"Ugh," Sid hit the ignore call button on his phone yet again. "Goddamnit, Dave. I'll call when I call."
They were sitting spread out across a few tables in a coffee shop, because Lila had been talking about some sort of white salted mocha thing so much that Helga was ready to make one for her herself.
Cass 1:21
So Miriam just appeared?
Helga 1:22
Out of the blu
Cass 1:23
How are things with dad?
Helga 1:23
Honestly
Weird
But good
I think
"Who is Dave?" Gerald asked with amusement, hands wrapped around an empty cup. They were getting major stink eye from the gal behind the counter, which Helga figured they probably deserved but she didn't so much care about it.
"My cousin," Sid slumped down, putting his chin in his hand. "He wants to know if I want to live with him?"
"You're moving out of the dorms?" Lila questioned, shifting forward and tilting her head to the side. Helga sort of wanted to smack her own face into the table. Sid was many good things…tactful was not one of them. This was just not the time. She glanced up to Arnold, who had his arm up and over her, on the booth behind them. He pressed his mouth into a thin line as they made eye contact, his hands dropped down and rubbed soothingly on her shoulder. She shuffled into him a little further.
"I mean, I might have to."
"You won't, though," Gerald was squinting at him, perhaps catching on to that there was something else going on there. Helga looked at Mari who was not looking at Sid, but rather at her. Without a change at all in expression, Mari's eyes went from Helga's face, to Arnold's, back to Helga's. She raised a slow eyebrow.
Helga didn't know what to do. She wanted to be defensive or say something snarky, but Arnold's fingernails were tracing out a small star pattern on her shoulder, and so she smiled.
She just smiled at Mari.
Mari's eyebrows shot into her hairline, and then, after a moment, she smiled back.
Cass 1:26
And things with arnold?
Helga 1:26
Really good.
Helga realized, when she looked up and saw that Gerald had a little extra shine on his face than usual and Lila's face was turning red, that Sid must have said something she should have paid attention to.
"College is for everyone," Gerald insisted.
"That seems a little short sighted, Gerald." Sid replied coolly, sliding back in his chair.
"So you just gonna get up and run away to Maine?" Gerald replied, "and you weren't even gonna tell us about it?"
"It's not for sure." Sid scratched the back of his neck. "But if I don't go to school, well then…"
"Why?!" Gerald's voice was raising a little higher than what was acceptable. Mari put a hand on his leg, looking at Sid with this sad look on her face. Helga didn't want to be watching this at all. "Why you gotta move 8 hours away if you don't go to college?! How is that the ONLY two options?"
Lila stared at Sid and said nothing.
"Because I don't have a place to LIVE, Gerald." Sid replied haughtily, fingers that were nervously running through his hair now tangled up in it.
"You know what," Gerald pushed his chair back from the table. "I'm sorry, I forgot, I wanted to meet up with my Professor at his office hours today, so Imma do that real quick."
"Geral-" Mari started, reaching out for him.
"Do you want a ride?" He asked her quickly, grabbing her hand.
She slowly shook her head.
He kissed her palm. "I love you." He dropped her hand, waving his hand to the table, "later guys."
Helga knew he didn't slam the door because the door didn't work that way, but she thought the bells on the door rang a little more loudly than they usually did. The girl behind the counter stared at him leaving, and then looked at their table like she didn't know what they fucked up but they fucked something up.
They sat in silence for a few moments. Helga reached up and tangled her hand with Arnold's, looking up to catch his eye. She smiled, softly, in a "well, that happened," way. He returned it, pulling her in to kiss her temple.
"I honestly," Mari tapped her hands on the table, fingernails clacking against the wood. "Don't know why he's so upset, considering his ass might switch schools too."
"He is?" Lila whipped her head to look at Mari so fast her dark hair smacked the poor girl in the face.
As if he didn't hear Lila, Sid replied "it's probably because Arnold might move, too."
"What!?" Lila looked back and forth between Arnold and Sid. Her mouth open, face blushing, eyes wide, looking like a god-awful mix of distraught and devastated. Helga groaned, and smacked her face into the table.
Sid, had in fact, done it. Or he would, so long as he didn't fail the test he was currently studying for, the last one of finals week, which was tomorrow, Thursday. He bit his lip, hair swept off his neck in this ridiculous clip he had taken from Lila. Cassidy was on speaker phone.
"Sid," She sighed, "leaving sucks. I mean, it's really, really hard." Sid forgot, almost, up until that moment, that Cassidy went further than 8 hours away. "But if it's the best thing for you, then it's the best thing for you."
"Right." He replied solemnly, making a small annotation.
"But is it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you just," she sighed again. Cass had an excellent sigh, one of the best in the business. Could be a voice actor, Sid thought, of a children's cartoon. Maybe one about squirrels, or something. Squirrels that have an anarchy for some reason. "Running away from this?"
"I mean-"
"Because quitting," she replied before he could get a word in. A new habit of hers, demanding to finish her thought with out interruption. "Is a LOT easier than pushing forward."
"My major isn't right." Sid replied quickly, sitting back from his notes, stretching his hands above his head. "That I know for sure of."
"So, try a new major!"
"I hate this, though, Cass." He stood up, relishing in his feet touching the floor, rolling each ankle, standing on his tippy toes. "I hate studying. I hate sitting in a classroom. I just want to do something with my hands." He stretched the aforementioned hands. "I don't think I could learn anything in a classroom and, like, have fun. And I know it's not necessarily about fun, but- and I don't want to move to Maine, but like, what options do I have? Classroom or Maine?"
"Right," Cass replied gently. "And maybe Maine's just…" she sounded like she really didn't want to say whatever came next "best for you. Or, rather, not being stuck in a classroom."
"You're right." Sid sat down, blanching at the rest of his, or rather that Asian kid Gerald traded weed for his notes, notes and how much he had to get through. "Maybe it is."
Lila was sitting on her bed, staring at a wall. Which might sound horribly sad to some people, but not necessarily to Lila. She was staring at a wall with purpose, at least. Helga was typing on her laptop next to her.
"Is grievance a word?"
"Yes," Lila replied without glancing at her.
She had all these pictures up, framed by lights. They looked so nice. The people in them were so happy, arms wrapped around each other and laughing.
"Ugh, they're all starting to blend together." Helga set the computer beside them, Lila felt the dip in the comforter. "I need a break," she cracked her knuckles. "Goddamn personal essays, all have different questions. As if it weren't enough to get personal," she sneered the word, "one time." She cracked her back audibly. "Who," she was directing her voice at Mari on the floor, because her voice wasn't any nearer to Lila when she spoke "are you texting so furiously?"
The pictures were organized. They were laid out in perfect rows and columns.
"Rhonda," she replied with a roll of her eyes, "she's bugging out about this boy. He ain't worth her time…but homegirl needs to get laid and chill the hell out."
Helga leaned forward with interest "and naturally she thinks if she hooks up with this guy they'll be," she made this weird noise with her nose "practically engaged, right?"
Lila heard Mari's cellphone thud on to the floor. "You know it, that's gonna be super fun to deal with over Christmas break."
Helga laughed.
Lila licked her lips, and broke her stare at the wall to look at her desk.
It was covered in stuff. Helga's empty cans of soda and Mari's hoodie that was actually Gerald's but wasn't anymore. The hair-clip in it's package she bought to replace the one Sid stole. Her bookbag spilling out, books toppling over it. Nothing was organized. There were no columns, no rows.
"Where is that one goin'?" Mari asked, pointing to the laptop as Lila looked back to them.
"U.C. Berkeley." She replied, wiping her hand above her eyebrow. Mari whistled. "I know," Helga groaned, nervously picking up the computer again "but with my grades and sat scores…"
"Baby," Mari countered, "you can get in anywhere you want."
"I think so too…" Helga chewed on her lip, "it's more about…"
"Financial aid." They said together, Mari nodding knowingly.
Lila wanted to point out that out of state schools were more expensive and more often than not offered less aid. She looked back at the wall, at her face, and her grin with arms wrapped around a girl who she really wasn't that great of friends with but they took the picture for Instagram anyway. The group of people she met in her hall that night and they all took a picture before a party. The girls she sat at lunch with and ignored the group chat texts later in the night. The acquaintances…the people she called friends before she really knew what friends were.
"How do I kindly tell Rhonda that I will drive up there and kill her myself if she gets bangs?" Mari clicked her tongue, Helga laughed again.
"You don't. Tell her that I will," she preened, leaning over the computer with a lecherous grin.
Mari pointed at her "good point."
And Lila wondered, for only a moment, with a quick glance back to the pictures and the lights, if she were happier the way it was before.
They, the names she couldn't remember, the people she tagged on Instagram, the couple day snapchat streaks, had never hurt her like this, ever.
"Packing is harder than I remembered it being," Arnold commented to Gerald who was sitting on the floor of his bedroom. He had a small suitcase and many things he planned to put into it.
"It's gonna be hot out there," Gerald warned him.
"Oh?" Arnold mocked surprise, "should I pack my lucky sweatshirt, then?" He teased him, grinning at his best friend, remembering how he trekked through the jungle in a, very stylish and completely unpractical sweatshirt.
"Man, shut up." Gerald threw the pillow by his side at Arnold, who caught it with a good-natured smirk. Gerald turned back to his phone. Arnold turned back to his suitcase. "Helga's on her way, do you need her to pick up anything?"
"Yea, actually." Arnold refolded a shirt. "Could you ask her to pick up some milk?"
"Roger."
"Hey," Arnold realized his window of opportunity was narrowing now that Helga was on her way. "Do you want to talk about the coffee shop?" He sat back on his bed, crossing his arms.
Gerald glanced up, staring off, looking like he was considering the offer. "Not particularly," he said finally, "no."
Arnold snorted, "fair enough."
Arnold went back to his suitcase, and why was his toiletry bag so big? What did he have in there, the Declaration of Independence? He tried to shove it into a corner, when Gerald spoke again.
"I mean I get your opportunity at all, and I get why Sid doesn't want to go to school…why can't he live at home, though? Stay here and get some kinda' job….it just sucks, man. I'm gonna live at home, most likely, if I transfer. I'll have to."
Arnold smiled to himself while Gerald couldn't see him, before turning around and sitting back on the bed with a serious look on his face.
"Because he can't." Arnold replied gently. "And it does suck."
"Damn straight," Gerald nodded to himself. Arnold thought that maybe all Gerald wanted was to feel validated in how he was feeling. "I just," Gerald shrugged, "like the way things are now, I guess. They seem, good? You know?"
Arnold nodded. "They do."
Helga banged the door open with a thud. "Arnold, I may or may not have killed one of your weird-ass pets, and don't expect me to feel bad about it." She said with a steely gaze, tossing Gerald the gallon of milk.
"Why," he caught it carefully, "are you handing me this milk?"
"You asked for it?!" She turned to him with an incredulous look.
"For Arnold!" He replied insistently, "what do you think my ass was doing with an ENTIRE gallon of 2%?!"
"I don't know what you do in your free time," she snarked back, nodding at Arnold before collapsing on his bed.
"Bitch, yes you do! We spend literally all of our free time together."
Groupchat: Gerald 4:12
Party at arnolds for his going away
Be there or
Idk
Literally we'll probably come find you wherever you are
That's the threat I guess
Groupchat: Helga 4:16
He's only gonna be gone for a week
Groupchat: Sid 4:17
A week is long enough
Groupchat: Lila 4:19
Shut up, sid.
Groupchat: Mari 4:23
Yea we do need a party
All y'all need to chill tf out
Groupchat: sid 4:25
If I bring this gross salsa that's been in my desk drawer all semester will you guys eat it
Groupchat: Helga 4:30
I want to tell you that's gross and to fuck off
But probably, yes
Groupchat: Gerald 4:32
I'll pick y'all up in a half hour, be outside Davi dorm
Groupchat: Helga 4:33
I'm already at naldos lol
Groupchat: Mari 4:34
We are all in shock
We might take a few minutes to adjust to this news
Groupchat: Arnold 4:49
Haha
Were you guys just gonna throw a party at mine without even asking?
Groupchat: Helga 4:51
Shut up, arnold
Groupchat: Gerald 4:52
Actin' like its ur house when u know damn well we all basically fuckin' live there
Beep beep
Move over bitch
My house now.
Gerald's shoulders tensed when he had this strange thought, racking through his brain as Helga ate a chip off the floor and stared at them all and said "what? Like you're saints." And then Sid said "sometimes I think chips taste better off the floor" and then he couldn't help it, he was just fucking wheezing.
His muscles pulled together with worry as he stared around at the people in Arnold's room, that he might never feel this at ease with another group of people ever again and they were all going to ruin it.
"Y'all must be outta' your minds if you think I'm gonna eat anything off a floor purposefully," Mari, for the first time in a little while, had her giant grin stretched out on her face, like a mad-women. Teeth so white, eyes so bright. So beautiful. "Literally bat-shit crazy."
"Arnold," Sid grabbed Arnold's cheeks, so seriously, with such intent. He stared him down. "Do you love me?"
"Sid, what?"
That just made Sid tighten his grip. "Do you LOVE me?"
"I mean, sure- Sid,"
"Then you will eat that chip," he kept his eye contact intensely, "off of the ground."
Gerald couldn't help it then, even with the tightening in his chest and the worry in his muscles, he started fucking rolling with laughter when Sid, keeping his eyes on Arnold, and never blinking, picked up a chip, and stared him down as he dropped it on the floor.
Lila, as she figured out already but for some reason had to keep relearning, was very bad at staying angry.
Staying angry at anyone, yes, but especially staying mad at Sid when he was laughing behind her while she was laying, stretched out on the floor, and his fingers were just barely tapping on her shoulder, poking at the freckles absentmindedly as he reacted to Gerald's, admittedly very funny, story.
She was trying to be angry at herself for not being angry at him but she couldn't stop laughing and that just made her MADDER.
Ugh.
Arnold was getting mildly distracted, staring at Helga tangled up in his bed sheets, her hair piled on her head, laugh on her mouth as she tried to describe accurately the look on Sid's face when he realized shit talked his senior year algebra teacher right to her face.
"And then," she had wrinkled her nose up, creating these beautiful little valleys in her face, "before she's even out of EAR-SHOT, he just," she snorted, "fuckin' said 'well, at least the final is multiple choice."
Arnold knew he couldn't do much to act on how he was feeling at the moment, room full of his friends despite the face Helga's hands were enticingly gripping the blanket and her skin looked so soft, even in the glow of his overhead lighting.
His stomach, not so much squirming with butterflies, but more like pitter-pattering with his heart beat like a soft rain, basically guided him to her. He knew she didn't so much like PDA. He thought to himself that she'd have to stop being so goddamn beautiful, then, as he sat behind her, smiling fondly at the back of her head, even.
She turned around, flopping her back on to the bed, grinning at him. He pushed the stray hairs, lost in the disarray of her hairstyle, out of her eyes. She rolled her eyes at him. He wanted to kiss her so badly. Amongst other things.
His face must have said something along those lines to her, because she rolled her eyes again as she rolled her body so she was laying on her side again, facing away from him.
He grinned at her, now that she wasn't looking at his face anymore, at the way her strap was just falling off her shoulder, little tiny freckles just barely dotting her skin. He thought to himself that he really ought to check with her to make sure they were actually dating before he got his heart literally ripped out of his chest.
Because it had hurt last time.
It would kill him this time.
Helga woke up vaguely aware that she was sticky. And sweaty. She winced, sitting up, before realizing that her arms weren't coming up. After attempting to flail in a brief moment of panic, she looked down to see her arm, and one of Arnold's, was taped to her abdomen.
"What the fuck!?" She didn't mean to shout, but she had, panic setting for a quick moment as she looked around and realized she was still in Arnold's room.
Her leg was taped to the bed post. Gerald and Mari, the latter lying on the former, were taped to the floor. Sid to Arnold's other side.
Sid did the same flailing motion she did before blinking and registering what was going on. Mari tried to push up from Gerald. Gerald grinned, and just tugged her closer.
"Uh," Arnold was awake, his hands were tapping on her stomach. "Hello."
"What in fucking hell-" Sid was tangled up in his own duct tape. Helga grinned.
"Oh," Lila, sitting on the couch by herself, looked up at them with a smile, holding whatever was on her lap with one hand. "Hello." She swallowed whatever she was eating "I fixed it, now no one can leave Hillwood!" She joked, looking pleased with herself, with her hair falling in these strange patterns, as if she slept on it oddly. "You guys sleep really late. And I found duct tape in the kitchen." She shoved another forkful of whatever was on the plate into her mouth, "eggs, anybody?" She said through the mouthful, holding up her plate.
Helga might have taken the time to criticize this if the innocent look on Lila's face weren't so damn funny, as if everyone tied their friends together with duct tape on Sunday evenings. She shook her head, saying "you're something else, Sawyer," as she snickered to herself.
"Please help," Sid sounded forlorn, now out of Helga's site completely, fallen off the bed. "I might die here."
Gerald tsked, shaking his head the best he could on the floor, not looking at all particularly bothered by being taped to Mari. "Poor Sid, may he rest in peace."
"Good Man, taken out by duct tape…" Arnold added, sighing as he played along.
"Duct tape," Helga added sadly, "and his own will for freedom." She laughed as she ripped the duct tape off her shirt, freeing herself and Arnold. Arnold stretched high, winking at her quickly. She pushed him, because it annoyed her and her skin was heating up. He laughed. Mari also freed her self, standing up and offering a hand down to Gerald.
"Arnold, my man, if we're spending all this time here we gotta get more beds- I'm getting too old for this, man." His back cracked audibly as he stretched while walking over to Lila. He took her fork and scooped a forkful of eggs from her plate. "Not bad," he nodded approvingly. She grinned.
"Let's make more," Arnold stretched again, offering his hand to Helga off the bed. "I'm starving." They stood, making for the door.
"GUYS," Sid called desperately "I WAS NOT JOKING ABOUT THE DYING HERE THING."
"Oh, whoops-" Gerald turned around quickly, "sorry about that, buddy."
"Yeah," everyone else but him and Sid had gone, well, if not home, then somewhere else, by the time it was mid afternoon. Gerald was sitting at Arnold's table, drinking really gross coffee, because that's what they did. Arnold was pacing back and forth, talking to his mom on the phone "yeah, no. During the one- the yea, the conference that. What? I can't hear you." Gerald was trying to figure out what he was going to do that night. No school? Everyone was supposed to be out of the dorms by Wednesday. He guessed it was time to go home and spend time with the family…and maybe get yelled at, again, for this transferring business. "Sorry, what? No, it shouldn't take me more than the day. Yeah, it's a three hour trip. Mom. Mom, it's fine. It'll be fine." Gerald wondered if Sid had fallen back asleep upstairs. Gerald was gonna drive into the city to drop Arnold at the airport then drive both him and Sid back to HU. The girls had gone out to do something or other without them. "Oh, yeah. You're right. Is Eduardo coming? Is he bringing his car?" Gerald thought about going to get Arnold's stuff, before realizing, again, Arnold was quite nearly his height and damn close to being as muscular as he was. Arnold could carry his own shit. "It's, yeah. Mom, I wouldn't ask to go if I didn't think it was really, really important." He smiled fondly, "I know you know that. Okay, yes, I'll see you soon. I love you too, yes, bye."
"Okay," Arnold looked down at him. "Just need the suitcase, and" he looked around "Sid, apparently. Where'd he go?"
"Probably asleep on your bed if I had a guess." Gerald shrugged.
Sid was sitting on Arnold's bed, staring at his phone. Arnold looked at him, deciding how to proceed, looking from him to his made bed, to the green wall behind it that he still never quite finished painting. Sid was chewing on the tip of his thumb. Arnold scratched at his jaw, worrying himself, just standing in the hallway.
Arnold decided appeared in his door way and act like he hadn't seen anything. "Hey, we're ready to g- what's up?" Arnold was not a brilliant actor, but Sid wasn't amazingly perceptive.
"Need ta' call Dale." Sid replied without looking up.
"Oh."
"But it's fine," Sid, barely acknowledging his behavior, bounced back to his feet, "I'll do it later."
"Do you want to talk about this?"
"No."
"Should we talk about this?"
Sid sighed, sliding his phone into his pocket. "I think I might just call him and tell him I'm coming on Wednesday and that's it. And I'll decide on, like, other stuff. I don't know," Arnold decided he hated the look that was always on Sid's face now. This weird, anguished mix of helplessness and exhaustion. It was terrible and he missed the Sid who talked too loud and carelessly.
"Wednesday?" Arnold blanched, gripping his suitcase.
"Well, I have to be out of the dorms on Wednesday so the R.A. can go home. And that's also the deadline for school...but I'll decide that later." Sid shrugged, picking up his backpack from the floor. "As far as the rest of this week goes," he shrugged," "I have to sleep somewhere." He headed to the door.
For the first time in a while, Arnold spoke quickly, irrationally, without thinking about it at all. Which was strange, because when he said it it felt like such a "duh" moment. Like he had been thinking it for weeks and not even realized it.
"Stay here." Arnold told him firmly.
"What?" Sid turned around, truly surprised look on his features.
"Here," Arnold fumbled in his pocket for his keys. "Stay here this Christmas," he tossed them to Sid. "Don't drive my car, please." Sid wasn't making any sort of facial expression, staring down at the keys in his hands. Arnold sighed, jokingly lightly, "at least don't without Gerald," he joked.
Sid was looking at him now, with that same indescribable look. He didn't know what face to be making, so he just smiled at him awkwardly.
Sid gripped the keys so tightly with one hand, and before Arnold knew it, Sid was coming towards him with a full-out sprint, tackling him straight behind himself, crashing into the bed.
He hugged him fiercely, as if all male friends just kind of straight up cuddled in bed.
"Uh," he pat the back of Sid's head, "you're welcome, Sid."
Sid's arms just tightened around him.
"Hey, y'all we got about t-minus five minutes before we get into the Late As Hell territory…" Gerald's words stopped as he stared in from the door. "Uh. Did I miss something, here?"
a/n lol idk what to say but ive been getting really nice comments lately and from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU if you've left them... i love love love knowing what oyu noticed or liked or what made u sad or even annoyed u. constructive criticism always welcomed, anything welcomed. love y'all!