:::::IMPORTANT:::::
So, as I wrote this chapter, things developed and this story has now upped it's rating from T to M. The M rating is due to some sexual content stuff in this particular chapter. I don't really know what constitutes as a lemon, but this is pretty close, but not actual sex sex so there's that.
The other SUPER important thing, is that in light of this new sexual content, chapter 3 'Faking It' has been revised and updated, so I suggest you go check that out if you are following this story and desire to do so.
Otherwise, Enjoy, and as always, REVIEW!
xoxo
Polkahotness
Despite my efforts, the weekend passed without a single thought to what I was going to do about Lila knowing and Rhonda being relentless in her suspicions.
In fact, I had basically come to terms with the fact that the cat was basically out of the bag and who was I to stop what was inevitable?
I was Helga G. Pataki, that's who.
And Patakis don't give up.
Well, unless you're Bob or Miriam or even Olga kinda sold out too so... Maybe it was just a me thing.
Helga G. Pataki doesn't give up.
And besides, even if I had decided to really sit down and think about what it was I was going to do, I hadn't had any time.
I had spent the whole weekend with Arnold.
I walked into English class with stride when Monday rolled around.
Arnold looked at me in quizzically as I took a seat at our pod.
"Helga... you okay?" He seemed concerned but I shrugged it off.
"Just feelin' like a brand new woman. I had a great weekend. How about you, Hair Boy? How was YOUR weekend?" I smiled at him as he blushed bright red.
I knew how his weekend had been.
"I uh..." he bit the inside of his lower lip in thought. "My weekend was actually great, thanks for asking."
"You seem a little down... low on energy this morning or somethin'?"
Rhonda was the next to sit down at the pod, and her ears were immediately tuned in on what we had been discussing. "What are we talking about, Love Birds?"
Ignoring her comment, Arnold kept his eyes on me and answered, "Oh just our weekends."
"Yeah, Arnold over here looks kinda tired."
"I just had a..." he swallowed hard, "busy weekend is all."
"Ah. Must be glad it's over then." She seemed disinterested now, reaching down to dig through her overly-big purse she insisted on carrying around instead of a backpack.
"No, I actually wish it hadn't gone by so fast." He answered immediately and I raised a brow in his direction.
"Yeah. It kinda just, came and went, huh?"
Arnold looked at me, his body and expression frozen. After a moment of silence, Rhonda glanced up to look at us.
Thankfully, Lila and Eugene walked in together at that moment and took their seats at the same time with smiles on their perky faces.
"Hi guys!" Eugene sing-songed, but I kept my attention on Arnold ahead of me. "Sorry I missed Friday, but I finished our script!" He held it up above his head in triumph, the bell sounding as if in celebration of his accomplishment. Eugene tossed a packet of words to each of us, but I didn't look down.
I stayed focused on the blonde football-head sitting before me.
It made him uncomfortable.
I grinned.
"Good morning, good morning!" Mrs. Otten greeted as she stepped to stand in front of the tired eyes ahead of her. "Today we start FILMING!" she beamed and clapped a few times as if to wake us all up. "Okay, okay. I know it's a Monday, but you have ALL PERIOD to work on these so you need to be focused and awake! Remember- projects need to be turned in on FRIDAY. And presentations are when?"
The class grumbled our answer. "Next Tuesday..."
"Right. Next Tuesday, since you have Monday off for teacher workshop. So go ahead! Head on down to the tech lab and we'll assign out our cameras and get started!"
The sound of resumed conversations flooded the room as we all grabbed our things and began to leave the room.
Our group somewhat stayed together; Eugene and Lila talking quietly to each other while Rhonda strutted ahead of the class and Arnold and I poked behind to quietly talk to each other.
"I work tonight." I started as we followed the crowd of students down the Hallway.
"Oh." His voice was quiet and laced with disappointment.
"Only till six though." I added, watching him as he focused ahead on everyone else. "Are you okay?" I asked, my tone genuine.
"Yeah, Helga. I'm fine."
"You're acting all weird."
He shrugged and offered a small smile, "I'm really okay. Just tired."
"Well jeez, how late were you up last night? I left your place at like five."
"I just sat up and did some thinking is all."
"Some thinking."
"More like extra work on the assignment." I rolled my eyes and he frowned, "What? I just wanted to make sure our project would be good seeing as we didn't get a lot of work done last Friday."
"And WHO'S fault was that?" He sighed and I chewed on my lip for a moment our class got plugged up by the entrance to the lab.
"Helga..."
"Well why didn't you tell me you were working on that thing? I could have stayed and worked too-"
"I only have one computer."
"So? I could have occupied myself. All I did was sit at home and watch WWE and infomercials all night. You never even texted me."
He was quiet and I found myself suddenly re-thinking through our weekend.
"Did I..." I paused, surveying my surroundings before continuing, "Did I do something wrong?" I near whispered, and his head snapped to look at me and shake his head.
"No, no, no. It isn't about that, Helga. I..." he smiled and bumped into my shoulder lightly as we stood in the crowd of our classmates waiting to be assigned cameras. I felt his fingers just barely brush against mine. "I had a great weekend. Don't worry. I'm really just tired."
I nodded my head, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of something just being... off.
Maybe I was being paranoid.
"Sheesh. What TOOK you guys so long." Rhonda commented as we found the rest of our group and huddled around Eugene who was holding our camera.
"We have number 1! How cool is THAT, you guys!" Eugene exclaimed, and Rhonda quickly reached out to snatch the camera from him.
"No offense." She said with a shrug and I smirked.
Probably a good idea not to let the kid who just gave himself a concussion last Friday from tripping on a backpack strap and ramming his head into a locker.
"No, you're probably right, Rhonda." He said with a sigh before focusing his attention back on all of us and smiled guiltily. "Sorry again about Friday, you guys. But don't worry, I'm okay! There is no way I would abandon you all to finish this project."
"We know, Eugene. We're just ever so glad you're alright."
"So where are we doing this thing?" Rhonda asked impatiently and Lila dug out her list of scene changes.
"I thought we could start with the party scene."
"And just WHERE are we supposed to hold a house party?"
"I talked with Mrs. Otten and she said we have 'free period' to film where ever we want. Some of the other students are leaving too." Lila said with a smile.
"Yeah, and lunch is right after so we could stay later and keep working if you guys want. We could go to the boarding house and order pizza for lunch."
"You SERIOUSLY think the boarding house roof is a good spot to fake a house party?" I asked.
He shrugged and looked between all of us. "Why not?"
"I think it's a great idea, Arnold." Rhonda commented while plastering on a cheesy smile.
"So we will leave and head for Arnold's then?" Eugene confirmed, adding "Does anybody want to carpool? We could all probably fit in one car."
I frowned. "One car? With you weirdos? No thanks. I'll ride by myself."
"Are you sure, Helga?" Arnold asked and I crossed my arms while nodding my head.
"I'm pretty damn sure, actually. I'll just meet you guys there."
We gathered in Arnold's room, our equipment and backpacks scattered on the floor around us.
I took a seat on his couch like I had done so many other times and pulled my feet up to sit cross-legged.
How many times I had been in this very room. How familiar I was with everything around us, and nobody even knew.
I smirked.
"So how we wanna do this?" I asked while glancing between my other three groupies.
Eugene held his script, bound and all, tightly in his arms and smiled.
"Rhonda and Lila can go up to the roof and get the set ready I suppose. You guys need to change though. Do you have your costumes?" he asked and I sighed, reaching down to tap lightly on the fancy pink bag Rhonda had given me before we left the school.
"Yep. Princess hooked us up before we left. We'll be ready in like fifteen."
"I have to set up the equipment too," Arnold added, looking around at all the black bags around us with lighting gear and tripods. "I'll probably need help though." His eyes drifted over to me and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah fine, I'll help I guess. Seeing as EUGENE over here would probably just break everything."
Ignoring my comment, he smiled and gave us a thumbs up. "See you up there, then!" He made his way up the ladder and outside onto the roof to where Lila and Rhonda were already bickering about how to hang the lights. With a muffled slam, the window closed to leave the two of us virtually alone in his room.
Just like we had been this weekend.
I looked over to Arnold who stood by his bookshelf next to his bed and then set my hands on my hips.
"So Arnoldo," I started, a grin settling on my face as I spoke bluntly, "Looks like I gotta take my clothes off."
His eyes widened. "Uh..." he tried, but I kinda had him at a loss for words.
"Ya know. Costumes and all." I shrugged and reached down for the bag of clothes Rhonda had given me.
Inside of the bag was a dress, a belt, some incredibly too-high-high-heels, bracelets and a weird looking choker necklace; there were also some jeans, brown loafer-y shoes with tiny decorative holes on the toes, a button up dress shirt and a vest?
I stopped to think just what Rhonda had been going for, but decided it probably didn't matter.
"Your clothes are in here too. So I guess you gotta strip down too." I said casually while tossing him his items of clothing one by one.
"You want to change somewhere else or something?" He finally said and I chuckled.
"Now, what would be the sense in that? We're both grown, mature young-adults who ooze responsibility and good decision-making. I think we can handle a little stripping, don't you?"
Arnold set his stuff down on his bed and watched me for a moment as I lay out the outfit I had to wear for the next hour or so.
"You're up to something." He stated and I laughed while unzipping my jeans and wiggling them down and off of my body, then kicking them off to the side.
"Nope." I reached down to pull my socks off of my feet and toss those onto my jeans that were now close by Arnold.
He looked down at my pile of clothes and decided he should probably start changing too. Slowly, he started to take off his faded gray t-shirt and set it neatly over his bed.
I smiled as his eyes drifted towards me before shooting away and back to focus on changing his own clothes.
When I was down to my underwear and bra, I slowly walked over to him; he'd turned around now and was only in his boxers. Almost tip-toeing, I took tiny steps to reach him and wrap my arms around his almost-bare body.
"Helga!" He nearly jumped at my sudden presence, my body pressed tightly against his. "What are you doing?" he twisted around in my grip to face me directly; his expression that of shock and horror at my lack of clothes.
"Just wanted a hug." I pushed him down to sit on the bed and soon straddled his lap.
"H-Helga... I...They..." He looked up to the window above us and I smiled.
"Suddenly worried they'll see, huh?" I asked, grinding my hips on his slowly.
"They really could though, Helga. Like really, really could." he was panicked now and I leaned in to gently kiss his neck a few times.
"Scared?" I murmured against his skin; his head tilting back slightly and I imagined his eyes were closed softly now as his breathing was starting to quicken.
"What...what are you up to?" He asked quietly and I smiled, pulling back to look at him and see that I was right and his eyes were closed.
"Open your eyes." I said, and he did so immediately.
"Yes?"
I grabbed his hands and set them on my hips before I sat up on my knees still straddling him, and began to slowly sway my hips over his; taunting him.
"L-lap dance, huh?"
I nodded my head and lifted my hands up the sides of my body slowly until they were up and over my head. Twirling my wrists as I did so, I brought my arms down to rest on Arnold's shoulders. I dipped my hips and stuck my ass out, my lips kissing down his bare chest as I did so.
"Oh...oh god, Helga..." he was breathing rapidly, his eyes completely locked on me while I danced before him.
I slowly drug my hips inward towards him and then rested on him completely; our hips now only barred from the others by our underwear. I licked my lips as sensually as I could manage and continued to sway my body around as I sat on him, our hips now grinding together as I danced.
His hands drifted from my hips to rub slowly up my back; pushing me closer to him. Just barely his lips kissed against my collar bone and they softly continued to drift lower to just above where the edge of my bra began to cover my boobs.
My breathing was starting to quicken as we moved with each other and I was beginning to crave more than I knew I could deliver at this particular moment with our classmates just up above us on the roof. I could feel him pressing against me as our hips grinded together and I knew that the two of us were mixing up a cocktail that would eventually lead us to a point of no return.
"Helga, we... we-" He was paralyzed under me and I shook my head slowly while I stopped dancing and pulled back to look at him.
"We won't. I'm only teasing." I cocked an eyebrow at him. "You don't really think I'd just-"
"Well you did on S-Sunday."
I smirked and leaned in to press my lips against his before pulling back and then shrugging. "You saying you didn't like it?" I faked a pout, but he was already shaking his head.
"I didn't say that."
"Better than doing it yourself, no?" I asked and tilted my head to the side as I looked at him.
"Helga, I uh-"
"Oh don't even." I sat straight up and crossed my arms, purposefully pushing my boobs together as best as I could. "You're a teenager with raging hormones for your ultra sexy secret girlfriend. You can't tell me you've never jerked yourself off."
His cheeks burned bright red and I smiled knowingly. "That's what I thought." I pushed myself up and off of him, much to his dismay, and walked slowly over to my pile of clothes. "Ever about me?" I asked suddenly, the words not actually supposed to have come out of my mouth.
"A-about y-yo-you?" He stuttered out, and I imagined his eyes were locked on my ass as I bent over for a prolonged moment to pick up my costume piece by piece.
"Well, yeah. Unless you're a porn kinda guy." I added and stood up. His eyes shot up to my face, so I smiled. "Whatever works, right?"
"Fine. Yes, I have...about you."
"Good." I started to pull on the dress over my head and wiggle my way through it.
"For a while, actually."
I looked at him through the head-hole of the dress. "A while? Like... how long a while?"
He paused as he waited for me to emerge from the dress Rhonda was forcing me to wear. Once it was on, I put my hands on my hips and looked at him expectantly. "Well? How long? You've got me curious."
He chewed on his lip for a moment and grabbed the jeans from his pile of costume. "Since uh..." he swallowed and said quietly, "end of seventh grade, maybe."
"What?! You're kidding!" I reached behind my back and pulled up the zipper. Arnold was cautiously waiting to pull on his pants and it was nice to know my little lap dance had achieved it's goal.
"Yeah..." he dragged out the middle of the word as he began buttoning up the dark olive dress shirt. "You never gave me many answers, and you... you started...filling out." He smirked at his statement and pulled on the vest that actually didn't look as bad with the rest of the ensemble as I had thought it would. "Kinda drove me crazy. And then there was that kiss and-"
"Your mind just went for it, huh football-head?"
He was still blushing, but I was now too. To know that I hadn't been the only one kept up at night by the constant imaginings of my hormonal brain gave me a strange sense of relief.
"You still kinda drive me crazy. But in a good way."
"Well, I'd hope so. I don't give lap dances to just any football-head."
"About that." he started, "You know that was a mean thing you just did." He said all of a sudden and I frowned and dropped my arms to my sides; belt in hand.
"Oh whatever, hair boy."
"Seriously." he walked over to me, toting the brown shoes, and reached to gently grab my chin and hold my face to look at him. "I could... we could..." he took a breath and tried again, "You have NO idea how badly I wanted to...still want to..." his voice trailed off and I smiled mischievously as he held my chin.
"I think I do." I grazed my hand over the bulge still in his pants before dragging it up his body and ultimately reaching to touch at his wrist as he held my face in place.
"And I think we need to get up to the roof before they decide to investigate." He dropped his hand and turned around to walk back to his bed so he could sit down and put the shoes on.
We finished putting the clothes and accessories on, and with a quick kiss, we each took a breath, grabbed the remainder of the camera supplies and climbed up the ladder to join the rest of our group up on the roof and finish setting up.
"Goodness. THAT took forever." Rhonda voiced and stood up from where she had been seated on the green velvet-y couch that had been up there since we had been in middle school.
"Well this dress is a nightmare." I crossed my arms and pursed my lips as I looked at Rhonda. "I couldn't have just worn my own clothes?"
"Juliet wouldn't be caught DEAD in your every day attire. Juliet is a beautiful, alluring young woman and thus needs to look like she isn't some hobo on a street begging for change."
My eyes rolled and I shook my head. "Whatever, Princess."
"Okay guys, you ready to start?" Eugene cut in to break up the squabble already happening between Rhonda and I.
Arnold was behind me unzipping the black bags that held the tripod and began setting up everything quietly making sure not to arouse any suspicion.
Because he was pretty aroused himself.
"Need any help over there, hair boy?" I asked, but he shook his head minimally as he hooked up the camera to the tripod.
"No, I think you've been enough help, Helga." He snapped, but his expression was borderline playful so I didn't take it too much to heart.
"What did you do to piss HIM off? Can't have an angry Romeo." Rhonda was looking into a small compact and patting her face with a piece of newspaper? She caught eye of me watching her and smirked. "Keeps me from getting too shiny." She explained.
"I don't actually care." I said while nodding my head, and Eugene clapped his hands a few times.
"Places, places everyone!"
"You haven't even told us where to go, klutzo." I commented flatly and he frowned for a moment- something I don't think I've ever really seen. Aside from that time his goldfish died in like what, fourth grade?
"I'm ever so certain that there looks to be stage directions on the side, right Eugene?" Lila chimed in. I had totally forgotten she was still here; it wasn't like Lila to be all observant and quiet.
"Right! Most scripts are written that way to help with blocking."
We spent the next twenty minutes going through just what we were doing. God bless Eugene, because I never would have been able to remain as patient as he did while Rhonda asked a million different idiotic questions about theatrical terms she would never have to remember a day in her life.
FINALLY, it was time to film, and let me tell you, filming is the most dumb and tedious thing I've ever had to go through. We must have done the same scene like eight times.
"You kidding? I am not doing it again. No way."
"It's just a turn to the camera, Helga. Arnold will edit it together so it looks like you two are simultaneously seeing each other for the first time; love at first sight." Eugene grinned and I shook my head.
"I get the idea, doi. I'm just sick of doing it. We've been here for like... an hour now and done TWO SCENES because SOMEBODY couldn't remember their lines." I shot a look at Arnold who eyed me curiously.
"Sorry, Helga." He said, his eyes focused on me while the words left his mouth.
"You SHOULD be. It isn't like I couldn't be doing something more important."
"To be perfectly honest, I think our project should be most important; don't you Helga?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I waved in her direction as if wiping her away all together. "Still. If Romeo over there could just use that freakish head of his to remember his lines, we'd be done by now."
"And then what were your plans?" He asked suddenly and I shrugged feeling as though I'd been caught off guard.
"I don't know. But at least I'd be away from you dorks."
Arnold's eyes watched me as I stretched upwards and then bent over to touch my toes.
I glanced up at him from my toe touching and grinned. "Why don't you take a picture, it'll last longer."
"Can we PLEASE continue with the filming? Watching you two flirt is getting REALLY exhausting." Rhonda whined, and I returned to a normal stance and ignored her; my attention still on Arnold.
"You ready, or what?" I asked him and he nodded his head.
"I'm ready."
"We could do a different scene, if you'd prefer." Eugene offered. "How about the dance?"
I shrugged carelessly. "Sure. Whatever floats your boat."
"Remember, you two are supposed to be in LOVE with each other. So throw on the charm or something. Shouldn't be THAT hard."
"Oh I'll tell you what's hard..." I mumbled and Arnold's cheeks flushed red briefly despite he was the only one who heard my comment.
"So put on the charm like be all over him or what?" I asked, not really needing the answer.
"Do you think Juliet would be motivated to do that? It's all about the character choices. BECOME the character." Eugene coached and I internally laughed at his bizarre seriousness.
"I think you're supposed to be dancing, right?" Rhonda tried to confirm and I glanced at my script before tossing it to the side.
"Look at that. Princess is right. Dancing it is." I shot Arnold a playful look, and his eyes grew wide.
"Romeo sees Juliet dancing and comes over to dance with her." Lila read from the script aloud.
"So modernize the dancing, Pataki. Know how to do that, or should I show you?"
"I think I've watched you grind enough at passed school dances to know how to turn a guy on to want to dance with me."
"Really? I've never seen anyone dance with you before."
I frowned, but Arnold oddly enough came to my rescue.
"Doesn't mean she hasn't, Rhonda."
Her eyes watched him for a while before glancing over to me and then back to him. "What. You'd ask her to dance?"
"Depends." He said thoughtfully, "I guess I would have to see what kind of dances she was doing."
"Well by all means. I can't wait to see this." Rhonda's voice was slick, and she reached over to turn on the bluetooth speakers she had provided. Instantly a song began to play, and I focused on the beat of the music letting it move through me and consume all that was Helga G. Pataki.
"So start dancing and dance for a moment. I'll wave you in so you can join her, okay Arnold?" Eugene directed and he nodded his head. "Remember, you have to be hesitant at first. And just have fun." He offered a warm smile, but it didn't calm my fast-beating heart.
Rhonda had been right- I'd never danced in front of anyone before... especially not the way we had written for Juliet to dance. "Sexy but with class," Rhonda had instructed when we first talked about the scene last week. "Juliet has to make him want to dance with her."
I focused on Arnold, trying to make Lila, Rhonda and Eugene disappear as I began to awkwardly sway my hips.
"C'mon, Pataki. You can do better than THAT." Rhonda heckled.
"Rhonda. Don't talk during the scene..." Eugene whispered but I shook my head in their direction.
"No sweat. I'm just warming up." I smirked, but could feel my hands shaking as I tried to keep my attention on Arnold.
And then I got into it.
I tried to remember what I had just done a little while ago to Arnold on his bed. Swaying my hips to and fro I closed my eyes for a moment and re-opened them with a lustful gaze directed at Arnold who looked back with a mirrored look.
Suddenly, the music turned up in volume, but I continued to dance; my body moving in time with the beat. I started to slide my hands up my sides, trying to remember the things I'd seen other girls do at dances to get attention. I added in a small lip bite, and dipped my hips low, sticking my ass out and sliding my hands over my thighs as I came back up.
Arnold's breathing had kicked up. I could see his chest heaving from where I danced in front of him.
I watched as Eugene waved for Arnold to cut in and he did just that. Walking up to me, he searched my eyes before slowly moving with me in time with the music. The rest of our group soon disappeared the moment his hand rested on my waist.
It was just us.
Arnold and Me.
Together.
I rested my arms on his shoulders as I had done earlier and slowly began to sway my hips down his leg and back up again.
He wanted me so bad. I could see it in the way he was watching me.
So I kept going.
Project be dammed, this was our moment.
He set his other hand on the opposite side of my waist and began to get into it; something I'd never imagined Arnold to do. He was pushing his hips to mine and we slowly grooved to the beat that the speaker was playing for us. I reached up and touched his cheek lightly, our eyes searching each others for a moment. His hands slid up my back and rested lightly on my shoulders from behind; my body drawing closer to his. I could feel the tension between us, and just as I was about to lean in to press my lips against his- I was snapped back into reality.
"Wowza." Rhonda said, her hands slow clapping as Arnold and I awkwardly pushed each other away to compose ourselves. "Talk about getting into character, am I right guys?" she coaxed, but Eugene had a smile on his face and Lila's eyes were wide as if she'd just finished watching shark week on tv.
"Can I...Uh... I gotta go to the bathroom." Arnold spat out and nearly ran for downstairs.
I stood dumbfounded in front of the remaining members of our group.
"Impressive, Pataki. You actually got Arnold all hot. It almost looked like he actually wanted you. Talk about acting."
I shook my head and crossed my arms. "You must have been imagining things," I tried, but by the look on Rhonda's face she wasn't buying it. "First you say we're dating, and then you say he wants nothing to do with me. Make up your mind."
"I don't know what you two are talking about, that was great!" Eugene was ecstatic. "That look in your eyes, Helga. THAT was what I was talking about when I said getting into character. You have a real knack for acting."
I laughed. "Yeah right. All I did was dance, Eugene."
"Are you sure it won't be too... risque? For a school project?" Lila asked hesitantly, but Eugene was already shaking his head.
"It may be sexualized, but Romeo and Juliet is a passionate tale and to modernize it properly-"
"You have to add more sex." I shrugged my shoulders. "Times have changed."
"I guess you're right." She answered, but didn't sound too convinced.
We waited for a moment before realizing Arnold wasn't exactly coming back right away. I glanced down at my phone that was sitting on the floor next to the tripod to see it was already passed noon.
"Maybe you guys wanna order the pizza while I check on football-head? Might as well do something while we're waiting. And I'm getting hungry."
"Sure, I can order it off of my phone!" Eugene offered, which gave me my cue to leave the roof and wander down into Arnold's room.
Empty.
"That's weird..." I muttered to myself as I looked around. "Arnold?" I called out, but got no response.
Carefully, I opened the door of his room to quietly walk down the stairs into the main part of the boarding house. Arnold had said his Grandma and Grandpa would be out celebrating a birthday for a friend of theirs down at the local senior center, and I began to thank my lucky stars they weren't around.
Seemed the rest of the boarders were in their rooms as well, so the house was pretty quiet.
I made my way to the bathroom and knocked on the closed door. "Knock, knock." I said, and the door swung open so Arnold could grab my wrist, pull me inside, and quickly lock the door behind me.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to compose myself."
"And why would you need to do that?" I asked with heavy sarcasm, but his lips crushed the smile I had to go with it.
He was kissing me feverishly as if he couldn't stop himself. Seemed my dancing had had a greater affect on him than I had expected.
Soon my back was against the wall, his lips parting slightly as we kissed. His lips ventured to begin kissing down my neck, and I tilted my head back as he continued to kiss downward. He pulled back suddenly and watched me for a moment before I opened my eyes to look at him.
"Yeah?" I asked with a smile, but I already knew what was about to happen. I reached up to rest my hand on his neck and push him back so he was up against the sink. "Better?" I questioned, sliding both hands down his chest to rest on the belt loops of his jeans.
"I... you..." He stumbled but I was already unbuttoning his jeans and pushing them down off of his hips.
"Shh..." I shushed him, my hand snaking its way into his boxers, and his head fell back to let a soft moan escape his lips.
"You gotta shut your mouth, hair boy, or someone will hear us." I whispered into his ear as I gripped him tighter under the cotton of his underwear.
Arnold's breathing had increased speed with my hand as I stroked him; his hips beginning to move with the pace I set. In an effort to quiet him, I leaned in to kiss his lips hard; his lips melting into mine. I could tell he was struggling to focus on kissing me as he kept parting his lips to breathe heavily through his mouth, nearly panting.
And then, a soft knock startled us from our canoodling.
"Arnold? Helga? I'm perfectly certain you're in there."
"Li-Lila?" I stuttered out, Arnold and I frozen as we talked to the locked door separating us from each other.
"Well whomever did you think it was?" Was she being SASSY with me?
Criminy.
"What are you doing?" I asked again, seeing as Arnoldo wasn't in any condition to be answering questions.
"Why I'm sure I'm just checking on you two. You've been gone a while now and Rhonda wanted to come and find you but... but I offered to instead."
I looked to Arnold who looked at me with slight confusion before taking a small breath and saying softly, "Why did you do that?"
"Well gosh," she started in that sickeningly sweet tone of hers, "I knew if she found you two here like this... why I'm oh so sure she wouldn't just keep that kind of information to herself."
My jaw dropped and a small smile hinted on Arnold's face.
"Well shit, Lila. Th-thanks." I managed, and you could hear the smile in her voice.
"Of course, Helga. Arnold. How much longer do you suppose you'll be?" She asked innocently and I eyed Arnold and wiggled my brow at him.
"How bout it, Arnoldo?" I whispered just loud enough for him to hear.
He swallowed hard before stuttering out, "Maybe like... f-five more minutes..."
"Is that pizza here yet, or what?"
I heard Lila's pixie giggles from behind the door. "I'm sure it'll be here shortly."
"Good. Cause I'm just about famished. We'll... we'll catch ya up there in a minute, Lila."
"Alright," her tone was almost skeptical, but just the same, her footsteps faded away and vanished to leave us once again alone in the bathroom.
"Five minutes, huh?"
When we emerged back onto the roof, the scent of pizza was traveling through the air around us.
"What kind are we eating, hmm?" I asked, plopping down to sit on a fold out chair nearby.
"Cheese. I find meat to be greasy and simply unappetizing."
"And the grease pools in the cheese are much better? Sheesh." I scoffed and started to shove a big piece into my mouth; chomping away on it.
"Yikes, Helga. Hasn't anyone ever taught you proper table manners?" Rhonda watched as I wiped my face on my sleeve and smiled, my mouth full of food.
"Nope." I popped the 'p' and some spit flew in her general direction.
I'd never been so proud.
"GROSS. How do you STAND it?" She asked Arnold who looked at her dumbfounded.
"Stand what?" he replied, taking a bite of his pizza.
"Her? I mean seriously, Arnold. You really could have anybody in the school."
"Did I... miss something when I was gone on Friday?" Eugene asked, puzzled; his eyes looking between the four of us.
"Rhonda has the dumbest notion that Arnoldo and I are having a steamy secret love affair."
"I wouldn't quite use 'steamy' as my adjective of choice, but yeah. That's the gist of it I suppose."
"Well are you? We're all friends around here." Eugene coaxed, but as much as I knew Eugene was probably telling the truth, Rhonda certainly wasn't as trustworthy as his accident-proned self.
So I scoffed at him. "Please. As if we have any kind of feelings for each other."
"It's kind of funny really." Arnold said with a slight laugh, a very fake one might I add.
"And why's that, Arnold?" I asked and he finished the piece of pizza in his hands. He then reached down to grab a napkin, and wiped his hands.
"Because Helga hates me."
"You got THAT right." I crossed my arms over my chest for a moment before deciding I was still hungry and reached over to grab another piece.
"But notice how he didn't say that HE hated her. Maybe I've been wrong this whole time... could... could YOU have a thing for HELGA?"
Rhonda gasped.
And Arnold shrugged.
HE SHRUGGED.
Our circle grew quiet for a moment.
"So who was on the phone?" Eugene asked out of the blue, and Arnold looked at him quizzically.
"The phone?"
"Yeah. Lila said you had this emergency call. Is everything alright?" He asked, and Lila shot us a wink when we looked in her direction.
"Uh...yeah. Yeah it was just Grandpa. Said he would be home soon and...and wanted me to-"
I continued for him, "Wanted us to leave earlier than normal. The boarders are having-"
"Poker night up here tonight or something." Arnold finished and our group looked at one another before nodding our heads.
"Well okay. We can find time to finish the video tomorrow, I'm sure. Don't you think, guys?" Eugene asked, and we all grumbled a 'yes' as we began to clean up after ourselves before we had to head back to school.
Since I had opted to drive separately from the rest of them, I had a nice quiet car ride so my thoughts could scream like crazy inside of my head.
This whole, 'group project' thing had really screwed up the groove Arnold and I had going... it was so much harder to PRETEND you hated someone when you were off giving them handys in a bathroom behind everybody's backs.
Criminy, I thought, how were Arnold and I supposed to make it through the rest of this damn project?
But on Tuesday, our final filming day, it was the moment we reached Eugene's house where we were to film the balcony scene that I realized a more important question was looming it's ugly head; How far was Rhonda Wellington Lloyd willing to go to expose us?
The answer became clear the moment the words passed my lips.
"Fine. We were together. Congratulations, Princess! You figured it out! But before you go blabbing it to the entire school, let me make your story a little jucier for when you tell it later." I looked over to Arnold who was staring at me and shaking his head; his arms tightly crossed. "It's over, Arnold. The jig is up." I spun around to push passed Rhonda who stood frozen.
"Happy now?" I muttered to her, before storming off to get in my car and drive far, far away from the tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet.
Shit's getting real, my friends!
Review, and I'll see ya at the next chapter, my lovelies!