Shisha Girl

On the outside, it looked like Shanie Roberts-Pham had everything. Young, beautiful, 18 years old, an only child, she lived in a large townhouse in a wealthy neighbourhood in vibrant Ho Chi Minh City. Her father successful in property management, her mother a beautiful socialite, Shanie had a smartphone, a laptop and everything a young woman could want, plus she attended the expensive Orient Bilingual International School. She should have been happy - but she wasn't.

Inside, she was dying. Her father was often away on long business trips. Her mother spent more time at the make-up counter than she did at home. Exams were coming up. Inside, Shanie felt empty. Her life sucked.

It was her best friend Nhi who introduced her to it. It was new...forbidden...exciting. She watched the bottle bubble up as she inhaled the sweet, sweet, familiar smell of rose and apple, then lay back on the cushions and breathed out the smoke, gazing on as it rose lazily into the air. She heard the pounding dubstep beat and the hubbub of noisy conversation from the other teens and everything just drifted away, far, far away to another place, another time, to anywhere - anywhere but here...

That was the life of Shisha Girl. That was her escape. Until, one day, she met Josh...