Chapter 13 : Too Late to Apologize

Helga was not looking forward to Arnold's inevitable apology. Sure enough, as soon as she got home, Arnold was waiting to talk with her. Undoubtedly he would come up with some

lame ass excuse for why he blew a fuse the other night when he thought she was with Sid. Meanwhile he was the huge hypocrite who slept around with Lila and Rhonda and god who knows who else. With Arnold's blonde hair and bronze skin, it wasn't exactly hard for him to get laid.

"Can I talk to you Helga?"

"Ugh what do you want Arnoldo!" she pushed past him.

"Would you please listen to me for a second?" he pleaded and grabbed her hand.

Helga stared in annoyance between his green eyes and his hand. He had larger, slightly tanned hands and it was annoying how just a simple gesture like that could make her stop in her tracks for a moment. How holding her hand could make her feel like a stupid child again excited that Arnold Shortman was paying her a bit of attention. Before she remembered she was mad at him and she couldn't care less if he wanted to hold hands and sing kumbaya or some other bullshit hippie crap. She yanked back her hand from him.

"What do you want Arnold?" she repeated in a deadpan tone that made perfectly clear she was not amused or interested in what he had to say.

"I want to apologize."

"There's a surprise! Mr. Goody-two shoes wants to apologize, why am I not surprised?"

"Can you stop mocking me Helga!"

Helga didn't say anything but crossed her arms and tilted her head up in a way that said she was both listening and not listening.

"I'm sorry for screaming at you last night, okay? I was out of line and I had no right to get angry at you. It's your right to stay out how ever late you want and...with whomever you choose...but I only got angry because I was worried."

Worried. Of course. Helga thought. Not jealous. Arnold probably wouldn't even care if she had ten boyfriends as long as she was using protection and he knew she was "safe". Not that she even had even one boyfriend. More like zero.

"You could've just answered my calls and told me you were with Sid, instead of leaving me wondering if something happened to you," Arnold finished his apology with a sigh.

Helga felt like laughing. "Whatever Arnoldo, that's a pretty lame apology. But let me just clear up one thing: Sid and I are not-"

She was going to say 'not a couple' but Arnold interrupted her.

"-are none of my business. I know that Helga, I'm sorry if I was nosy before."

Helga raised her brows. Why did he look so hurt when he said that? Suddenly she doubted he didn't care whom she dated. If she didn't know better, she would almost say Arnold looked jealousy. Though maybe she was imagining things again.

Arnold scratched at his hair, "Listen I know we haven't been getting along lately, but I want to work things out. You're important to me, Helga, you're my roommate."

Wait a minute...I'm his roommate? That's it? Not even his friend. The first thing thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of me is "roommate". Meanwhile Lila only has to bat her eyelashes and he thinks "love" "hubba-hubba" and "perfect". Helga felt her blood boil. How could she for a second delude herself into thinking he was actually jealous!

"I've also got something else to tell you," Arnold said, bursting her bubble of thoughts.

"Now what?!"

"Okay, don't be mad but I quit the Daily Globe."

Helga felt her temper go over the edge; this was just the icing on the cake.

"WHAT? Oh Criminy! Why did you do that? By the way thanks for now making me the primary breadwinner. I LOVE how you didn't talk to me first before making this decision."

"I know it was stupid but Gerald published the story about Rhonda being on drugs. It completely defamed her character. I just couldn't work there knowing that they were publishing terrible lies like that."

"Now you care about Rhonda?! After all this you told me to let it go, now you quit your job over her. She really must have been a Grade A lay!"

"STOP! Stop talking about that because that didn't happen. Rhonda and I were never a thing. If you think we were you're delusional."

"I'M delusional! Oh gee coming from the person who quit his job when he found out everyone doesn't have the same delusional, perfect ass ethics code as him. Papers publish stories to make money NOT to protect lives. If you think they're going to miss you there you're crazy."

"Oh I'm definitely not crazy but you are! You need serious help. You need to stop obsessing over Rhonda's murder and move on with your life Helga."

"Oh I'll have a great time moving on when you can't pay the rent at the end of the month!" Helga yelled , "I might even find a roommate who doesn't act like they're a cut above everyone else because of their idiotic ethics and self-righteous speeches!"

Arnold grimaced and she could tell he was really hurt. "Can you stop screaming at me Helga. I thought I'd made it clear that I don't want to fight with you anymore. But you seem to want to make everything into a fight and to be honest, it's getting kind of exhausting."

"Whatever Arnoldo you don't have to deal with me if you don't want to. I'm just your roommate, I'm easily replaceable!" She stormed out before he could see her cry. She didn't want him to ever see her cry again if she could help it.

'Let me in,' he'd told her at Rhonda's funeral. It was only a few days ago that he said those words but it couldn't have felt further in the past. And she'd been right to instinctively to not let him in. One unguarded moment and she felt her self-esteem being trampled on all over again.

She couldn't trust Arnold Shortman. Arnold wasn't a bad person but she couldn't trust him. She left the apartment and started driving a bit mindlessly until she remembered she wasn't alone in this world. She still had Phoebe.

A/N: So you may have noticed we changed the title. Does anyone like it? :) If you are thinking this is going to be like the movie of the same name, don't worry, it's not.