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“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 isbullshit!” 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 neverinthat 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. Shedid notneed 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?”
