A/N: I know that I'm kind of going all over the place as far as updates for different stories, but since this is my most popular, I will keep updating this one. Don't worry, I do plan to finish this.
Helga and Kelly walked into the cafe just a few blocks away from the school, with Helga making her way over to their usual table, and Kelly going up to the counter to order for them. After a few minutes, she returned with two small cups in hand, sliding one over to Helga. "Now... tell Kel-kel what's wrong."
Helga simply looked at her with a raised brow, "Kel-kel?"
She rolled her eyes and smiled, "What's the matter, Helga?" She asked, coming across as the sincere and concerned friend she was.
Helga sighed and looked down at her cup that she was uninterested in drinking from. "Stella went into Arnold's room yesterday afternoon, and found an empty condom wrapper. She told Miles, and he called me down, and told me to wait in the living room for Arnold to get back. You should have seen the way they were looking at me, Kelly. Miles was looking at me like I was the spawn of Satan himself, and Stella just looked ashamed of me."
"And that's enough to make you want to move out? I thought you loved living there."
"I did, I do, and I've even been paying rent every month since I've been there, and they've always been very gracious to accept it. But no matter what they say, I've always felt unwanted, somehow. And them finding out that I had stolen away their little boy's virginity seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back."
"Do you need a place to stay? Because Ian and I will be happy to help you out." She offered without hesitation.
"No, they aren't kicking me out or anything. It's just difficult to believe that they still want me around. I'm sure they would have made Arnold break up with me, hadn't it been for Arnold's grandma saying that she caught his parents when they were our age. She said that Miles gave her the same speech that Arnold gave them."
"Oh, you mean the 'We are in love and you can't stop us' speech? Yeah, Ian gave that one to his Dad when he found out."
"Kelly, I don't know if I can stay there without feeling like an intruder."
"Helga, you have to let Arnold help you. You're in a serious relationship, and you can't expect to be able to handle everything on your own, as much as you might feel you have to."
"I don't know, Kel, I'm just afraid that all of this will catch up to us one day, and we'll end up breaking each other's hearts."
"You wont." She said blatantly.
"How would you know, you and Ian are like the perfect couple." She muttered under her breath as she leaned forward a little more.
Kelly scoffed and leaned back, "You think Ian and I are perfect?! We are far from perfect, we just don't let things bother us. Like, I cannot tell you how many times I've had to sit through 'V for Vendetta'. Every single November fifth, he gets all serious about it. And sometimes, he is really emotionally insecure. And there is nothing I can say or do to convince him how much I love him, and that I wouldn't leave him for the world. Sometimes, he just enjoys being the victim too much. I love him more than anything in the world, I love him with all my heart, and if we ever broke up, I honestly don't know if I could live with myself. But sometimes, I just want to slap him and say 'I love you dammit, so stop worrying about it!'"
"Is he really like that?"
"Not all the time, he does a very good job of hiding it. But he's a tortured soul. He's been through a lot. I mean, mother dying when he was 14, sister running out on the family and driving his father to alcoholism, which eventually took his life. Ian was such a different person before his mother died. He had such a loving family. But when his mother died, he felt isolated, because he was a momma's boy. The night after her funeral, during the wake, everyone was trying to find Ian, no one could find him anywhere, and people were starting to get worried. I sneaked away and over to an old creek that we used to hang out at, and I found him sitting at the waters edge. I sat down next to him, and laid my head down on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around me, and we just sat there in complete silence for about an hour. Then, all of the sudden, he puts his fingers under my chin, and kissed me for the first time."
Helga sighed silently to herself, and took a sip of her coffee. "What does this have to do with me and Arnold?"
"Your going through a difficult time in your life, Helga. You ran away from home, you're living with your boyfriend, you're about to graduate high school and I'm assuming you're planning on going off to college, so you have applications to fill out, you have to consider what school you want to go to, and most of all, you have to consider whether or not you want to stay near Arnold. Life can be pretty overwhelming, and even someone as strong as you needs help every once in a while. And so what if Arnold's parents know you're sleeping with their son? It's human nature, everyone does it at some point. Just go and talk to them. It will mean a lot more if you were to go and tell them that you love their son, and that you both made the choice to be together."
She knew Kelly was right, and she knew that she would have to talk to Arnold at some point, as much as it would scare her. Not to mention the fact that Kelly had brought up a point of their future, and the complete and total uncertainty of it all. And at the mere mention of it, she could feel her heart start to crack at the thought of having to go off in different directions, simply because they didn't get into the same school. "You're right, Kel."
Kelly smiled again and stood up, holding out her arms to her, awaiting her eagerly to step into them. Helga smiled and stood up from her seat, and wrapped her arms around Kelly. She stepped back after a moment, "So how many times have you seen V for Vendetta?"
Kelly broadly rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Too many times. I just make him watch SLC Punk afterwards."
Helga could feel her breath in her throat as her fear started to get the best of her. She was standing just outside the living room where Stella was sitting reading a book on the couch. She closed her eyes and steeled herself, stepping into the room with a large stride, coming to a stop just opposite of the coffee table. "Stella?"
Arnold's mother looked up curiously from her book and took off her reading glasses, "What is it, sweetie?"
"I just wanted to talk to you, about... what happened yesterday."
Stella, noticing the girls nervousness, closed her book, and set it down on the coffee table, then patted the space next to her on the couch. "Come sit down, sweet heart. There's something I want to explain to you." Helga hesitantly made her way around the coffee table and sat down next to Stella. "Now, it's no secret what happened to Miles and I when Arnold was a baby. We always regretted leaving him, having to grow up without his parents, and I am eternally grateful to Phillip and Gertie for doing such an amazing job raising him. But the fact still remains that it wasn't us who raised him. He's our son, Helga, and we missed his entire childhood. We missed everything. Last time we saw our little boy, he was sitting on this very floor in diapers, playing with his toy air plane. Then, it's like we blinked and he was a teenager. We missed his first words, his first steps, we missed him growing up. And, in a way, Miles and I are still yearning for that little boy that we left playing on the floor. You see what I'm saying, Helga?"
"I think so." She affirmed quietly.
"We just aren't ready for him to be this grown up, but we have to accept that he is grown up, and that he's reaching milestones in his life that we aren't ready for, like... having sex. Now, honey, it has nothing to do with you. We both think that you are a terrific young woman, who is absolutely perfect for our son. And, in truth, we are very proud of both of you for making that choice so maturely and responsibly. We just aren't at the point yet where we're ready to accept the fact that Arnold is old enough to make that choice in the first place."
"Stella, I do love Arnold very much. And there's no one else I would have wanted my first time to have been with. I just feel that you should know that he didn't pressure me at all, he didn't even bring it up once." Helga braced herself for Stella's reaction to what she was about to say. "It was actually me who brought it up. I wanted to be with him, physically, and he was... very gentle, and sweet, and caring about the whole thing. So, he was telling the truth when he said that it wasn't like we just... jumped into bed or anything."
"I know, sweetie, I know. But, I wouldn't be doing my motherly duty if I didn't ask... are you on any sort of birth control at all?" Stella asked with a hand placed gently on the young woman's shoulder.
"No. I asked my dad about it once, but he just said that no daughter of his would ever need birth control."
"Helga, if you want me to help you get started on birth control pills, I'd be more than happy to."
She smiled sadly, and nodded, earning a motherly smile in return. Stella held out her arms to her and Helga leaned forward, and wrapped her arms around her. Stella's embrace felt so motherly, so loving and caring, Helga felt the back of her eyes start to burn.
It was later that same night, and the whole boarding house was relatively empty, with everyone out on dates, including Miles and Stella, just leaving Arnold's grandparents, enjoying a meal by themselves down in the dining room. Helga was alone in her room, not having seen or heard from Arnold all afternoon. While she was adamant that they not celebrate Valentines day, she thought that he would at least spend the night with her. She sighed at the thought, and kept strumming the chords to Total Bummer, by NoFX, singing the lyrics to herself softly.
A soft, but sudden knock came from the other side of her door, and she had a good idea as to who it was. She was a little peeved that he decided to show his face at half past eight, and not sooner. She briskly walked over to the door, guitar still in her hand, as she flung the door open, to see him sheepishly smiling at her, wearing his dark green silk button up shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. "What are you wearing?"
"I just wanted to look nice, that's all." He said with a modest shrug.
"Nice for what?"
He smirked softly, and held out his hand to her. "Come on, I want to show you something." She looked from his hand, up to his eyes, feeling them pierce her, breaking away her desire for isolation, and her anger she felt towards him for indulging her for this long. She reached up and placed her hand on top of his, and he folded it around her's. She set her guitar on the wall next to her door, and let him lead her out of her room, and down the hall, up to his. He stopped, and turned around, reaching down to grasp her other hand. "Close your eyes." He ordered softly.
"What for?"
"Just... please?" At the sight of his very hopeful eyes, she caved and slid her eyes shut. In the darkness of her eyelids, she felt him lead her onto his bed, "Now just, reach out, and start climbing the ladder." She did as he instructed, and climbed the ladder up to his roof, finding the skylight already open when she blindly reached up to push it open. And as promised, she kept her eyes sealed.
Once she was on her feet, she heard him call out to her from below. "Are your eyes still closed?"
"Yes, they are. What did you drag me up her for?" She asked as she placed her hands over her eyes to fight the temptation to open them.
"You'll find out in a second," She jumped as she felt his voice right next to her ear. "But first, I want you to promise me something."
"What's that?" She asked hesitantly.
"I want you to promise not to get mad, because I worked really hard on this."
She sighed sharply, and agreed. "Alright, I promise I won't get mad. Can I open my eyes now?"
"Yes, open your eyes."
She removed her hands and slowly lifted her eye lids. She gazed around the boarding house roof top in awe, slowly turning her head from left to right, seeing the golden light shine off of every surface, with the paper lanterns being held up by strings across the roof. Her eyes fell upon the center of the roof, where she saw a small table set up, with a small candle in the center, with a large bouquet of flowers sitting in the seat of one of the chairs. "Arnold..." She whispered, her breath caught in her throat.
"I know you said that you didn't want to celebrate, but I just couldn't get the Chinese lantern idea out of my head, and it just kind of snow balled, and it ended up becoming this. And I know that things between us have been, kind of... rough ever since yesterday, but I did this to try and... I just wanted to see you smile, is all."
Helga let out a stuttering breath as she looked into his eyes, feeling her own brim with tears. "A-Arnold, I-I... I love you. I love you more than anything else in the world, I just... I-I love you!" She lunged forward and grabbed onto his jaw, and pushed herself to him, kissing him hard. Feeling the desperate need to be as close as possible to him, she tightly hugged his neck, and squeezed her lips to his as hard as she could, feeling his own hands slide up her back. She let go of his lips, and buried her face into the crock of his neck, still hugging him tightly.
Arnold wrapped his arms fully around her, and pressed her into his warm body. "I love you too, Helga."