In some ways, Trihn envied the way her best friend could say and do whatever the fuck she wanted without caring what anyone thought about her. Trihn had never been like that. She wore her heart on her sleeve and always wanted everyone to like her. But she pitied Bryna as well. Her life wasn’t as easy as it looked from the outside. Trihn couldn’t even imagine going through the shit Bryna had gone through last year, and Trihn was just glad that Bryna and Eric Wilkins were finally a couple.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Maya said with a giggle. “Go dance. I’ll be back.”
Trihn fell easily into the practiced movements from years of dance training mingled with endless nights of clubbing with her friends. Dancing was her happy place. It was one of the reasons she loved to party. Expectations would disappear, and she could live through the pulse of the music, the bright lights, and the rhythm of the people around her. She didn’t need anyone or anything in that moment. She could just be herself while dancing completely alone in the middle of a crowded room.
The moment she lost herself, she found herself.
A current ran through her body, and she soared as free as a bird high above the clouds. She turned and whirled and let loose. Half of the time, she’d freestyle to the hip-hop beats the DJ was blaring through the speakers. Sometimes, she’d perform remembered choreography from when she had been a part of the New York City Dance House in high school. She had a strong ballet background, but she had found a passion in underground pole dancing with her friend, Cassidy, after-hours at a burlesque club in New York City. Then, Trihn had followed Cassidy out to Las Vegas and never looked back.
“Whoa!” Stacia cried. “Did you see that?”
Trihn stopped moving. “What?”
“That.” Stacia pointed to a group of guys who were dancing a few feet away from them. “Some guy did a back flip!”
Trihn had a good half a foot on Stacia and Bryna, so she craned her neck to figure out what was going on. “It looks like people are showing off.”
“Let’s get in there!” Stacia cheered.
“Where do you think we are, S?” Bryna asked. “We didn’t just walk into Save the Last Dance.”
“Actually,” Trihn said, straining to to get a clear picture, “it doesn’t look that different than the movie. Come on.”
Without a second thought, Trihn threaded through the crowd and forced her way to the front of the circle. Stacia and Bryna came up behind her. As Stacia watched the people dancing, she bounced from foot to foot in excitement. Bryna looked a little bored, as if she would rather be the center of attention than let other people take the spotlight. But Trihn felt an inexplicable giddiness rising up in her stomach.
Three main guys kept moving in and out of the circle while a handful of girls were jumping in and shaking their asses to loud cheers. She wasn’t interested in the girls’ performances. They looked all right, she supposed, but the guys were way better.
One was a tall black guy with black hair under his navy blue hat with NY stitched on in white. He was throwing some pretty impressive break-dancing skills. The second guy was shorter with light hair. He was smirking at some other girls nearby. He had some fancy footwork, but he kept nudging the guy next to him, as if waiting for his approval.
That guy wasn’t even paying attention. He was teeming with energy. He was tall with short dark hair and wearing all black clothing. He was rolling his hat back and forth between his fingers while waiting for his turn to go out there, but his hips were moving, and he clearly knew what he was doing.
Trihn couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
He was so damn good.
As if sensing her staring, his eyes found hers. She sucked in her breath as he just watched at her, his gaze resembling a challenge. But if he thought she was going to walk into that circle, he was out of his mind.
She was sure muscle memory would help her throw a few tricks of her own if she went out there—not that she had any intention of doing so, but it would be funny to show him that girls could do more than shake their booties.
Despite the fact that she loved performing, she couldn’t imagine doing it now. Performances had always been scheduled in her life with lots of notice and prepared choreography. She wasn’t drunk enough if she was worrying about what people might think about her dancing out there. Her stomach was twisting into knots while she considered it.
The first guy finished his break-dancing move, and suddenly, the last guy stepped into the space. With the circle all to himself, he moved his body, as if he owned the place. He didn’t have one single self-conscious bone in his body.
“He’s hot,” Stacia murmured next to her. “Not my type, you know, because he obviously doesn’t play football, but he’s still hot.”
Trihn nodded. “Definitely.”
“I think I know him from somewhere,” Bryna said curiously.
Bryna knew everyone, so that wouldn’t surprise Trihn, but she was pretty sure she would have remembered him if she had seen him before.
Maya pushed through the crowd to get to them in that moment. “Jesus Christ! Just abandon me, why don’t you?”
“Sorry,” Trihn said without taking her eyes off the guy dancing.