After One Night

Vegas was everything Ria 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 dream. Traveling the world was the bigger picture, but Vegas was also one of the pinned destinations on Ria's little map of her world wide dream trip.

Ria had spent all her life growing 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 immigrants 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 through 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 close to her were the members in the study groups she joined and 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 afford her dream. 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 good colleges 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. Her parents were willing to assist her in every way they could, but Ria didn't want the load to be heavy on them, so 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 her parents wish. Her parents were divorced and 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 the freedom over living by her mother's principles.

Ria had met Georgia on the school's 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 found 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 even 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 still managed to maintain good grades in school 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 find some none professional models to model her designs for her at the show. Georgia had a lot of model-like friends in 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 have the body of a model. Secondly, you need the money and finally, I remember you saying, '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.