Chapter 21: Wedding Day: Now or Never

Yes, that is correct my fellow reader friends, we've made it to this day!

The fateful day had finally arrived. The guests were arriving to the church, the flowers were all set in place, and the orchestra was just getting ready to play. Arnold and Gerald stood in a separate room in the church, waiting in their tuxes, to make their entrance. The usually calm and collected Arnold had slowly became a nervous wreck with the tension continuing to build with every breath and every passing minute. He erratically paced back and forth as he anxiously gnawed at his fingernails, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. Gerald eventually grabbed his friend's shoulder, startling Arnold and causing him to halt his movements.

"Yo, Arnold. Are you okay?" Gerald asked with concern in his voice, even though he could clearly see that Arnold was far from fine.

"Yes, I'm fine, Gerald. I guess I'm just a bit restless. That's all," Arnold replied as he tried his best to keep his composure.

"Arnold, can you please just tell me the truth? Or at least just tell me something I can do to help calm you down," Gerald offered.

"Fine, you really want to help?"

"Of course I do. That's what the best man is for, right?" Gerald ensure. "Just name it. Anything."

"Well... don't ask me why, but can you go find Helga and tell her to stop by here? Also, can you be discrete about it, please?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll send her in." With that Gerald left the room and Arnold stood alone as he eagerly awaited Helga's arrival. He didn't know what to do, or even what he was planning to say to her. All he knew was that he knew for sure that he had to see her before he went through with this wedding.

Soon enough Arnold heard a knock at the door. He quickly turned around and saw Helga enter the room. Arnold was amazed at how stunning she looked today. She wore a long dress with spaghetti straps. It was pink, which was a color she always seemed to wear extraordinarily well. The dress was tight on the upper body and flowy on the bottom half which drew attention to her womanly curves. She also wore her hair natural, letting her long, wavy curls dangle on her shoulders.

"So you wanted to see me?" Helga asked, which broke Arnold's entranced state.

"Yes, I did," Arnold nervously began as he slowly took a few steps closer to Helga. "I-I think I'm getting cold feet."

Helga's eyes practically bulged out of their sockets and she slightly shook her head. "What? No. No, you're not, Arnold. You've been in love with Lila since you were nine years old. How can you possibly be getting cold feet? Especially now. You're getting married in like ten minutes! Shouldn't you have thought about this earlier? Why now?"

Arnold gulped as he looked frantically back and forth between Helga's eyes and lips. "Because of this," Arnold finally said as he cupped Helga's cheeks in his hands and pulled her lips into his. At first Arnold could have sworn he felt Helga kissing back when he suddenly could feel Helga's hands against his chest, followed by a hard, violent shove.

"Arnold! What are you doing?" Helga shouted.

"Helga, seeing you again brought up all these weird, unexplained feelings. Then once I read your poetry book everything started to click. I-I think I'm starting to fall for you, Helga, and I know you feel the same," Arnold hastily confessed without even taking a breath between sentences.

"W-what book? I don't know what you're talking about," Helga growled as she crossed her arms over her chest and angled herself away from Arnold.

"Come on, Helga. Stop lying. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Enough with the charade. You've been playing it for way too long," Arnold begged.

"Fine!" Helga cried out in defeat. "You want to know the truth? I love you, okay? Happy now?"

"Yes, yes I am," Arnold rejoiced. "Don't you see what this means?" Arnold then took Helga's hands in his and held them up near his chest as he gazed longingly into her deep blue eyes. "This means I should call off this wedding. That way you and I can finally be together." He closer his eyes and leaned in to try to kiss her once more when he felt a sharp slap run across his puckered face. He rubbed his cheek and looked at Helga with confusion.

"No! Arnold, I can't! How dare you even try this," Helga yelled.

"Why then? Why did you say you loved me if you were just going to turn around and do that? Don't you love me?" Arnold softly asked.

"Of course I do! I have... for nineteen years. I've been waiting most of my life to hear you say those words to me, but we can't do this. Not to Lila," she explained as she tried to make her way toward the exit.

Arnold quickly sprinted to the door and stood in front of it, blocking Helga's escape plan. "But you never even liked Lila, and you know it. Why does that matter?"

"I didn't like her, not until this week when I actually gave her a chance instead of letting my jealousy get the better of me. She's been nothing but kind to me, Arnold. But even putting her aside, I could never do this to you."

"What are you talking about, Helga? I want this."

"No! You're wrong. You don't want this, you just think you do. You and Lila were happy before I came into the picture. You had a life and a plan, and I messed that all up," Helga regretfully stated.

"You didn't-"

"Arnold, please just let me speak," Helga sternly interrupted. "If you hadn't saw me at that strip club then you probably wouldn't have even thought about me."

"That's not true, Helga," Arnold interjected. "I started thinking about you again before I even saw you at that gentleman's club. And who knows? Maybe finding you at that club was just fate working it's magic. Maybe it was all meant to happen this way. It could very well be that I'm destined to be with you. That's why the universe brought us back together after all these years, and that's why I was the one to find you. Don't you see, Helga?" Arnold said, beginning to once again slide closer to Helga. This time Helga just put out her arm and stopped him in her tracks.

"No, Arnold. I don't see." Helga sighed, knowing what she was about to say was going to be hard for her to admit. She'd been waiting for Arnold to fall for her even since she was four years old, but Helga had to face reality. "You-you can't just go nineteen years without feeling a single thing for me, then all of a sudden fall madly in love with me in a week. It's no logical. Love doesn't work like that, as much as in this case I'd like to believe it does. I think you're just confused. Maybe you're scared of getting married so young, I don't know. What I do know, though, is that you don't truly love me. Believe me, I wish you did, but I know you don't. Deep down you know you love Lila. She holds a very special place in your heart and she's your one and only someone. Not me," Helga concluded as she shut her eyes sighed heavily. "Look, I'm going to go take a seat in the pews now and wait for a wedding to start. I just hope you'll be coming in to join me soon, too." Helga shoved a speechless, and slightly paralyzed Arnold out of the way and left him to himself again.

Arnold stood alone with his thoughts for a few moments, taking in everything Helga had said, yet still trying to process his own conflicted emotions. His concentration was broken by the sound of his best man calling him from the other side of the wooden door.

"Hey Arnold, they're ready for you."

This was it. Arnold needed to make a choice. It was now or never.

Wahhh a cliff hanger :O Hope you like this chapter. Review if you'd like :)