When in La Jolla

He's Famous?

9:47 a.m.

After a few more hours of making out and talking, Vinnie dropped me back off at the hotel. I walked into the hotel completely in awe. I felt light and jittery while skipping over to the elevator. I got into the hotel room and immediately shook Zoe awake. She wiped her eyes and looked at me confused, "ew why are you smiling like that" she asked in a groggy voice. I didn't even notice I had a smile glued to my face since walking into the hotel. "We have to talk, now." I pulled her into the bathroom and we sat on the cold tile floor. I cleared my throat and got ready to persuade the shit out of her. "So you see I met this boy at the party last night, and he's the one that took me back here but we got a little distracted and ended up at his beach." Zoe stops me, "hold up he owns a beach?" I shake my head, "no just wait! So we ended up talking and he asked me if I wanted to stay here the rest of the summer, he has spare bedrooms for us at his house, the one we were at last night. THE MANSION. And I think you and I should do this. When is this opportunity ever going to present itself again? Never. So we have to." Zoe looks at me like I just had a manic episode, I can't tell if she is scared or concerned. "Hibba, so are you asking me if I would want to stay in California with you for the rest of the summer, rent-free at some random guy's house that you just met last night?" I nod my head and smile hoping she says yes. She asks another question, "okay first of all, what is the mystery guy's name?" I tell her his name is Vinnie Hacker and immediately she looks him up on Instagram. She slowly looks up at me with her eyebrows furrowed and mouth partially opened. She turns her phone around to me and I look closely at his page, "2 MILLION FOLLOWERS!" I realized I had screamed a little loud, but I mean what the fuck?! Yovanni tumbles in, "Hibba shut the fuck up with your loud ass. Who has 2 million followers?" Zoe smiles and looks up at Yovanni while passing her phone to him, "Hibba's sneaky link last night." He screeches, "I know this man, I always see him on my for you page, He's part of one of those TikTok houses, I think he's famous." Zoe and I look at each other with shocked faces. "So you're telling me I kissed someone famous, and now I am going to live with famous TikTokers for the rest of the summer." Zoe smirks, "Hibba I think we have to say yes to this." I get so excited we start jumping around, we run over to Zaynab and wake her up to tell her the good news.

3 Days Later

We were all outside the hotel while we waited for Zaynab and Yovanni to get their uber to the airport. I made sure to cherish the last few days with them before they left. Zoe had said yes and we told my mom that we had gotten offered an internship out here that would give us great experience before college. Everything was set, the only issue was I hadn't asked Vinnie about his popularity on social media. I was scared to bring it up and it never seemed like the right time. I knew I had to at some point, but things felt so perfect and I didn't want to ruin that.

The Uber arrived and we said our goodbyes to each other. A few minutes after that we see a dark grey G Wagon pull up, Vinnie is in the passenger seat yelling, "get in!" Zoe and I grinned at each other and ran over to the car with our suitcases, we tossed everything in the trunk and got in. Neither of us recognized the driver so we asked him his name, he told us it was Chase but his friends call him Huddy. He was giving e-boy vibes with lots of chains and dyed black hair. He seemed super nice though. I looked out the window as we drove along the coast to Vinnie's house. It turns out he has 6 other roommates including Chase, so it was a full house. He had told me all of their names, but I couldn't recall any. I could only remember there were 4 boys and 2 girls living there.

About an hour later we arrived at the house, the boys were kind enough to grab our luggage as we walked in. Everyone was sitting around the table eating lunch. Zoe and I waved and they all smiled at us. A girl with long black hair smiled at us and said, "Oh my gosh we needed some more girls in the house, come sit down and we will all introduce ourselves!" We sat down and the girl who talked first started, "Well I am Nessa" she pointed over to the guy next to her and continued, "and this is my boyfriend Jaden." Jaden also had the emo look going for him with dark hair and tattoos covering his body. Baron was sitting next to him and smiled up at us, "they already know me." The other girl's name was Charli and I guess she is dating Chase. The last guy to introduce himself was named Josh. They all seemed pretty nice besides Josh who just had his head down and kept to himself. Vinnie put his arm around me and whispered, "let me show you your room." I blushed but I couldn't help it, from there I waved goodbye to all the roommates, "Slay! Well, it was nice to meet you guys, I hope to get to know you all better soon." We walked to a door that led us to the basement. He told me that the basement just got finished and that's why no one was living down here. I walked down and immediately saw a large projector with massive couches and beanbags surrounding it. "Yeah we made it into a movie room, I'm super excited to start using it." There was a door on each side of the room, Vinnie led me into the left one and pointed Zoe into the other one. I walked in and was blown away again, this room was almost as big as the movie room. There is a massive walk-in closet and I have my own bathroom. "No way, Vinnie are you sure I can stay here? This is massive." He nods his head, "All yours, until the end of the summer and that's when the new renters move in." I look at him with a confused face, "If you don't mind me asking, how can all of you afford a mansion like this at your age?" I already knew his answer but I wanted to hear it from him. He sat on the bed and looked around the room gathering his thoughts, "I haven't really figured out how to tell you but now's as good a time as any. So last year I started posting TikToks for fun, and then from there, they started gaining fame. I went from a hundred followers to a hundred thousand in a month, and it just kept growing. Chase then reached out to me when I got a million on TikTok and asked if I wanted to move to LA. My home life was kind of shitty so I took it as an opportunity to get out. We pay for this house off of brand deals from companies reaching out to work with them. It honestly pays more than you'd think and has helped me out a lot. I was worried to tell you because I didn't want you to see me as arrogant or any different. I haven't let the fame get to me and I don't plan on it." I'm glad he's taking advantage and making money off of what he is doing, I would too if I had the opportunity. I make a mental note to go stalk his account later when I am alone. "Vinnie I think that's awesome, I don't see you any differently. You are a very down-to-earth and kind person, I would've never guessed you were famous. But now I'm curious if I've ever seen you on my for you page." He laughs and says, "Oh God I hope not, the content I make is kinda cringe-y and I hate making and watching them but it pays the bills. So I do what I have to do." 

After our little TikTok discussion he helped me put all my stuff away and then we went back upstairs to hang out with everyone. We went and sat out by the pool with Chase, Charli, and Baron. They were talking about their favorite artists and songs right now. Charli pointed at Chase and said "you!" I asked, "wait you make music?" He nodded his head and asked Alexa to play one of his songs. He was honestly really good. I complimented his singing and he thanked me and then asked who my favorite artist is. I confidently say, "Well I'm in my Drake era right now, I love his new album." Baron said he hadn't heard it yet so we told Alexa (not sponsored) to play it. We all started dancing around the pool listening to it. Vinnie said he loves this song, I'm glad he's a Drake stan, if not that would've been a red flag. Charli pulls her phone out and says we should make a TikTok. She puts One Dance as the song and we all goofed off, Vinnie had put his arm around me and was singing to me in it. She asked if it was okay to post and we all agreed. After a while, we got tired and decided to call it a night. Vinnie gave me a goodnight kiss before I walked downstairs. He is nothing but kind and respectful to me which is honestly such a nice change. My ex had never gone out of his way for me, he was too obsessed with himself to even think of me. But I shouldn't think about him. I'm not sure what exactly is happening between Vinnie and me yet but I hope it turns out to be good. I could for sure see myself falling in love with this man.