AN: Hi y'all! Yes I'm active again wohoo! Please leave a review to know people are still reading :) Also how has is been like 10 years since I started writing Just Friends (the first in the series) :O I feel so old!

Xoxoxkaren

Chapter 8

Lie to Me

There were so many hard moments in Arnold's life, some he never thought he would overcome. Mending his broken heart was hard, deciding to move on was hard, living with the ghost of his unrequited love was extra hard. Kissing Helga on the other hand? Well that was the easiest thing in the world. Kissing her after following all that hardship made the pain almost worth it.

Her lips were just as soft as he remembered, and still tasted of cherries, which was probably due to the pie. He didn't want to think about who Helga had dated in the past 5 years, because she was significantly even better of a kisser now. It was truly electric, so much so that for the first time Arnold wanted so much more than this.

His hand slid down to her bare neck. His thumb carefully stroked her skin, feeling her gentle swallows. She seemed to like it too since her kisses turned more passionate. The fiery give from her tongue was a tease to him. His second hand slowly moved down her back wanting to feel every part of her. He eventually settled just below her tailbone, he wanted to keep going but that might have been too far. That is until Helga broke away from his mouth and began sucking on his neck. Arnold couldn't help but let out a shy moan. He had never felt anything like this before, this animalistic thirst for her. The years apart were rapidly rushing back to them.

The hand that was previously on her neck made its way down. With his strength he brought them both down to the floor, he on his back and her thighs wrapped around his lower abdomen. She lifted herself from his neck but Arnold pulled her back to his mouth. The beat of their hearts was deafening the room. Arnold felt the blood rushing from his body to a place he was a bit unfamiliar with.

Arnold held Helga tight as he rolled over to switch spots, he was on top now and he was prepared to do the one thing he had never done before. For a moment he thought about stopping this, but he made the mistake of looking down on her and seeing her mesmerizing eyes pulling him back in, she wanted this too.

The first time Helga had sex was at a frat party, extremely cliche but what better place have your virginity taken. There were more than enough horny boys ready to pounce with just about anyone.

The fall she turned 20, Helga was determined to get it over with. She hadn't so much as been in a real relationship after her release from rehab. It was getting to the point where she just wanted to do it and never talk about it again. It wasn't like she and Phoebe talked about it a lot, but their new college friends sure did. It was pretty idiotic if they asked her. There was absolutely nothing appealing to her about having sex, the only thing that lead to was STDs and children, and quite frankly she wanted neither of those.

Phoebe had lost her virginity to Gerald, go figure, like no one saw that coming. Their friend Jayla had lost hers right on welcome week. It was like sex was all the rage in college, and she was sick of feeling like she was missing out. So she did it.

It was the first boy she found decently attractive and it lasted a total of 10 minutes…in a bathroom mind you. It was ok, nothing to write home about. She in fact never spoke to that guy again and the only thing she could remember was that he was a junior and his name was Dustin…or maybe Justin?

Having sex with Arnold however, it was the absolute best feeling in the entire galaxy. They were laying on the floor still, both of them staring up at the skylight admiring the lighting. They were both still trying to catch their breath completely speechless. Arnold turned his head to her, he was smiling a big goofy happy smile.

"Wow," he finally uttered. "That was not at all what I imagined it to be."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "What boning me?"

He chuckled, "yeah I guess you can put it like that."

She let a smile escape her, "me either, you did a good job."

"Thanks, first try," he announced.

She stared at him with wide eyes. Oh my god, Helga Pataki took Arnold's virginity? "You mean, I was your first?"

His smile dropped then. "Was I not-" he cut himself off. "I mean yeah, it makes sense it's been so long. I guess I just thought…"

Helga hoisted herself up and began putting on the remainder of her clothes. "You mean you never had sex with Lila?"

For a moment Helga thought she had psychic abilities because just then Arnold's phone rang. It was Lila.

"Oh fuck!" Arnold shouted. He reached for his phone but held it like it was a grenade. "Fuck, what the hell am I going to tell Lila?"

"Tell?" Helga spoke. "What do you mean tell? You're not going to tell her anything, I'll be a dead girl walking."

Arnold put the phone to his ear and took a deep breath. "Hi honey," he began.

Honey.

Helga was so beyond stupid.

Her body went cold. Tiny tingles flooded her brain pushing her cognitive self away. She knew exactly what was happening. Panic attack, a devilish and powerful friend. Her heart raced at the speed of lightning, her lungs unable to keep up. Hyperventilating. Fuck she hated doing that, but she couldn't stop.

Helga had sex with Arnold.

Helga had sex with Arnold her ex.

Helga had sex with Arnold her ex who is engaged to be married.

Helga had sex with Arnold her ex who is engaged to be married where she will be a bridesmaid.

Helga was the absolute worst breed of person. Helga was an adulterer, which in olden days could have had her hung. She broke the first rule of girl code and there was no way of taking it back now. She let her emotions take over and made things ten times worse.

There was no happy ending to this. Arnold was getting married in 3 weeks and she would be expected to stand at the altar with them and watch him marry another woman. There was no universe where Helga could win. In the moment she thought that this was winning, she proved that Arnold still loved her, but it wasn't love, it was lust. At the end of the day he would still be marrying Lila.

She had to calm herself down, Arnold was noticing her panic attack now and was saying goodbye to Lila. The only way she knew to stop was to count.

1

She had to regain control, this wasn't her.

2

This was a mistake and it would never happen again.

3

She wasn't the old Helga anymore, she had changed.

4

She didn't need Arnold to be happy, she had made her own happy.

5

She was here for one reason and one reason only, this was just a setback.

6

Arnold would still marry Lila, she hated Arnold.

7

She would never be that girl dependent on her boyfriend ever again.

8

She wasn't going to kill herself.

9

She would never fall for this again.

10

Truth hurts but she had to get back to reality.

Helga headed for the door with the rest of her dignity. Arnold quickly intercepted to stop her.

"Where are you going? It's pouring out there," he noted.

"I need to go," she assured him.

"Helga, we need to talk about what just happened."

"No we don't," she ordered. "Listen, we both know that was a mistake and it's never going to happen again."

"No," his face looked hurt again, why did she always have to get that face? "Helga I didn't just do that just because I mean-"

"What was your desired outcome out of this then?" She challenged him. "At the end of the day you are still engaged to be married and I betrayed the girl who thinks I'm her friend. There is no way for us to get out of this without being terrible horrible people."

"I can postpone the wedding," he announced.

"Postpone the wedding?" She started to chuckle. "Arnold what exactly will that accomplish? I want you to think logically, how will this end? When summer is over, I will go back to my life in New York. I'm not coming back here. We already tried the long distance thing and clearly that was the worst mistake of my life."

"You didn't let me try," he reminded her. "I could have been there for you."

"It hurt too much," she let that moment of vulnerability slip out. It was about time he knew the truth, everything was crumbling down anyway, what would another truth bomb do? "Arnold I fell into a deep depression when I left, and I don't like talking about it, but if rehab taught me anything it's that I had to move on and never get to that point again."

"Helga I'm not going to pretend to know what that feels like, but you need to remember we were both heartbroken. I lived 5 years wondering what I did wrong. I thought I deserved to know."

"Yeah well life isn't fair."

Arnold just stared at her again. This was all moving so fast, she wasn't ready at all. She came here with the intention of not running into him, but here she was caught up in an affair.

"You're not even going to apologize for what you did to me?" Arnold asked.

"I'm sorry you were hurt," Helga said, "but I'm not sorry for what I did. I wouldn't have done it any other way if I could."

That was both true and untrue. If she could go back to that time, she would have done it the same way, even until this day, she still didn't want Arnold to see her hit rock bottom.

"Then that's it then?" He asked. "You never envisioned a life with me? You never wanted me by your side through those bad times? If you could do it again, you would send back my letters in the mail without even opening them again?"

She shook her head. "Yes," that was a lie. The one thing she regretted was not reading those letters.

He finally stepped aside and let her pass. "We'll ok then, then that's that." He went to his desk and grabbed a jacket that was hanging on the back of his chair. "Let's go."

"Go where?"

"You walked here right?" She nodded. "I'm driving you home."

Before they left the room, Arnold tucked away his little box of mementos back behind the couch. She almost half expected him to toss it out the fire escape. A part of Helga really wished she hadn't reacted the way she did. But the logical choice was to let this go. There was probably a universe out there where Helga told Arnold everything he wanted to hear and he dumped Lila and they lived happily ever after. This wasn't that universe. Helga had to live with the consequences of her actions, in this case it was watching Arnold, the former love of her life, have the life he had always dreamed of, which didn't involve her. She would go back to New York and eventually date some dude that was great on paper, but never satisfied her. She deserved that, besides life isn't all about love and fairy tales, it's real.

As they walked down the stairs, Arnold took a moment to look back up at her and say, "you know, I really wish you would have just lied to me."