Hey, I was able to write this chapter sooner than expected. TY 4 the reviews guys!
I love you...Sorry, Helga, I lied...
I don't just like you - I love you.
He - Arnold said I was beautiful and he kissed me, again.
Helga kept repeating that in her head. Arnold brows fell along with the corners of his mouth as he is anxiously waiting for some kind of response from her, anything but dead silence and oh the faint chirping of birds and crickets.
His hands were still on her, fingers lightly brushing against her cheek the other on her waist, his touch matching the tone of his voice; silky. In the continuing silence, he stepped back, letting go of her completely.
Arnold, just because she said it in the fourth grade - doesn't mean she has those deep feelings for you now. We're teenagers, things have changed, a lot. But she still needed to know...I still needed to say it - it's been inside me for too long. So even if she doesn't love me back. He frowns. I had to tell her. I mean she had the guts to tell me when she was only nine, that couldn't have been easy at all for her.
Focusing back on her. "Helga, I-I didn't intend to put you on the spot, to make you feel like you had to say it back. I've been holding this in for a long time - too long to be honest."
He peers down thoughtfully. Maybe I should...explain myself. He looks at the doe-eyed girl. "I've liked-liked you since San Lorenzo." He laughs softly at his use of an elementary school phrase. "At ten years old, I didn't have the courage to tell you and before I knew it, I was moving away with my parents - which I was truly excited about, but I was terribly sad at the same time about leaving my home, friends, classmates, especially leaving you; since things were so unresolved between us. You had such a presence in my life, always, but at that point, my feelings for you changed dramatically. It hit me - and hard that the girl that I thought hated my guts and didn't want me near her - cared, loved me. With everything that happened between FTI and San Lorenzo, my eyes were opened to the fact that I liked you and cared just as much."
She finally blinks and starts blushing.
Gradually, Arnold's face lightens up and his mouth turns upward at her bashfulness. He reaches up and put his hand on her shoulder. "And it was last year at the time of my grandmother's funeral that I realized that I loved you, that I was in love with you. It touched my heart, the words you wrote about me, my entire family, but mainly grandmother." He chuckles softly. "I didn't even know you two had such a connection...but when I think about it - it makes sense...like her, you're just yourself no matter what anyone thinks, I've always admired that about the both of you."
He sighs. "I hadn't planned on telling you this...not that I necessarily planned to put it off either, but after what happened at the party I needed you to know how I feel. You need to know, that nothing I did was because of alcohol or being caught up in the heat of the moment. Everything I said or did was deliberate and knowing with a real intention on my part. I am deeply attracted to you and I do love you Helga...that's the honest truth." The way he spoke was so heartfelt and earnest, Helga had little choice, but to believe him. A grin on his mouth, resulting from the shininess glowing from her eyes.
Helga's face is animated; going through about a billion different expressions in a matter of a few minutes. Arnold loves me? Yeah, it's plausible for him to be attracted to me. I mean come on I have turned out to be quite a looker. She giggles at her own thought. But love is a whole different ballpark...and I can't believe he's had these feelings all this time...how could I have been so...blind...but then again we hadn't been in contact much over the years so how could I have really known?
A scowl set into her features and a fist raises, landing a few jabs to his chest. Arnold practically yelps, not expecting to get hit and not expecting it to actually hurt a little. "Arnold you fucking idiot! YOU LOVE ME! YOU LOVE ME?! FOR A WHOLE YEAR?!" He nods, lifting his brows, a slightly wry smile on his mouth. "Then why are you just NOW telling me?!"
"Helga I-I'm sorry...I-I was..."
He's still speaking, but was she listening? No. Her eyes circled his face, a face that made her angry sweep away swiftly. Aw, he looks shy and nervous right now. He's so handsome...he's so hot and he and he loves ME! ARNOLD LOVES ME, HELGA!
Something in Helga's brain just snaps. After noting that her father's car wasn't in the driveway, she grabs Arnold by the collar and smashes her lips against his. Clearly startled by her sudden affection and her quick altered mood, but he caught on and kisses her back.
"Mmmm...Arnold." She moans against his mouth, causing one his brows to arch and snacks her legs around his waist. Helga gets off him to open the door, but once inside, she quickly resumes her previous position. With his mouth still deeply connects with hers and his arms wrapped around her - he kicks the door closed and took one hand off her to lock it.
He clumsily found his way up the short stairway to her bedroom, again using his leg to shut the door behind him. Now on her bed, hovering over her with his lips still moving fluidly to match her fervent motions.
Helga tugs at his shirt; which is a button down and she starts to unfasten the top three buttons. And her hands splay out on his collarbone and to his bare chest; making him moan. Slowly he moves his weight off her and looks deeply into her eyes, moving his gaze down to her silky soft full lips and tight curves of her body as she laid beneath him. Jesus - is this what I've been missing all these years? He thought while practically burying his face in her neck; planting kisses on her skin.
He lifts his face putting his eyes on her lips, fighting the urge to kiss her again. "Um..." He starts and feels her hands running through his hair and moving down to wrap around his neck. "Wow ..." He sighs heavily. Damn, I have to be a gentleman... "I - I think...we should stop." He struggles to get those words out, his voice husky and shaky as a result of the motions of her hands.
Helga's whole forehead wrinkles up for a second. "Why?" She smiles widely.
He groans. Christ Helga... don't make this hard... He seals his eyes up. Bad choice of word. Looking down at her, he smiles. "You're amazing. I just don't want to rush - this - I want it to be...special...um...I want to be able to take my time and cherish every moment." He scans the room and he recalled from when he enters how close the other bedroom was to hers. He assumes it was her father's room. "Without having to worry when Mr. Pataki might come in the door or something." God, I must be the biggest square on the planet, I have this beautiful sexy girl right here and I'm turning her down? He wets his lips, moves off her and sits up on the bed across from her still staring at her, while he fastened his shirt. But she's Helga...I don't want to have sex prematurely...I want to take her out on more dates - spoil her a little - a lot...if that makes me the world's biggest punk or something by guy standards then so be it... but she's worth it.
Helga finally sat up as well while shaking her head. Her cheeks rosy. Wow, only Arnold could make me lose myself like that. "Shit..." She frowned, looking away.
"What's wrong?"
She rolls her eyes, feeling reluctant to admit this. "I'm... a little embarrassed, to be honest." She climbed off her bed.
"Why are you embarrassed?"
She turns to face him. "Because I just threw myself at you like some... I've never attacked a guy like that ..." Giggling, covering her mouth. "Unless you count the kiss I landed on you in 4th grade." Just shaking her head she looks at him with shyness. "I shudder to think of what must really be going on in your mind."
"I'm not thinking anything negative." He looks thoughtfully once he understood what she was implying. "I don't think any less of you, you didn't do anything wrong I mean..." He shrugs. "It's not like you were alone in everything - I was right there with you - wanting it to happen just as badly... so it's okay. I just think we should wait longer before taking things to that level." After a few moments of them exchanging affectionate yet awkward glances, he stood up with a warm smile directed at her. "I think it's best that I leave, my parents might be worried, you know."
"Yeah." She nods with a smile of her own.
He moves to leave her room with her following behind; silently. Once he got on her porch, he turns to her. "I had more than a great time with you - I hope it's the start of many?"
She nods while grinning from ear to ear.
"Great, well Goodnight." He leans down to give her a tiny kiss and brought his mouth close to her ear. "Sleep well." He whispers quietly.
"You too. Goodnight."
His steps impeded by the voice of an angel. "Arnold - I love you too."
She stares at his back as his shoulders relaxed and he slowly steps away. Sighing blissfully at the sight his face, she never saw him smiling so big and see nearly all his teeth. She thought his face was going to crack and break. He slowly closes his mouth and presses his lips together as he stepped backward towards his bike with his hands stretched over his heart. He climbs on and she watched him drive off, she could still tell he was smiling even from a distance. Once he was out of her view, she took a deep happy breath and went inside.
XOXOXO
The next morning Helga woke up feeling like she had been hit in the forehead. Her head was throbbing. She stumbles out of bed and entered the bathroom cabinet to get an aspirin to take it along with food. Walking into her dad's room which was open and also empty, she frowned. "Where the hell is Bob, anyway?" She shrugged, taking out something to eat for breakfast. "Maybe he actually found a job, hopefully. I can't go on being the sole breadwinner on my crap salary." Though Bob still had enough money saved from his previous; which he sold.
After eating cereal, she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth and once she was done, she just stared at her reflection. Oh, Arnold...You've finally made my girlhood dreams come true. Looking at herself, she tilted her head to one side, bringer her fingers up to her neck. Crap if it wasn't for this tiny hickey, I might have thought last night was a dream.
Now that her headache passes, she did her usual morning routine; a jog. While out, she had the strangest feelings going through her entire body that motivates her to pick up her pace. Something in her gut was telling her just like at the party the previous day to get home, once again she listened to herself. Getting back on her block, she spotted someone on her porch, getting closer, she is delighted to see him. He was just about to turn and leave but he saw her and stopped.
"Hey..." He smiles as he checks her out. "Exercising?"
She nods while still catching her breath. "Jogging...yeah..." She looks him over noticing his hands were behind his back. "What you hiding?"
His look becomes somewhat cheeky and he pulls out some daisies. She giggles and blushes. "For me?"
"Of course. I came over to ask if I could take you out, on a date? There's this new restaurant near Hillwood university that supposedly serves good Italian food."
With the daisies now in her hand, she brought them to her nose. "Sure. Come inside, for a bit." Once inside, she releases her hair from a high bun and let it fall freely over her shoulders and down her back.
He stares at her, his eyes slightly bugged out. "Your hair - I like it, you look good...not that you didn't look good before, but it's just different. I don't think I've ever seen you with your hair down, not that I recall."
Helga twirls her hair, smirks. "Yeah you have, you just didn't know it was me."
Arnold scratches his head and frowns. "What do you mean?"
She laughed softly and shrugged at him once she stopped. "Does the name Cecile ring any bells?"
She watches as the realization hit him and his face went through several different expressions. "That was you?" He asks incredibility.
Helga bites her lip and shook her head, yes.
He grins a muffled laugh slips out. "I can't believe that...I liked that girl, a lot after only that one time sees her...and she was...you, Helga." He shook his head and leaned into her, parted lips, closed eyes and he brushed up against her lips and kissed her briefly with great tenderness. He pulls back, eyes still fixed on hers. "That bit of info confirms that this...us - is meant to be." He chuckled and diverted his eyes away. "That might sound a bit cliche but..."
Before he could finish up that sentence she pulls him into her by the neck and gives with the softest yet most passionate embrace he ever had. "Um...wow."
She snickers and glances to the stairs. "I'm going to go get freshened up. Make yourself at home. We got the idiot box there, there might be something edible in the fridge if you get hungry - if Bob pops up a run and doesn't look back!" She gives a playful evil eye and he gulped; which elicited a bark of laughter out of Helga. "I was just joking silly."
"Right..." He rubbed his neck. "I knew that."
With a smirk, she turned away went to get changed.
XOXOXO
Instead of just doing lunch, Arnold and Helga spent the entire day together just enjoying the city. Now back on her front porch laughing about their day.
"I didn't expect to run into Pheebs and Geraldo, that was pretty cool."
He smiles wider. "Yeah, they were more surprised to see us, together."
Helga snorts. "Did you see tall hair boys face when I called you baby and kissed you on the cheek? That was priceless."
Arnold smile bashfully. "I know you were toying with him when you said that, but..." He rubs his arm. "I could get used to hearing that."
"Oh, is that so - well you're gonna have to earn that." She snickers and looked back up at the sky. After a second, she glanced\s at Arnold, who had moved right beside her. Helga had shifted into a rather thoughtful mood. "Hey Arnold, could I ask you something?"
"Sure. Anything."
She leans on her porch railing peering up at the darkened sky. "Why didn't you ever say anything since high school started?" She bit her lip nervously. "I understand back in 5th grade, we were little kids and a lot was going on but...once you came back everything things were different and if you had these types of - feelings for me why didn't you tell me? I understood when I thought you only thought of me as a casual friend, but for you to have that level of feelings and just hold it in, that's confusing."
I already answer this, but..." He chuckles. From the look on her face before, she clearly wasn't listening. "Exactly, things were different. You had turned into this cool athletic girl, with this edge...you always had an edge, but I don't know it was different. You were hanging out with all these girls and guys with that rock/punk or emo style and because I became a basketball player I fell into the preppy one...and—"
"So you didn't want to be seen with me, is that what you're saying?"
He glares at her. "No! Are you kidding me?!" He sighed seeing hr flinch a little at this tone, so he softened. "I was intimidated ...I thought that well... you wouldn't be interested in a guy like me anymore. It wasn't like a lot of girls were at the time and I always saw you with these guys that were so opposite me - even if they were just friends or associates it still made me feel - I don't know, insecure." He exchanges a few shy glances from her to his shoes.
"What changed this year?"
His mouth shapes into a thin smile. "I guess, I just grew a pair...I don't know...it's our last year, I knew if I didn't say something that I would miss my chance to be with you once graduation and college came around. I saw you on the first day, you lightly brushed past me and I got this chill through me and then you turned and gave me a quick look and I just melted at the sight of your eyes. I knew my feelings for you weren't going anywhere and in fact getting deeper by the day. It accumulated when I ended up going out of character a bit, punching a guy in the face because he was talking trash about you. There was this urgency that took over me, I just had to get next to you or else I felt like I would miss out on something real, something that doesn't come around often..."
"Oh..." She shakes her head. Well, I feel like a jerk... "I should have known you didn't think like everyone else."
"It's okay, it's not like I gave you many reasons to think otherwise..."
A slight frown fills her forehead. "So... when you were dating Lila?"
"All I could think about was you, but Lila and I kept in touch when I was in San Lorenzo." Helga's face falls. "And I guess it felt like less of a risk of rejection or something to pursue her...that's not something I'm proud about."
Helga sits down on her porch chair, looking down at her hands. "Sorry, I never wrote you I-I it's just too much and I didn't know what to say... I didn't know how to just be casual and ignore how I felt even in writing...especially in writing."
Arnold sighs heavily. "Sounds like we've wasted a lot of years due to fear or miscommunication, maybe a mix of both."
"Yeah." She mutters.
"That won't be the case now. I promise." She stares at him with the tiniest of smiles. Arnold reaches into his pocket to pull out a box and hands it to her.
She glimpses from the box to him with a slant to her eyes. "What is this?"
He takes it from her and opens it to reveal a necklace. He took it out once Helga had a chance to look at it, he lifts her hair to put it on her. She admires the small heart shape and backs up at him curiously. "It's beautiful, but why...?"
"Turned it over." He says against her ear. She did so, to see A & H with a mini arrow through it. When their eyes met, he sighs happily. "I bought it a year ago in hopes that...one day I could give to you...at the right time. Um - as a way of affirming my commitment to you." He flashed her the biggest smile. "I want to make things official. I know it's early and everything, but well I've wanted you for so long and knowing now that you feel the same, I can't picture myself going another day without you being my girlfriend."
She's in complete awe and he chuckles at the sight. He takes her hand. "So, will you be my girlfriend Helga?"
Laughing and he laughs along with her. "That was so mushy!" She says using dry humor and kisses his lips. "But so you."
He wriggles his eyebrows at her. "Is that a yes?"
She rolls her eyes with a broadens smile. "Yes!" An audible heavy breath escapes her. "Of course, I'll be your girlfriend, football head!" She kissed him on the cheek a few times. "Thank you." She says while lifting up her necklace.
Arnold pulls her into a tight hug and then his mouth collide with hers; a kiss that lasted for what seemed like several minutes. Moving away, he observed her house and the surroundings, the cheesy grin is replaced by a frown. "Where's your dad, Mr. Pataki?"
Helga shrugs lightly. "Beats me. Bob's been missing in action."
"Oh...that means you're alone in that house? He wasn't here last night either." He mumbles with concern. "If you want, you can—"
Helga smiles but shakes her head. "I'm fine..." Oh, Arnold...you're always so caring. She did a small shrug. "I've been alone more times than I can count."
He stares at her for a long moment. "Are you sure?" She nods. He still had concern all over his face but decides not to argue with her. If she says so..."Alright, but call me if you need anything."
The two of them said their goodbyes. Arnold watches Helga go inside, then made his way to his motorcycle. He was about to start up when he heard a loud scream, followed by a growl and the sound of things breaking. His whole face dropped opened and his keys fell to the ground. "Helga?!"
Hopefully, I'll get to write the next chapter just as quickly. TY 4 reading.