Alright! Trying to stay motivated with this one. Same warnings apply. Also, the numbers in the story are random so please don't call or text them. I accept no responsibility for that.

I don't know how long I've been here, hand moving back and forth frantically. How many pages is it now? Three? Four?

"That'll be my bus Arnoldo." I saw the white and silver vehicle in question approaching all the way down the street we were on. "I guess I'll see you around?"

The way she'd asked (hopeful? Or maybe that was just me) had made my stomach clench the way it only does on gym days after crunches.

"I guess that's up to you now, isn't it?" I smiled and shook my cell back and forth as a hint.

It pulled up and she laughed. "Since when are you so... mouthy?"

"You might find out. But like I said, up to you... bye, Helga."

I watched her climb onto the bus, the doors cutting off her laughter. She took her seat towards the back, against a window closest to where I stood and I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't a random choice.

She was still smiling when the bus pulled off.

I drag my pencil- up, down, up, down- to form her cupid's bow, sweeping a line beneath it to shape her full lower lip, stretched by a smile. Helga has the sort of wide mouth (like that actress, Julia something or other) that just gives you ideas. Really, really vivid ones. Ones that finally distract me from my sketching frenzy and draw attention to a fresh hard on.

Sighing, I unzip my jeans and give into it. No one's home, and it's been a while anyway. Not since...

"Fuck that." I shake the thought away immediately. Focus on the madness of the day and the havock it's wreaking on me. I picture Helga's lips wrapping around a lollipop-

Squeeze the base.

Her tongue dancing along a popscicle-

Rub the head against my palm.

And those blue eyes looking up at me while she swallows me and sucks as hard as she looks like she's capable of. I wonder if she's done that with a guy. Idiot. Of course she has, just look at her. So fucking pretty. She'd wrap those model-long legs around a man and end him. Grind that clean shaven, pink pussy of hers against him... againt me... And-

"Fuuuck."

I'm groaning and tightening the fist I have around myself. Shit. I came alot more than I thought I would, and the feel of it on my own stomach is kinda adolescent. And gross. Tissues, tissues...

"Yo!" I hear a muffled voice and knock at my door. Gerald. Figures he'd interupt my sleep and my... Uh.. Alone time... All in one day. I clean myself up and let him in. I feel boneless and tired now, or as he calls it, 'the itis'. The face he gives me when he walks in is full of amusement.

"Let's go. Lee got pizza. I got the cans. Off your ass Arnold."

"Why are you always making me get up?"

"Why are you always sitting?"

I sigh and follow Gerald to the living room where Lee is sitting cross legged on the ground, a slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth and an Xbox controller in both hands. COD. "Mmf!" He screams through the dough and fist pumps the air like a maniac while people blow up onscreen.

"Delivery?"

"No Arnold, DiGiorno." My best friend rolls his eyes. "Course it's delivery. Times like these call for UpsliceDown. Sausage for us and ricotta for the wierdo."

"Because I'm gonna score with Samantha the veg with meat-breath," he declares sarcastically after damn near swalloing his piece whole. "She finally said yes to chilling with me."

"Ooho, like Netflix and chill?"

"You chill. I'm not about to creep her out by trying to jump her while disney plays in the background."

"Disney?" I laugh while grabbing a slice and sitting on our faithful red couch. A lot of- ahem- milestones have been reached on this bad boy.

"She likes Disney movies. Shut up. It's adorable."

Gerald rolls his eyes. "Man, you got it bad and haven't even had it yet."

"Are we or are we not convening to discuss today's current events?"

Lee sends one of his know-it-all, shit-eating grins my way and I sigh. It's the kind of look that sees right through you and reminds you that you can't lie.

"So lemme get this straight." Gerald tosses a can of beer my way. I'm not much of a drinker but one or two is alright from time to time, I guess. I can just run it off tomorrow. My best friend continues, "You went in to class and instead of an old man with enough flaps to be the bird... It was Helga?"

"... Yeah."

"Helga. Like, beat you up, growl at you, move it football head, Helga?"

"Yes."

"Helga G. Pataki, Helga? Like you're positive?"

"Oh he's positive." Lee snorted. "You should've seen his face Gerald. Priceless."

"So you mean to tell me you two saw Helga's p-"

I glare at him, something that doesn't happen often between us, so he stops and shrugs. "I was gonna say her Pataki."

Lee and Gerald bump knuckles and laugh so hard that I can't help but chuckle. Must be the beer doing it's job.

"Alright, alright. Yeah. We saw, well, everything."

"What's her rank Lee?" Gerald asks as he hands the goon a can.

Lee cracks the tab open and I follow suit with can number two. I'm gonna need it to survive them.

"Fiiiine."

"How fine?"

"Ticket on the dash fine, bro. Just look at Romeo's face over there. It's exactly how he looked earlier!"

He isn't wrong. I can feel a flush creep up my neck as I remember every bit of skin I saw all over again. She was never ugly (at least not to me) but she grew up to be the kind of girl you stare at but never have the balls to talk to. Beautiful.

"So Arnold, how'd it go? You did bring Juliette back home with you right?"

Gerald turns his head so fast that I'm surprised it doesn't fall off. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, for coffee. What kind of fantasy porn are you living in Lee?"

"Any kind I want once they develop better engines to fuck around with." Lee corrects us. Video game jargon.

"By the way, did Arnold ever tell you that they were Romeo and Juliette? She kissed him for like an hour."

I stare at Gerald blankly, the warm weight of the beer sitting in my stomach and clouding my head. I'm not a lightweight but I'm not big on being wasted all day, college experience be damned. "Shit... I forgot all about that."

"I bet. You always were less wierded out by her than the rest of us."

It's true, wierdly (ha) enough. Helga was aggravating as all hell when we were kids, but there were times where I can remember her not being like that at all. Something about her just seemed nicer than she let on. And she had confessed at one point to... Loving me, but...

"It's been years. This is ridiculous. She won't want to talk anyway." I shake my head at no one. Beer number three (when did that happen?) is definitely talking through me now.

"Talk to-"

"You gave her your number?" Lee supplies quickly. He's always been smart, that Julian.

Gerald grins. "Okay then lover boy! How'd that go down."

This time I'm grinning like a mad man. "Snatched her phone and put it into her contacts."

"Damn! You're a bold kid Arnold. A bold, bold kid."

I feel a vibration in my left pocket and yank the culprit out. It's a number I don't recognize.

6174425790: So I decided I want to find out. Friends? :)

Shit. Is this real life? I look down at the little godsend in my hands.

Helga.

The walk with Arnold was quiet but also peaceful. His goodbye not at all what I'd expected as he shook his phone at me with a face that looked... eager? I could have imagined it, though. Probably did. Or maybe I'm just not used to the idea of him wanting to talk to me. Do I even want to, for that matter? He saw me bare-ass naked for crying out loud! And it's been forever!

I'd taken my seat on the bus close to a window so that I could take a last look at him: messy blonde hair, a cocky smile on his lips but a soft look in his eyes.

My heart beat wildly, deciding for me with several thumps: you do, you do, you do.

Criminy.

It's early in the evening when I walk through the door of the slightly off-campus apartment I share with Phoebe. I got the urge to go window shopping and kill time instead of heading straight home. To just wander and think. As soon as I'm inside she attacks me.

"Sushi and tempura from Tabemono and pink moscato. Sit. Tell."

I watch her thick black hair whip around and fall against her baby blue tee as she yanks me towards the living room. The little devil knows I love that japanese spot, nevermind the wine. Ugh. I love her.

She shoves me towards the burnt orange loveseat and I laugh.

"Easy crouching tiger. Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Nope! I did overtime last week for an extra day off!" She explains while snatching a glass off of our wooden coffee table. Phoebe graduated early and managed to snag a job at a bridal shop while she studies for her Masters. Not the sort of thing I ever pictured her doing but she's so attentive to detail and criteria that she nails sales more often than not. She's also kind of hooked on the magic moment when a bride finds THE dress ('It's like real life Say Yes to the Dress!' she's told me).

"I also started without you." Phoebe gestures at her cup of wine. "I still can't believe what you told me."

"Believe it sister. Why lie about some bullshit like that?"

I grab the empty glass she's set up and pour myself some pink. There are a few boxes of shrimp tempura and salmon rainbow rolls so I pop the top off of both and start picking at the feast.

"Good point." She reflects. I hear a soft meow and look down. Nymph is staring at me through those orange eyes of hers, fluffy tail swishing back and forth before she hops onto the spot besides me. Spoiled cat. She's purring like a small motor and I'm not sure if it's because I'm home or because she wants my sushi.

"Talk!" Phoebe demands with a giggle and I laugh. We've both changed enough over the years. I've slowed down and let myself be more... well... myself. Still smart-mouthed, but also more outwardly gentle. Girlier. Phoebe meanwhile retained that textbook nerdiness, but I think alot of my sass has rubbed off on her. When push comes to shove she'll take anyone on in the most well-thought out manner possible, and it's a sight to behold. She actually made a manager at the shop cry once for getting a bride's dress order wrong and trying to pin it on her.

I sigh and tell my best friend everything.

Her reactions make me cringe, laugh, and everything in between.

"So he gave you his number and walked you to the bus? That's so chivalrous... And a little more agressive than I pictured from him. Hmm." She looks pensieve. "Do you still...?"

I damn near choke on my wine.

In the years past Phoebe and I got super close. Too much happened for us not to, really. And that included telling her how I'd felt about Arnold. After a few years of keeping in touch with doctor Bliss to work through alot of my issues it became obvious why I had obsessed over him so much. Arnold had been the exact opposite of everyone around me. He was kind. Raised by people who loved him and knew how to show it. Most of all he'd noticed me, and that was something that I'd latched to and molded into whatever my nine year old self thought that love was.

"No, Pheebs. We aren't the same people we were back then. Hell, he knows my boobs better than he knows me. You should have seen that sketch."

"Was it good?"

"Good? He drew me like one of his french girls." I scoff and she snorts.

"Oh my god. I guess when you think about it it sort of fits. Arnold as an artist I mean. He always had a hipster vibe with that shirt... skirt... thing he used to wear. What's he look like now?"

"Good," I sip on my second glass, "is what he looks like. I still can't believe it."

"Hemsworth scale?"

"Right between Liam and Chris."

"Whoa. Closer to who?"

"He'd be Chris only if he grew a beard and, I dunno, took steroids? Which would not be attractive anywhere but Hollywood."

"So a Liam and a half? Cheers to that!"

We clink glasses and I toss Nymph a tiny piece of salmon that she immediately devours.

"Sooo..." Phobe starts messing with the hem of her shirt nervously. "Did you... maybe happen to get that number?"

"Shit! Nah, let me see. One sec."

"You're going to ask Arnold for it?" She smirks.

I scowl at her then giggle. Fucking wine. "You want it or not?"

"Shutting!" Her hand drags across her mouth as if it were a zipper.

I look through my phone for any unfamiliar contacts and crack up when I see it.

"He added himself as 'Football head' Pheebs!"

I go ahead and text him.

H: So I decided I want to find out. Friends? :)

Hit send, and Phoebe and I stare at my phone like Satan might come rolling out of it. We jump when it vibrates.

I bite my lip and check the reply.

Football head: Friends :)

H: Sooo two things. 1) Why did you add yourself as football head lmao and 2) can I ask a friend for a favor?

It vibrates a minute later, and while I'd normally find it annoying I think the moscato is helping me not care so much.

Football head: Isn't that what you used to call me lol. And sure, depending on what it is.

H: True. I was such a mean kid! Can I have Gerald's digits?

Football head: You were. Are you a mean adult too? Haha. And I gotta ask, what for?

H: Nah, I think I mellowed out quite a bit. My cat is meaner than I am most of the time. And for Phoebe!

Football head: Ohhhh. Haha Gerald is gonna freak. Here. 781-980-0775

H: Take a pic of his reaction!

I text Phoebe Gerald's number and open the camera on my phone. She squeals and I catch the moment. Ahh the sweet effects of alcohol.

I get a text from Arnold soon after.

Football head: Check it.

There a picture of Gerald spitting out a stream of beer.

"Oh my god!" I laugh and fall over on the couch.

I attatch the pic of Pheebs clutching her iphone, her face completely red.

H: #TeamCupid!

Football Head: So what are you up to?

H: Drinking and not driving. You?

Football head: Same. Question

H: Yes?

Football head: Any... Interrogating about today?

H: ... Maybe. You?

Football head: Yeah lol. Stuff like that doesn't happen everyday

H: True. I should hope not. Heeey mister artist, do you have an instagram?

Football head: Yes lol

Was that a hint? It's TheTallestShortman

H: Lol are you really. I'll add you. Mines LittlePinkBow

Football head: That suits you lol

H: Thank ya :)

I'm not much for social media, but I love looking at pictures on instagram (and posting alot of Nymph, like a crazy cat lady should). I add Arnold and he accepts a minute later. I start scrolling. Watercolors of trees rendered in out-there colors: purples, blues and streaks of gray. Sketches of people doing all kinds of things; from running to pointing with angry expressions. A brighter painting where a woman in a dress is rendered only in shades of red, yellow, and orange. A stray picture of him sleeping on the couch beside his pet pig. A picture of his parents opening a box together, laughing. He looks so much like them...

My phone vibrates to let me know he likes a picture of me snuggled up to Nymph.

I like one of him with his back to the camera dragging a paint brush across a canvas.

Are we insta-flirting? Geez.

I look over at Phoebe and noticed we've both gone quiet. I give her a thumbs up when she blinks up at me and laughs.

Football head: What are you doing

H: Debating changing your contact name to your real one!

Football head: Thursday afternoon

H: Oh. Nothing I know of

Football head: ...

H: ?

Football head: I have a field assignment for a class. Want to come witness it?

H: You're gonna draw outside?

Football head: Yep. Have to. I'll supply you with nourishment

H: That sounds like a bribe

Football head: Or maybe just a token of my new friendship?

H: Lol fine. Why not. But bring something good. Nothing on the cheap, hear me?

Football head: Wouldn't dream of it. When have I heard you say that before lmao

H: Omg, April Fool's dance! Wait, how the hell did you know how to tango at NINE years old?!

Football head: Grandparents! Lmao. Impressive right?

H: Don't let it go to your head. We've surpassed the era of tango and gone straight to the Dougie

Football head: I can do that too. Gimme a break!

H: Prove it!

Football head: I might have to now lol

H: I'll ttyt? I forgot that damn essay. Thank god most of it is done already

Football head: Sure. Good night Helga :)

I bite my lip. Phoebe smiles at me. "Well look at you."

"What."

"That's the same look you'd get everytime I found you hiding behind something secretly liking that poor boy."

"Shut up Phoebe." I fake groan. "We're just friends."

"Mmmhmm. For now, anyway."

"You want me to tell Gerald you sleep-talk in mandarin?"

"You wouldn't!"

"Nah," I sprawl out on the couch and sigh, "chicks before dicks."

"Go do your homework."

I tickle Nymph behind an ear and get up, rolling my eyes. "Yes mom. Thanks for getting me tipsy before hand."

She waves. "Anytime Helga."

I'm not wrong. I really don't know who Arnold is now. But oddly enough, I find myself looking foward to finding out. I smile and look down at my phone, Nymph's little meows following me to my room.

I don't change his contact name.

Reviews are appreciated! Also feel free to tumblr stalk me. Same user name. I need more in my feed lol