Disclaimer: Hey Arnold! does not belong to me, nor do the characters.
Side note: So sorry to keep you all waiting :(
Chapter 8
Helga
Sunlight poured into Helga's eyes as they abruptly snapped open causing her to immediately shut them in regret.
Criminy who made the morning so frickin bright, she thought bitterly, this is a nightclub, you'd think the sun wouldn't even make it inside.
She shut her eyes once again attempting to return to her pleasant dream before she could truly process her own thoughts.
Nightclub? They thundered in her skull with outrage, Morning? What was wrong with this picture suddenly became clear. She was lying on the floor in Gerald's Spot using Arnold's sweater as a blanket accompanied by a shirtless Arnold who had an arm wrapped around her waist.
The reunion is tonight and Arnold's too hung over to care… What have I done?
"Arnold," she groaned shaking him softly, "come on, football head wake up…Hey Arnold!"
A smirk crossed his lips at the sound of her voice and Arnold only gripped Helga tighter.
Had it not been for the fact that the reunion was in less than six hours from now and the two of them were nowhere close to ready, she would have savored this moment (for a school counselor, his body was surprisingly drool worthy); but knowing how important this was to him she had to wake him up.
"Oh criminy, Arnold, would you just get up?"
Arnold
The sun was exceptionally bright and made the passing creek glimmer beneath the elegant picnic in the park. Helga looked exquisite in a saucy sapphire gown that plunged down her neck line into a flirtatious V; her golden hair was pinned in an elegant up do and her voluptuous lips were curled into a naughty smirk.
"I'm having an amazing time," she said leaning into him flirtatiously as more cleavage practically spilled out of her top.
Arnold smiled down at her…face. "That's good to hear," he replied, "because this is the best day of my life."
"I think it's mine too," Helga said leaning into him even closer. Suddenly a peculiar almost animalistic expression crossed her face and then she continued, "You know what would make it better?"
Arnold closed his eyes waiting for an upcoming kiss when Helga viciously grabbed him by the collar in a motion so violent one of the sleeves of her dress fell down her shoulder making her cleavage situation much worse.
" Get up, Arnold!" she moaned, "Get up NOW! I just can't stand it any longer football head, get up now for cripes sakes!"
Stunned and confused Arnold looked down at his slacks, "Whoa, Helga, take it easy. I'm already up, my boner hasn't gone away since last night…don't you wanna take things slow?"
As if she hadn't heard a thing of what he just said Helga continued to shake him by the collar, "GET UP ARNOLD! GET UP! WAKE UP!"
"It's okay, I have a boner," Arnold deliriously insisted. As Helga came back into focus, he could see that her outfit became less revealing and identical to the one she wore the other night. The picnic likewise vanished and instead the two were lying on the cold floor of Gerald's Spot; outside of that, the animalistic look he remembered was replaced by a mixture of surprise, confusion and a future fit of giggles.
I'm not dreaming anymore…
A laugh crept out of Helga's pursed lips as she attempted to hold it in, "What did you say, football head?"
"Erm, nothing, I just woke up what are you talking about?" He said almost in one breath looking anywhere else but at her. The shit-eating grin decorating her face made it obvious that she was not fooled at all.
He sat upright immediately wishing he hadn't; it felt like he had spent the night before hammering pots and pans over his head; and his mouth was almost as dry as if he had chosen to eat an entire roll of toilet paper.
"Good, you're awake," she said choosing to ignore his first words of the day, "You feeling alright, Arnold?"
Arnold smacked his lips together, "I'm alright," he replied, "Just a little parched…"
"I'll get us some water," she said rising from the ground as steadily as she could.
When she returned from the bar, Arnold practically inhaled the ice cold glass of water. He noticed that she fetched one for herself as well but did not take a single sip; a glum expression touched her face as her fingers danced along the rim.
"What's wrong?" he asked her setting down his own glass, "You've gotta be parched too, the water will make you feel better, I promise."
Helga didn't take her eyes off of the ground and shook her head.
"This is all my fault," she suddenly said throwing him an apologetic look, "it's almost three o'clock, Arnold. You told me loud and clear you didn't wanna drink last night but I didn't listen…I am so sorry."
Arnold shook his head, intensifying the skull splitting headache he woke up with. "Hey, it's okay, and it's not your fault."
When her eyes still didn't leave the floor he continued, "Listen to me, Helga," he placed a hand over her cheek, "Drinking last night was my choice, whether you had the idea or not; I may not remember much of it but I don't regret it if you don't."
Almost paralyzed beneath the warm touch of his hand, her eyes captured his, "but the reunion…" was the only thing she managed to say.
Arnold shook his head again, not taking his hand from her face, "…is in 5 hours or so, and the decorations are still intact; minus the broken bottle of Bourbon we've gotta clean up, everything is okay, so stop blaming yourself, promise?"
If it were physically possible to melt under extreme emotional conditions, then there would have been an significantly large puddle of Helga G. Pataki on the floor that day.
Helga
"Looks like somebody had a nice night last night…" Phoebe practically sang the worlds as Helga dragged her feet past the kitchen where she and Rhonda and a tan woman with wild golden hair Helga couldn't recognize sat around the table with lunch.
"Helga Pataki you are grounded!" Rhonda chimed in teasingly as the table of women burst into roaring flames of laughter.
Helga couldn't do anything else but throw them a threatening hung over glare as she stormed over to the guest room.
"Please excuse me ladies, I'm gonna go see if she's okay…" she heard Phoebe say from the hallway.
Arnold
After all the missed calls were returned and the arrangements for the night ahead confirmed, it finally felt like Arnold could breathe again. Almost everyone he knew would be there, except for Harold who was still overseas fighting in the war. The excitement welling up inside of him was hard to contain but there was still one last person he needed to call. While he couldn't remember everything that happened last night he did know that Lila was very upset with him for some reason.
He was still trying to work out his own feelings for her; being honest with himself they were not the same as they were a couple days ago, but he still cared about how she was doing and didn't want her to be mad at him.
"I know that look anywhere I see it," came a voice from the front door.
"Sid," Arnold said coming out of his train of thought, "hey, what do you mean?"
Sid put his hat over his stringy hair and took a seat in on the first step on the porch next to Arnold, "I've seen that look before, Arnold. You're having girl trouble."
Arnold looked off into the distance as if to answer yes.
"It's okay, bud, it happens," Sid replied, "wanna talk about it?"
Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I have nothing to lose," he said, "Can you keep you keep this to yourself though?"
Sid listened intently as Arnold explained his situation. He talked about Lila; he talked about Helga; he talked so openly he almost forgot that Sid was there.
"I don't know what to do Sid," Arnold said, "not even a week ago I was drooling over Lila and she wouldn't look at me the same way. And with Helga, before then she hasn't even crossed my mind, and now I can't get her out of my head. She doesn't deserve to be my rebound no more than I deserve to be Lila's. I just want to be sure that that's not it; and it's Helga. If you don't remember we weren't exactly the best of friends growing up."
"I think I know what you're going through," Sid said pausing to light a cigarette, "in fact six years ago I was in a somewhat similar situation."
"What happened?"
"Well, six years ago a woman entered my life who I thought I never wanted to see again. For all the years we went to school together she was prissy, rude, looked down on almost everyone she encountered and not to mention she was spoiled rotten. She came back into my life when Gerald's Spot was brand new and to Gerald and my shock, she was looking for work. To this day I don't know why Gerald said yes; she was a pain in everyone's ass: mine's, Gerald's and the customers'. Gerald threatened to fire her every day, but he didn't. Instead he left me to train her and that sucked too.
She was always insulting me, always insulting other people, and wouldn't do anything out of her comfort zone; it was like training a mule! I don't know what happened though…because the more I worked with her the more I could see she was really trying as hard as she could. Then I found out why she was there."
Now completely sucked in to his story Arnold listened intently, "What happened?"
"She changed my life; and now I don't plan on ever living without her again…"
Arnold had so many questions to ask, but judging by the distant look on Sid's face he thought it best not to pry.
"From what you described to me, Arnold," he continued flicking his cigarette bud into the street, "the feelings you had all this time for Lila sound a lot more phony than the feelings you've got for Helga. It sounds to me like you stopped yourself from being happy all this time for a woman that is still in love with your cousin, and now that you found something that actually makes you happy you don't know what to do with it."
"Well there's also the fact that she'll be returning to the other side of the country tomorrow night." Arnold added bitterly.
"So make it count," Sid said finally looking over at Arnold, "make it work. I only say this because I almost let the past keep me from the woman of my dreams; seeing how happy I am now makes me realize that that would have been the biggest mistake of my life."
