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

Me!
Yeah!
All these things I hate revolve around me
Yeah!
Just back off before I snap and you'll see
Me!
All these things I hate revolve around me
Yeah!
Just back off before I snap

My left eye twitched once or twice. Maybe three times, but hey, who's counting?

Gary smiled gaily and spun in another circle. I was sitting on the bed and I still got dizzy from all of his moving around.

"You mean to tell me, that Hakim is downstairs, right now?" I asked him carefully. Gary laughed and nodded. Of course I knew my brother was attractive, but I didn't realize gay guys were in love with him. Unless he's changed over the past year and a half...

"Yes! Now who the hell is he? He's one hell of a man, let me tell you! If it weren't for John, I'd have hit on him. However, I'm not one to waste a good thing, and John is one amazingthing..." Gary blabbered. Once he started talking about John, there was no stopping him. I think I would know, especially after spending about a month in the same hotel as him.

"Hakim is Adriaan's brother," Milo told Gary, closing the door and walking over to me. Gary's jaw dropped.

"No way! He looks nothing like you! You're so corpse-like and he's so...middle-eastern. Please tell me he's middle-eastern..." Gary begged. I watched him awkwardly.

"He's, uh, half Egyptian..."

Gary practically fainted.

"That is so amazingly hot. He's straight though, right? Go figure all of the good ones like chicks," he grumbled.

"Hey!" I shouted and threw a pillow at him. Milo brought his hand up and bit one of his fingers to keep from laughing. Gary gawked at me, shocked that I'd thrown a pillow at him.

"What did I say?" Gary asked, confused.

"Is there something wrong with being a part of the female population, Gary?" I asked him, pretending to be insulted.

"No! Not at all!" he yelled, trying to fix his mistake. Both Milo and I laughed. "You're so heartless," he seethed. I smiled.

"I know."

"Whatever. I say you should call him up here now. He looked pretty desperate. But don't worry, he won't be stared at by me. John and I have a date," Gary told us proudly and then turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.

"That was all fairly odd," Milo commented.

"Yep. Do me a favor and call Hakim up. I'm sure you're dyingto meet him," I said dramatically, standing up and beginning to walk toward the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Milo inquired, watching me. I smiled and kept walking.

"I need to shower. I doubt my brother needs to smell any more nastiness after spending as long as he has with people in poverty."

Milo shrugged. As soon as I reached the door to the bathroom, he was reaching for the room phone.

This was going to be fun. My fiancée and my overprotective older brother in one room. Lovely.

MILO'S POV

Adriaan had gone into the bathroom and I had called the front desk. When I asked if a Hakim was there, the woman said yes and sent him up. For some reason I felt a little nervous, or something...

The shower had started and not ten seconds later a knock came at the door. I stood up and adjusted my shirt before walking over and opening the door.

In front of me stood the man that had been in that picture, the one I was jealous of. Of course he was her brother, but still. I wished I could have what he had. He looked a little older, obviously, but there was still something that was off about him. Something wasn't right, and yet I felt like it wasn't anything deadly.

"Um, hello, I'm Maelogan," I said awkwardly. Normally I would have offered my hand, but he had one hand on a pull-along suitcase handle and the other gripping his bag's strap. I just hoped he didn't plan on spending the night in our room. There was definitely no room... Well, I mean, we could have made room and everything but... Never mind.

"Hakim. Who are you exactly?" he asked, looking behind me. This was the second time I'd been asked that question... Which reminded me that I would have to talk to Hakim about Matthew. I was sure he'd want to join in on kicking that bastard's ass.

"Adriaan's, uh, boyfriend..." I told him uncomfortably. He grunted and then came into the room. He dropped his bags to the floor and then turned back to face me as I closed the door.

"Where is she?"

"In the, uh, shower." I pointed to the bathroom door. Hakim followed my finger and then snapped his head back at me. His eyes were slightly narrowed.

"The last time I saw my sister she was dating some kid named Matthew. When the hell did you come into the picture?"

I gulped and shifted my feet.

"About three months ago... They moved in next door."

"And how old are you?" he asked. His voice was fairly deep, and he had a very faint accent. He was also built, and I wasn't exactly comfortable with him being so uptight.

"Twenty-one," I replied softly. His eye twitched ad his muscles tightened.

"My little sister just turned seventeen. What the hell are you thinking?" he growled.

"Listen, our parents sort of set this up. I wouldn't normally...you know, be comfortable dating someone so young."

Hakim grunted.

"I've got a few rules for you Mister Boone. I may have been out of the country, but I still know who you are. You think you're some hot-shot, don't you? Well I've got news for you. Adriaan isn't some toy. If you hurt her, I'll hurt you. Don't even so much as touch her in the wrong way, got it? She's seventeen and a virgin as far as I know. Keep it that way."

I felt even more uncomfortable. Subconsciously I brought my hand up and ran it through my hair. Half of that wasn't true. At all.

"Now, that's enough of this crap. I just went to see my father, and he told me everything. Nice cover story though. If you're going to marry my sister, then you better keep her happy. I don't care if you want to or not. Don't ever cheat on her, and you had better not ever leave her."

My mouth was prepared to drop open in shock.

"You know?" I asked, astounded. Hakim chuckled.

"Yes, I know. So save me the pain of watching you two pretend to care for each other. It's bad enough my father would even think to do something so ridiculous. Now, I'm actually hoping you and I can be friends. Otherwise you'll have to deal with a whole lot of crap from me in the future."

"Yea, sure. Then, I'd like to tell you something," I said. This would be hard. I was going to tell him about Matthew. I just hoped this would go well.

"Okay...?"

"I have reason to believe Matthew's done some things. I think Adriaan would have told you if you had been there, but you weren't. My cousin's going to bring him to me. Childish, I know, but it's the only way I'm willing to deal with this."

Hakim was even more tense than before.

"What did he do?" he asked carefully.

"I, uh, think that he r---"

"Milo!" Adriaan called from the bathroom. The room was silent for a second and I noticed that the shower had been turned off. Hakim stared at me and I quickly made my way from him to the bathroom door.

"What?" I asked softly. The door opened a crack and I could barely see one of Adriaan's eyes.

"I sort of...um, forgot to grab a change of clothes... Can you grab me some?" she whispered. A huge weight of awkwardness landed on my shoulders and I felt myself nearly blush. Manly, right?

"Uh, sure." Adriaan closed the door and I quickly made my way to where her clothes were. I could feel Hakim's gaze on me as I rifled through her things. It was actually really embarrassing. First of all I had to get her all of the things she needed. Second, her brother was watching me the entire time.

Once I had everything, I stood up and went back to the bathroom door. Hakim was still staring me down as I knocked lightly to let Adriaan know I was back.

The funny thing was that I had never acted this way before. Obviously I'd never been some cocky hot-shot like Hakim had thought. I'd learned to act better than that. And I also knew my place. So, I'd always been the shy kid. The anti-social one. The failure...

To everyone I'd just been that Boone kid. Over the years people had gradually started to consider me good-looking. Well, actually, I'd always been 'the good-looking one', but that didn't count for anything. Wayland was the heir. Cadan was the obedient one. What was I? Exactly like I said: the shy, anti-social failure. That's what I was. I'd been over it for quite some time though. I was...technically happy. At least that's what I thought.

The door opened just enough for me to slip my hand through and give Adriaan her things. As she took them, I felt the weight lifted from me. When I went to take my hand back out, Adriaan grabbed a hold of it. Right away I felt the adrenaline envelop me. This wasn't going to be very entertaining for Hakim, or for me. I could tell just from knowing him for a few minutes that he was going to kill me. He had even told me he would!

However, his sister was pulling me into the bathroom and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Adriaan slammed the door as soon as I had both feet in the steaming hot bathroom.

"What was that about?" I asked incredulously, taking a deep breath.

"What's he like?" she asked me excitedly, her eyes shining. I straightened my back and scratched the back of my head.

"Well, he cares about you a lot... And I'm sure he's a pretty nice guy, but..."

"But what?" she questioned dejectedly. I hadn't actually looked at her yet. To tell you the truth, I was a little uncomfortable. Especially knowing she was, well, not dressed.

"Honestly, I don't think he likes me very much..." I told her halfheartedly, smiling faintly for a brief second. I was used to it by then. No one cared about Maelogan, the child that wasn't supposed to succeed. The child that was a failure for not failing; the child who hated himself. No. Who would want to care about him? What could he ever do? Who was he?

Pathetic is what he was. Pathetic for being depressed and depressed for being pathetic. Why waste time? Why bother with such a waste?

"Don't let him get to you. He's like that with everyone. Besides, he's probably just cranky after spending a year and a half with random strangers living in poverty," she assured me, but it was too hard to believe.

I doubted he was kidding. The things he said were meant to seem like a warning, but I couldn't do anything about that. What was the worst was that his warnings wounded me. He reopened memories and feelings I had forgotten about while with Adriaan, but that had changed because of his words.

"No," I whispered. "He knows about the whole arrangement. And he thinks he knows me... I just... I--I need my medication," I blurted and walked to the cabinet. Adriaan was watching me, I could see her in the mirror, holding tightly to the towel that covered her. Within a few seconds I had my prescription in my hand and I was opening the lid. It had already been too long since I took it. I had thought that maybe I was starting to finally get better, but Hakim changed that. He made me realize I'd never be better.

I belonged to my depression. It owned me, controlled me. I'd already be dead by now if I didn't have a conscience. My family might not all care, but they'd hate me even more if they were to get badgered by the media because of my death. All I'd ever wanted was to be noticed. To be loved; to be accepted; to make them happy.

Sadly, I had come to realize that those were vain hopes. They'd never care, they'd never notice or accept me. It was all about the money and the estate. The family, they would call it. But how could it be a family if we were separated? The thing was, we weren't all separated, it was just me: the outcast.

And somehow I'd always known I would never matter. After all, I was just Maelogan, the failure.