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

Everything is beautiful
Let the music carry you
Maybe I will follow you (forever)
Nowhere else I'd rather be
When you're lying next to me
Let the me music carry us together (together)

I sat on the toilet of the en suite bathroom, glaring at the disheveled box on the floor across the room. Gary was crazy. He was a lunatic. After nearly a month with me, he expected me to wear that?

Last night Gary, Milo, the 'crew', and I prepared the finishing touches for the Ball. Everything was set and ready to go. The trouble now was getting me into that dress. It was not going to happen in my mind, yet it was inevitable...

"Adriaan," Milo said softly through the door, knocking lightly. "You need to hurry up, we need to be downstairs and make our entrance in twenty minutes."

With a heavy sigh, I stood up and walked over to the box. I closed my eyes and squatted down to pick up the silky red dress from the tousled forms of processed trees. When I stood up, eyes still closed, I mentally slapped myself. What was I getting myself into?

"Adriaan?" Milo called worriedly.

"I'm almost done" I said loud enough for him to hear. Truthfully it would take me another ten minutes to get ready, but he didn't need to know that. Then it would most likely take another six just for me to work up enough courage to leave the place I've dubbed my sanctuary: the bathroom.

"I'll be waiting," he said, in a not creepy way, considering that is a sort of creepy statement...

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...

Completely against my physical will, and only so I didn't make Milo and myself look bad, I started to pull on the dress. Sure it felt really nice against my skin, but it wasn't right. Something didn't feel right. I felt so uncomfortable wearing this...

Two minutes later I had the dress on, along with the heels that accompanied it. Taking deep, shaky breaths, I looked in the mirror.

Sweet Jesus of God. Gary was definitely on crack.

There was no way in hell I was going to walk out in this.

Nuh uh, no way, not going to happen.

"Adriaan," Milo called again. I panicked a little and took a deep breath.

"Coming, coming," I said unsurely, walking to the door. With a gulp, a shit load of worries came racing through my mind.

What if I fell? What if everyone hated my dress? What if they hated me? What if Milo and I didn't match? What if we did?

Oh God.

My hand was on the doorknob, it was already unlocked, I had already turned it halfway, but then I worried even more.

"Milo, what color is your tie?" I asked through the door, leaning all of my weight onto it.

"Red... why?"

"I can't come out of here. We'll look tacky," I whined and pushed on the door even harder. Milo sighed and pushed on his end too. Considering he's ten times strong than my whole body, I let go and back-stepped so I wouldn't go flying. The door flew open and I sat---very ungracefully---on the toilet.

Milo stood in the doorframe, staring. I looked around the room with just my eyes, feeling extremely awkward and nervous. I knewI looked bad in this thing.

"What?" I asked, whining, after a minute of silence.

"Holy shit..." he managed. I pouted.

"What?"

"You..." he started, and walked into the bathroom and stopped in front of me. "You look..." He offered me his hand and I took it. Milo helped me onto my feet and kept a hold of my hand. "Beautiful," he whispered and brought his other hand up to fix a piece of my hair.

My stomach flipped, and my throat closed. He...said the 'B' word. No one uses that word on me. Ever.

"Yea, okay," I laughed and started to walk out of the bathroom. Milo followed behind me willingly, bearing in mind that I couldn't drag his butt around if I actually wanted to.

At the hotel room door, he stopped me.

"I was serious Adriaan," he told me. To keep myself from blushing, I looked down at the floor.

"Can we go now?" I asked him quietly. When I looked back up Milo was still watching me. He nodded slowly before turning to the door and opening it.

In the hallway, there was a maid cart in front of the door across from ours. We turned right and walked to the elevator.

Over the freaking month we've been here---forever, I know---we have set up and planned every detail of tonight. We argued over which tablecloths to use. Well, not just Milo and me. Everyone argued at some point. Actually, Milo and I basically agreed on everything. It was weird.

So, we all debated on everything. Tablecloths, drapes, con-freaking-fetti, entertainment, and party favors. So much fun. Note To Self: never attend big fancy parties ever again. Especially when they're going to have pictures of said party in big name magazines.

The elevator dinged as we reached the third floor. Our rehearsed plan was to be at the starting point on the third floor at ten before seven. From there we would walk to the top of the staircase and make our descent into the pit of paparazzi. (That's probably where I'd just about faint. Way to make a fool of myself.)

"Adriaan!" Gary yelled from somewhere behind me. I didn't want to turn around.

He was behind me now and he tugged on my free hand. His tug caused me to turn around and face him.

"You look absolutely stunning," he complimented me. "Didn't I do a great job?" he asked Milo. Gary had the biggest smile on his face and he probably could have lit up an entire city with the glow he was giving off.

"Yes," Milo replied, squeezing my hand.

"Well, I came to wish you good luck. I have to be down there in two minutes. So, good luck!" Gary shouted before racing back the way he had come, which was toward the staircase.

Milo and I waited for eight minutes as the crowd around us gradually started to grow. Everyone was to make their entrance down the staircase. No one was coming through the front doors tonight. The entire hotel was being occupied with celebrities. I hadn't personally met anyone yet, and I was secretly hoping I didn't have to.

"Maelogan, you're next," a security guard called out to us. Milo nodded and we both walked up to the line made of tape on the floor. He let go of my hand and quickly made his way to the other side of the staircase. From here we would walk forward and meet back up with each other. After that we were to walk down the steps into the giant pit of flashing cameras. Delightful.

"And go!" the security guard shouted. Both Milo and I sauntered up to each other. We met at the designated 'X' at the top of the staircase and linked our arms together. God this is so cheesy...

"Smile," Milo told me through his smiling teeth. I did so and we began our journey down into the pit.

The cameras seriously had a death wish. They all just kept flashing and flashing and flashing... I held it together and we finally made it to the bottom. We were ushered to some sort of tunnel thing where they had video cameras and regular non-flash ones. Thank Jesus. The wall behind us said some stuff in French, but I could make out Gary's name in it. It looked like one poster was just copied a bunch of times and they were all pasted on to a giant cardboard wall.

Some woman in a hideous gold dress walk up to us with a big ass microphone. She smiled at us both.

"I'm Felicity VonTrace. I'll be asking you a few questions if you don't mind." Milo nodded at her. Her eyes were greedy, all she wanted was to have the first real scoop on Milo and me. What a bitch. I knew no nice, sane person would like thatdress.

"So, this is your girlfriend Mr. Boone?" she asked in a stupid voice she probably thought seemed sultry or something... What a loser.

"Yes, she is," Milo replied to her.

"Where have you been? We haven't seen very much of you recently."

"I've been busy. With my life," he said. It took all I had not to laugh.

"So, Adriaan, how did you and Mr. Boone meet?" Felicity turned her vicious, hungry eyes to me and shoved the microphone in my face.

"Uh, I was invited to dinner by his mom," I told her awkwardly. It was the truth, but it sounded really stupid. She nodded.

"How do your parents feel about you dating a man four years older than you, let alone a celebrity?" she asked snobbishly.

Right then, my heart broke in two and I almost started to cry. Almost. Adriaan Anabell Ryker is not a ninny. She will not cry in front of this bitch and let people catch it on video.

"I think that's quite enough," Milo told her sternly, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and leading me away from Felicity the uber bitch.

We emerged from the end of the tunnel of Gary posters into the ball room we had spent a month decorating. It was fabulous. Everything was even more beautiful now that there were people in it. People of every kind. Some I recognized, some I didn't.

"Our table is over here," Milo said, removing his arm and taking my hand instead. His arm's absence made me cold, just like the way my hand feels whenever he lets go of it.

He led me over to the empty table where we were set to sit. It even had cool little name cards so people knew that these were our seats and they had to go find their own. Gary would be sitting with us, along with his...boyfriend.

Ahem.

The room gradually became louder as more people pooled in. It was crazy. The hotel's ballroom was huge, and even with all of the tables and crap we had in here, it was still spacious.

"Oh my," someone said from behind Milo and me. We were both just sort of sitting at our table. "Maelogan Madden Boone!"

Milo sighed and turned around, but not before putting on a giant fake smile. It made me cringe, I hate fake.

"Yes?" he asked kindly, now facing whoever had screamed his name. Curious, I turned around too. Two ridiculously skinny girls were standing in front of us. They were both clearly mentally undressing Milo and I was going to be sick from it. Seriously, gross. Come on, get a life.

"Just wanted to say hi. We're, um, Grace and Faith... We weren't expecting to see you here," one of them laughed. My throat went dry at the name Faith.

No, Adriaan, suck it up. You did your crying and you aren't going to do anymore.

"Well, I amhere every year," he told them. Wow, they're totally not stupid blondes at all... Nope.

They both giggled and squeezed together. Their dresses matched in color and style, but they clearly weren't the same. Both of them had blonde hair and brown eyes. It's possible that if they dropped the dumb act and gained a few pounds they'd be pretty. Too bad.

"Do you think that maybe...you could check us out sometime? We're pretty hot on the video countdown right now," the other one said. I'd try and guess which was which, but it didn't really matter.

"Yea, sure," Milo told them. They both giggled furiously before taking deep breaths.

"Well, we should get going." Milo nodded at them. "Bye!" the both exclaimed before taking off. Once they were completely gone, Milo and I turned back around.

"I hate coming to these things," he grumbled. His annoyance made me laugh. "Hey, I'm serious. All I ever get is the 'Oh my god! You're Maelogan Madden Boone! Oh my god!'. It gets annoying after the first ten times."

"You know you love that they love you," I teased him. He smiled.

"Pfft, okay. Yep. Because having a bunch of ridiculous people that only like you because you're rich and good-looking is a ton of fun. I'm not kidding you, it creeps me out to know that half of the girls in this room are dreaming about me, have dreamt about me, or have intentions of raping me," he complained. He was so cute when he was upset...

If I had had any sort of liquid in my mouth, it would have been up and out of my nose.

"Well, I don't plan on raping you," I told him seriously. He looked at me and smiled warmly.

"What are you two flirting about?" Gary asked, sitting in one of the two chairs across from us.

"Milo was complaining that there are hundreds of girls that want to rape him," I told Gary. Milo whined next to me as Gary grinned.

Over the next two hours we were served dinner and a zillion people came to see Milo and me. Mostly Milo though. Some came to see Gary and meet his boyfriend John. John's rad, just so you know... Ha, rad... I like that word.

"Milo, bud, I believe it's time for you to go do your thing," Gary said. Milo looked to him. Gary smiled and gestured toward the small stage set up in the center of the room. Milo sighed.

"Why did you make me go first?" he complained. Gary shrugged and urged him to go up. "Is my guitar up there?" he asked with a sigh. Gary nodded and Milo stood up. Suddenly every eye in the room was on my 'boyfriend'. He just walked casually up to the stage like nothing big was happening. I turned back to Gary.

"What's he going to do?" I asked. He never actually told me what he was going to perform. What ever it was it was going to be amazing, I could tell.

"I honestly don't know. Let's just hope it isn't another Christmas carol. Last year he decided to sing a Christmas song and I wanted to shoot him. He can do so much better than that. He was the star of the chorus back in the day you know. And the musicals... And the soccer team... Every freaking class he took..." Gary grumbled. He was only joking about being angry, but he was serious to a point.

"Well, Merry Christmas," Milo stated, playing a few chords before saying anything else. "Here goes it," he sighed and began playing. I immediately knew the song and I could have kissed him for playing it.

"The drugs begin to peak
A smile of joy arrives in me
But sedation changes to panic and nausea
And breath starts to shorten
And heartbeats pound softer

You won't try to save me
You just want to hurt me
And leave me desperate

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth
How do you do it?
You're my heroine

You won't leave me alone
Chisel my heart out of stone
I give in every time

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth

How do you do it?
You're my heroine

I bet you laugh
At the thought of me thinking for myself (myself)
I bet you believe (bet you believe)
That I'm better off with you than someone else

Your face arrives again
All hope I had becomes surreal
But under your cover's
More torture than pleasure
And just past your lips
There's more anger than laughter
Not now or forever will I ever change you
I know that to go on I'll break you, my habit

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth
How do you do it?
You're my heroine

I will save myself"

His voice didn't sound exactly like Shane, but it didn't have to. I wanted to cry. It was so beautiful.

"That was the song My Heroine by my good friends Silverstein. Have a wonderful holiday," Milo told everyone. Then he set down his guitar in its case and casually walked off the stage. Casually on, casually off. He's just casual I guess...

Oh well, that was the most amazing performance I had ever seen in my life. No one was clapping yet, but as soon as Milo sat in his chair everyone stood and clapped ferociously. It was like a swarm of bees coming to eat us.

"Wow," he whispered, looking down at the table. I grabbed his hand.

"That was beautiful," I whispered to him while the crowd began to die down.

"Thanks," he replied. "I was so nervous..."

I laughed when he admitted that. He didn't sound nervous at all. In fact, it sounded like something you hear on an actual album, not live.

"Next time, don't be," I laughed. He smiled at me.

"Thank you," he said seriously, giving my hand a squeeze.

"For what?" I asked him unsurely. Milo took a breath.

"For being strangely okay with all of this." I smiled at him as he gestured to the giant room. It was time. Sometime or another I was going to have to tell Milo about me, about what I've been through. He knows that my sister died, but he doesn't know about everything else. It isn't fair that I know all about him and he doesn't know about me, is it? I'll do it soon. As soon as I can.