Falling for Ben & Other Impossible Things (Garcia Brothers Book 1) Read online

  Falling for Ben & Other Impossible Things

  The Garcia Brothers, Book 1

  Yesenia Vargas

  Copyright © 2020 by Yesenia Vargas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  I’m gonna pull a Snoop Dogg here and say…

  I want to thank me, for everything I’ve done for me.

  And as always, to all of my readers…

  THANK YOU.

  Contents

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Yesenia Vargas

  Book Description

  Every girl at Jefferson High has crushed on the Garcia brothers.

  Of the five brothers, Benjamin Garcia is the oldest, the HOTTEST, and... the one brother who does not date.

  The second Scarlett (literally) runs into Ben, she knows she’s in big trouble. Between those serious green eyes and a body made for the football uniform he rocks on Friday nights, she can’t help but fall hard for Ben.

  But why would Ben ever look twice at her, the new girl? She’s nothing special, and he may as well be on the cover of a teen magazine.

  Little does Scarlett know… she and Ben are about to get a lot closer than she ever could’ve dreamed… for the most mortifying reason.

  Get ready to fall hard for this sweet, funny young adult romance.

  1

  Jefferson High came into focus through the passenger window.

  I exhaled a long breath as Mom pulled into the morning car rider line.

  First day at a new school.

  Maybe here we’d get that new start Mom and I so desperately needed.

  Students buzzed around the busy parking lot and the tidy green campus.

  It was a lot nicer than my old school.

  I stared out the window, a little nervous, my backpack in my lap.

  Mom followed the morning car rider line at a snail’s pace until we were at the curb at the front of the school.

  I turned to her.

  She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “This is it,” she said. Her dark hair fell in long waves around her shoulders. Between her hair, make up, and navy blue blazer, she looked like a total boss. “Make some friends, okay? And have a really good day.”

  I nodded, doing my best to smile back. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll try.” I paused, glancing at her. “Although you never seem to have problem with that. Making friends, I mean.”

  Unlike me.

  She finally gave me a real smile, the kind that made her eyes scrunch up a little bit and gave her those crow’s lines she hated so much. “What can I say? People can’t help but see that I’m amazing.”

  I laughed, not realizing how much I needed it. “If you could give me just a little bit of that, it would be awesome.”

  She pinched my cheek. “You’re gonna be fine. Just smile. And don’t be afraid to say hi first instead of staring at people like this.”

  Mom did a ridiculous deer in headlights look.

  I laughed some more. “That may or may not be an accurate representation of me in social situations.”

  The car rider line moved up a little bit more, and I put my hand on the door. “I should go. Kill it at your new job, okay?”

  She put both hands back on the steering wheel and grinned. It was easy to see how excited she was. “I will, hon. Text me and let me know how it goes, okay? I’ll be home for dinner.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” I stepped outside, the cool morning air hitting my face.

  “You have your key, right?” she called, already moving forward slowly to keep up with the moving line.

  “Yeah,” I said, waving.

  “Okay, sweetie!” she yelled way too loudly. “Have a good first day!”

  A couple of cars honked at her, but that didn’t faze Mom. With one last victorious smile and big wink, she drove off, leaving me to contemplate my social reputation at Jefferson—or what was left of it.

  I stood there a second, refusing to look around and see just who had witnessed my mom saying goodbye loud enough to scare the birds away from the trees. Half the school had to have heard it.

  Some kid in a black t-shirt and Vans walked by and actually snorted into his Starbucks from trying not to laugh.

  With a shake of my head, I spun around and went inside. As embarrassing as that was, I could never be mad at Mom. She usually made it her goal to make me laugh and bring a smile to my face. Sometimes she took it a little overboard, but it sure beat dwelling on the past.

  So her antics meant a lot.

  I made my way to the front office and gave the lady a nervous smile. “Hi, I’m new. I need to pick up my schedule.”

  “Welcome to Jefferson High!” she replied.

  Was it me or was she as loud and as enthusiastic as my mom?

  “You’re going to love it here,” she went on. The name plate on her desk read KATHY WEISMAN. “What’s your name, dear, and I’ll print your schedule off so you can be on your way.”

  Oh. Duh. “Scarlett Moore. Two Ts.”

  “What a beautiful name,” she said, her bright red fingernails clicking away at her keyboard.

  I shifted my weight and hung onto the straps of my backpack, wondering what time first period started. “Thanks.” I did not want to be late to my first class.

  She went on, kind of muttering under her breath as she focused on the screen in front of her. “Ah, yes. Your transcripts came through and everything.”

  The sound of the printer made me sigh in relief. She grabbed the piece of paper it had just spit out and handed it to me. “Here you go. Your first class is Human Anatomy & Physiology with Mrs. Collins in room 542. That’s just one building over. Quickest way is that way.” She pointed to a wide hallway outside the office.

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  She gave me one last smile. “Of course. Cafeteria’s on the way there if you need to grab breakfast.” The phone rang loudly as she finished speaking.

  She picked up. I left the front office and made my way down the hallway, maneuvering past groups of people talking and laughing and couples with their arms around each other.

  One teacher, an older lady with bright blue spectacles, called out to a guy and girl kissing behind a locker door. “Mr. Sanchez, Ms. Kelly, separate!”

  I grinned and kept going. Some things wer
e the same no matter what school you ended up at.

  Three girls chatted animatedly on the opposite side of the hallway. One of them donned a high ponytail of thick, shiny, black hair along with a wide grin. She said something that made her friends laugh.

  She reminded me of Anne, one of my friends from my old school. She was in Massachusetts, over a hundred miles away, starting first period without me.

  My heart twanged at the thought of not knowing anybody here. At the fact that I’d never lived anywhere besides my hometown, and now it was no longer home.

  Did I even have a home? This sure didn’t feel like home yet.

  Our house had moving boxes everywhere, and I kept forgetting where everything in the kitchen was or how to leave the neighborhood.

  And this school was full of strangers.

  How would I ever be happy here? Would I ever belong here?

  Even though I was surrounded by people, I hadn’t felt more alone in a long time.

  I reached the end of the hallway and entered a catwalk connecting this building to the next.

  Before opening the double doors, I paused, part of me wishing I could just stay out there instead of having to do this.

  My gaze went to a small garden in between the buildings. There was a bench in the middle of it that called to me.

  But I wasn’t the type to skip class. It just wasn’t in my blood.

  Anne, though, she would’ve rolled her eyes and told me if anyone deserved to take a little break it was me.

  I turned back around and went through the double doors, pulling out my schedule as I walked. Room 542.

  A bell rang, and I noticed that hardly anyone was left roaming the hallways. Scanning the classrooms I passed, I wondered if I was getting any closer.

  Room 439. 437. 435.

  Where was 542?

  There had been a smaller hallway off to the side when I had come in. Maybe it was that way.

  I spun around quickly, horrified at the thought of not finding Room 542, especially before the final bell rang.

  Just like that, my head hit something both soft and solid.

  I stumbled back, catching myself before landing on my butt.

  What had just happened?

  My eyes found a gray Jefferson hoodie and slowly slid up to the face of the guy wearing it.

  Whoa.

  I’d never seen eyes more green than the ones staring down at me.

  My mouth hung open slightly, and I struggled to find words, any words, to indicate that I was in fact human and not some sort of malfunctioning robot. “Uh, sorry, I…didn’t—“

  “My fault,” Green Eyes said, taking a couple of steps back. “Are you okay?”

  I blinked a few times, my brain taking its sweet time processing his words, too busy memorizing the cadence of his voice.

  It was just the right amount of deep, and his shoulders? Just the right amount of wide and strong.

  His brow furrowed as he studied me. “You didn’t bump your head too hard, did you?” he asked, now sounding a little worried.

  That got me right out of my stupor. “No…no. I’m okay. Just caught by surprise, I guess.”

  I saw the schedule in my hand and remembered the reason I had even spun around so quickly and almost gotten run over by him. “Um, actually, do you know where room 542 is? I’m new and…”

  Lost, I wanted to say. Luckily, though, he came a little closer and took a look at my schedule instead of waiting for me to finish a complete sentence.

  Which seemed impossible with him this close.

  I caught the scent of his cologne and almost missed his response.

  What was wrong with me?

  “Yeah, Mrs. Collins. I have her fourth period. Her classroom is upstairs,” he said. Then he pointed back toward the double doors, to a door on the left. “The stairwell is right there. Her room isn’t far.”

  I went over that again in my head, making sure I had heard him correctly and still staring toward the stairwell.

  Then I turned back around. “Thank—“ But he was already gone, the sound of his sneakers echoing in the hallway as he rounded the corner.

  “You,” I finished, alone.

  By the time I made it up the stairs and found Mrs. Collins’s room, the bell had rung.

  Thankfully, she saw me coming down the hallway and held the door open for me.

  She had kind brown eyes and curly blonde hair. “Welcome. You must be my new pupil.”

  “Scarlett Moore,” I replied. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Happy to have you, Scarlett. There’s an empty seat right over there,” she said, closing the door and making her way to the board.

  Front row. Great.

  The chatting died down with the sound of the door banging shut and the sight of me at the front of the room.

  I sat down quickly and got out a blank notebook and pencil.

  Introducing myself to the whole class was the last thing I wanted to do. Thankfully, Mrs. Collins started the lesson right away, sparing me the humiliation.

  Thank goodness for kind teachers.

  She certainly seemed cool. Most of the class participated, and she had jokes. Funny ones. The girl next to me smiled and gave a little wave. Long strawberry blonde hair fell past her shoulders.

  I grinned back and exhaled. First period was off to a good start. That had to be a sign.

  Maybe moving to this town would end up being way better than I could’ve expected. All I knew was that I wanted to give it a fair shot.

  While I took notes on the nervous system, though, I couldn’t help but think of the guy from downstairs, the one with the vibrant jade eyes.

  Another thing you could count on, no matter what high school in America you ended up in?

  The extremely handsome boy you couldn’t help but turn into a puddle of goo in front of.

  I had no idea what his name was, but he had made my breath stop and heart pound all the same.

  The more I thought about it, the more I decided how dorky I must have come across.

  I shut my eyes, wishing I could do it over. Play it cool. Toss my hair over my shoulder and smile wide.

  Exude a little self-confidence.

  But no.

  Instead, I had barely made a coherent sentence the entire time.

  I could’ve cried from realizing what a weirdo he must’ve thought I was.

  No wonder he’d run off to class.

  I bit the inside of my lip.

  What else could I have expected from my first day at Jefferson?

  Hopefully in a school this big, I wouldn’t have to worry about running into him again.

  Even if part of me definitely wanted to.

  2

  It wasn’t long before I saw him again.

  Green eyes and me? We had the same lunch period.

  Of course we did.

  Part of me was thrilled. Obsessing a little over the cute jock was way better than first day jitters and figuring out where I was going to sit.

  And a jock he was.

  That part was obvious. His hoodie, rolled up to the elbows, had a panther and a football on it. A couple of his buddies wore school gear too, and it was obvious from their build that they were athletes. The way they sat on those tables, with their wide grins? They may as well have worn labels saying HOT & POPULAR STUDENT ATHLETE.

  Not to mention the cheerleader-type girls around them.

  Yep, those guys were definitely on the football team.

  I tried not to stare while I grabbed napkins and plasticware.

  Nora, a girl from my third period, walked up next to me, pulling napkins from the dispenser. “His name is Ben Garcia, and you wouldn’t be first girl to stare at him like that.”

  She winked and smiled.

  I blushed. “That obvious, huh?”

  She laughed a little. “I don’t blame you. Not one bit.” She glanced toward one of the tables and then at me. “Want to sit with us?”

  I could’ve hugged her. “I’d love to
.”

  Mom was right. All I had to do was smile and I’d make friends. Although in my case, it had been smiling toward the hot guy and then getting caught.

  Nora and I sat down a few tables away from the jocks.

  The same girl with the friendly smile in first period was there. It turned out her name was Audrey.

  We ate lunch, and Nora and Audrey told me some stuff about Jefferson.

  Audrey dipped her French fry in ranch. “Mrs. Collins coaches the cheer squad, which is kind of a big deal around here.”

  Nora nodded toward the football players. “Along with the varsity football team. They usually go to State every year. It’s all the principal cares about. He used to play here once upon a time too.”

  Audrey giggled. “Although you couldn’t tell now.”

  A few minutes later, one of Audrey’s friends joined us. I recognized the jet black hair and gleaming smile. It was the girl from this morning.

  She held out her hand. “I’m Rachel. What’s your name?”

  I shook it. “Scarlett. I’m new.”

  She smiled. “Welcome to Jefferson, Scarlett,” she replied. She picked up her fork and dug in. Then we all went back to talking. Or rather me listening to them talk about everything they had going on.

  I laughed at a witty comment from Rachel but eyed Ben again. Unlike most of the other guys, I noticed that he didn’t really talk much. He said hi to some of the girls, but he didn’t ogle them or flirt with them like everyone else.