As they pulled up, they saw Olga's old car pulling out. Bob beeped his horn and the car pulled over to the side of the road, but she didn't get out. Arnold was the first one out though, and ran over to the car. He saw her crying and watched as she pointed to the passenger side door. Arnold walked around the car and got in.
"Are you okay?" he asked. She unclipped herself and climbed onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding onto him tight.
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry," she said, sobbing into his shoulder.
"What for?" he asked, a mixture of fear and anger already starting to build inside him.
"For keeping him in my life," she whispered. "I can't believe . . . he was trying to ruin it from the beginning."
"You mean . . . you don't love him? Your not leaving me for him or something?" he asked. Helga shook her head. Pulling back she told him everything that Torvald had told her. Then ended it with when he tried to kiss her.
"He tried to kiss you?" Arnold asked, anger flaring hot and dangerous in his chest. He literally saw red.
"Can you believe that?" Helga asked. "What a jerk. What an unbelievable, fucking jerk!"
She wiped her eyes again.
"He lies to me, tries to set us up to fail, then tried to kiss me!" she told him. "I just couldn't believe it, I slapped him. Then we got into an argument when I went to walk away."
She pushed back the sleeve on her arm. He'd grabbed her, obviously, to try to stop her, and had actually bruised her arm.
"He was so nice when we were together," she said. "But now . . . he's so different."
"Or maybe he was always a jerk, and you just didn't realize it?" Arnold suggested. "He used to love rubbing your guys dating in m face, remember?"
Helga thought back. Now that she had seen his true colors tonight, she could look back and see things through different eyes. He had always been more affectionate when Arnold was around. Other things flitted through her mind, of their times together.
"How could I have not seen it?" she asked, feeling stupid. "Oh, God, I lost my virginity to that prick!"
...
...
Bob saw him first, pulling his car out of the driveway, but seeing Helga's he stopped behind her car and got out, walking up to the car. He banged on the window.
Bob got out.
"Hey, you smash that window, you're paying for it!" he yelled out.
Torvald looked up and cursed. As Bob got closer he heard him yelling at Helga to get out of the car.
"Don't you yell at my daughter!" Bob yelled at him, running across the road. By the time he got there Torvald stepped back and raised his hands.
"I'm just trying to talk to your daughter, it's between us, Mr. Pataki," he said.
"Until she's eighteen and leaves home any business you have with her you have with me, too," Bob said threateningly. "I'm her father."
"And I have nothing to say to you!" he heard his daughter shout out of the window of the car. "Who the fuck lies about a family member dying, Torvald? Who the fuck?"
"Look, I couldn't think of another reason for being-"
"How about the truth?"
Bob heard the door to the car open.
"How about it, huh? How you knew I was planning something special for Arnold for his birthday, because you read my diary?" she demanded. "How you deliberately set it up, and made it look like we were being intimate in the hopes that Arnold would feel hurt and rejected and either cheat on me or break up with me? How about we start there?"
Bob knew when a man had been pushed far enough, and Helga had pushed him far enough. Bob saw the muscle in the arm flex, the tick in the jaw and then Arnold jump in between, block Torvald's open hand before it hit his daughters face, then pulled back his own fist and got Torvald square in the face.
Torvald dropped to the ground. Sirens could be heard in the distance. A few seconds later Torvald pulled himself back up. His nose was bleeding.
"You fucking shitface!" he yelled, and threw himself at Arnold. Bob rushed over, grabbing Helga's arm and pulling her away from the fray. His phone went off and he answerd it.
"Not a good time, Miriam," Bob grumbled into the phone.
"What's going on?" she demanded. "Can I hear sirens? Has there been an accident?"
"Later," Bob snapped, and hung up on her. He ignored her calls. The police pulled up and went in to break up the fight. The female officer came over to Bob and Helga to try and find out what had happened.
"The big guy tried to hit my girl, and her boyfriend jumped in to stop it from happening," Bob explained. "Then the big guy started on Arnold."
Torvald and Arnold were now seperated, Arnold looking to be in worse shape than Torvald. But not by much. Helga pulled away from her father and went to Arnold.
"Oh, Arnold, I'm so sorry," she said softly, stroking his cheek. She kissed his head.
"I'm okay," he said, giving her a weak smile. He looked over to where Torvald was getting pushed against a police car. "This isn't going to go down well with the University. He could lose his scholorship."
"It's not your problem," Helga told him. She looked that way and saw Torvald glaring her way. "And it's not mine anymore, either."
...
...
Helga didn't find out what happened to Torvald. She wasn't interested. She couldn't believe that he had actually been about to hit her. She had a good cry about it on her own. Her mother overheard her tears one day and came in.
"Some people are very good at hiding their real personalities, Helga," she said. "Some can do it for years. Serial killers have had whole lives, and no one has ever known until they were caught."
For the first time in a long time, Helga felt connected to her mother and cried on her shoulder. And for the first time in a long time Miriam finally felt connected to her daughter. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Her heart had been breaking. She had lost one daughter, and due to her past actions she had almost lost another.
It was the wake up call that she had needed. The day she lost Olga, she felt like she'd lost her world. She had completely forgotten her youngest daughter, in all her grief. Then she had taken off when Helga had needed her the most. When Bob had needed her most. Bob, she had discovered, for all his flaws, was a pretty amazing man. Not many would take their wife back after what she had done. But he did. And, as was his way, swept it under the rug, acting as though it never happened. He never brought it up in a fight, and there had been a few of those since she'd returned.
She was a very lucky woman.
...
...
"So that's what happened," Helga finished telling Phoebe and Gerald. Arnold sat with his arm around Helga's shoulder.
"Man, that is fucked up," Gerald said. "Who tempts fate lying about a persons death?"
"He always seemed so nice while you were dating him though," Phoebe said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I guess he was a good actor?" she said, not sounding sure. "Or maybe he just changed at college."
Arnold kept his mouth shut, not wanting to risk saying anything in case it upset her and started a fight.
"How's your Grandpa?" Phoebe asked.
"He's alright. Just been told to slow it down a bit," Arnold told them. "He's convinced the family curse is starting to take it's hold on him."
"Family curse?" Helga asked.
"Apparently all the men in my family die when they turn ninety one," he explained. Everyone was quiet for a moment, then Gerald snorted.
"Yeah right," he scoffed. "Your Grandpa will probably outlive all of us!"
...
...
Later that night, while snuggling up on the couch, Arnold finally remembered to ask her something.
"What was the surprise you were planning for my birthday?" he asked.
Helga turned pink, and said nothing.
"Helga?"
"Sex."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
They fell back into their comfortable silence.
...
...
Helga's birthday finally arrived. She could hardly believe it. What an end to the year that had been. In the morning she got a phone call. It was the best birthday gift she could have ever gotten. The smile on her face was huge. She told her parents, who were delighted, though a bit worried.
Their little girl all alone in Paris, France!
She went out again, and it was quiet, Just her parents, Arnold and his grandparents, Phoebe and Gerald. She opened her gifts: a lovely golden woman's watch from her parents, a crystal and pearl bracelet and earring set from Phoebe (with Gerald's name added to the card), some flowers from Arnold's grandparents, and a simple gold band with a solitaire diamond on it.
Which he gave to her in private that night while they were alone.
"Oh, Arnold, no," she said, trying to give it back. "I'm going to Paris."
"You got in?" he asked surprised. He felt sad.
"Yeah, I found out a couple of days ago," she said. "I was just waiting to tell you. I was thinking maybe tomorrow."
"Are you excited?" he asked. Holy crap! For the first time in his life, Helga wasn't going to be there. She'd always been there. Pre-K to Senior Year. What was life going to be like without her there?
"A little," she told him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and laid her head on his shoulder. "Also a little scared. Rhonda didn't get in. She didn't even get an interview. So I'll be going in alone."
"I'm really happy for you," he said.
"Really?" Helga asked. "Your not mad, or sad, or anything? Your not going to miss me, Football Head?"
"No, I knew this would be coming," he said, holding back tears. "So it's not like it's a surprise. I had time to prepare."
Helga pulled back.
"You know, Torvald yelled at me that he hoped I wouldn't get in," she confessed. "Told me I never should have tried."
"That's rich coming from someone who needed a girl three years younger than himself to tutor him so he could get into College," he snorted. Helga smiled sadly. "So you never found out what happened to him?"
Helga shook her head. "I saw his mom yesterday, though. That was awkward, but she didn't seem upset. Just asked how I was, and nodded when I told her. She told me to look after myself."
"Really? I tohught she would have hated you or something?" he said, surprised.
"Same. Guess she knew something about her son that I didn't," Helga said. "I always thought she maybe disapproved because of our age. But now I wonder . . ."
"Well, let's think less about that, and more about how we're going to celebrate!"
...
...