It's About Us

I Need To Know

"Let me in we need to talk." Arnold stated.

Helga opened the door. "What do you want, Football Head?"

"One, for you to stop calling me that." He glared at her when he entered.

Helga closed the door behind him and walked to get her snack. "Is that all?"

"No, I said we needed to talk. I'm not leaving until we get everything out in the open." Arnold walked by her to her living room.

Helga watched as he sat on her couch. "I thought we already talked?"

"We started to, but I've come to the conclusion that there's more we need to discuss." Arnold got comfortable.

Helga sighed, defeated. "Fine. You talk or ask questions or whatever you want. Then you can leave."

Arnold will take what he can get. "First, why didn't you tell me you were so unsure about how I felt?"

Helga froze. "What did you just say?"

"I said, why didn't you tell me about the things we talked about earlier?" Arnold asked softer.

"I didn't say anything because I was afraid what I thought was true." Helga almost whispered.

"You were okay with wondering if I was with you because you helped me but were too scared to ask in case it was true. You'd rather live with the uncertainty then face reality?" Arnold tried to sort it out.

"Yeah, I guess it sounds stupid when you put it like that." Helga sat on the couch next to him.

"It's not stupid. I thought you could come to me with anything, I wanted you too. I guess I deluded myself in thinking that I was someone you could lean on." Arnold lowered his head.

Helga stayed silent for a moment. "It's not that. We live two very different lives. You have a loving family and home with many people that will bend over backwards for you. I have Phoebe. She's the only one that knows...everything about me. The only person who doesn't look at me with pity in their eyes. You still do, from time to time. It's hard to approach you with news that will devastate your perfect existence."

"I know about your family. I know they ignore you. I know your mother is an alcoholic and your father only cares about you when he's angry. I thought I knew everything about you too, until you told me the story about your bow." Arnold looked at her, searching for her pink bow.

"Yeah, well, Phoebe shouldn't have blurted out what she did." Helga tried to dodge the feelings.

"How bad is it? How often do you have food here?" Arnold asked.

Helga took a deep breath, knowing she couldn't avoid this talk. "When Olga comes to town, the fridge, cabinets, and pantry are stock full of all her favorites. When's she not, I find what I can. Sometimes, I'll have to steal money from my mother's purse to go out to eat or I'll head over to someone's house and invite myself to their dinner."

"God, Helga. You should have told me. What about now? They're not here, so how's your food situation?" Arnold turned his whole body to face Helga.

"A couple items, but they left me money to get food." Helga thought about leaving it there but decided since they were being honest. "Not enough to feed me the whole week though."

Arnold got up and started pacing. "DAMMIT! They have two daughters, why don't they take care of you the same way they take care of Olga?"

"I'm a mistake." Helga interjected.

"WHAT?" Arnold yelled, only briefly stopping his too and frow.

"Calm down. I'm a literal mistake. They only wanted Olga. That's why there is a huge age gap between us. After I was born, since people knew Miriam was pregnant, they just ignored me. It would have looked bad if they gave me up for adoption." Helga laughed, but not in a funny way.