This chapter needed to be written. I have work and driving classes this week will be very busy. I won't post again until I have a decent amount of responses so if you like this story speak now or forever hold your peace!

Chapter 3

A Morbid Memory

"She wore blue velvet But in my heart there'll always be Precious and warm, a memory through the years;
and I still can see blue velvet through my tears." Bobby Vinton

The ocean waves crashed against the shore pulling the sand into the tide. The moonlight flowed through her long golden hair. Her pale skin florescent in the moonlight. She was like a siren calling him to dive into the ocean with her. Arnold was apprehensive. He had dated before, but until Helga during their sophomore year he had never known soul defining love. They had the epic romance; a romance that men and woman had died in attempts to find. Their romance was from childhood until they both died. They shared together an everlasting love; a forever love.

Arnold rubbed in his pocket nervously at the little box resting inside. They were young; not even children anymore. It didn't matter though Arnold had always been far beyond his years, he knew he was ready for what he was about to embark on. Again his hand caressed the little box in his pocket his nerves on edge. Helga, marry me! Helga G. Pataki will you marry me? Mrs. Shortman please say I do! The words reeled through his head as if a movie on a continuous rewind. He was terrified Helga had always been embedded in his life. If she said no how was he to live without her? All she had to say was yes and Arnold would drive them to a chapel tonight without a single glance at their past. Moving forward only towards their future.

His eyes half lidded in bliss as he envisioned two blonde children playing in the grass. Though he was merely eighteen he could see in his mind's eye an elderly couple holding hands rocking their chairs on a porch they'd owned most their lives. He knew he could never love another woman even if he dared to try. Arnold knew even after death that they'd been together for so long that he wanted to be laid beside her in eternal rest. Helga would always be Arnold's everything. As long as Arnold had a heart whether he willed it to or not it would always reserve itself for Helga solely. Helga's love was a feverous fire. Her love was intense devouring and consuming its pry in intensity and ferocity. Arnold's expression of love was more discrete but engulfed his pry ensnaring them in his warmth forever. Arnold's love was the flickering of a steady flame; intensely warm but still in a sense contained.

She tilted her head back laughing at something she had pondered to herself. Arnold wrapped his arms around her as her blue velvet dress soaked his bare chest. Their bodies were tightly entwined and as she shivered his mind traveled back to all his boyhood fantasies. He had never admitted it but always his fantasy consisted only of her. "What's going on in that pretty little blonde head of yours?" Arnold hissed in her neck pleased as his soon to be bride shook under his grasp. "Oh, it's stupid I can't say." Helga answered as she intertwined her hands with Arnold's own pair. "We 'ave Vays of making you talk!" Arnold jeered in a Russian spy accent. As he spoke he began to kiss from behind her ear down to her shoulder. She moaned softly trying to suppress it. Arnold spun her around to look into her eyes. Helga was always guarded but her eyes were the portal into her soul.

"You're so beautiful." Arnold sighed in amazement lost at sea within her ocean pool of eyes. Her eyes were a dark azure darker then the bluest Caribbean Sea. The portal to her soul through her eyes was deeper then the lowest depths of the ocean. She quivered under the glare of his emerald eyes that hardened in their analytical disposition. He wanted to forever remember her this way. Arnold wanted to remember her gorgeous blue velvet dress ruined by all the salt water. Remember her platinum waves cascading untidy across her face; remember as her cream skin flushed the shade of rose, as he removed the hair from her cheeks. She was ravishing, after all she'd been through in her life she deserved a good man like himself. She deserved a man who would cherish her and remind her of her beauty inside and out every day for all their days. He deserved someone to give his tender heart to, someone who deserved his love, someone like her.

"What were you thinking Helga?" Arnold prodded her holding her in a tight embrace. Their faces pressed nose to nose their eyes burrowing into each other's very being. "I was thinking how much I love you." She sobbed and Arnold could not comprehend why love would bring someone to misery. She cried with such heart ache it confused him. He didn't register what he was doing he crushed his lips on her plush pink pair starving for her happiness to return. Something inside of Arnold died every time she cried as if their existence was one in the same. If she bled he would surely bleed out as well.

He slid his tongue grazing her lips lightly asking permission to enter. She allowed him entrance and their tongues danced feverously synchronized in a passionate entanglement of an oral Ballet. Arnold tilted Helga back leaning her towards the sand as he began to spin her around twirling her. "What are you doing?" The laugh Arnold lived for returning. "I'm dancing on the beach with my beloved what does it look like I'm doing?" Arnold teased and Helga giggled which was a rarity. It was building to a climax any minute now he'd fall to his knee and insist on her hand in marriage.

"There's no music." Helga stated blatantly. She was always one to be blunt.

There's no music." Arnold agreed, "So we'll make our own music." He added.

"How do you propose we do that Arnold?" She responded sarcastically, but still permitted him

To twirl her across the sand their bare feet sinking in it. "She wore blue velvet. Bluer then velvet was the night. Softer then satin was the light from the stars." Helga sighed. "Bobby Vinton, I knew you were a man of fine tastes. I love this song." She sighed as Arnold continued to sway her gliding themselves across the shoreline. "She wore blue velvet. Bluer then velvet were her eyes. Warmer then May her tender sighs, love was ours." Arnold sang into her ear. They continued to dance their bodies pressing closer and closer in desire. "Take me now Casanova." She hissed. "If I take you can I keep you?" Arnold hissed back. Her eyes grew teary again. So, Arnold did as he was told. Right there under the stars in the freezing ocean waters he shared the burning flame of young lovers; right there with nothing but the crashing waves to accompany their sounds, Arnold shared his first time with the girl who had been his first for everything. She was his everything.

They both laid in the sand watching the sun rise in a comfortable silence. It was now or never. What better way to end a perfect evening with an even brighter promise for tomorrow? He took the little box out of his hands as Helga rose to her feet to scoop her heels from the sand. His mouth was dry in nervousness but the box was out and Helga was turning around. Now or never Arnold decided bravely.

"Helga, you were the first girl I ever met. I remember that day it was raining you wore a pink bow that matched your pants." She stared at Arnold in bewilderment speechless. "Then we got a little older and being the hard head you are; rather than admit your feelings, you did the classic childhood teasing. I ignored it but I knew even then something about you kept me around. I knew I felt something that I wasn't ready to feel so I neglected the emotion." She was still shocked into silence. "We got into Jr. High and you dropped the teasing. We dated other people but we both knew who we really wanted. Friends can't just be friends at some point they fall in love." Arnold paused still not on his knee but clasping her fingers. "You were the first girl I met, first girl I kissed, and my first date." They both laughed remembering Cecile and their first Valentine's Day. "You were my first steady girlfriend, my first time now, and my first for everything in life." Arnold dropped to his knee and Helga began to cry what Arnold assumed were tears of joy. "You are my first Helga G. Pataki. Now, I want you to be more then my first, be my last Helga. Will you be my everything? Will you be Mrs. Shortman? Helga will you Mary me?" Arnold spoke out every syllable amplifying the depths of his love to her.

"Never make anyone your everything. Once that person is gone you will be left with nothing." Tears cascaded down her cream complexion the water reflecting off the sun glistening. "Arnold Olga offered to pay for my education. I am going to university in order to get my writing and journalism degrees. I've wanted to tell you all night but everything felt so right; everything was just so perfect, I'm sorry I should have told you." She continued crying but Arnold felt an intense emotion boiling under the surface of his skin. He thought about it then finally put a name to his feeling. Helga would indeed always be his first in everything; for the first time, Arnold felt what it was to truly hate someone. Love and hate were powerful emotions only breaths away from one another.

Helga's eyes flitted momentarily on the ring that Arnold had saved up for all senior year. It had taken all his yearly pay checks to buy the ring. She merely gave a glance at the object Arnold had struggled to hard to obtain for her. "No, Arnold I will not marry you. Every story has an ending this is ours. I'm sorry for the tragedy I have always been in your otherwise peaceful life. Please, forgive me for all my torments. I am nothing but destruction and kayos it's who I am whether I want to be or not. I'm freeing you from the burden that is I. They say misery loves company; but Arnold I love you far more than that. I'm releasing you to search for a happier life a better more deserving bride. Arnold Phillip Shortman, You will be my last heart ache, I will never see you again so much as I live!" With that Helga turned and walked away. He knew he should chase after her but his heart was crushing inside its self. He was feeling his first heart break. He held the ring in his hands glaring at it focusing his rage on it. "And I can still see blue velvet through my tears." Arnold sang to himself spitefully as he allowed himself to cry his salty tears sinking into the ocean waters.