Title: Indecision

Summary: All Arnold wants to do is buy some soda. High School-age!Arnold/Helga. Drabbly.

A/N:

Okay, well Aia and I traded drabbles... so yeah. She made me write Arnold/Helga from Hey Arnold that had to have a hockey stick and a soda can and some sort of symbol at the end. So yeah... ;

It's not very good, since I'm like... not much of an Arnold/Helga fan and I barely know ANYTHING about Hey Arnold... and my metaphor? God it is so obscure.

INDECISION by Cid

"Are you just going to stand there like some idiot? Idiot..."

She towered over him, arms crossed against her chest tighter than a straight jacket and face pulled into the menacing expression he remembered from their elementary years

The heavy peer pressure high school splayed out still didn't affect that god-awful uni-brow, he noticed.

"Uh, hey Helga…" he said, "What a coincidence… you're grocery-shopping, too?"

She snorted and waved an obnoxious hand on front of his face.

"Hello…? I work here."

"Oh."

That would explain the uniform…

"Are you going to buy that, or what?" She looked at him suspiciously as if it was just so Arnold to take a five finger discount and high tail it out of there.

He made a slight wince at her malicious tone, "I'm just looking over my choices."

"How long does it take someone to choose soda?" A dry laugh, "What as waste. It's a pity that big head of yours doesn't support an equally sized brain."

No wonder she got this job. It was obvious Smart-Shop paid their workers to antagonize their customers until they lost every shred of coherent thought and bought out massive amounts of Q-tips and flan.

Any other person would have shed tears and ripped their hair out from the years of torture Helga put him through, but Arnold was Arnold and Arnold was a persistently nice guy, who was willing to set aside their differences, so he took the courtesy to explain his situation.

"Well… it's a hard desicion," he sighed, "First, you have the orange soda. It's known for its slight resemblance to actual taste of oranges, but it's slightly too sweet to be anything of the kind. A lot of people just get a kick of out the color, though. In my opinion, the flavor feels too fake. I'd much rather to drink orange juice.

"Then, there's traditional root beer. It's has an odd, controversial flavor that you just can't quite place. Some people hate it and some people just can't quite get enough of it. The flavor wears on you after a while, though… well at least I think."

He paused.

"And then…?"

He looked up at Helga, slightly surprised that she was actually listening, but then shrugged and continued.

"Then you have the cream soda. It's pretty much just sugar reincarnated into a soda can. A lot of people savor it because of the creamy taste, but I could really care less for it. It's just too sweet.

"Oh, and then you have the lemon/lime flavored pop. It has a more caustic and sour taste than the others I've mentioned. It's kind of harsh on your mouth, but still a lot of people like it. In my opinion… I don't know… it's just not right."

He looked up, "Hmm… and I think that's about it. I still don't know what flavor to choose…"

"You forgot one."

It was quiet, not loud and grating and Arnold almost thought it came from another person. When he stared she looked away with a little tinge to her cheeks.

"Huh?"

"You—urm… forgot, that… that... one."

Helga was… nervous? He felt befuddled and more importantly, in desperate need to run to his house in search of a video camera.

Instead, he looked to where her finger was pointed.

"Oh… that's right. I forgot just regular coke."

It was silent for a while.

"What about it?"

He stared, again, "…what about what?"

"You never said anything about it." She sounded insistent, and Arnold had the nagging feeling that they weren't talking about just soda.

He scratched the back of his head, "Uh… I don't know. I don't think I can describe it."

"…Why not?"

"I don't know, I guess that's my favorite soda, even though it's so advertised it's like it's always in your face at times. It has a harsh taste, but you get to like it after a while. It's not pretending to be something else and it's not too sweet, either. I guess I'll get that then… I don't know why I didn't choose it in the first place. I guess it just didn't catch my eye."

He reached out the bundle of cans, but he was surprised by a hand on his shoulder that stopped him and the sight of Helga tugging them up and placing them in his hands.

A gentle smile that somehow didn't look creepy (even if it was on Helga) graced her features as she said, "It's on the house."

Only after he blindly nodded, turned away with a cart with only a hockey stick on sale that caught his attention (grandpa would be unhappy to find the lack of actual groceries) and that bundle of coke cans did Arnold wonder if Helga was actually allowed to do that.

THE END

I don't like this that much. But oh well… It's something, at least.

The reason why the title and "the end" and are big, bold and obnoxious is because the stupid line button isn't working. God!