Not Even Close (A New Generation) by Elizabeth Reyes (sight word books .txt) 📕

the phone screen then turned backto Byron. “I felt so bad when I said I’d been with him last week.” She wasbarely able to squeal the words out, then screeched when he grabbed her andpulled her into a mock head lock.

“I should kick your ass.”

This only made her squeal even louder with laughter and he pinnedher against the counter searching her eyes even as the adrenaline continued to pummelthrough him.

“You said the F word to me.” She pouted feigning looking hurt,though her animated bright eyes gave way to her still laughing mood.

“You better not be lying.”

“I’m not.” She shrieked as he pressed his body against hers hard.“I swear. I already made the intro and everything. It’s why I took so long tocall you back. After I got off the phone, I put it together with Taz. Butvlogging’s not his thing, so we had to retake it several times. I can show youafter.”

“Show me now.”

“But I still have to edit—”

“Now.”

“Okay.” He pressed his body against hers even harder. “Okay!”

As usual with Savannah the laughter was ever going, but evenByron couldn’t help smiling now too. He was just too damn relieved. “First, letme close this out.”

He let her squirm out of his arms just far enough to reach forher phone. She picked it up and spoke into the screen. “Alright y’all, so thiswas a success. We got him good. Something tells me this won’t be the lasttime he’ll be a victim of the Sizzling Sisters.”

“It better be.” Byron squeezed her.

She cackled loudly but then just like her cooking, she wascompletely back in her element as she went on. “You know the drill. HashtagTeam Vannah, hashtag Sizzling Sisters. Like comment and share below. Stay tunedfor more videos and that new intro we’ve been working on. Out!” She hit thescreen still shaking her head. “Oh my God, I can’t wait to see it.”

“First the intro, Savannah.”

A part of him was already convinced this had in fact been aprank. A cruel and dangerous prank, given that she already knew what hisreaction might be to something of this nature, even way back before muchhad happened between them. But a very small part of him needed to be absolutelysure she wasn’t just that good. For a few agonizing moments there, he’dtruly believed he’d been completely blindsided. He’d already begun havingvisuals of slamming the door behind her when she walked out, then his fist intothe wall.

He pulled her to him, her back against him and she leaned back,so he could see her phone over her shoulder. She tapped away at the screenquickly as she explained more.

“Like I said, this still needs to be edited. My parents used tohave to okay every one of these before we posted, but once we hit eighteen, theylost interest in monitoring them. Just gave us the spiel about beingresponsible and how the internet is forever, even if you do delete, blah, blahblah. You heard my mom the day we had dinner with them. I don’t even think theywatch our videos anymore. There’s too many for them to keep up with. But I’mstill gonna edit out the part where you mention rubbing yourself against me.”

She was laughing again when Byron brought his arm around her neckand started to squeeze with a groan. “That was the worst part. You had to sayhis name right when I did that?”

“I was afraid things were about to get hot and then I’dhave to start a whole new video. I was already so nervous as it was. So, I justwent for it.” She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “I almost lost itwhen you questioned me saying his name right when you were rubbing against me.It’s why I turned around, so you wouldn’t see me laugh. My dad cannot seethat part. I mean he knows we’re adults now and all—”

“Wait a minute. You can’t post this!” He’d been so riled up, thenoverwhelmingly relieved, he hadn’t even thought of that. “I cussed at you,babe. I’ll look like a douche. Your dad and his army of Moreno’s will comeafter me one by one.”

“No, they won’t.” She laughed. “Given the circumstances I thinkyou reacted like most would. Especially my dad and uncles. Trust me.”Her laugh went higher pitched again as she shook her head. “I was with him aweek ago.”

This time he bear-hugged her squeezing her much tighter than hehad earlier. “Ugh. If I were a real douche, I might’ve put myhands on you when you said that. That was such a slap in the face.”

When she finally caught her breath again, she turned to face himand explained she didn’t think she’d be keeping it going for that long, soshe’d begun to scramble for things to say. “When I blurted out that I couldexplain, I had no idea how I possibly could. I hadn’t thought that far ahead,and it was already getting so intense. So, my saying I’d been with him just aweek ago came out of nowhere. I couldn’t even think straight at that point anymore.I grasped and spat out the first thing that came to me.” She pouted touchinghis face despite her still playful eyes “Oh my God, the look on your face whenI said it. It was all I could take and had to call it.”

Savannah kissed him even as he tried to dodge her lips. But shecontinued giggling then went back to her phone. She began to cue it up but explainedsomething else first.

“After the weekend of the anniversary and watching Manny’shilarious video’s, Nena called me all excited saying we had to do somechallenges. Seeing your reaction to Richard being there, and how you didn’teven attempt to mask the annoyance despite Nena standing right there, shethought you’d be a perfect candidate for something like this.”

She went back to cuing the video and Byron watched it. It was of hersetting up the whole thing. Explaining how her boyfriend could be veryintense, but Nena had begged her to do this and she was so nervous about it.

They watched together as she explained what was about to go down.The