Helga awoke on the next day, a smile appearing on her face.
She didn't know how, but somehow, the song that Arnold had written down on a small scrap of paper was enough to shift her perspective, and help her realize that Rhonda was right. If Justin needed to cheat on her to make himself feel better, or simply because he wanted a little action on the side, than he didn't deserve to be with her, or anyone else. She deserved more than someone who would cheat on her. But, she still couldn't help but wonder how long it has been going on. Maybe it has been going on all along, or maybe it was just this week, but either way, he betrayed her trust in a way that was very hard to win back.
She was still debating whether or not to actually tell him that she saw him shove his tongue down another girls throat, or simply give him the cold shoulder until he got the hint. But she could only speculate that he had no idea that she knew, and that the next time he would talk to her would be as if everything was still okay between them. And as she pushed herself up out of bed, grabbing her cell phone to check the time, she was right, telling by the text message she was staring at, asking her how her class went, and from the time he sent it, it was about an hour after she saw him cheat on her.
Leaving his message unanswered, she grabbed some clothes for the day, and went about her normal morning routine. She only had one class today, and as she thought about it coming back to her room, she was a little disappointed that it was a class that Arnold wasn't in. His actions yesterday left her to wake up with more questions than ever. He had told her twice to leave him alone, then he does something as simple as writing the name of a seventy year old jazz song down onto a scrap of notebook paper about a girl whose husband is unfaithful and decided to make an example out of him. And unless Rhonda had told him about what had happened for some odd reason, he knew what had happened between her and Justin.
As Helga finished getting dressed, with Rhonda returning to their room after a trip to the bathroom, Helga decided to start investigating. "Hey Rhonda."
"What's up?" She asked, walking over to her closet.
"Did you tell Arnold about what happened between me and Justin yesterday?"
Rhonda looked over her shoulder, with a raised eye brow, and obvious smile. "Oh yeah, because I'm so into telling my friends personal problems to a guy who doesn't even bother to wave at me." She said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "What makes you think I would tell Arnold anything about you and jock-strap?"
Letting out a loud chuckle before sitting down onto her bed, Helga grabbed her backpack to slip a few books into it. "Because at the end of philosophy yesterday, Arnold tossed a piece of paper down onto my desk as he was walking out that had the name of the song we were dancing to yesterday on it. I figured that maybe you mentioned something to him about it in class or something."
"No, I didn't say anything."
"Then how would he know that Justin was cheating on me?"
Rhonda turned around after pulling on a black t-shirt with an anarchy symbol spray-painted on it and shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask him?"
Helga walked out of her only class at about noon, and started for the dining hall. She had been starving and didn't get a chance to eat this morning since she woke up a little later than usual, and she skipped dinner the night before. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and it wasn't until she looked at the screen that she remembered that she had an unanswered text from Justin, whom had just sent her another one, asking her if she wanted to go to a movie tonight. Suppressing her heartbreak in exchange for anger toward him, and a strong feeling of self worth, she slid her thumb across the screen, stopping where she was just outside the building she had walked out of, and answered him. We need to talk.
His reply came a few seconds after. Okay, I'm about to head into class. How bout we meet for a late lunch afterwards, say around two?
She sighed, feeling very impatient, and answered. Sure.
She slid her phone back into her pocket and started down the path again toward the dining hall. She looked up to see the dining hall just a little ways away, and saw a familiar messy head of blonde hair stride out, a bottle of water in his hands. She smiled to herself and quickly jogged to catch up with him before he got too far away. "Arnold!" She called after him, but he didn't stop. She kept jogging toward him until he was within reach, and she placed her fingers gently onto his shoulder, which slowed his pace a bit, giving her the opportunity to step in front of him. A little out of breath, she wasn't surprised to see him staring blankly at her. "I just wanted to thank you... for the song. It really helped me out a lot." She said with a soft smile.
Letting out a sigh through his nose, he spoke, his voice still low and steady. "Like I said, be more careful next time." He said just before he moved to step around her. But she stopped him with a hand on his upper arm, not ignoring the brief observation of how firm his bicep felt.
"Wait, how'd you know? I mean... how'd you know that my boyfriend had cheated on me?" She asked him, seeing him stare blankly back at her, just as he always does.
"I knew because it was to be expected. Just like I'm expecting you to confront him about what you saw, just like I am for him to apologize, tell you that she means nothing to him, and there's a fifty fifty chance that he will very hesitantly tell you that he loves you. And I'm expecting you to fall for it." He said with a raised voice, more raised than she had ever heard from him, as he quickly turned and started back down the path away from her.
"You don't know that!" She called after him, angry that he would jump to such conclusions about her.
"Then prove me wrong." He said back to her, not turning around.
She watched him go for a minute, considering what he had told her. There was no way that she was taking him back after what he's done. Huffing, she turned around and went into the dining hall, grabbing a burrito and a diet soda. She ate angrily, and after throwing her trash away, she pulled out her copy of The Republic to read the first book, trying to get the words to register in her mind. How could he think that she was stupid enough to fall for anything Justin would say to her? Did he really think she was that dumb? But as she thought back to the moment afterwards, when she had ran into him, and he had pulled her up off the ground, his words rung in her head. Be more careful next time.
Maybe he wasn't talking about her trying to run him over. And at this thought, the words he had said to her when she had thanked him just a little while ago rung in her head, repeated them to her when she hadn't done anything as clumsy as run face first into another person. Maybe it meant something more.
Giving up trying to read, she closed her book and tossed it back into her backpack, looking at her phone and seeing that it was ten minutes past two o'clock. And as if on cue, she looked up and saw Justin walking up to her, a smile on his face. She sighed, forced down her emotions and stood up. Calmly strolling up to her, he opened his arms to her, but she put her hand out in front of her to push him back, keeping him back at arms length. "What's wrong?" He asked, letting his arms fall down to his sides.
"We need to talk, Justin." She said, her voice low, and somewhat accusing.
He paused, his eyes turning a little fearful before he nodded. "Okay, about what?" He said, smiling softly at her, and she couldn't help but feel patronized.
She sighed, let her head fall forward, the image if his grin appearing in her mind just before his lips latched themselves onto a set that wasn't hers. "Justin, I know." She said, lifting her head up to him, staring him dead in the eye.
She watched as his smile brightened a bit, his brow scrunching together. "What do you mean? Know what?"
He's better at lying than I thought. She thought to herself just before she shook her head. "Don't give me that. I know, okay? So you can quit playing with me."
"Helga, what are you-"
"I saw you, Justin." She stopped him before he could continue running her around in circles. She watched as his expression blanked a bit, his eyes widening for a second before he corrected himself. "I saw you. Don't try and pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about."
"Helga, I can explain-"
"How long did you think you could use me? You think that I'm so stupid that I wouldn't eventually catch on? How long have you been sleeping with her? Wait... don't answer that, because you're just going to lie to me again, just like you have been for the past year."
"No, Helga, she doesn't mean anything to me!" He said, reaching for her, his expression turning pleading. She took a step back, raising her hand to him again to stop him. I can't believe he was right. She thought as she let her hand fall back down to her side. "Helga, you have to believe me. You're my girlfriend. We've been together for a year! She means nothing to me!"
"Neither do I." She said bitterly, moving to step around him, only to be caught by his hand on her upper arm. She spun around and looked at his still pleading eyes.
"Helga, she isn't you. I don't... I don't love her." His eyes fell for a moment before turning back up to her. "I love you."
Despite knowing in the back of her mind that he was just playing her, she couldn't help the gasp that escaped her throat. His grip on her arm softened, and his hand started to slowly make its way toward her cheek, until her eyes broke away from his to look past him, where she saw a familiar figure looking right at her, his arms folded over his chest, his leg crossed over the other, leaning against a column, his expression blank, but his eyes looking right at her. And I'm expecting you to fall for it, his words rung in her head.
She let a smile curl onto her lets, that felt a little evil, and looked back up to Justin, who own smile was soft. "Oh Justin..." She said as she gently caught his wrist just before his hand made contact with her cheek, pushing it down. "Do you really expect me to fall for that?" She rhetorically asked, just before she shoved his wrist away from her, her face going into a scowl while his eyes turned surprised, his brow falling. "Consider this goodbye." She quickly spun around on her heel and made for the door.
"Helga, you can't be serious!" He called after her, an attitude rising in his voice.
She spun around and walked backward, lifting her middle finger to him, "Sit on in and twirl, pretty boy!" She spat toward him, with her eyes quickly shooting over to the column where she saw Arnold leaning, but not seeing him. How does he do that? She thought briefly just before she spun back around and slammed the door open and walking briskly out the door.
As she walked back to her dorm, she couldn't help but imagine the look on Arnold's face now. Feeling very proud of herself, she held her head up high as she walked back to her dorm. She opened the door to find Rhonda sitting on her bed, a notebook open on her lap with a textbook open next to her leg, sitting with her legs crossed. Rhonda looked up and narrowed her eyes. "What are you so smiley about?"
Helga let her backpack fall to the ground and sat down onto her bed. "I broke up with Justin." She said, her smile bolstering.
"Yeah? You let him have it?" Rhonda asked, an evil grin appearing on her face.
"I gave him the finger and everything!" She said proudly.
"Aw, all you did was flip him the bird? You didn't like... knee him in the crouch, or splash hot coffee in his face, or spray paint his car or anything?"
Helga paused, looking over at her room mate with a raised brow. "You've obviously spent more time thinking about this than I have." Rhonda chuckled and shook her head, looking back down to her notebook. "But that's not really why I'm smiling."
"Then why are you smiling?"
"I ran into Arnold a couple hours before I talked to Justin, and he said that he was expecting him to give me the speech that he did. And he did, almost word for word. That she means nothing to him, blah blah blah, and then he said that he was expecting him to tell me that he loves me, which he did. But he also said that he was expecting me to fall for it." She said, a proud smile appearing on her face.
"So, you're happier that you proved Arnold wrong, than you are having just dumped a two-timing piece of trash?"
"I would have loved to see the look on his face when he saw me break up with Justin." Helga said, the image of him leaning against that column watching as she raised her middle finger up to Justin.
"He was watching you?" Rhonda asked, her head lifting up, a very surprised look on her face.
"Yeah, but when I walked out, he was gone. Like that thing in the movies where you see someone looking at you, then a bus passes in front of them and their gone. It was weird."
Rhonda groaned, her head falling back against the wall behind her. "I'm such a sucker for that mysterious, brooding type thing."
"If you're so crazy about him, then why don't you ask him out?"
"Because I have my sights set on a guy I met in my biology class."
"Oh really?" Helga asked in a joking tone.
"He told me how he once let all the animals out of the zoo, painted in strips. That's about as crazy as you can get!" She said with a bright smirk. "But come on, admit it," She continued, "you're a sucker for the mysterious and brooding type too, aren't you?" She said, her smirk turning into a grin, her eyes narrowing.
Helga smiles to herself, and slid back on her bed till her back was against the wall. "At this point, anything is a step up from the type I just got rid of."
"Yeah..." Rhonda said on a chuckle, "as long as they have messy blonde hair and green eyes, right?"
"His eyes are green?" She honestly asked.
"Like you didn't notice." She said, shaking her head.
Helga grasped onto the small throw pillow sitting next to her, and tossed it at her. "Shut up."