Chapter 144 Drive and Determination

“Hello. You must be Veronica and Valerie. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Clarissa scooped another mouthful of ice cream as she studied her cousins’ expressions for a brief moment.

Then she casually turned to her boyfriend and said;

“This is gonna be a problem.”

“What is?” Aiden curiously asked, his head angled downwards to face her.

In response, Clarissa giggled, her hazel irises twinkling in adoration as her hand reaching over to pull his cheek gently;

“You’re so oblivious, its adorable.”

Aiden merely squinted in response, a clear curiosity to his gaze as his girlfriend resumed eating.

The twins had seen their fair share of strikingly arresting individuals.

They would even rank themselves amongst those set of people, an effect they knew they had on most people, but was often exacerbated on most guys their age.

The youth standing before them fit exactly into that category… most of whom they’d often known to carry themselves with an almost egotistic sense of pride.

Yet, contrasting so thoroughly against the status quo they’d known, was the laidback air the coal-haired youth before them exuded… one that served to paint him in an obliviously charming light.

“I’ve heard a lot about you both from Rissa,” Aiden soon walked over to them, an easiness to his actions as he picked up Valerie’s phone.

Then he returned it to the lady, extending a handshake to her as well in the same motion.

Snapping out of their dazes, the younger twin and her sister gathered themselves in double-quick time, both reciprocating the youth’s gesture.

“The pleasure’s all ours.” Veronica replied with a light smile, her eyes now reflecting a clear interest.

“Good things, I hope.” Valerie on the other hand, added with a grin, her head tilted slightly to shoot Clarissa a widened gaze that said everything that needed to be said in a matter of seconds.

“Well, if your former back and forth with Her Highness is anything to go by…” Aiden angled his gaze over to his girlfriend who scooped another spoon into her mouth with an unabashed smugness.

“Ah…” Valerie let out in realization, and Veronica immediately complained;

“Dang it, Rissa! Now our first impressions on him are that of quibbling gremlins!”

“You did it to yourself, sweethearts. Don’t you dare come for me now.” the chestnut-haired lady humorously remarked with a pointed gesture of her spoon.

That earned a light chuckle from everyone in the room, all four easing onto the living room couch afterwards.

That said, Aiden couldn’t stay too long.

It was already pretty late into the evening by the time he got here and if he stayed any longer, he would definitely get home later than he intended.

Moreso since he had something important planned tomorrow with the boys.

Still, he hung around for a couple minutes, catching up on a few things with Clarissa and engaging in a few mundane discussions with her cousins.

A while after, he proceeded to take his leave, bidding farewell to the twins.

Parting with his girlfriend whom had escorted him out the dorm shortly after with a goodbye kiss, Clarissa returned to her suite with a full heart and a happy hum.

No sooner had she stepped back in, the twins gingerly pulled her towards the sofa and sat her down for some girl talk.

“How?!” Valerie demanded, her intrigue evident.

“I’m gonna need more than that if you expect me to explain anything?” the lady replied, not that the twins cared as Veronica followed up;

“You know, for the longest time, we always thought you were picky,”

“That your standards were… well…” Veronica vaguely gestured into the air.

“Go on?” Clarissa’s eyes creased into an amused yet judgy squint.

“…fairytale-like.” the lady concluded.

“That’s just bollocks,” a light snort escaped Clarissa as she remarked in a near-perfect British accent, a side effect of the role she was prepping for.

“I just have actual standards, and I’ve never been interested in flings? How’s that supposed to be picky?” her accent returned to normal, her shoulders doing a little shrug.

“Reserved, well-spoken, thoughtful, loving, honest, humble, makes for a great conversationalist and gives the best compliments?” Veronica listed out her preferences from a couple years back.

“You remembered?!” Clarissa beamed at the elder twin.

“In our current economy?!” Valerie on the other hand blinked in disbelief.

“Girl, that’s fucking Prince Charming for crying out loud! The hell you mean it isn’t picky!?” she added with a shake of her head.

“Doesn’t feel so picky now, does it?” the lady defended, her eyes fluttering with a smitten smile.

“Yeah, yeah!” Valerie rolled her eyes in clear amusement.

“Just rub it in, won’t ya?!” Veronica punched her softly, all three ladies sharing a giggle.

“Maybe, if you stop trying to fix men you can’t fix, you’ll be golden. But then again, I guess you both have a bad boy infatuation…” Clarissa casually called them out.

“Hey!” the twins retaliated, their lips twitching in bemusement.

“And the usual offending six figures, six-foot, handsome jock criteria…” she added whilst ‘playing’ with her nails.

“Hey!” they tossed pillows at her this time, and Clarissa’s mirth echoed carried through their suite in the form of a hearty laughter.

“Just be sure to keep your man away from vying eyes.” Veronica honestly advised shortly after.

“Yeah. He’s definitely going to be a chick magnet… and that’s… wow, given we’re going to a college with the most pompous set of entitled rich gals who’ve never heard the word ‘no’ in their lives.” Valerie shook her head briefly.

In response, Clarissa simply leaned back into the sofa with a stretch and a relaxed smile, her trust unwavering in her man as she inwardly remarked;

‘Sucks to be them, unfortunately. He’s not the type to go around chasing skirts. Especially when he has me.’

*

The next day arrived and Aiden and his buddies met up at the trio’s house as they’d planned.

Yes, house.

Larry, Clyde and Benjamin had opted to rent out a nice three-bedroom family house for $6,600 per month that happened to be a twenty-five-minute walk to Pacific Heights.

Which when all was said and done, was a neat deal since it had a small garage they could practice in and they each only had to pay $2,200 per month.

In fact, they weren’t even the ones paying for it. Rather, it was their parents, all of whom hadn’t skimped on their duties just because their kids were pretty loaded at the moment.

Instead, they’d had them put the money into monthly savings for getting a house for themselves by the time they’d gotten around to rounding up college in the next four years.

If not a house, they could always put the savings into something useful.

Aiden himself was no different, as his Pops had literally reimbursed him for the place he’d gotten the very same day he’d paid for it, as was Theo whom had been advised by his mom as well.

Casper was the only one who happened to be fending for himself at the moment, his one-bedroom apartment costing him $2,050 per month.

Even then, he’d planned out his budget extensively for the next two years and had specifically set aside rent money for it, so he was sitting pretty.

It was also within that time frame he personally intended to get his career as an author off the ground, all in hopes that it would at least continue to keep him afloat.

That was provided Crashout Interactive ended up not taking off like he and his buddies anticipated.

Speaking of their indie team, they soon made their way over to the very first studio a stone’s throw the trio’s house, the mid-sized, loft-style space requiring them to pay a rent of $5400 per month.

Granted it wasn’t furnished and they would need to spruce it up a bit more themselves, they loved the close proximity it had to their college, one that would make their back and forth shuttling easy.

It also had a rooftop lounge, one that was just as barebones but offered a stunning skyline view of LA.

Still, they held off on getting it and decided to go visit the others before committing.

The second happened to be a small but sleek, modern studio with all the main gizmos they might need. It also happened to be the most expensive and it came it at a price of $10,000 per month.

The third was warehouse-styled, and offered a whole lot of space, but with no furnishing and was the cheapest of them all at $4000 per month. It was a bit further from college, but easily trekkable.

By the time they’d gone through the fourth and fifth, with the last studio for rent being the furthest away from Westwood, they’d finally opted to settle for the very first one they’d gone to.

Sure it meant a bit more money to set everything up, but with two million dollars in the company card, it really was no trouble.

To that effect, they simply spent the rest of the day deciding what would go where, alongside outlining all the stuffs they would need.

Having settled all that a few minutes ago, all six of them currently stood before the floor to ceiling glass window of the loft as they took in the evening view of the bustling street.

At the same time, they each had a relaxed demeanor on their features, a sense of genuine accomplishment accompanying the atmosphere.

Hands tucked into his pockets, his head tilted slightly yet invitingly, Aiden spoke;

“So… [Springtown Canyon]?”

“Yep.” all five answered in the affirmative, varying degrees of head nods and bobs from each of them.

Granted, they were all starting college tomorrow and would undoubtedly have busier schedules ahead of them, it did very little to detract from their drive and determination to see their most ambitious game project thus far to the very end.

Thank you for reading!