I Just Had to Lick the Cookie, Didn't I?

'Cause love is just a dialogue
You can't survive on ice-cream
You got the same needs as a dog
It's alright
To be mean
"Logan! Adriaan! Wake up! Mommy and Daddy need to talk to you!" a little boy's voice shouted. I suddenly became aware of the obnoxious bouncing that was causing my head to thrash about. Not fun to wake up to. Not at all.

"Charlie, we're getting up, you can stop bouncing," Milo grumbled from next to me.

"Okay!" the little boy yelled and jumped off of the bed. He landed on the floor with a thud and then started jumping up and down again. GOD!

"Make it stoooooooooooooooooooop," I whined, covering my head with a pillow.

"Hurry up! I don't get any pancakes until you guys are downstairs!" Charlie informed us, still being loud.

That's a great guilt trip right there. Send the little kid up and make me feel bad for preventing him from eating food... Damn these people have sick minds.

"Alright already," Milo groaned. "Go downstairs and tell them we'll be down in a few minutes. We need to get ready."

"Okay!" Charlie screamed and then I heard him running from the room. Something told me he had ADHD. For real.

"I don't want to get up," I pouted into the mattress, pillow over my head.

"Neither do I, but my mom said she had to talk to us today, remember?" Milo informed me, pulling the pillow away from me. I let out a whine and curled up under the duvet completely. Until mister Boone ripped that off of me too, leaving me half naked and exposed to the freezing morning air.

"Hey!" I screeched, jumping up and ripping the duvet from him. As fast as possible, I wrapped the warm blanket around me and got out of bed. "That wasn't nice."

"Of course it wasn't nice, but at least it got you up," he laughed at me. He was sitting on the practically bare bed cross-legged.

"Pfft," I scoffed, tightening my duvet-cape around my neck. Milo smiled and grabbed his guitar from next to him.

On the bed were two pillows, Milo, and his guitar. Apparently that thing slept with us last night. Huh, didn't notice.

I should mention that Milo can play the guitar. Extremely well, obviously. He kept up his end of the deal and 'serenaded' me last night. That didn't last too long because I got tired and he had to help me take my dress off. After that I was too tired to listen or do anything and then collapsed into bed, wearing just underwear and a bra. Lovely, right? Yea.

It's a good thing Charlie left before we got up. I'm hardly covered up, and Milo's just wearing pajama pants... Eh, oh well.

"So..." I started, doing a little dance because I was cold. The guitar made a noise as Milo plucked a string.

"Get dressed," he ordered, laughing at my potty dance-like dance. A girl can't help being cold...

"Don't be mean to me. Remember, I'm the future mother of your children. That means I can ---"

"You can what?" he asked doubtfully. "You're too nice to mess up innocent little kids. I wouldn't let you do anything to them anyway. They're just as much mine as yours," he offered logically. Pfft, that's what he thinks. I scoffed. "What?"

"Are you the one that's going to give birth to them? Nope. So I don't want to hear that little speech. All you have to do is enjoy yourself in the process. Adriaan actually has to get fat, and experience extreme pain and discomfort while becoming familiar with the miracle of birth."

Milo laughed at my expression, which wasn't a happy one.

"I'll make sure they give you extra drugs to keep the pain at a minimum," he told me. My jaw dropped.

"No way! There is no way any crazy doctors are going to stick me with needles while I'm already in pain, and then potentially fuck up my kids! No way! There will be no drugs injected into Adriaan's system while there's another living being inside of her," I ranted. You really don't want me to tell you about my fears in hospitals. Needles and anesthetics are only some of them.

"Hey," Milo said gently. Taking a deep breath, I looked over at his somber expression. "Since when did we start considering having kids?" he asked seriously. My voice was lost. He was right. Since when did this all become so...definite?

"I---I have no idea," I replied gravely.

After our little crisis, Milo and I got dressed and went down stairs hand in hand. Charlie was in the kitchen with Caroline, William, Jane, Cadan, Elise, Jenifer and Abigail, Andrew, Tammy, and Whitmore. As soon as we walked in the room, three pancakes were plopped onto Charlie's empty plate.

"Logan, come with me," William ordered. "Adriaan, go with Caroline. We'll meet you in my office."

Milo let go of my hand and went with his father, as ordered. Caroline smiled at me, and came to my side. Everyone else in the kitchen was watching us---other than Charlie whom was devouring his pancakes. They all had confused expressions, probably wondering why William and Caroline cared so much about Milo and his 'girlfriend'. Nice to see how I rate.

"Come with me," Caroline uttered softly, leaving the kitchen. I followed close behind her through the large house until we reached a door. She opened it and ushered me forward. Inside was a set of stairs, leading down into a basement-like area, only it was another hallway... Uh, yea.

Caroline closed the door and followed me down the steps. At the bottom she got back in front of me and led me down the long hallway. On both sides of the hall were paintings and pieces of artwork. They were all very, very beautiful and well-done. As nerdy as it sounds, they captivated me.

"Um, Caroline?" I asked quietly. She heard me and turned around. We both were still for a second. "Where did you get these? They're beautiful."

She seemed in thought for a moment or two.

"I couldn't say. I'm sure they're expensive. Logan would know, ask him afterward," she said like it didn't matter at all to her. Ah well, I'll ask Milo later.

We continued down the hall until we reached another door. Caroline stopped and knocked on it. There was no response and she just opened the door. The room we entered into was an office. An expensive, high-class office. Obviously William's.

"You can sit there. They should be here soon."

I did as Caroline said and sat in one of the leather chairs she was pointing at.

"Congratulations on successfully fooling the family. You have no idea how important that was to do. If they didn't believe you two, no one would have," Caroline stated kindly, taking a seat on the ledge of a bookcase.

"We'll talk about this later, son," another voice rang. William and Milo came through the door a moment later. Milo was sulking a good two feet behind his father, and William just sauntered in all high and mighty.

A very agitated Milo took the seat next to me, and William sat in the third chair of the room, located behind his big wooden desk.

"Alright, we're here to talk about this arrangement," William started. "I want to settle on a date for the wedding so that we can start making things happen. Cadan and Elise are getting married in January, so it will have to be long enough after that. And with the baby coming, we'll have to put enough time between that and your marriage. That puts us around March twentieth."

Baby? What baby? Who's pregnant? I'm confused...

"Who's having a baby?" I asked shyly. William looked up from the calendar on his desk and glared at me.

"Elise and Cadan. She's due March sixteenth," he told me harshly. Oh, wow. She doesn't look pregnant at all... "Anyway, I want your engagement announced publicly at the Valentine's Celebration in L.A."

William looked back down at his calendar and stared at it.

"Adriaan, you won't have time to start looking for a wedding dress until then, in February. I don't want people suspicious anyhow. So, you two had better start deciding on a date. That brings me to my next point."

He looked up and Caroline smiled at Milo and me. Milo seemed angry still.

"Starting next week, you two are going to have to rehearse for the Christmas Eve Ball. That and the Christmas Day dinner. I want your dances to be perfect, and you had better act like a real couple, or I'll have both of your necks. Logan, I want you to play at the dinner. Gary Hussein has asked for your performance at the ball as well. He also asked if you two would be willing to come and assist him in decorating the hotel. Be there. I have the jet scheduled to take you out Monday."

Uh...who's Gary Hussein? Is the Christmas Eve Ball William is talking about the same one that they always feature in those magazines?

"Oh, and Logan, Nancy Newman called me the other day. She's requesting you come to the studio in January to have the photographs ready for the February issue. I told her you'd be there. She'll be contacting you on your cell. That's all we have planned so far, but I do have some suggestions for the two of you."

Milo groaned, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that heard. William likes to talk, I noticed that too.

"You should probably act less friendly, and more like a couple. It might make people suspicious. That and the fact people might get confused when you announce your engagement and they don't think you actually love each other. Not too much PDA though please. I'm not in the mood to see you plastered all over the media making out on a park bench."

He won't have to worry about that one.

"Oh, and I'd like for you two to actually get to know each other. I understand you've been living together for a little over a month, but it might do you good to know some things about one another. The last thing we need is you two at some interview making fools of yourselves by not knowing the simplest of facts. I want favorite colors, foods, pass-times, memories. Get it together. And figure out some sort of back story please. No one, and I mean no one, is going to know this is an arranged marriage. Got it?" he ordered.

Both Milo and I nodded.

"Wonderful, now get out of here. Caroline and I have some things to talk about." Right as Milo and I stood, William jerked his head up. "Oh, wait, Logan."

Milo stared at his father.

"Yes?" he asked, bored. William glared at his son's disrespectful manners.

"I want all of your things out of here. You'll be buying a new house, or moving in to the one you have. Got it?" he commanded. Milo scoffed.

"Yes sir," he sneered. William continued to glare.

"Get out."

Milo took my hand and led me from the office. That was an interesting experience...

We exited through the same doors I had come in with Caroline. Once the door was closed, and Milo and I were far enough away from the latter, I made my move.

I stopped dead, and tugged Milo to a halt.

"Who painted these?" I asked him bluntly. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Why?" he asked sounding odd. I gave him a funny look.

"I asked your mom and she didn't know. She told me to ask you."

Milo squeezed my hand. Hard. I yanked it away from him once he started to hurt me.

"What's your problem?" I growled, rubbing my sore hand with my other one. His face dropped and his eyes became pained once more. The real Milo. "What is it?" I asked, kinder this time. He shook his head and took a deep breath. My hand was in his again faster than I could object to. We were on the move once more.

"I did," he stated plainly.

"You did what?" I asked, not comprehending.

"I painted them."

No way.

Did I mention the beauty and perfection of these pieces of art before? Well, I am now. They're beautiful and amazing and perfect and museum-worthy.

"Is it that hard to believe?" Milo asked irritably after I stopped for a second time.

"Well, no...I just don't see how someone could forget that their own son was that gifted."

His eyes lightened for a second before returning to normal.

"Obviously you haven't been too observant, huh?" he teased. Someone was avoiding the cold, hard, truth, eh?

"Pfft, I'd have to be completely moronic not to see that. Plus, I have a whole year of experience under my belt," I stated proudly. Although, having parents that don't care about you isn't something to be proud of...

"Since you brought it up, I want to talk to you about that," Milo said, pulling me down the hallway and up the stairs. He led me from the basement place and dragged me along behind him to somewhere I'd never been.

"Where are we exactly?" I asked as Milo dragged me into some random room. It was fairly plain. There were paintings and drawings on the walls. For some reason, it reminded me of my old art room back at 'home'. That was one of my favorite places to be back in the day.

"This," he told me, gesturing to the fairly large room around us. "This is my room. My real room. The place I'd rater live in instead of ever seeing them again. This is the only place that I can do whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want, for as long as I want. However, considering my father's a prick, I'll no longer have this room. Everything is going to have to be moved. So, this means you have a choice. We can either go live in the house my parents are giving me, buy a new house, or go live in the house my parents are giving me until we find a new house. It might not even matter because of all the stuff that's coming up... We might end up living out of our suitcases for a while."

There was only one question I had before I made a choice.

"Where's the house your parents are giving you?" I asked him curiously, scoping out his room. I hadn't noticed all of the other things in here, such as instruments and a giant bookcase.

"France," he stated simply, like it was an everyday term. The only thing I could do was stare at him. We are so going to France.