Nightlife ✓

27 | date

FALL BREAK WAS JUST THE reset button I needed.

All my family were absent during the days while they worked and I was unleashed to roam the city. Olly had stayed for two days to catch up with me, and then she had to return to her apartment. Tommy, who couldn't leave his placement in Texas, video-called us a handful of times to update us on his life.

Mom forced me to contact one of my old agents, who was pretty much like an aunt to me, and ask for modelling jobs. She was running dry on pretty images to share to WeChat. Then Aunty Wendy connected me with a clothing brand that was looking for a model.

The photoshoot had taken two days in a rented hotel room, and the bulk of it had required lying on a bed in layers of gauze, tulle and taffeta. One of my favourite modelling jobs to date, if I did say so myself.

I went twice for coffee dates with the few high school friends with whom I was still in touch. Kevin got tickets to some sort of Met After Dark photography event through industry connections. That had been fun if a little highbrow. I spent the night chasing down the canape-holding waiters and nodded along to in-depth discussions featuring words like chiaroscuro and sfumato. Kev had actually been more disinterested than me, discreetly spinning PokeStops on his phone screen hidden inside his blazer jacket.

But most of the time, while Kev, Mom and Dad worked, I did nothing at all. I watched social media videos, binge-watched Netflix shows and chewed my way through the snacks cupboard.

And that was utter bliss.

I'd had half a semester full of stress, glamour and intrigue at Halston already. I didn't need more of it when I came back to New York. If anything, when the opportunity to do nothing presented itself, I made the most I possibly could of it.

My first order of business when I arrived back in Halston over a week later was to prepare for the resumption of the semester. I'd stocked up on laundry powder and toiletries yesterday. Today, I would stock up on snacks and settle in to do some of my course readings. I only did my snack shopping at the small strip mall on the edge of town. There was a specific brand of shrimp crisps from my childhood that I consistently craved to fuel my midnight study sessions. So far, I hadn't found any store that sold it except for the only Asian discount supermarket in Halston, at the very end of the strip.

When I made my way back to the central entrance of the mall, two bags of non-perishable snacks clutched in my hands, a familiar silhouette caught my eye.

Quen was sitting at a table in the food court, resting his chin on his left hand and staring at his phone clutched in his right hand. He looked so poised like that. Though his head was bowed, letting his hair frame his eyebrows, his posture was calm and relaxed. Blissfully unaware, and utterly handsome. I felt my breath quicken at the sight of him.

The very last time I'd seen him, two weeks ago, he'd been sleeping soundly on his couch. Between now and then, neither of us had reached out. The only excuse I had to talk to him was Biophysics, but now that everyone was on fall break, I didn't even have that. Without the connecting link that lectures, tutorials and coursework provided, we'd fallen into radio silence.

Before I could even debate going up to him, something suddenly caught his attention. I saw him in profile, the way he jerked up at the sound of his name and smiled softly at the caller. Oh, how I wished I was on the receiving end of that smile.

Joelle sat down opposite him with two smoothies in her hands. She slid one over to Quen and kept the other for herself, sipping with a huge, starstruck smile on her lips. I didn't miss the way her eyes softened as she took a quick photograph of the drinks in front of her, Quen shielding his face from the camera.