“I just haven’t seen Neal in a while, and I miss him,” Trihn told her. “There will be plenty of other nights like this.”
Maya frowned but nodded. “All right. Well, catch a cab, and be safe. I’ll tell the girls that you headed out.”
Trihn pulled Maya into a hug. “Thank you for being such a good friend.”
“You know I’d do anything for you, Trihni. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will,” Trihn said. Then, she turned and walked out of the crowded club.
Her head was fuzzy, and for some reason that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, she felt disoriented.
Walking away was the right choice. Finding a guy attractive was one thing. Fantasizing about kissing him was an entirely different matter.
Maybe Neal was right after all, and she shouldn’t have come out to the club tonight. She had thought The Kiln was bad, but she had been in a world of temptation all on her own.
Trihn flagged down a cab, and on the way to her place, she pulled her phone out and dialed Neal’s number. It rang four times before going to his voice mail.
She sighed but waited for the beep. “Hey. I’m leaving the club now. You were right. I probably should have just stayed in with you tonight. I miss you. I’d love for you to stay the night with me. Call me back. Love you. Bye.”
She slumped back in the seat and stared out the window as the Las Vegas Strip disappeared behind them. She lived in an apartment with Bryna and Stacia. It was just off the LV State campus, which was only a couple of miles from the Strip.
The cab dropped her off outside her building, and to clear her head, she trudged up the steps to the top floor instead of taking the elevator to clear her head.
Her phone dinged just as she got into the apartment.
Too loud to hear your voice mail.
Trihn stared down at the message and grated her teeth before replying to Neal’s message.
Left the club early. You were right. Stay with me tonight?
I know I’m right.
Trihn rolled her eyes at the return message. She was jotting out a response when she got another text from him.
I’m going to be out all night. I’ll just stay at my place.
Should I come over in the morning?
Trihn waited and waited for a response.
“Fuck that,” she groaned with a shake of her head.
She tossed her phone onto her bed and changed into something more comfortable. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She could go to The Kiln to see Neal, but she honestly hated that place. And he wasn’t responding to her message. The last thing she wanted was to get there and start an argument. She was tired of arguing. Lately, every conversation had been ending up in an argument, and it was getting to be exhausting.
Rubbing her temples, she pulled out her sketchbook and flipped it open to her latest work. She was lucky to be in the Teena Hart School of Design as a fashion design major. After discovering that her boyfriend, Preston, had been secretly dating her sister, Lydia, behind her back, Trihn had dropped out of NYU to come to LV State two weeks before school started her freshman year.
When the whole thing had blown up in Trihn’s face, her sister had chosen Preston over Trihn, and rather than be around them, Trihn had chosen to leave New York City for good. She still couldn’t believe that Preston and Lydia were still together a year and a half later. Preston was a manipulative cheating scumbag, and Lydia had never held a boyfriend for longer than a couple of weeks. They were a match made in hell.
Thankfully, Trihn had ended up loving Las Vegas, and the design school was a dream come true. Teena Hart herself—a world-renowned fashion designer with her own line and a boutique in Caesars Palace—would personally work with the students. Trihn had been taking art classes to fulfill major requirements, and she completed her first round of intro design classes last semester. This semester she would be into more advanced program work. If everything went as planned, she might even get to help with the senior fashion show in the spring. The winner would go on to New York City in the summer.
In her spare time, she would work on her own clothes. It seemed to calm her down when her anxiety took over.
Like right now.
Trihn worked on her artwork until she heard Bryna and Stacia coming home. Not wanting a confrontation with them, she quickly switched off her light and got into bed. They knocked on her door as they passed, but Trihn ignored it and pretended to be asleep. She just lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling until she finally fell asleep late that night.
TRIHN WOKE UP BLEARY-EYED at the crack of dawn. She had slept horribly with a serious case of nightmares that she had been haunted with since she had found out about that bullshit with Preston a year and a half ago.