Prologue

Vegas was everything Ria had dreamed of and more!

The city was never asleep, neither by day nor by night. There was always an activity, an event, some noise, an attraction! Always something to keep you on your toes! Something to keep you engaged, excited, enthralled. Something to make your day remarkable, to create a memory that would last forever. Vegas was like that.

Visiting Vegas had always been one of Ria's biggest dreams. Traveling the world was the bigger picture, but Vegas was also one of the pinned destinations on Ria's little map of a world wide dream trip.

Ria had spent all her life growing up in a small town in Los Angeles. Growing up, Ria never really got  many opportunities to explore the fun side of life, even in LA. Her parents were African migrants and had worked so hard at their small jobs to make a home for themselves and give Ria and her siblings an average life in the dream city. Ria had to spend most of her time studying hard and maintaining good grades so that she could make up for all the effort her parents were putting into her education. She was a model student throughout highschool with no social life, because all of her time was spent  studying at school, and every leisure time she got was spent at the library. She had no friends in highschool. The only people she was close were the members in the study groups she joined, and even then, they barely ever had anything to discuss outside study. In all this, Ria never had the chance to get her head out of the books and see a world beyond the pages of her study books. She was always engaged in one school activity or the other, trying to keep her grades up and boost her chances of getting into college, if possible by scholarship. Her goal was to graduate from highschool, get into a prestigious college, graduate with good grades and get a good paying job at a big company, so that she could show her gratitude to her parents and repay them for all the hard work and dedication they had put into getting her through school.

Also, as the eldest child of her family, Ria felt the pressure to live a model lifestyle so that her younger sisters could follow in her footsteps and make their parents proud.

With all these responsibilities weighing down on her shoulders, Ria never got the chance to live her own dream. Even if she did get the chance, there was no way that she could have afforded her dreams. For a girl from a small background, Ria had quite an expensive dream.

Her hard work paid off and upon graduation from highschool, Ria got a partly-funded scholarship into one of the average universities in LA, the UCLA. This was where Ria's life began. She still had to work hard to meet up with payments and afford her rent and other cost of living during the course of her study though. Her parents were willing to assist her in every way they could, but Ria didn't want the load to weigh so heavily on them anymore. She worked twice as hard to keep up, so that her parents wouldn't have to worry so much about her, but instead, focus on raising her two younger sisters.

However, with all the hard work she had to do, Ria still made out some time for her social life in college. Her roommate, Georgia, made sure of that.

Georgia was one of those privileged kids who choose to attend a regular college, rather than get into a prestigious college or Ivy leagues around the country.

Georgia came from money. She was the daughter of a renowned designer in Washington, but she was a trouble child who always went against the will of her parents. Her parents were divorced and shared custody, so Georgia grew up between Washington, where her mum lived, and California with her dad. When she was done with highschool, she chose to study at the university of California, rather than attend Yale, as her mother had wanted. She was bright enough to get into Yale, but Georgia chose her freedom over living by her mother's principles.

Ria had met Georgia on the school platform when she was searching for a roommate. Ria never knew that Georgia came from an influential family until they had lived together for quite a while. When she did find out, Georgia told her not to care about her background as she had removed herself from all that.

"I plan on making a name for my own self. I don't want nobody's name influencing mine, and I definitely don't want no ass licking type'ah life style." Georgia told Ria when the latter had asked her why she was so removed from her background.

Georgia taught Ria how to come alive. She introduced her to her social circle, and gradually, Georgia's friends became Ria's friends too. Ria began to attend social events and hangouts with friends, and she even got to club from time to time. All thanks to Georgia. Ria got her first boyfriend, which didn't end too well. A string of fleeting relationships followed her first heartbreak, a number of flings even. Ria never knew she was that capable of being unattached, living that wild and being that free until she met Georgia.

Somehow, Ria managed to maintain good grades in school even while building her social life and discovering a part of her that she never even knew existed.

The opportunity to visit Vegas also came unsurprisingly, through Georgia. An aunt of hers, who was also into the fashion business, was participating at a fashion show in Vegas, and she had recruited Georgia to help her scout for amateur models to model her designs at the show. Georgia had a lot of friends with model-like figure within her circle, so it wasn't so difficult finding all the girls she needed.

All her friends were more than eager to work at the show, especially with the promise of a free trip to Vegas, free accommodation and a significant stipend.

Georgia included Ria in the list of models for the show.

"Why would you do that?" Ria asked when Georgia told her she was to go to vegas with the other girls.

"Well, for one, you do have the body of a model. But most especially, because you need the money and finally, I remember hearing you say, 'Oh! I would love, love, love to visit Las Vegas!' during one of our talks. So, Missy Prim Pride, put your pride in a box and take the opportunity!" Georgia told her.

1...

It was Ria's last night in Vegas. She had been in the city for an entire week, working at a fashion expo where she had modeled along with some of her college friends.

One look at Georgia's aunt, Miss Rosalie, and it was obvious where Georgia got all her traits from. She was as fierce and unrefined as Georgia. Miss Rosalie was a multimillionaire fashion designer, but she was dressed like a glorified peasant for the duration of the time Ria and the girls worked with her.

When Georgia had told Ria that her aunt needed armature models, the latter had wondered why. It wasn't as if the multimillionaire fashion designer could not afford professional models to walk her brand down the runway, so why did she need untrained models?

The answer to her question was revealed within the first few minutes of their meeting Miss Rosalie, even without them requesting for an explanation.

Turns out that the agency she worked with, who provided her models on a regular for her shows, were trying to get on her nerves. So to teach them a lesson, Miss Rosalie recruited armature models at the last minute to do the job, just to spite them.

"I'll show those skinny assed, shit faced fucks that I can put up a show without their lazy asses!" Miss Rosalie had cursed.

Subsequently, there were a lot more alteration of curses and a series of unfiltered and unprintable name calling from Miss Rosalie as they worked with her for the week. Most of it was directed at her ex agency, but then, Miss Rosalie swore at literally everything. She had the name and look of a lady, but her mouth was as foul as one of those old grannies Ria knew in Downtown, LA. Those grannies who gathered every weekend at her grandma's porch whenever she went visiting, playing cards, smoking weed and drinking liquor. Those old folks cursed as if they were not afraid of heaven, even as they were the nearest to heaven. It often made Ria marvel.

Now, listening to Miss Rosalie cuss through those dainty lips, often painted in a deep shade of blood red lipstick, she didn't seem so different from the grannies on Ria's grandma's porch. And she wasn't so different from her niece, Georgia, either.

After a long week of working hard and glaring cameras and walking lines, Ria and her friends were finally done with work. They had just received their pay and Miss Rosalie was generous enough to gift them complementary samples of her designs as souvenirs for working with her.

Their flight was scheduled for the next day, so they had the evening to themselves. Georgia was spending the night over at her aunt's, so Ria was stuck with Georgia's friends, who were also her friends, but she wasn't very close to them as she was with Georgia. She only hung out with them because of Georgia, so being left all alone with them without her friend, Ria wasn't sure how to behave around them. They had been working close together for the whole week, yet they felt like strangers to Ria, even though she had known them for two whole years. It was her first time being this close to them without Georgia.

The girls were celebrating over a bottle of wine, but Ria sat to a corner of the room, watching them cautiously.

"Ria! Come over here and join us!" One of the girls invited her. It was Camila, a blondie with heavenly blue eyes. She fit the role of a model the most and Miss Rosalie kept giving her compliments during their short training period before the show began. Miss Rosalie had also promised to continue working with Camila subsequently and a talent scout had approached Camila after one of their shows to offer her a movie role.

Clearly, Camila was the happiest among the girls as she had more to celebrate.

Within Georgia's circle, Camila was one person Ria was close to and could relate with because the girl was as free spirited as a wind. She was always fun seeking and engaging, not as uptight as most of the other friends seemed to be to Ria.

"Come on over girl! Join us for a drink! You can't be sitting in the corner like that when we're celebrating! We're in Vegas baby! No time to be sad or thoughtful! Come on over!" Camila urged Ria.

Ria got up reluctantly and dragged her feet towards the girls. Another girl offered her a glass as she reached them, and Camila filled it up.

"Thank you." Ria said.

"Go on girlie! Drink up!" Camila yelled excitedly.

With a weary smile, Ria obeyed and putting the glass to her lips, she drank every single drop of wine. It tasted sweet, but it was definitely intoxicating because Ria felt a little dizzy as soon as the drink touched her tongue.

"That's more like it, girlie!" Camila congratulated her.

"It's strong." Ria winced, grimacing and the girls broke into laughter.

"It's just wine girlie." Keisha, one of the girls said. She was the only other woman of color among them aside from Ria, but she wasn't as dark as Ria's. Her skin was the shade of golden brown, like coffee, brewed with a lot of milk. The rest of the girls were caucasians. "It's not even alcoholic sis! It's fermented." She said in amusement.

"So, you don't drink?" Sonia, another girl said. She too was blonde, but her hair wasn't as golden as Camila's, and her eyes were a dull grey.

"She is horrible at holding her alcohol!" Camila said. "The last time she got drunk at a club, she cried for the rest of the night! Georgia had to carry her home." She said, reminding Ria of the embarrassing day. It was Ria's first time of trying alcohol, and she threw up severally. She had just had her heart broken by her first boyfriend and she decided to drown her pain in liquor. Till this day, she still couldn't recall a single thing that happened after she got drunk. She just blanked out and Georgia often taunted her with all the things she did that day which she still couldn't recall.

"I acted like that because it was my first time! I've gotten better after that." Ria defended herself.

"No, you didn't get better." Camila said. "Georgia only got more protective."

The rest of the girls broke into a laugh.

"Yeah, that's true. Georgia has always been very protective of her. You would think she were her guardian." Sonia said.

"She has always been and will always be Georgia's baby girl." Camila said and the small group laughed again.