences in a conversation with anyone in her life. This was so not what she thought her first conversation with Byron would be like. The only thing she’d hit right on the nose is how intense a conversation with him might be. He was quiet for a little too long, so she turned to look at him just as the light turned green and they were moving again. To her surprise, she turned just in time to see his jaw clench then unclench.

  Seven

  The Offer

  Byron

  He had one goal now. Just one. Get her the hell home and out of his car where Byron could finally get the scent of her out of his nose and stop with his arbitrary questioning. He had zero business questioning anything she did. He’d hoped the smell of puke in his car might mask that intoxicating scent of her. The moment she’d been close enough, he’d been assaulted by her fragrance and no amount of puke was undoing it. It’s why he hadn’t offered to throw the dirty clothes back in his trunk.