Helga jumped up from the door as soon as she heard Phoebe opening it.

"Hello Helga!" She said smiling, but then raising an eyebrow when she noticed Helga was up against the wall next to the door. "…what were you doing?"

"Nothing! I just got home a few minutes ago is all." Helga said, trying to cover up her flushed face.

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "…riiiight, anyways, did you want to just go and grab dinner tonight? I figured a nice night out just the two of us would be great!"

Helga smiled. "That sounds awesome Pheebs. Are you hungry now?"

"I could eat. Why don't we go get ready now and we'll figure out where after?"

"Sounds good, I'll go throw on some makeup." Helga said, heading into the guest bedroom while Phoebe jumped in the shower.

Helga thought about Arnold while she was getting ready. That move he made was so sudden, but it was a nice surprise she had to admit.

She sighed, she hated how much of a jumbled mess Arnold made her, even after all the time apart.

She shook her head, shaking the thoughts from her mind as she finished getting ready. She threw on a nice little black dress (she worked hard for the body so why not show it off?) with some silver heels, her hair curled in nice waves.

"Well don't you look nice?" Phoebe giggled when her friend strolled out of the bathroom.

Helga smirked, putting her hands on her hips. "I should say the same to you!" She winked, the both of them laughing.

They headed out to Fazoli's, and Helga was surprised that it was still there after all these years. She smiled, thinking about when she dressed up to fool Arnold as Cecile. Some of the extents she went to were so goofy looking back on it now.

Phoebe and Helga sat down at their table, laughing and chatting about various things.

"Oh," Phoebe said, setting her wine glass back down. "I meant to ask you, why did you switch trainers? Because you had somebody before John didn't you?"

Helga sighed; she knew Phoebe would ask eventually. "You're talking about Eric, right?"

"Yeah him," Phoebe said. "You used to rave about how terrific he was, I was really surprised when you said you had a new one."

Helga twirled her finger around her glass, thinking of how to tell her friend about what happened. "Well, Eric was training me, rather well, and after almost three years, apparently he thought I owed him something."

Phoebe didn't seem to quite understand where she was going with this.

"He showed up to my apartment, saying it was urgent." Helga continued, still searching for the words. "When he got there, he tried forcing himself on me."

Phoebe gasped in surprise. "What did you do?"

Helga shrugged. "I beat the shit out of him and threw him out of the apartment, after firing him of course." She sipped her wine.

Phoebe remained silent. "Wow…"

Helga sighed again. "Yeah. Can we talk about something else though please?" Helga asked, desperately wanting to change the subject.

Phoebe nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry Helga. I didn't mean to bring up old wounds."

"It's all good Pheebs no worries." She said, quickly bringing up Phoebe's school, which they talked about for pretty much the rest of dinner.

Phoebe and Helga left dinner, both full and satisfied with their nice dinner between friends. They headed back to the apartment, chatting as they strolled.

Phoebe had the next two days off so they spent a lot of much needed time together, Helga loved it. She had missed her friend a lot.

She knew she had to leave in the morning, so she needed to stop by Arnold's tonight and see him, just like she promised. She smiled, feeling almost jittery at the thought. Helga didn't even think to bother calling or texting Arnold, he knew that she'd be stopping by sometime anyway so what was the point?

Arnold watched the clock at work; he was so ready to be off. It was a pretty rough day between stupid customers and his boss. He checked his phone, seeing if there was a missed call or text from Helga, but there was nothing. He sighed; she was leaving soon wasn't she?

He finally got off and headed home, but stopped when he came up on a small liquor store. He stared at the illuminated store name, feeling extremely tempted to grab a bottle of something.

He sighed, screw it, he'd just grab a small bottle of gin and be on his way. Helga didn't need to know about his one cheat night. He picked up the bottle and headed home.

He set all of his things down and grabbed a cup, pouring a little bit of his mixer in it with the gin, plopping down on the couch with a satisfied sigh. He left the bottle sitting on the kitchen counter in case he wanted another drink and turned on the TV. He flipped through a few channels before leaving it on a talk show host. Man, of course as soon as he got comfy he had to go to the bathroom. He sighed, standing up and setting his drink down, heading to the bathroom.

Helga looked at her phone to see what time it was while she walked. It was 8:30, so Arnold was definitely home by now. She felt butterflies in her stomach and she wasn't sure if it was nervousness or excitement. Either way, she was just ready to get to the boarding house.

She finally made it to the front steps and knocked on the front door, waiting a moment. Nobody answered, so she impatiently pushed the door open, just letting herself in.

"Arnold?" She called down the hall. She didn't hear a reply.

Hm…I wonder where he is.

She peaked in the living room after noticing the TV was on. She saw a glass sitting on the table, feeling a little bit of suspicion. She shook it from her mind. No, it was just a regular drink. Arnold wouldn't betray her like that.

She decided to look in the kitchen. Maybe he was in there and couldn't hear her. "Arnold? Where are you Football Head-" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the gin bottle sitting on the counter. Her heart fell to the floor.

Arnold flushed the toilet and washed his hands before heading back down the hall, passing the kitchen. He noticed a figure as he walked by and he slowed, backing up to see if he really saw someone. He came back to find Helga holding the bottle and staring at it, facing away from Arnold.

Oh shit. "…Helga?"

"…you're unbelievable." Helga mumbled, her hand beginning to shake.

Arnold felt his heart racing. He knew he shouldn't have gotten it. "Helga, I can explain-"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT." Helga shouted, whipping around to face Arnold. He had never seen this look in her eyes before, even when she fought.

"You're a liar. You lied to me!" She almost whispered, disgusted.

Arnold watched her frantically, trying to figure out how to diffuse the situation.

"What can you possibly say to justify this Arnold?!" She charged towards him, stopping in his face and shaking the bottle in front of him. "HUH?!"

Arnold stared at her, he had no explanation.

Helga searched his eyes, hers burning into his. She shoved the gin bottle into his chest, sending him back a bit. "I'm done with you Arnold." She said, walking around him and slamming into his shoulder.

"Helga, please." Arnold followed her slowly as she charged towards the front door; he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He really screwed up.

Helga ignored his almost plea as she opened the door, slamming it with a force that shook the frame and knocked down a hanging picture frame, leaving Arnold now crying as he stared at the shut door, knowing nothing he could do would fix this.

Helga stormed down the street, absolutely disgusted. Unbelievable! How dare he!

He lied to her. Not another drop my ass!

She cursed herself silently as she plowed the sidewalk towards Phoebe's apartment.

She felt a chill on her face and she wiped her cheeks, realizing she was crying, which made her even madder. She didn't want to cry.

She cursed herself even more.

She was so glad now that she was leaving in the morning, she could get away from Arnold, and as much as she didn't want to leave Phoebe, she was just so disgusted with the stunt he pulled that she was just ready to go.

She wiped her face a few more times before she reached Phoebe's apartment and opened it. Phoebe was already asleep thank goodness; she really didn't want to explain why she was crying.

She went in the guest bedroom and fell onto the bed, not even bothering to change.

She felt her lip starting to quiver before she began to straight sob, just giving up on trying to be strong. She felt betrayed by Arnold, and it broke her heart that even for her he couldn't stop drinking. Miriam was even able to stop, and she was much more gone than Arnold. She tugged the covers up to her face while she cried, curling up as much as she could, as if she'd disappear. Her heart felt broken.

Arnold punched his wall in his room, tears running down his face.

He screwed up, royally, and he really felt deep down in his heart that there was no turning back from this. He knew how unforgiving Helga could be, and in this case he didn't blame her. And that's what made him the most mad, was the fact that he knew he could've prevented it.

His heart was throbbing as he paced his room, Helga never leaving his mind. Maybe he could call her in the morning, to try and talk.

No, that wouldn't be a good idea, she needed time and he knew that. Maybe he should call in a few days, because then he could say he was making sure she got back safe.

He stopped, raking a hand through his hair. Who was he kidding? He screwed up, royally. Helga would never forgive him, let alone speak to him.

He shook his fist, finally feeling the sting from the punch he delivered to the wall. He fell onto the bed, stuffing his face into his pillow as he continued to cry, wanting to just get sucked into the bed and turn back time to before he bought that damned bottle.

*I know I know _ this one is short too. I'm sorry! I've been really busy with school so I wanted to get this up. I pinky promise that this next chapter will be nice and long. Wow, so Arnold fell back, Helga's pissed which of course is expected. Is Arnold going to be able to talk his way out of this one? Or is this possible love damaged beyond repair? Can Helga's hard heart forgive the man she knows deep down she still is crazy about? Leave feedback! Thank you guys as always for reading! lotsa love guys! (:*