A/N- Thank you so much for the reviews. They're what make me want to keep writing. Sorry for any grammar problems.

Phoebe stared at me with wide eyes. "You did what?"

"You heard me Pheebs, I said no and shut the door in his face!" I groaned and flopped back on the bed. "Goodbye cool adult Helga and hello childish immature Helga."

I stared up at living room ceiling, my lips curled in a perpetual scowl. The movie played on the tv, pretty much forgotten as I told Phoebe about that day's earlier events. I had half hoped and half expected Arnold to attempt reaching out to me, try to convince me to hang out with him. But after a moment or two of silence, I had gathered enough courage to glance out the window only to see him walking down the street. I was such an idiot. I couldn't act normal around Arnold if my life depended on it.

Phoebe's sympathetic face appeared in my view. "At least, you didn't insult him this time. That shows progress."

I gave an unwilling smile at that. "Thanks for always looking on the bright side Pheebs."

"And who says you have to always be available when he asks you to be?" She continued with a slight flush on her face. "Just because Arnold suddenly walks back into your life, who says you have to take notice? You have your own life to live whether or not he's in the picture!"

It was now my turn to stare at her with wide eyes. Phoebe's normally relaxed, pale face was flushed pink and her mouth twitched with emotion.

"Whoa Phoebe, take a chill pill." I quickly sat up. "What's with you all of a sudden?"

Phoebe blinked until her face become a more normal color and when she spoke her voice became meek with a touch of sadness.

"Sorry Helga, but I just can't stand the thought of Arnold undoing all the hard work you put into being a more mature person."

"It isn't all his fault," I muttered unwillingly.

I hated when I defended him, but the words escaped me before I could stop them. Yes part of me blamed that adoring, kind football head for all the trouble in my life and wanted to beat the crap out of him. But my traitorous, conflicting heart didn't want me to speak ill of the boy I worshiped as a child.

There was a moment of silence as the two of us watched the movie I put in. It was a pretty average 90s action movie with the typical gruff, muscular ex-mercenary attempting to stop some evil foreign billionaire from causing world war III. The living room was dark except for the TV so we could get the full impact of the explosions. The sound had to be kept low though or else Olga would come downstairs and nag us to death until we turned it down.

I glanced over at Phoebe to see if she was still irritated. Her eyes were still on the TV but it didn't look like she was paying much attention to it either.

"So how'd number crunching go with Mr. Smooth?" I asked, trying to get us back to a more comfortable topic.

Immediately Phoebe's eyes lit up again. "Excellent actually. It turns out that one of the colleges I had my eye on has not only a chemistry and political science major and a basketball team and communications major. Also, with my combined offered scholarship and the potential basketball grant, it looks like Gerald and I can attend the same college after all!"

"That's great Pheebs!" I clapped her on the shoulder and smirked. "Maybe you two can see about co-ed rooming."

Phoebe blushed like I knew she would and looked away. "H-helga!"

"Aw, what's wrong? Afraid he'll distract you from studying?" I snickered. "Afraid you'll miss a few morning classes?"

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening." Phoebe stubbornly put her hands over her ears like a child.

No matter how old Phoebe got she was still modest about her relationship with Gerald. My constant source of amusement was watching them both blush like preteens whenever I even mentioned anything sexual. This was a complete three-sixty from back when I was dating Arnold. Back then, the constant fighting and disappointment made it hard for me to be around anyone and more than once I had avoided Phoebe.

But thankfully all of that was in the past now. I grabbed a pillow from the couch and hit her with it to get her attention.

"Seriously Pheebs," I lowered my voice. "Have you two done anything yet?"

"Helga, that's highly inappropriate conversation!" Phoebe adjusted her glasses and answered anyway. "If you must know… n-nothing more than kisses a-and embraces. But that's just fine with me." She added quickly.

I chuckled at looked her over. Phoebe had grown curvier in the past few years and more mature from age, but she was still my cute petite Asian sidekick. I was just about to ask her if she wanted to change the movie when my cell phone rang. I picked it up and looked at the caller ID in confusion. It wasn't a number I recognized and it was too late to be a telemarketer so who in the world could it be?

"Talk to me," I answered abruptly.

"Um, hey Helga. It's Arnold. Again."

The phone jumped out of my hand and I stared at it like it had grown legs and a tail. Phoebe stared at me and confusion and asked what was wrong but I could barely hear her over my thudding heart. I didn't even question how he got my number. All I could do was curse fate for bringing Arnold back into my life, them continually shoving him in my face over and over again.

"Helga? Helga?" Arnold's tiny voice sighed over the phone. "Helga come on, please don't hang up on me."

Phoebe looked at me expectantly, and I quickly scrambled to grab it.

"S-sorry, I had to take a crap!" I blurted out.

There was a moment of silence on the other end and I saw Phoebe facepalm. I groaned inwardly. Great. Awkward Helga 2, Mature Helga 0. But then miracles of miracles, Arnold started laughing.

"Same old Helga." He chuckled. "I guess I caught you off guard again huh?"

"Y-yeah, learn to text someone before you call!" I snapped.

"Whatever you say, Helga," He said with familiar obedience. "So anyway, I wanted to apologize for just dropping in on you yesterday. My grandparents kicked me out and Gerald was busy doing college stuff with Phoebe so I just figured..."

Oh. He just wanted to hang out with me because he had nothing better to do. Way to go making a big deal out of nothing again.

"Yeah, I was busy," I mumbled. "Is that all you called about because I'm sorta busy now."

"Um no, that wasn't the only reason I called." For a moment, I could have sworn I heard a bit of irritation in Arnold's voice, but then he cleared his throat and resumed in a normal tone again. "So yeah, I was calling to see if you wanted to hang out tomorrow after you get off of work? So we can catch up some more?"

"Uhh..." I glanced over at Phoebe and quickly put the phone on mute. "It's Arnold and he wants to know if I want to hang out with him tomorrow! What do I do?"

"Whatever you want to Helga," Phoebe whispered. "But remember, you don't owe him anything and nothing has to happen between you two."

"Right." I nodded and unmuted the phone. "Arnold... I would absolutely love to hang out with you tomorrow!"

"Really?" Arnold sounded surprised. "G-great! Text me what time you get off and I can pick you up. Sound good?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow Arnoldo." I hung up the phone and found myself smiling.

"I guess you do want to hang out with Arnold after all." Phoebe pointed out with a small smile.

"Well like you said, nothing has to happen between us."

I turned back to watch the last few minutes of the movie, but I chewed my lower lip in thought. Phoebe was right, I didn't owe Arnold a damn thing! If anything he owed me getting my hopes up, breaking my heart, and then moving away before I could properly kick his ass.

But still, the thought of Arnold, my golden-haired adonis, wanting to spend the day with me tomorrow still had the power to send my heart skyrocketing. A loving sigh escaped my lips before I could stop it. Phoebe gave me a weird look so I disguised it as a yawn.

"Man, I'm beat." I yawned, stretching my arms above my head. "I think I should probably hit the hay."

"So you can dream about him?" Phoebe had a small teasing smile but her eyes looked wary. "Would you still like me to spend the night?"

"Well doi!" I threw my arms around her shoulders and hugged her close to me. "But seriously Pheebs, promise me you'll never leave my side. My life would suck without you."

Phoebe smiled. "Noted."