A/N: Guess whose back! :P
I know, it's been way too long. Just been working and moving and stuff. No big deal. Let me know what you think. Sorry for the hiatus!
"Thanks for the ride, Dad." I say with a weak smile and push open the car door of their sedan.
"Just give me a call when you get off and your mother and I will take you out to dinner."
I smile a little bit more genuinely and step out onto the side walk. "Thanks Dad. Mexican?"
"Sure, Son. Work hard, okay?"
"I will." I say and shut the door. He pulls away from the curb of Big Bob's Electronic Store and now I'm left nervously standing on the sidewalk with a nervous lump in my throat that won't stop throbbing. I know Helga agreed to this, and finally stopped asking what it is I'm getting her for Christmas, but still, after I put in the application the afternoon after Helga and I talked about it, I got the call that night, and now I can't stop thinking that my girlfriends dad is my boss now.
I knew I should have taken Mr. Potts offer, but he talked to Dad about it and he and Mom both agreed that it would cut too much into school. But I knew they just said that because they didn't want me working at such a dangerous job like demolition.
But thinking about it now, I'd rather stand in a building that's about to collapse than have to take orders from Bob Pataki. Oh well, no backing out now.
I swallow the lump in my throat again but feel it still there when I step through the large glass doors that slid open. I walk up to the front desk and clear my throat to get the salesman's attention. "Hi, I'm Arnold Shortman, I was hired for-"
"Straight back through two doors. Wait for Mr. Pataki to show up like the rest." He said rudely and puts his attention back onto his smart phone in front of him.
"Um... Thanks." I say and move to the back. The store hasn't opened yet, and I don't even know what I'll be doing. I'm so nervous. What if I get something wrong and get yelled at? Then what if I tell Helga about it and she goes to her father and he finds out about us and the he sends her to boarding school and I'll never see her again and...
Okay Arnold, stop. Nothing is going to happen. You're going to move boxes, that's it. Not hard. Not hard at all. I push open the doors to the back and go past some old boxes and a few cleaning supplies shoved against the wall. It's pretty dark and dank back here. I push open the door at the end of the hall and see a group of guys sitting on a bench against the far back wall. There's a pair of loading docks to my left and an office on the right wall where I can see someone sitting at the computer with a cigarette in his hand.
"Arnold?" A voice says from across the room. I look over and see a big smiling face coming from over by the loading docks.
"Harold?" I say happily and throw my hand out to return the hand shake he's offering. We clasp hands and he pats me heavily on the back a few times, knocking the wind out of me a bit.
"How've you been, Buddy?!" He asks me happily and shakes me a few times.
I smile brightly at Harold being here. I don't feel nearly as nervous now. Maybe if I just stick with him, I'll be fine. "I've been fine, Harold. What about you? How's Kimberly?"
He groans and smiles, "A handful. She only likes to sleep in the middle of the day."
"How's Patty doing?" I ask with a little more concern.
"She's uh... handling."
Freshman year, Harold and Patty got together. Just before spring break, it got out that Patty was pregnant. In that week, she was getting so tortured and tormented by everyone, even running out of study hall one day in tears. It was pretty hard to watch. She never did come back after spring break. But after spring break, Harold turned a new leaf. I went to talk to Patty and eventually found her at his house. She said that she was living with his parents now that her's were forcing her to have an abortion.
But now, Patty is taking online classes and living with Harold, with a beautiful one year old baby girl. Harold is having to work nights at Mr. Greens butcher shop, but he lets Harold do his homework if things are slow. "What are you doing here, man. I thought Mr. Green had you working weekends to get ready for Christmas."
"Eh, just a chance to earn a little more money." He says with a shrug and a smile. He may be a lot nicer now that having a baby has calmed him down, but I can plainly see the dark circles under his eyes.
"Well, I'm glad your here, Harold. I don't know about working for Bob Pataki." I say and lean against the wall with my arms crossed next Harold.
"Don't worry about Mr. Pataki too much. He never comes back here that much. He spends most of his time up front."
"How do you know?"
"I worked here last Christmas. It's a pretty easy job."
We talk for a few more minutes. He can't stop talking about his daughter. I'd never thought I'd hear Harold talk baby talk unless he was making fun of somebody. It did take a while for him to get that way though. He nearly got expelled for all the guys he beat up who were making fun of him and Patty. I've seen Harold angry before, but never as angry as he was when some of the other guys in our class that didn't go to middle school with us started on him about the whole situation. I'm just glad that the whole situation is done with and out of the spot light. It took a while though.
I hear the door of the office open and the lengthy guy with an old polo shirt takes one last drag of his cigarette and flicks it into a bucket next to the door. "Alright, everybody line up over here." He says with a heavy accent. He sounds like he's from New York. He even looks a bit Italian. Every body sitting on the bench stands up and struts over to the wall that Harold and I are already leaning against. They look like they're all trying to look tough, but I'm standing next to a six foot three, two hundred seventy-five pound behemoth. "When I call your name, raise ya hand." He says and puts a cigarette behind his ear.
"What's it look like this year, Chuck?" A deep, familiar voice booms from the door next to me. I feel my spine shiver when I look over. How could someone so beautiful come from something so... like him.
"We got Hogan back from last year. Besides that, not much." He replies and looks back down to his clipboard.
My eyes nervously follow Mr. Pataki and I can feel that nervous lump in my throat come back even larger than it was before. I feel like he can smell Helga on me like a wolf sniffing a lamp. He sighs heavily and looks over the guys against the wall. Luckily he started from right to left and Harold and I are on the for right. He hasn't said anything to the other guys, it's like he's doing an inspection. I look down at my shoes and stuff my hands in my pockets. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" A voice in front of me.
I jump a little and look up. He's looking me dead in the eye and I feel like I'm about to crumble for some reason. Alright, just play it cool. "Um... I'm a f-friend of your daughter's, sir."
"How do you know Olga?" He says with one side of his brow raised.
"N-no, your other daughter, sir. Helga?" I feel so small right now.
He squints at me with his meaty arms crossed for a moment. "Oh, now I remember. You're that little orphan boy." I says with a proud smile and a wag of his finger.
I feel my fist clench inside my pocket and my teeth grit. "I have parents, sir." I say with more firmness than I thought I had in me.
"Yeah yeah." He says and walks off.
Our supervisor, the Italian guy with the clipboard calls our names off and gives us our duties. Luckily, I was assigned to unload the trucks with Harold, with the other guys have to bring the boxes into the actual store. The day progresses fairly quickly with Harold and I chatting as we work. He can't stop talking about Kimberly and how cute she is. At break, he shows me all the pictures he has on his phone. Most of them are of just her smiling and giggling on a pink blanket in his living room, but a few of them have him and Patty in them with her.
It's weird, you only hear the bad things about teenage pregnancy. Sure it's not the best time, but judging from the bright smile Patty has on her face when she's playing with her little girl, she nor Harold would change it for the world.
It's the end of the day, and it's about four o'clock in the afternoon when Harold and I are done. We go to the time clock and clock out and head out the side door to head home. "Hey, see you tomorrow, Arnold."
"Yeah, see you Harold." I say with a wave. Man, my arm feels like it weighs a ton. I turn to head to the front of the store and look for Dad in the parking lot. Hopefully he's here already.
"Pst..."
I stop and look around. Hmm, must have been my imagination. I keep walking slowly to the front of the store. Geez, I'm so beat.
"Pssst!" I hear again.
I stop and look around but I can't see anybody. "Hello?"
"Criminey, Football Head, what do I have to do? Sky-writing?" I hear her say. I turn around and see her leaning against the wall with a soft smile gracing her face. "Get over here and give me details." She says anxiously.
I smile and turn around and drag my feet toward her. I reach for her but she grabs onto the collar of my jacket and pulls me into the alley she was hiding in and behind the dumpster there. She pins me against the wall and mashes herself against me. "What, did you miss me or something?" I say jokingly.
Her eyes have excitement in them and dash from my eyes to my lips. She doesn't give me in answer and instead shoves her lips onto mine while pulling me down by the collar. I lazily keep my hands on her sides as she quickly works her lips over mine in a heated frenzy. You'd think she'd be a little more on edge and cautious when making out in an alley way of her dad's electronic store.
After a few minutes, she gives me one last long kiss and drapes her arms over my shoulders, flicks a few strands of her hair out of the way, and leans into me again. "So... details. What happened?"
"Well, he came out on a carriage drawn by black horses with bright, red eyes, jumped down wearing a long black cloak, and a flail, and says he'd drag anyone who slacks off down to the depths of the underworld."
She chuckles and rolls her eyes. "I'm serious. What did he say?"
"All he did was he come out, looked at us, and asked if he knew me."
"... And?"
"And I told him that I when to school with you."
Her wondering look disappears into an annoyed glare. "He didn't..." She stops when I give her a look that says 'kind of'. "I swear, I can't-"
I stop her and pull her back into me. "Helga, Babe. It's no big deal." I say and gently put my hand on her cheek. "After all, the less he knows about me, the less he knows about us. Right?"
She looks down and puts her arms back around my neck, looking down into the space between us as she closes it. "Yeah."
"So, I have to go out to dinner with my parents, but I'll be back home in about two hours. And as I recall..." I say and brush the few strands of hair that aren't in her pony tail behind her ear, "you had a certain fantasy involving me and you, and you sneaking in through my window to take my troubles away. And I would love it if that fantasy was fulfilled."
She smiles slyly and raises one side of her brow and points her finger in my face. "Two hours."