The next morning, I woke up a bit too early. It was around eight in the morning and I couldn't find any way to fall back asleep. Arden was lying beside me, snoring and passed out cold. If I only I could achieve to sleep as heavily as her. Literally, nothing could wake her up when she was asleep. One time, I yelled in her ear and all she did was turn to the side and snored even louder. Sleep for her was pretty scarce with her occupation and all so I guess I can understand that when she actually got to sleep that she valued it.

Since I couldn't get myself to rest, I got out of bed and got ready for the day. I took a long, well needed shower, got dressed and headed out of the bedroom to get away from Arden's snoring. Originally, I was going to the living room to see what was on Aussie television, but when I was walking towards the living room, I was stopped by Arden's mother. She looked as if she had been up for hours before even I was. A huge smile was on her face as if she was glad that I had awakened early. "I've been wanting some alone time with you, honey," she declared sweetly.

A one on one conversation with Arden's mother seemed so serious, but the way she smiled at me made me realize it was anything but. She probably just wanted to really get to know me since I was dating her daughter. "Why don't you help me prepare breakfast," she suggested.

"Of course. I would love to!" I followed her mother into the cluttered kitchen. Lydia was huge on the decorations all over her home and there were no exceptions to the kitchen. On the ill-painted, puke green walls there were a bunch of paintings with silly cooking puns on them. The only one that got a laugh out of me was the painting with nothing but peas in the picture. On the painting, in bold, italicized letters was the words, "B-tch, peas." Very creative.

"So, how is Arden? Is she being a good girl," her mother asked me as she looked into the fridge. I washed my hands in the kitchen sink, awaiting for her to shoot me out an order. "I know she can be a real hassle sometimes. Even when she was a little girl, she was a bit too much to handle. The older she gets it seems like the more she wants to be all wild and crazy. At first, I thought it was a phase but I just came to face it. My daughter is freaking crazy!"

A light chuckle came from my lips as dried off my hands. "She's been doing okay. We have our ups and downs, but things are definitely looking up. Yesterday, while meeting the rest of the family I got a real glimpse of her brighter side. She has her negative tendencies and so do I. We just need to work on our flaws and make them a little better, even if we can't erase them," I told her mother honestly. Arden wasn't a saint but neither was I. We both needed some work.

Lydia gave me a satisfied smile. She seemed to like my answer. "Why don't you scramble the eggs and I'll start on the pancakes," she suggested. I nodded my head and made my way to refrigerator to get the carton of eggs. For a few moments, it was silent as we both began preparing our separate dishes. The conversation lacked but Lydia was humming a song to herself. She actually had an amazing tone so when she stopped humming, a part of me became a bit sad.

"You're definitely the classiest girl she's ever brought around me. Most of them always came to visit with their clothes already practically off. I never thought she would bring someone to meet me that I actually saw her having a future with. With you, I see opportunity. I see her finally calming down and being a proper adult. You know, Arden's father was a wild one too. I'm sure she told you the stories about him." What Arden told me about her father was basically that he was a bastard. She talked about him with such hostility and hatred, but her mother spoke of him as if he wasn't as horrible as he seemed.

"Arden said he basically left while you were having her at the hospital," I answered as gently as I could. I didn't know if my answer would trigger anything or not so I said it as politely as I could. It almost sounded like I was pitying her which probably made things a bit worse. I cursed under my breath in realization that I had probably f-cked things up between Arden's mother and I. Then I heard Lydia laugh slightly, I guess didn't hit a nerve.

"Yes, he did. She never got to know her father or even see him. Atticus and Sophia were able to spend years with their father and get to know him, but she takes his departure more hurtful than they do. I know it's something that probably bothers her daily. If only she knew how much she was just like him. It'd probably make her feel even worse. She has his sense of her humor. She looks more like him than Atticus and Sophia combined. She's as spontaneous as him. Crazy, but you know, the whole time I was with her father, I knew he wasn't going to be around forever. I knew he was going to let me down, but I stayed with him. I had three kids with him and when he left a note saying he didn't want a family anymore, it didn't come as a surprise. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I should've been ended things with him before I even had children with him, but if I did do that, I wouldn't have three amazing children. I wouldn't have grandchildren. My whole life would be different. The thing about Arden, in the future, she does have the potential to be like her father. She possess so many traits of him now, but I believe that she can change. I see you making her better, Mira. She's more than fixable."

I didn't know how to take what Arden's mother was telling me. If Arden and I were going to have a future, and she was going to be as unpredictable as her father then I wasn't sure I could handle it. Just having someone I was used to being around me for years, just walk away like I was a piece of sh-t and didn't mean anything to them would kill me. I'm not sure how Lydia could deal when Arden's father just left her to take care of three children. "Don't think about it too much, honey. I didn't tell you any of this to scare you. I just wanted to give you a bit a hope. I know Arden's not the best girlfriend. From the spat her and Sophia had at the table, I'm sure you understand as well. But like I said, she has more than enough potential to change. I see some changes in her now. From the first day you guys arrived here to yesterday, I've seen changes."

I gave Lydia a smile and she smiled as well. The talk we had was really helpful. Lydia gave me hope that Arden and I could have a pretty stable relationship. All I needed to do was help mold her into a better person. Love came with a bit of work, I guess. From Lydia's perspective, at least I was already progressing.

Speaking of the devil, Arden walked in fully dressed for the day right when we had just finished preparing breakfast. She walked in with that charming smirk of hers on her face. "Were you two talking about me, kitten," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around me from behind. Her lips met my neck and she began giving me ticklish kisses on my skin. I giggled softly and quietly as I rested my hands on her arms that were wrapped around me. I nodded my head to let her know that me and her mother were just talking about her. "Hope it was all good things."

"There's nothing good to say about you, bad girl," I teased her.

Unexpectedly, Arden moved her arms from around me and smacked me on the rear. I gasped and then bit down on my lower lip. She was acting like her mother wasn't in the room. "You like how I'm so bad. I know it's gets that little p-ssy of yours wet," she mumbled quietly. My stomach turned a few times and I exhaled sharply.

"What are you two over there whispering about," her mother suddenly asked.

Instantly, Arden jumped back from me and ran her fingers through her hair. "Oh nothing, mummy," she replied as innocently as possible. She went over to her mother and kissed her cheek before sitting down at the table.

"Mhm, sure," her mother replied, not believing her one bit. She probably could see right through her lies, just like she could see through her father's.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. Arden and I didn't do much really. We just laid around and watched movies with each other all day. Arden picked all of the movies since most of mine were resounding chick flicks. Unlike me, she was into all of the older movies. Movies from the '80s and the '90s were what she enjoyed. I knew almost none of the movies from that era, which nearly made her pass out. She acted as if I had told her the most disgusting thing in the world. So to make her feel better about my wellbeing, I sat and watched her old movies with her. I had to admit, they were pretty good. Most of them were either uplifting or just flat out lame, but all around, they were always entertaining.

We watched movies until Arden got a phone call. When she answered it, she was above excited and she was yelling "Yeah," to everything the other person said over the phone. A gigantic smile remained plastered on her face as she continued to listen to whomever was on the phone. I laid there snuggled up in the blanket, waiting for her to get off the phone and un-pause the movie. When she finally got off the phone, she hung up and looked over at me. Her smile faded a little bit as she looked at me. I wasn't sure what to make out of it.

"What's wrong," I asked her as I sat up in bed. She sat down on the bed beside me and shrugged her shoulders.

"It's nothing, kitten. It's just...one of my old pals called me and he wants to go out tonight with some of our other friends, with just me, you know? Like old times. I don't want to leave you here by yourself, but I kind of want to link back up with friends for a night. Do you understand? If you don't want me to go out then I totally understand. I can just stay here and we can watch more movies. Doesn't really matter to me."

Arden was basically asking me if she could go out with her friends as if I was her mother. Even though, I kind of wanted her to stay, I had no right to tell her that she couldn't hang out with her friends. She probably hardly got to see them since they lived here in Australia anyways. I couldn't be the girlfriend that stopped her girlfriend from hanging out with her friends. "Go out," I said with a simple shrug. "You've been here watching movies with me all day. You deserve to go and hang out with your friends. I need to call and catch up with my sisters anyways."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Arden gave me a childlike smile before kissing my lips softly. "You're the best girlfriend in the world."

"Don't you forget it!"

Arden got ready, looking amazing as usual. When I saw how well she had her hair done, and how nicely she was dressed, I almost took back letting her go out. She was looking way too good and I didn't want anyone else looking at her. That was the price had to pay though, I guess. No matter what, someone was going to have their eyes Arden. She was too attractive and if that wasn't enough, she was famous as well. Someone was always going to be after her, whether I liked it or not. So instead of being clingy, I let my girlfriend go out and enjoy herself with her friends.

I used the time to check up on my sisters, who both confessed how much they missed me. Rose couldn't elaborate enough on how much she was in awe that I even came to Australia with Arden after what happened on their first encounter. Sure, Arden was more than out of line when she first met my sisters and she left a pretty horrible impression but I was sure that she could redeem herself. Once I forced Rose to change the subject from Arden, I went on to find out how serious she was getting with her boyfriend, Kent. She started joking about him moving in, which caused Petra to protest about how nasty boys could be. The two began bickering and I was the one to end it by asking what they wanted for souvenirs from Australia. That's when they began speaking over each other and naming out the stuff they wanted.

After speaking to my sisters, I decided to see what Fran and Kendall were up to as well. The whole phone conversation I got cursed out by them for not talking to them enough. I promised them that I would at least call more often and as soon as I got back to LA, we'd have a night out. I'm not sure if they believed me but at least they dropped the subject. After talking on the phone for hours with my sisters and friends combined, I was finally tired and ready for bed. It was around midnight and of course, Arden hadn't come back yet. She'd probably be out for two more hours.

Instead of worrying about Arden's whereabouts, I got ready for bed. I laid there only for a few moments before easily falling asleep. It wasn't long before I was awakened although. The smell of alcohol awoke me before Arden did. Her arm slung around me as she laid beside me on the bed. Her tender lips kissed my neck softly. She smelled so weird. It was the stench of alcohol mixed with something peculiar. I turned to face her to see her smiling lazily. She ran her fingertips down my side and kissed my lips softly.

I smiled back at her slowly and stared at her gorgeous facial features in the moonlight. It all seemed surreal as if I was lying beside a drunk goddess. My smile suddenly faded although when I noticed something on Arden's neck. There were small red marks here or there. The peculiar scent fled through my nostrils again. Everything made sense. She smelled like another woman. "What's wrong, kitten," she asked me curiously with a slur.

My heart dropped in my chest, and I suddenly felt sick. "Nothing," I replied dryly. Her mother was wrong. She wasn't changing at all. I had made no progress. I trusted her to go out with her friends and this was how she repaid me. I turned my back to Arden, looking at her beauty in the moonlight suddenly made me feel sick. Subconscious tears began falling down my cheeks as I didn't dare to face her.

As if she didn't get the hint, she began kissing along my neck again. She just didn't get it. After everything that happened the past few days, the good and the bad, she really messed up things now. Yesterday, she promised she wouldn't break my heart and now, it was on the verge of falling to pieces. "Not tonight, Arden," I mumbled to get her to just leave me alone.

"Why not, kitten?"

"Long day."

"Are you crying," she asked me with worry.

"Just please, Arden. My stomach hurts," I made up a poor excuse but she was too drunk to notice.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Do you want painkillers?"

"I'll be fine if you just be quiet."

"Okay then."

-

What should Mira do?

Do you think Arden can change?