Not Even Close (A New Generation) by Elizabeth Reyes (best books for 7th graders .txt) 📕

since labeled him Mr. Duplicity. She’d beenas equally intrigued as she’d been annoyed by the odd demeanor. Though in hisdefense—because yes even though Vannah didn’t know the gorgeous guy, she wasalready defending him—she’d reminded Xochitl that she too must’ve looked like abasket case. The way both times she’d been smiling giddy one second thencompletely froze the moment their eyes had met. Vannah was only glad that firsttime he hadn’t been near enough to hear her literally stutter when she tried tospeak after being thunderstruck by his smile.

The first time Xochitl had immediately asked her if she knew himand they’d taken him in thoroughly and exchanged their thoughts of him. But becauseMatt was there the second time, they’d had to wait until later that evening todiscuss. That first day at the signing they’d debated on whether he was atrainer or an aspiring boxer at the gym. He was big enough to be a fighter thatwas for sure. But clearly, he’d been working the lines not doing any signing. Thenlater walked off talking to Beast, so they hadn’t been sure what to make ofthat.

Vannah had barely sat down in her first class that morning after seeinghim at Starbucks that second time, when Xochitl, the queen of research andonline stalking, had texted her a full report. They didn’t have much to go bythe first day, but after hearing his name called out at Starbucks her cleverroommate had Googled his name, 5thStreet, Beast, the word boxing and voila. Byron Ledesma was the much youngerbrother of Leonardo “Beast” Ledesma. He was twenty-five, single and though he hada black belt in Jiu jitsu, as far as they could tell, not an aspiringboxer or even trainer at the gym. But apparently, he was likely just helpingout that day for his brother’s signing.

It was almost shameful, not to mention kind of creepy, how muchyou could find out about a person these days by just Googling. Vannah also knewhe was a recent graduate from ESU and was even privy now about his talentedwork with car restorations. What wasn’t clear, was whether he just worked forhis brother at what appeared to be a very big and like the gym—popular with thecelebrities—auto restoration shop. Or if he was now part owner as well. But hewas listed on the website as part of the team. There were lots ofworkers but the four main guys in charge appeared to consist of Byron, Beast, atatted-up stud named Nine who they recognized as one of the guys withhim at the signing, and another tatted-up, hottie named Orlando. It’d been justone more thing for Xochitl to be unnecessarily annoyed by and it’d had Vannah giggling.

“Geez, so what is it about California? Specifically, the East LosAngeles area. Look at these guys. They could all be models. It’s an auto shopfor crying out loud. They’re supposed to look like dirty grease monkeys.”

Xochitl had done the initial researching of the guy which gotthem the basics about Byron. But Vannah who was far more interested in him thanher friend, had continued to secretly dig a little further. She stopped when itbegan to feel wrong. Obviously, the sudden death of his mother was publicknowledge since she’d come across the articles like the many about his brother,the gym and even the auto shop. Just a little over a year ago his mother haddied in a tragic freak accident when she’d fallen after standing on a stepstool in the kitchen. She’d broken her neck when she’d hit her head on themarble island counter. But it felt too private—too delicate a subject to bedelving into someone’s life—without their consent.

Especially when Vannah had read the side notes and follow uparticles that read more like intrusive tabloid stories than news. It was firstrumored that perhaps her husband had played a part in her tragic accident, thenlater ruled out. Still the articles speculating that maybe he’d gotten off, ranrife. But the articles about Beast’s grief-stricken younger brother,selling the house his mother was found dead in because he refused to step footback in it. The articles about the famous boxer’s younger brother who wasreported to be inconsolable after her death felt especially intrusive.

Clearly, this had been a very traumatic occurrence in his life. Vannah’sheart went out to him because she couldn’t even imagine losing either ofher parents—much less so tragically and unexpectedly. She was only glad thatfor the most part all the photos she came across of him online he wassurrounded by friends and family. At first, she’d just assumed he and his brother,whose nickname Beast was apparently for good reason, shared the samehardened demeanor. But upon revisiting all the photos, before reading about hismother’s death, she wondered now if she’d misjudged what she saw in those dark penetratingand at times haunting eyes.

Even as Xochitl had jumped way ahead of herself and it wascompletely nerve-racking. “Oh my God, Vannah this is Beast’s brotherwe’ve caught eyeing you twice now. We stood in line for that man’s signaturefor over two hours. Girl, the next time you see him you need to unleash thatinner Goddess and light it up.”

As if. Only time Vannah’s inner Goddess ever showed up waswhen she was in the kitchen. She doubted she’d ever be in that situation withthis guy, so that wasn’t happening. Daydreaming this much about any guy wasabsolutely new to her and already she’d done more than her share about Byron.Her silly thoughts had gone as far as secretly pondering what her parents wouldsay about their just turned eighteen-year-old daughter dating atwenty-five-year-old man. She wasn’t sure what her mom would say but shewas pretty sure her dad would have issues with it.

While Nena would likely have a field day since she was stillteasing her about staying friends with Matt who clearly was looking for morethan just a friendship, she’d likely be excited about Byron being related tosomeone so famous. Too excited. Which was exactly why she hadn’t sharedanything about him with her. The very idea that a man like Byron wouldhave any interest in her silly freshman ass was just ridiculous. Besides, therewas nothing