Oh. My. Goodness! You guys! Thank you so much for your patience. I have been experiencing the WORST writers block. Today, I finally had a free day to sit and write up a plan for this chapter. You guys have waited long enough. So without further ado, the continuation of This Unexpected Life

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of this story. The original characters belong to their creator, Craig Bartlett.

Chapter 7: The Discussion

The remainder of the appointment was spent discussing all of my possible options for this situation. I was incredibly grateful for Dr. Bowman taking time to go through them very carefully with me. Surprisingly, I didn't feel like she was judging me for being in this predicament. If I had to guess, I'm not the first knocked up teenager she's had to deal with. But, I was still happy that she seemed supportive of whatever I decided to do. It was a nice change of pace considering most of the adults in my life aren't very supportive. After Dr. Bowman was done, she had the nurse lead Arnold and me back out to the lobby. We were greeted by Phoebe immediately. She jumped out of her chair and ran up to me.

"So, how did it go? What did they say?" She interrogated. I wasn't sure what kind of facial expression I was making, but she looked incredibly worried as she asked.

"Well, it turns out there's something growing in there." I replied placing a hand on my lower abdomen. "It's still really early. Doc said I'm close to 5 weeks pregnant." I noticed how monotone I was sounding. I guess it hasn't fully hit me. Either that or I've already been desensitized to this information.

"I see." Phoebe responded. She could immediately sense the tension and dropped the subject. "Well, shall we head out, then?" She asked while turning toward the door. All I could do was nod in reply.

The three of us walked down the sidewalk in silence. I could feel Phoebe and Arnold glancing at me every now and then, but I was too preoccupied with my own thoughts. A life-changing decision needed to be made, and it needed to be made very soon.

Suddenly, I felt a force stop me in my tracks. I looked back to my hand which was trailed behind me. I discovered it was being held back by Arnold. My gaze trailed from our conjoined hands all the way up to Arnold's face. He had that adorable half-lidded gaze plastered on his face.

"Hey Phoebe?" Arnold looked past me and called out. Phoebe stopped and turned to face us. "Do you mind if I steal Helga away for a bit?"

I turned my focus from Arnold onto Phoebe. She remained silent but I could see the conflicted look in her eyes. I knew she was thinking of my wellbeing, and she was waiting for a sign from me to see if she needed to save me from being alone with Arnold. All I could do was sigh. I knew I wouldn't be able to escape this conversation. Might as well face it now.

"It's alright, Pheebs. I'll call you when I get home." I said to Phoebe. She nodded in response, and continued down the sidewalk. I turned my attention back to Arnold, who still had a firm grip on my hand. He pulled gently until I started stepping towards him. He turned and started walking in the opposite direction of where we were going, dragging me along with him. Normally, my pride would happily interrupt this golden opportunity to hold Arnold's hand, but for some reason, I had neither the desire nor the energy to pull my hand out of his grip. Geez, it must be this pregnancy. I'm going soft.

We walked in silence for what felt like hours, hand in hand. I prayed my hand wouldn't start sweating. What an embarrassing moment that would be.

"Mind telling me where you're dragging me to, Arnoldo?" I finally spoke out. Arnold turned his attention towards me.

"You'll see." He replied with a smirk. I scoffed at his cockiness. As much as I secretly loved his mischievous look, I still had enough pride left in me to keep that little secret to myself.

Finally, Arnold stopped in his tracks which caused me to stop as well. We were standing in front brick building on the corner of the street.

"Slausen's?" I asked in disbelief. "What are we doing here?"

"I figured you were hungry. And what better way to finish a stressful day than with some ice cream?"

I raised an eyebrow at Arnold's response. Something inside me was telling me there was an ulterior motive to this random outing. Right as I was about to question him again, I was silenced by an embarrassing sound. My stomach betrayed me.

Arnold giggled at the sound of my noticeable hunger. I felt his hand slip out of my grasp, which almost caused me to shiver from the lack of warmth. I looked towards Arnold and noticed that he was holding the door into Slausen's open, gesturing for me to walk in. What a gentleman!

I walked into the ice cream parlor, with memories of April Fool's day all those years ago flooding my mind. I couldn't help but feel a little melancholic. Those were such simpler days. The days of my youth—scheming up plans to get closer to Arnold no matter what it took, yet still adamant about keeping my love for him a secret. How I'd give anything to have such simple worries, again.

I found an open booth in the corner of the parlor and made my way over to it with Arnold following close behind. I scoot into one side of the booth while Arnold sits right across from me, clearly not taking his eyes off of me. His intense gaze made me a little nervous, so I tried to glance all around the room, looking at anything but him.

"Hi, welcome to Slausen's. What can I get you two?" A nasally voice caught our attention. I was so distracted that I wasn't at all prepared to order anything.

"An extra large, triple chocolate shake, please. Two cherries." Arnold replied. I looked at his direction and noticed his gaze still on me.

"And for the lady?" The waiter asked me.

"Uh…m-make that two, please?" I responded a little shaky. I'm sure the blush was evident on my face. I can't believe he remembered that. It was so long ago, and I was certain he was so annoyed with me back then.

As the waiter walked away, I turned my eyes away from Arnold's. I felt like I would go blind if I kept staring into his eyes. Oh, the irony of that thought.

"So…" I finally broke through the silence. "What's going on, Arnold?" I propped my elbows onto the table and looked back at Arnold. "What did you really bring me here, for?"

"Why so suspicious?" Arnold defended. "Can't two friends get a bite to eat together?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, knowing fully well that he would eventually crack and tell me the truth.

Finally, Arnold sighed in defeat. "Well, I figured this would be a nice place to talk about some private…things."

After a few moments of eyeing him, I finally broke away my attention and reached my arm out to grab the waiter that was passing by our table.

Arnold watched me with a shocked expression as I plucked the notepad and pen out of the waiter's hand and ripped a piece of paper out of the pad before handing it back to him.

"Now move along, toots." I waved him away. The waiter, who seemed to look lost, slowly walked away from the table.

I could see Arnold shake his head while smiling. I ignored him as I began scribbling on the paper. He leaned in close to see what I was writing. I pushed the paper in front of him.

"I think we both can agree this is a very adult situation. And adult situations require logical thinking. So…" I flipped the paper over back and forth multiple times. One side of the paper had the word PROS written on the top, and CONS written on the top of the other side. "Let's think logically."

Arnold stayed quiet. I took that as approval to continue. "Let's start with the possible CONS…" I clicked the pen and placed the tip of it on the paper. I then looked up at Arnold waiting for him to say something.

"Uh…" he muttered. "Well…the most obvious issue with all this is our age. I mean, it's not really ideal to be parents at the age of 17." I began writing as he talked.

"Not only are we 17, but we're still students. We have a whole year of high school left. The statistics are not really in the favor of teen parents finishing school." I said while continuing to write.

"Yeah…and I've heard babies aren't cheap. I heard a mom in the store yesterday complaining about how expensive diapers are these days." Arnold said timidly. I could tell the heaviness of these issues was starting to sink in. I knew they weren't easy to talk about, but they needed to be discussed.

"Not to mention the fact that we're not married. Heck, we're not even dating. How are we ever going to parent this kid?" I asked. When I didn't hear a response from Arnold, I looked up from the paper and noticed his face fell into obvious sadness. My heart clenched a bit. I definitely had no intention of upsetting him. I awkwardly cleared my throat, not knowing how to comfort him right now. "Ya know…I think that's plenty of CONS, don't you think?" I could see Arnold perk up a bit at my statement as I flipped the page over to the other side.

"Right…so now the PROS…" Arnold spoke up.

"…"

"…"

The silence was deafening. I was trying so hard to come up with something…anything! But I couldn't honestly say there were any positives that could possibly come out of having this baby.

"Two extra large, triple chocolate shakes, extra cherries." The voice of the waiter caused us both to flinch. I guess we were both so lost in our thoughts we weren't expecting him.

"Thanks." Arnold replied as the waiter set down the glasses in front of us.

More silence followed. After a few more minutes of neither of us speaking up, I sighed heavily. I didn't want it to come to this, but if I were being honest, I knew this wouldn't end any other way.

"Well, it looks like the decision has been made." I said as I began to crumple up the paper in front of us.

"Wait!" Arnold exclaimed as he grabbed my hand that held the balled up paper. His sudden action took me by surprise. I stared at his hand that held mine with a tense grip. I looked up toward his face. I couldn't ignore the immense sadness that reflected in his expression. It was heartbreaking, but at the same time, it was enraging!

"Arnold…you promised." I said quietly, trying to keep my voice down. "You promised that you would be okay with whatever was decided!" I could feel tears threatening to fall, which caused them to sting in my eyes. I felt betrayed.

"I know. I know I promised." Arnold said quietly. He averted his gaze to the table. "It's just…" He gulped loudly before lifting his head to face me once again. "Helga, it just doesn't feel right to not keep this baby." I could tell he was having a hard time speaking his mind. I know he wanted to be supportive, but he was obviously conflicted with his own personal feelings. More than anything, it's difficult for him not to be honest about his feelings.

"Arnold, this is ridiculous." I whispered. I didn't want to cause a scene in this restaurant, and I certainly didn't want all of Hillwood to hear what we were discussing. "You clearly saw all the reasons why we shouldn't keep the baby." I tried to reason with him without being too harsh. "I mean, can you honestly tell me what good will come out of having a baby together?"

"I get to be with you."

I felt my breath get caught in my throat. The sudden cut off of oxygen to my brain was making me a little dizzy. I almost doubted that I heard him correctly. Did he really just say that? What is going on? What is he thinking?

I remained silent while staring at him. What am I supposed to say to that?

Arnold's eyes widened as he stared at me. I think he finally realized what he just said. He cleared his throat and finally spoke up.

"Just…" he began. "can you take at least a day or two to think about it? It's a really big decision to just jump into head first." His piercing green eyes locked onto mine. "I don't want you to do something you might regret later in life."

"Arnold," I began. "I will regret not finishing school. Not going to college. Not living my life to the fullest." I could tell Arnold was hanging on to every word I said, but I could see his shoulders slumping forward, as if coming to the realization of the truth behind my words. "I know you will regret that, too."

I could feel his grip on my hand loosen, but he did not remove his hand from mine.

"You're right." He said in a tone that sounded completely defeated.

"Besides," I spoke up, trying to relieve some of the tension between us. "The pamphlet that Dr. Bowman gave me says that they make women wait three days before doing anything. It gives the woman plenty of time to think it through." Arnold sighed, almost as if he were calming himself down. Hearing that must have eased his mind a bit. "So, we still have some time. But, let's be honest, we both know this will be best for the both of us."

All he did was nod in response.

"Okay." I said, successfully putting an end to this conversation. It was getting too heavy, even for me.

Suddenly, I felt another hand place itself on mine. I looked up and saw Arnold with both of his hands gripping mine. It was a tender grip. One filled with a great kindness. It was beyond soothing. While feeling his skin on mine still made me nervous, my heart felt at ease. It just felt…right. Like this was how it's always supposed to be. How it was meant to be.

I was lost in his eyes. The eyes that never fail to turn me to mush when they locked onto mine. This felt even more true ever since I found out I was pregnant. Whether it was the hormones, or something else, who knew. I couldn't care less at that point. It felt like we were the only ones in the room. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else could possibly steal my attention away from this guy. From those eyes. From those…lips.

Without even realizing it, his face drew closer to mine, and I made no attempt to widen the gap. Things were so complicated and messy between us still, but I couldn't deny my feelings. I couldn't deny my heart what it so desperately longs for—and that's Arnold.

We were mere inches from each other's face. At any moment, I knew I would feel those delightful lips on mine, and my feet would literally float off the ground from the pure surge of ecstasy.

"Hey, look! It's Arnold!" A familiar deep voice erupted inside the parlor, completely shattering the illuminating atmosphere that surrounded us just moments ago.

"Hey, you're right. Look Miss Lila, your sweetie pie is here!" The undeniable southern accent that could only belong to Stinky Peterson called out.

I wasn't sure how or when it happened, but Arnold and I were both sitting back in our seats. We were no longer holding each other's hands.

"Arnold!" A sugary sweet voice exclaimed. The red head came charging up to our booth and sat herself right beside Arnold. She leaned in a planted a feathery kiss on Arnold's cheek. I couldn't help but notice he tried to pull away at first, but he knew he couldn't possibly be that rude even if he tried. "What brings you here? I was certain we were supposed to meet up after school, today." She slide her arm under his and pressed herself against him.

"Yeah, and what are you doing here with Helga, anyway?" Harold said as he approached the table along with Stinky and Sid.

"Oooohhh, is this a secret lovers meeting?" Sid joked.

"No way! He wouldn't do that to Miss Lila. Especially not with someone like Helga!" Stinky interjected.

Ouch…I know I don't normally care what people think of me, but it still hurts to hear stuff like that.

"Actually, I was just leaving." I stood up from my seat. I knew Arnold was staring at me, but I refused to look at him. The whole situation was humiliating, and honestly, it was still too painful to see them together.

"Helga, wait…please stay?" Arnold begged. I ignored his plea and headed towards the exit. I could hear him continue to call out for me. I couldn't faintly make out the boys asking why he was wanting me to stay anyway, which he gave no reply.

As I walked out of Slausen's and across the street, I fought hard to keep myself from looking back. In the end, I lost that fight. I stopped once I was on the sidewalk again, and turned to look back towards Slausen's. I could see Arnold and everyone else through the window. Arnold was watching me. His expression was sad. I knew he was begging for me to come back, but I just couldn't. I looked forward once more and continued my journey home.

It didn't take long for me to arrive at my front door. Once I got inside, I called out to see if anyone was home.

"Mom? Dad?"

I could hear noise coming from the living room. I looked to my right and saw Big Bob lounging in his chair.

"Hehehe. What an idiot! I coulda told ya it wasn't that!" Bob was yelling at the Television. Watching "The Wheel" I'm sure.

I slipped past the living room undetected and made my way to the kitchen. I peaked in and felt my shoulders slump at the sight in front of me. Miriam was passed out, once again, with an empty glass in her hand and a clearly used blender in the sink. I slipped out of the kitchen and made my way upstairs to my room.

Once I made it to my room, I made sure to close the door and lock it. I sat on my bed, feeling exhausted, both mentally and physically. My emotions had never experienced this kind of roller coaster before. Especially not in one afternoon. I experienced nervousness, relief, sadness, happiness, confusion…all the emotions one human could possibly feel.

I looked down at my hand and noticed I still had the ball of paper squeezed tightly in my fist. I opened it back up to glance at it one last time. I couldn't help but feel stuck staring at the blank side of the paper. The side that could not offer any positive reasoning to carry on with this pregnancy. I took a deep breath and placed the paper down on my nightstand. I then slowly reach into my pocket to retrieve my cell phone.

I immediately noticed several missed calls and text messages from Arnold.

"Helga, I'm so sorry. I didn't think they would show up there."

"Helga, can you please call me? I still want to talk to you."

"Did you make it home okay? Call me when you get this."

I read through each of the texts. I didn't have the mental capacity to respond to him. At least not yet. While holding the phone in one hand, I reached into my back pocket, which held one of the folded up pamphlets that I got from my appointment today. My hands were shaking as I read over the pamphlet one last time. I took another deep breath as I dialed the number listed at the back of the pamphlet.

"Hi, my name is Helga Pataki. I need to schedule an appointment to terminate a pregnancy."

I'm sure this is not how you expected this chapter to end. Don't freak out just yet! Now that I finally jumped this "writer's block" hurdle, I'm hoping to give you guys more consistent updates. Again, I appreciate your patience. Please don't lose faith in me just yet. Until next time!