Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story.
They all belong to their rightful owner: Craig Bartlett.
Title: "Leave the lights on"
In the last chapter: After catching Miles crying over a picture of Stella, Helga got nightmares about their family literally crumbling in front of her eyes. She decided it was time to see her old shrink Dr. Bliss again. While she talked to her, Arnold went to confront his dad about what he had seen that night, but the conversation ended up getting the blonde boy more confused than before when Miles didn't deny being jealous of Miriam's process.
Neither one of the blondes were too keen on talking about their afternoon and the tension soon turned into a sexual one. Unfortunately, Miles and Miriam decided to come home at that point and the blondes realized that this was a close call too many. In order not to get busted, they decided to put their feelings on hold for a while. But that's hard when you live under the same roof.
Author's 1st note: This one took forever! Why? Because damn exams that's why! . But I only have one left and that one is in two weeks… I also have video deadlines though so I can't really promise that the next chapter will be written faster than this one. My apologies :( But I hope you all enjoy this one!
[Please notify me if you notice any grammar mistakes. This isn't my first language, so there's bound to be mistakes.]
Chapter 29: "Kiss on his bruise"
Arnold tapped his pencil on his notebook a couple of times, his chin resting in the palm of his hand. I can't focus. He decided and looked out of his window at the sky. He noticed some motion on the ground though and leaned forward to see what it was. Helga was out in the garden, wearing her pink headphones and her usual gym-clothes and was currently stretching. She worked out at least once a week if not more, Arnold noticed a long time ago and it had never bothered him… until now when all he could do was watch.
Arnold shook his head and tried to get back to his assignment, but he couldn't tear his eyes off Helga. She leaned forward and let her hands touch the ground before she moved them back and wrapped her hands around her ankles.
Oh, my God. Was all Arnold could think and stood up from his desk. He paced around his room for a bit, pulling on his collar. He was starting to feel warm, but he couldn't do much about it. I can't focus like this no matter what though… He thought and looked at his closet. He took one last look at Helga who was currently doing a split and went to change his clothes.
While Arnold was changing his clothes, Helga leaned across her left leg and held her foot. How long has it been…? A week maybe? She wondered and looked over her shoulder towards the window leading to Arnold's room. Huh. I thought he was doing his English assignment. She wondered when she saw he wasn't sitting there anymore. She had personally finished her English assignment yesterday with little trouble since it was a poetry assignment. She knew Arnold had trouble with poetry and wanted to offer her help, but knowing the nature of their past study sessions, she had figured it would be tempting fate.
Helga flinched when she heard the door behind her open and turned her torso around to look who it was. "Arnold?" she questioned in surprise when she recognized his gym clothes. "Are you… joining me?"
Arnold had joined Helga in her workouts before, but they had almost always ended in a different kind of workout. Surely he wasn't planning something…? No, they had agreed to stay away from each other for now since Miriam had almost busted them having sex on the couch. It hadn't been easy to stay away, especially since they lived in the same house, but it was doable. Not if he decided to start sweating right next to her though.
"Uh, no. I, um… just wanted to go for a run actually." Arnold explained meekly.
Helga watched him as he walked past her. "You really should stretch first, you know." She pointed out and frowned at her own words. Do I want him to stay?! Oh, for crying out loud…
Arnold seemed unsure, but then walked back. He knew Helga was right and he hadn't even done something as simple as running lately. Helga had been his source of workouts for a long time so he had a feeling he was out of shape now. Stretching was probably a good idea.
Helga's eyes followed Arnold as he put one hand to his hip and bend the other arm over his head, stretching his body to the side until he looked like a P. She turned around, putting her knees on the ground and leaning back until her shins and back were laying horizontally on the soft grass. Arnold's eyes widened. He had forgotten how flexible she was.
No, I hadn't. He admitted to himself and leaned to the other side. Stretching right next to her was a bad idea. He declared to himself before sitting down, connecting his legs and trying to lean forward to touch his feet.
Helga snickered. "You can't get any further than that?"
Arnold frowned. "I'm out of shape."
"I'll say." Helga agreed and crawled towards him. His entire body froze as she sat down behind him and started pushing on his back. "Come on!"
Arnold forced his eyes straight-forward and tried reaching his feet again. Helga was pushing him gently at first, but she clearly got frustrated with how little he was progressing so she put some more force into it. He groaned in pain as he reached for his feet, urging himself to touch them so she would let go. It was painful being so close to her and not because of the force she was using.
"Boy, outta shape is right!" Helga declared before sitting up on her knees and putting more of her weight on his back. He clenched his teeth and finally reached his toes. "Finally - - " the blonde girl said in triumph before her palms slipped on the sweaty shoulders and her chest plumbed against his back. Both blondes stayed perfectly still, unconsciously enjoying the closest moment they'd had for what felt like forever.
Arnold was staring at his legs, the stinging pain in his thighs forgotten and replaced with the pleasure from feeling Helga's body against his own. He closed his eyes and let his other senses take over his body. He could feel her hot body on his back, feel the moisture from her workout and smell her vanilla-coated pearls of sweat. All he wanted to do was turn around and kiss her.
Arnold turned to look at Helga over his shoulder. His breath was heavy and so was hers. She had her mouth securely closed to hide it, but he could feel her chest heaving. He almost gave into temptation before she leaned back and looked away.
"You can probably start running now." Helga lied. He hadn't stretched nearly enough, but if he didn't leave soon she'd end up giving him a stretch. He nodded in agreement and stood up. He lifted his arms for a moment, shaking them before he took off down the street, leaving Helga to look at him.
Stop it. Arnold told the images of Helga flashing in his mind. He told himself that they had agreed to stay apart, at least for a while, and he had to honor that commitment. It hadn't even been that long yet. He had to get these images out of his head. The image of Helga's long, shiny, blonde hair, her smoldering blue eyes and her luscious lips. Her enticing hips, her soft chest and those longs legs that just went on forever.
Arnold shook his head, his face flushing with shame before he turned his jog into a run as if he could escape his lustful thoughts. I'm such a basket case!
He's clearly avoiding me. Helga thought as she made some final stretches. Arnold had come home about ten minutes ago, declaring he was going to take a shower before dinner. That was all he had said to her before disappearing into the house. I guess I can't blame him after what happened earlier… Well, almost happened. She thought and felt her body heat up at the memory of his back against her chest. I'm such a huge pervert for getting off on something that simple.
Helga stood up, stretched her arms and turned off the music in her headphones. She took a quick look at the time, deciding Arnold was out of the shower by now. He was a quick bather and it wasn't like he had worked out that much. Though he did seem very out of breath once he came home and she couldn't help but wonder if he had been running rather than jogging.
Swinging her arms back and forth, Helga went back inside the house and jogged up the stairs. She considered knocking on the bathroom door first, but found it unlocked so she simply grabbed the handle and walked inside. The thing her eyes were met with caused her to do a mental backflip. Her calculations had been wrong. Oh, so very wrong. Arnold was standing in the middle of the bathroom, having just wrapped a towel around his hips and was looking at her with wide green eyes. His wet hair was dripping down on his shoulders and the water streamed down his chest and down to the towel that was hiding what she wanted to see the most.
"Uh… sorry… you forgot to lock the door." Helga said as casually as she could, but her face betrayed her.
"Oh…" Arnold said, his face flushing red as well, but Helga wasn't sure whether it was due to the heat in the bathroom or her. "Sorry."
"I'll, uh… wait outside." Helga declared before she closed the door behind her. She put her back against it and slid down until she was sitting. Critical hit. She thought and hid her blush from the world by putting her hands on her face. Straight out of the shower combo attack…
One would have to be blind in order not to notice that the blue and green eyes never met once during dinner. Miriam and Miles looked awkwardly between each other, silently asking the other if they knew what was wrong with their children. Miles took his fork and poked gently at Arnold's hand and the blonde boy flinched as he looked up from his plate, which caused Helga to look at him in confusion and then at their parents.
"Did… something in happen in school?" Miles asked casually. The blonde teenagers looked at him in confusion before shaking their heads. "Then why the long faces?"
Arnold and Helga quickly looked at each other before looking away. They were both silent for a while before Helga decided she had to be the one to come up with a lie. "We're just nervous about the anatomy test coming up." She explained and frowned. "So I guess it was about school after all."
"Why are you nervous about the anatomy test, Helga?" Miriam asked. "You've known every bone and muscle in the body for years."
"Oh, well… it's just been a long time since I've had an actual test and… I may need to study the locomotion again." Helga explained and drank from her glass, hoping her mother and stepfather would catch the hint.
Arnold's eyes widened at the reminder. He had forgotten all about it and hadn't studied at all. Anatomy wasn't his strongest subject and he gulped loudly. Great. He thought. Now I am nervous about the test.
"Well, why don't you study together like you usually do?" Miles suggested. "The best way to learn is to teach others and Arnold will gain from it as well. What do you say, Helga?"
"Oh, I, well, um - - "
"I don't think that's a good idea." Arnold interfered, which caused his family to look at him in confusion. "I mean… isn't it cheating to get someone like Helga to help me?"
Miles snickered in disbelief. "It's not cheating unless she tells you the answers at the actual test."
"But I still - - "
"When you've finished your dinner, you can go up to your room and have a study session." Miles decided and went back to his dinner, clearly stating that any argument would be moot at this point.
Arnold looked nervously at Helga who was scowling at her dinner plate. He's avoiding me. Definitely.
After dinner had finished, Helga and Arnold were walking up the stairs together when Arnold declared he really thought it was a bad idea to study together. Helga insisted they could study without problems, but he maintained it was a bad idea and walked into his room, closing the door behind him. Helga stood back, angry and confused before she went into her own room and slammed the door so hard that Arnold flinched from inside his own room.
That day was the start of a new chapter in the blonde's lives. The two teenagers who were used to spend almost every waking moment together, started to only see each other at school. Despite them being seated next to each other, they only talked when Mrs. Oah decided it was time to have some couples studying. On their way home, they were either silent or went their separate ways. They made plans with other friends and soon, their walks home together were cut out of their lives completely.
Two weeks after their agreement had started, Helga was sitting in her room and writing in one of her poetry books. She was attempting it at least, but she realized that her muse was gone. She would never admit it to anyone, but her latest poems were inspired by her blonde-haired angel and now that he was gone so was her passion for writing.
This is ridiculous. Helga stated as she curled a piece of paper and threw it at the tower of paper balls she'd been creating the last hour. We weren't supposed to stay away from each other 24/7… Why did it become like this? She wondered and frowned at her own reflection in the mirror. Fuck it. I'm done with this.
Helga stood up from her bed, walked out of her room and knocked on Arnold's door. "Football Head, we need to talk." She said in a loud voice, but not so loud she expected their parents to hear them. She waited obediently for him to open the door, but when he did, she walked right past him before being invited in.
Arnold closed the door behind him, eyeing Helga in confusion. There was a part of him that wanted to put on a t-shirt, but something in her eyes told him she didn't have the patience for that. "What's going on? I thought we agreed to stay away from each other."
"No, what we agreed was to put our feelings aside. There's a difference between that and completely ignoring everything that's happened so far." Helga insisted and crossed her arms.
Arnold made a low sigh and looked away, leaning against his door. He looked back at her tentatively. "I just thought this way would be easier."
"For who?"
"For the both of us! Helga, whenever I look at you I… I think of… everything that's happened so far." He explained and closed his eyes, denying himself seeing Helga's reaction to his confession.
Helga looked at him in silence for a moment before she let her arms fall down. "I do too, Arnold, but… I'd still like to at least be friends." She insisted stubbornly, hoping he could hear how much she was hoping for him to understand.
Arnold opened his eyes, his eyebrows knitting together as he looked at her. "Why…" he mumbled. "W-Why are you saying it like that?"
Helga looked at him in disbelief. "Oh, I don't know." She said sarcastically. "Maybe because you've been avoiding me for the last two weeks."
"I have not!"
"The hell you haven't! This is the first time I've talked to, never mind looking at you this week!"
"Well… I'm not avoiding you any more than you're avoiding me." Arnold insisted, but the deafening laugh Helga made caused him to frown again. "What are you laughing at?"
"You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking."
"What?"
"You are the one who won't even study with me ."
"Yes, but - - "
"You are the one who started making excuses after school when we were supposed to go home together."
"I know - - "
"And you are the one who locks himself in his room the first thing when he comes home!"
"You do that too!"
"Yes! Since you started doing it! Didn't you hear our parents? Even they can see something is wrong!"
"Of course something is wrong!" Arnold yelled. "The relationship we had was based on our feelings, but we shoved them aside like they meant nothing so of course people are gonna be able to see that!"
"Wait. Hold on. Shoved aside? Is that how you see it?"
"How else am I supposed to see it, Helga? I love you, but I'm ignoring that because…" Arnold started, but his own words caught him off guard. He tried to finish his sentence, but the lump in his throat stopped him.
"Because what? You know why we're doing this, right?" Helga asked with a pair of eyes that told Arnold that she most definitely remembered.
"Because we were almost caught." Arnold replied, but that wasn't the answer Helga had expected nor hoped for.
The blonde girl crossed her arms again. "No… because it's what's best for our parents." She corrected and Arnold rolled his eyes. "Why are you doing that?"
"Because I don't believe for one second that your biggest concern is our parents all of a sudden."
"All of a - - " Helga started angrily, but took a deep breath to calm herself down. "What do you mean all of a sudden? I don't know if you've noticed, but Miriam's breath have been suspiciously minty lately."
"Miriam's drinking has nothing to do with the two of us." Arnold insisted. "She's drinking because of my dad."
"Oh, right." Helga said dramatically. "Your dad who is not actually in love with my mom, but decided to marry her to give you a mother."
Arnold felt his eyes stinging at this point. How did the conversation turn out like this? "It's not like your mother is any better! As if she actually loves my dad!"
"What?!"
"Let's be honest, Helga. She made the biggest mistake of her life by marrying Bob. Who says her choice in second husband was anything else but her trying to redeem her mistake?"
"Hey!" Helga shouted and pointed warningly at Arnold. "My mom made a mistake. A big one, but she has been trying so hard to get on with her life! She quit drinking, Arnold! She gave up her addiction. Let's be honest here, it's not like Miles has done much progress since your mother died!"
"And yet it's Miriam who has gone straight back to drinking!" Arnold shouted back and both blondes flinched at his words. He stared at the blonde girl in front of him whose eyes were filled with different emotions he couldn't decipher. Before he could apologize, she walked closer to him until she was towering over him.
"Shut your mouth, Shortman or I swear, I'll break that unnaturally small body of yours!" she threatened. There was no actual violence intended in her words, Arnold could hear that. It was more of an insult than a threat and it worked.
"You can't say that anymore!" Arnold hissed and put his arms out, gesturing to his body. Helga looked down his torso and noticed his naked chest for the first time. Since his first jog, the jogs had become a daily routine and he had started working out more though she didn't know why. It was his secret way of getting Helga out of his mind and processing his frustration into a workout until he was so tired, he couldn't think about anything. And the intense workouts were showing. The muscles had more of a tone to them and Helga saw them clearly; being someone who had seen him naked so many times before.
Helga shut her eyes and turned her head away, ashamed of how much she wanted him even while she was furious with him. "Screw you, Shortman." She said before walking past him and out of the door, shutting it forcefully.
Arnold stayed in his room, looked at himself in the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair. He grabbed some tuffs and pulled at them in frustration. He shut his eyes tightly and shook in anger, but he wasn't sure whom he was most angry with; himself or Helga.
Arnold and Helga's argument started an avalanche of bickering that sometimes turned into actual fights. It didn't matter to them where they were. Everything about the other blonde annoyed them and their classmates were soon questioning what was going on.
"What's the deal, man?" Sid asked Arnold when they were sitting in the cafeteria. He smirked. "Did Helga walk in on you and your girlfriend or something?"
Arnold sighed in annoyance. "Shut up, Sid." He told him before he looked in Helga's direction. She was sitting with the girls which had become a habit since she and Arnold had stopped their relationship. She was stabbing her fork angrily into her foot, practically assaulting the overcooked pasta before putting it in her mouth. She noticed his eyes on her and without looking at him, she sent him a rude gesture. Arnold growled in annoyance.
"Whoa, you two really are pissed at each other." Harold stated when he saw Helga's gesture and looked back at Arnold. "Seriously. What the hell happened?"
"Nothing." Arnold insisted and took a bite his sandwich, ignoring Gerald's worried stare. The blonde boy had figured that not telling Gerald about his and Helga's plans of stopping their relationship would make it seem less real so he was in the dark like the rest of the boys. "Helga's just being… annoying."
"Yeah, tell me something new." Sid joked. "But you were always such great friends! Well, maybe not in the beginning, but the way you are now are worse than the beginning. Something must have happened?"
"Nothing happened!" Arnold shouted in frustration, earning the attention of everyone in the cafeteria, including Helga and the girls at the table nearby. He looked awkwardly at Helga who scowled at him.
"Arnold won't tell you anything?" Nadine asked to which the boys shook their heads. "Helga won't tell us either."
"You're both lying." Harold said. "You're fighting all the time. Why?"
"Hey," Helga said with anything but a low voice. "it's not my fault that Arnold is so full of shit that people must mistake him for a portaloo."
While some boys couldn't help but laugh at Helga's words, most of her classmates were looking at her with either shock or disgust. Arnold was a mix of both, but he also started smirking right after. "You know, Helga." He said and the blonde girl looked at him superiorly. "There's a special place in Hell reserved for people like you."
Their peers made a sound of excitement. "Burn." Rhonda whispered in Helga's ear, obviously trying to rile the girl up. This was the most exciting thing that had happened the whole week.
Helga kept smirking though. "Good to know. I hate standing in line." She answered casually, seemingly unaffected by Arnold's words.
"How would you know? You always sneak in front of everyone else to get the best seats."
"Didn't seem to bother you when we were watching the new Evil Twin movie." Helga pointed out.
The blonde had him there. Arnold had been dying to see the newest Evil Twin movie just before they ended their relationship and Helga had been able to get some good seats for them by pretending to be the elder sister of a couple of very shy younger girls who were standing as the first in the line. The girls had played along because Helga had sent them a warning scowl. Arnold didn't like Helga's method, but he was thankful for getting the best seats in the Kiska.
Arnold shook his head. "Shut up, Helga."
"Ooh, big words from such a small person." Helga countered. "Don't start thinking you can get cocky just because you've got abs all of a sudden."
That caught Arnold's attention. She's noticed? He wondered and felt a pang of pride hit him, but he shook it off. He was still in what felt like a permanent state of anger at Helga. "Cocky? Look who's talking."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"If anyone around here is cocky, it's you." Arnold said and moved himself in his chair to look at her properly.
"How am I cocky?"
"How are you not?"
"You don't even know how to argue properly, do you?" Helga asked and stood up. "You are probably the biggest pansy I've ever met!"
"You are the most definitely the rudest girl I've ever met!" Arnold said and stood up as well. "What is with your attitude?!"
"That's the same thing I said when she first got here." Rhonda whispered at the other girls.
Helga stomped towards Arnold. "My attitude tells you that I go my own way, Arnoldo. I think for myself. Ever tried that? Ever tried thinking outside that wide head of yours?" she asked and knocked on his forehead with the last three syllables in her sentence.
Arnold swatted Helga's hand away despite feeling his heart pick up its beat from her touch. "No, your attitude says that you think you can do whatever you want. You can't always have it your way, Helga." He said and he wasn't sure whether he meant to refer to their current situation or not.
Helga hummed before looking at the table the boys were sitting at. "Sorry, Stinky." She said before grabbing the lemon pudding from him and smashing it against Arnold's face. The entire cafeteria erupted in a huge gasp as she smeared it all over his face and he was too shocked to move before she was done.
"My lemon puddin'!" Stinky cried in despair. "What a waste of lemon puddin'…"
"Oh, don't say that, Stinky." Helga said as she whipped the last pudding at Arnold's face and looked at Stinky. "I'd say the sacrifice of your pudding proved my point. I can do whatever I want."
"You know what, Helga? You're right." Arnold said with a certain kind of smile on his face no one had seen him making before. He took his own juice box from his table and pointed the straw at Helga. "I should try thinking out of the box once in a while."
And with those words Arnold tightened his hold on the box and the juice spilled all over Helga. She stood perfectly still, her mouth open in shock and her eyes closed to avoid getting the juice in her eyes. Once she felt the juice stop falling on her, she opened her eyes and spit some juice out of her mouth. With a smirk, she grabbed at the loose tank top she was wearing over her other tank top and pulled it off. She noticed Arnold being more than a little distracted at the sudden show of skin and that made her enjoy her next action all the more. She lifted the top over his head and wringed it, the juice spilling out from it and dripping down his hair and face.
Arnold spit both juice and lemon pudding out of his mouth. "Thanks, Helga. Most of the pudding is gone now."
"You're welcome… puddin'." Helga said with artificial fondness in her voice.
"Ok, guys." Gerald interfered. "It's time to stop now, ok? Just go and get washed, ok?" he practically pleaded.
"Time to stop?" Helga repeated and shook her head. "This is just getting started."
"Food fight!" a random student shouted just before Arnold and Helga both went to grab whatever food they could grab on the nearest table. It took about five seconds before the whole cafeteria was filled with students joining the food fight the blondes had started and were still participating in.
While Arnold was throwing pasta at Helga, she went to grab his shoulders to hold him still and smear humus on his face. Unfortunately they both slipped at the juice-coated floor and landed with Arnold on top of Helga. She growled at him angrily and he did the same thing until he noticed her making a sudden moan. He realized why when he noticed that her legs were around his and he had to hold his own grunt back.
Helga grabbed Arnold by his shoulders and turned them around, holding him down as she smeared the humus at his shirt with a satisfied grin on her face. He moved his hips, trying to get her off by doing so, but all he succeeded in was making them both hiss in their attempt at holding back their moans. They looked at each other, their faces showing the other how angry, confused and hurt they both were.
"Stop it!" Phoebe pleaded and grabbed Helga by her arm to pull her up. Helga watched as Gerald helped him stand up and that small moment they'd had that had seemed so peaceful was gone. They were scowling at each other while their friends led them out of the cafeteria, successfully dodging the food flying around their heads. Once they were outside, the blondes wrestled out of their friends' grips. "What's going on?"
"What's going on, Phoebe, is that Arnold - - "
"Sure, blame it all on me!"
"That's because you make it so easy to blame you!"
"Shut up!" Gerald shouted loudly and caught the attention of both blondes who looked at him. "Man, it's a good thing that it's only Phoebe and I who know what's going on or else you two would just have busted your secret to the whole school!"
Arnold looked at Gerald in deep confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Criminy!" Helga said and Arnold scowled at her. "Everything just goes over your head, doesn't it? You should consider a career as a limbo dancer!"
"Enough!" Phoebe interjected and Helga looked at her with a sour expression, looked back at Arnold and reluctantly kept quiet. "You know… I wasn't sure what was going on at first and you didn't want to tell me, Helga, but… now it's obvious."
The blondes looked at each other, wondering if their friends had truly figured it out. "You stopped having sex." The couple said in unison and the blondes stared at them in awe.
"How did you - - "
"It's written all over your faces." Gerald explained. "To us at least." He quickly added to calm the panicked blondes. "I don't know why you two suddenly stopped having sex, but whatever it is you're trying to accomplish then it isn't working. First you stopped talking and now you're fighting. I think the only reason you two got into an actual brawl was to have an excuse to touch each other."
The blondes snorted with disgusted expressions on their faces, but when they looked at each other, they looked away instantly in shame. "That's what I thought too…" Phoebe said with a sigh. "I don't want to pry, Helga, but you two need to figure out how to fix this. Because you two fighting isn't helping you or your parents."
The blondes looked at each other again for the first time without anger in their eyes.
Gerald sighed. "You need to get washed up." He said and waved at them. "Go to the restrooms before anyone sees you. We'll make an excuse for you if Mrs. Oah asks about you."
The blondes obeyed silently and walked next to each other towards the nearest washroom. They went inside meekly and stood in there for a moment without doing much. It was Arnold who was the first to move and he grabbed some paper towels. He offered them to Helga and she took them before walking to the mirror and looking at herself. She was a complete mess and it would have been funny to her if it wasn't because she could also see bruises on her skin.
Helga frowned. "You really did a number on me." She said and moved her arm so he could see the growing bruise on her elbow. He put his hand on his head and moved some hair out of the way, showing a clear bump on his head and a small stream of blood trickling down. "This isn't a competition." Helga muttered and looked back in the mirror as she started wiping herself clean.
"If it was, I wouldn't want to win it." Arnold said and put a paper towel on his head and instantly hissed at the pain. He could see Helga looking at him in the mirror before she moved towards him. She swatted his hand away and for a moment he thought she would continue the fight, but she grabbed his paper towel and started dabbing it gently on his head.
Helga had such a focused look on her face that Arnold couldn't help but smile. He swatted some food away from her shoulder and grabbed a paper towel as well to return the favor. Helga wasn't as dirty as he was though so he was finished quickly. He stared at her cream-colored neck for a moment before leaning forward and kissing it.
Helga moaned instantly, the paper towel falling from her hand. She almost put her hand on his head to encourage him, but forced herself to stop back instead and hold her hands defensively around her. "Gerald's right." She said matter-of-factly, putting her hand on the place Arnold had kissed. "This isn't working."
Arnold shook his head in agreement. "We're fighting all the time and our parents are worried. That wasn't what was supposed to happen."
"I think… I think we have to go back to… avoiding each other." Helga suggested painfully. "It's better than fighting, right?"
Arnold wasn't sure if he agreed. An angry Helga was better than no Helga, but he nodded anyhow. They stayed quiet as the blonde girl moved closer to him, lifting her hand to touch him, but hesitating for a second. She finally put it on his shoulder and he watched their reflection as she moved to place a kiss on his bruise. It felt good, gratifying almost, but it didn't heal his heart.
Author's 2nd note: Don't know what to say except… those of you who have read Blackmail Toy know I'm a fan of food fights… eheh xD