XV
Doing the man's job Part II
It didn't look good. It didn't look good at all. From what Helga could see, Gerald was aiming a gun at Arnold's head. Arnold was standing still with his hands raised above his head and Gerald's hands were shaking uncontrollably. She watched in horror at the scene and her legs were trembling of fear.
"Gerald, what the fuck are you doing?!", she could hear Arnold shouting at his now ex-friend.
A tear escaped from Gerald's right eye, his hands and whole body shaking in fear, but determined to keep his grip on the gun. "I'm sorry man! I have to do this! They told me to do this or else…".
Arnold was taken by surprise. "WHO the hell told you to do this?".
Gerald scoffed. "Damn it! You don't get it, do you, Arnold?! The same guy who sold me the shit we were smoking all this time! My buyer! This bitch over there-", he pointed a finger at Helga, "-threw the contents to the trash, so I couldn't sell it and I lost their money. They were totally pissed off because I had their money and a girl made me screw it up!".
Helga tightened her fists and her teeth were crushing against each other.
"She was only trying to protect both of us, you dumbass!", Arnold told Gerald.
"Either way, I have some money to recover. So, give me a thousand dollars or I'll blow someone's head off with this thing!", Gerald threatened, now pointing the gun at Arnold's temple.
"No, you give me your gun, and you kindly walk out of here before I call the police!", Helga shouted, approaching to Gerald and Arnold, calm and slowly, in the suit.
Gerald blinked for a few seconds, before pointing the gun at her. "I don't think so…".
There was a shot coming from the gun, a bullet making its trajectory at Helga, Arnold, in slow motion trying uselessly to stop all of it, instead throwing himself at Gerald and knocking him down to the floor. There was a fight over them, Arnold trying to get the gun off from Gerald's hands, until a scream of pain were heard. They both shot their heads to watch in mild horror at Helga clutching and taking a bleeding leg with her arms, pressing the wound. A sudden fit of rage overtook Arnold as he looked at Gerald through gritted teeth.
Before Gerald could make a word to say anything, Arnold took the gun from his hands, and started punching his face with all the strength he had. Gerald received blow after blow until he fell into unconsciousness. "A deal is a deal, I suppose…", Arnold said as he grabbed Gerald through the collar of his shirt and dropped him. He rushed over to Helga to see the damage. "Are you OK?". But she pushed him, instead.
"Call the ambulance, NOW!", she bellowed, like she was going into labor.
Instead, he called the police and asked for the ambulance. She shot him a glare, before collapsing and fainting. "HELGA!", he shouted as he rushed to her side again.
The police came running through the opened door, followed by an ambulance. A policeman took Arnold's information while a doctor attended Helga's wound. Another policeman arrested Gerald on the spot.
"Please, don't!", Arnold begged.
"Sir, this man shot your girlfriend, and threatened both your lives, are you implying I should let him go?", the policeman asked.
Arnold shook his head. "I know. But he was forced to do it".
"Arnold, right?", came the other policeman. "Look, son, we can ask him questions about it, but there's nothing else than that for now. We have to take him into custody. We can deal with the real culprit later".
"I just…", Arnold cried. "I just wanted him to go into rehab. I-I was just going to talk to him about it! I didn't know he was going to come here holding a gun!". Tears fell from his eyes.
"Son, I know you're in shock but you should be worried about your girlfriend more. Even I would do it, she's in a man's suit for fuck sakes!".
Arnold shot him a weird look before he looked at Helga dressed in his Grandpa's suit being dropped carefully inside the ambulance.
He was sitting at a bench in the hospital, outside Helga's room, his hands over his head, letting tears fall free. He was all alone, his now ex-best friend since they were 3 years old was in jail, his girlfriend was injured, and no one was coming because no one knew anything about it. He tried contacting Helga's parents, but without any results. He tried even contacting Phoebe, but Helga's phone was lost during the time the medics were cutting through the suit to clean the wounds, and he couldn't recover the number. Arnold sighed sadly, as he cleaned his tears with a kleenex.
He would have to wait until the doctor would tell him the diagnostics, and he would have to start looking himself for boarders tomorrow, or else, he would lose the house because of lack of payment.
He started thinking about the whole situation. Maybe it was better if he sold the house and move with her to Virginia, and apply for a career himself. He was tired of Hillwood, he was always having to solve problems other people had, and he was tired of the gang whom he was friends with his whole life, as they posed as a threat to his beloved Helga. But would Helga accept selling the house and move? And would he be OK with it? He always pictured having a family of his own, living at the boarding house, and sharing it. But then again, he thought about the possibility. It was certain his Grandpa had bad taste in sharing his house with creeps. And now he had a reputation to rebuild because of Kokoshka. What he never thought was that someone was just winning and expecting him to sell Sunset Arms at any moment.
Note: Hey! I know this chapter is a bit short. Sorry, looks like I practically forgot about the story. It's just, I didn't have the inspiration to come up with some new fresh ideas. I was searching for what to put here trying not to screw up and take them out of the damn boarding house some day!