Morbid

Heather took Arnold to her bedroom and had him sit on her bed. “Thanks for carrying my backpack.” She said and took it from his shoulder, tossed it onto the bed behind him, then she walked over to the little desk she had. She hit the button to turn on the computer and then turned on the flat-screen monitor.

Arnold heard the whirring inside the rectangular metal case and the light blinked next to the button Heather had pushed. “What's it doing?” He asked and slipped off his backpack and laid it next to hers.

“Powering up.” Heather said, then her face went a little red. “Arnold, there's something I should tell you.”

Arnold looked away from the computer base and at her face.

“This was one of the best computers... about a year ago.” Heather admitted. “They released two new versions since then.”

“Does that matter?” Arnold asked, a little confused. “Can you still look at specimens on it?”

Heather nodded. “My VR headset doesn't lag when I play with it, either.”

“Your what?” Arnold asked.

“My VR headset.” Heather said and pointed to a weird looking half-dome thing.

“It looks like half of a bike helmet.” Arnold said. “How do you use it?”

“Despite what it looks like, you wear it like this.” Heather said and put the part Arnold thought would cover the back of the head over her face. It covered her ears and eyes and had straps to hold it in place. “I haven't tried many games with it, even though there are a lot of them out there.”

“Games? Like board games?” Arnold asked a little excitedly. The surgery one was his favorite.

Heather laughed softly and put the headset down. “Adventure and MMOs, actually.”

“Huh?” Arnold gave her a perplexed look.

“Oh, Arnold.” Heather said and walked over to him, then she touched the side of his face. “I have so much to teach you about computers.”

Arnold gave her a smile and she smiled back. Heather stood there with her hand on his face and just stared at him. After a minute or so, Arnold spoke.

“I think the computer is on.”

“Huh?” Heather shook her head slightly at being distracted by how handsome Arnold was. “Yes, the computer.” She walked over to the desk and sat down, then changed her mind and stood. “Arnold, you can sit here and I'll stand.”

Arnold stood and walked over to the desk and sat down and looked at the computer screen.

“The best part about computers is how easy they are to use.” Heather said and leaned over beside him, making sure to press her breast into his shoulder. “You click here and it shows you the programs that it has installed.” She said and moved the mouse and clicked the spot.

Arnold stared at the mouse and missed what she showed him. “What's that?”

“It's called a 'mouse'.” Heather said. “I have no idea why.”

Arnold smiled at the device that had the same name as some of his specimens and wondered what little things it might have inside to play with.

“Look at the screen.” Heather said and Arnold did as she said. “These are the programs that we can use.” She said. “This is a writing program, this is an internet browser, this is a virus scanner, this is a music player, this one lets you talk to people...”

Arnold listened attentively and tried to remember what all of the things did. A few he had no clue what they were and had to ask about them. The most important one he learned was the internet browser. With that, he could access things on the internet, which was a collection of things that people from all over the world put out there for everyone else to see and use.

Heather's back was sore after ten minutes and she stood up with a groan. “I need to sit down.”

Arnold stood up and motioned to the chair and she shook her head.

“You need to stay there to use the computer.” Heather said moved his chair out slightly. “I'll sit on the floor and show you how to look for things on the internet.”

Arnold sat back down and then Heather knelt on the floor in front of him. He didn't question this, especially when she opened the internet browser and what she called a 'search engine' popped up.

“What kind of gas does the engine take?” Arnold asked and she laughed.

“No, it's not a motor engine, it's...” Heather stopped talking and clicked on the little box and typed in 'search engine definition'. “This is what it means.”

Arnold was surprised when a huge list of responses appeared and the top one was the actual definition.

“Now the fun part.” Heather said. “I don't have any specimens on my computer; but, I know how to find them.” She smiled and typed in 'biological specimen'.

Once again, Arnold was surprised when a bunch of different results appeared, the top one being the definition of what a biological specimen actually was, then information pages, and various links to other sites. He read the information on the screen for several moments and then he felt a finger on his lips.

“I know how much you like this subject.” Heather said with a whisper, then removed her finger. “If you do something for me, I'll show you as many specimens as you want.”

Arnold's eyes sparkled and he gave her his biggest smile yet. “I'll do anything.”

Heather blinked her eyes several times and her lips became a little plumper as blood rushed to her face. I can't ask for that right way, even though he said he would do anything. Start small and work up to it. She thought. “I want you to kiss me.”

“Is that all?” Arnold asked and leaned in and kissed her forehead, just like his mother did to him.

Heather held in her laugh as she shook her head. “Not like that.” She said and pointed to her lips, then she put her arms around his neck and kissed him. She had kissed a few boys before, so she had lots of practice on how to do it.

Arnold didn't react to it at all and just sat there.

Heather broke the kiss and looked at him. “What's wrong? Don't you like it?”

“I don't know.” Arnold said. “I've never been kissed like that before.”

“I was your first real kiss?” Heather asked, slightly surprised. She had assumed he had a few girlfriends before coming to high school and hadn't gotten a new one because he was studying so much.

“A real kiss?” Arnold asked and tilted his head slightly. “A kiss on the forehead isn't real?”

“It doesn't really count as a kiss.” Heather said and saw his face close down. “It's still a kiss!” She said to counter what she just said. “It just means more when you kiss them on the lips.”

“Oh.” Arnold said.

“Now that you know the difference, do you want to try again?” Heather asked and didn't wait for him to answer and kissed him again. She did similar motions with her lips as she did before, then she added a little tongue. Almost as if he read her thoughts, he duplicated the same motions and kissed her back. Heather had to break the kiss about ten seconds later because she was breathing a little heavier than normal. He learned that really fast. She thought in surprise and tried to calm down.

It took her a few more moments to even her breathing out and saw that Arnold was looking at her.

“Arnold, I... I like you.” Heather said. “I really like you.” She continued when he didn't react. “Not just friends like, I mean like as in boyfriend and girlfriend like.”

“You want to be my girlfriend?” Arnold asked.

“YES!” Heather yelled, then she laughed awkwardly. “Ah... I mean... yes, I'll be your girlfriend.”

“Okay.” Arnold said. “Can you show me the specimens now?”

Heather nodded and successfully hid how happy she was. “Watch carefully.” She said. “After searching for what you want, you get the links to go to the different sites. If you want to actually see what you are searching for...” She clicked something near the top of the results and watched his face.

Arnold took in a sharp breath when the entire screen was filled with pictures upon pictures of specimens. Some were dissected, some floated in jars, some were suspended like the biology teacher's spider except that they weren't as detailed.

Heather liked that she had made him happy with such a simple thing. She showed him how to scroll with the rolling button on the mouse and he saw that there were hundreds of specimens. “That's only the first page.” She said and clicked the link to go to the next page of the results.

Arnold gasped as hundreds more specimens appeared. He looked from the screen to Heather's face, then back at the screen.

“You can click on the images to make them bigger, and you can even save them.” Heather explained how to do that and Arnold tried it. “When you save them on your computer, you can look at them whenever you want.” She opened the folder where the picture he saved was and double-clicked it. A photo viewer loaded and the image filled the screen.

“Whoa.” Arnold said at the details that he could see.

“You're gonna love this.” Heather said with a smile and clicked on the option to zoom in and out, then made the image twice as big.

Arnold's mouth dropped open at the sight. All of those little things inside a specimen were now the size of his hand!

“I think that deserves another kiss, don't you thi...” Heather's words were cut off as Arnold gripped the back of her head and kissed her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his lips on hers. He didn't stop after a few moments like she thought he would and he kept going for several minutes.

Heather broke the kiss and sat back onto her heels as she stared at him. She couldn't take much more kissing like that and not have it lead to other things. She knew she couldn't push him too much, because she might scare him away by how much she wanted him. Her face was flushed completely red and her breathing wasn't going to slow down anytime soon.

If I took his first kiss, then... that means... Heather's thoughts went where she knew they couldn't go yet.

“SUPPER!” Her mother yelled from downstairs and it startled Heather, who stood up and went to the bedroom door.

“OKAY!” Heather yelled back. “We'll be right down!” She turned back to look at Arnold. “We need to go eat.”

“What about the computer?” Arnold asked.

Heather walked over and clicked something and the screen went blank and the whirring stopped. She saw Arnold's worried face, so she leaned down to give him a quick kiss.

“It's just asleep.” Heather said and hit a key on the keyboard and the whirring started again. The screen came on and showed the same thing it had a moment before. She saw him relax and then smile at her, so she gave him another kiss and put the computer back into sleep mode. She pointed to his backpack and he slung it over his shoulder, then she took his hand and led him out of the room and downstairs to the dining room. There was a large table that could seat eight people and her mother stood at the far end of the table with a tray and three plates on it.

“Hey, you two.” Heather's mother said and motioned to the chairs on either side of where she stood.

Heather stopped herself from sighing and walked around the table and sat on her mother's left. Arnold copied her and walked around the table and sat on her mother's right after hanging his backpack on his chair. She gave them each a plate of food and then served herself and sat down. She started to eat without saying a word and Heather gave her an inquisitive look, shrugged, then started to eat, too.

Arnold started to eat as well and they ate the entire meal in silence. Heather had been worried that her mother would have talked the whole time and she was relieved when she didn't make a peep until the meal was over.

“That was delicious, wasn't it?” Heather's mother asked.

She didn't wait for a response and took the plates and silverware from Arnold and her daughter and put it on the silver tray. She left the room with it and came back with tiny bowls of ice cream with chocolate sauce and cherries on top. Once again, she didn't say anything and the three of them ate the dessert. Heather was a little freaked out at the silence, mainly because her mother never stayed quiet during a meal.

Her mother took the empty bowls and left again, then came back and looked at Arnold and Heather as if she was deeply sorry for something. “It's getting late, don't you think?” She asked and then looked at Arnold. “It's about time I drive you home.”

“What about the computer?” Arnold asked as he stood and grabbed his backpack.

“I'll mark the page we were on and we can do this again in a couple of days.” Heather said and stood, then walked around the table to take his hand. “I've got Kelly coming over tomorrow to study.”

“I'm sure that Kelly can wait while...” Her mother started to say.

“Mom.” Heather cut her off before she asked Arnold over. “My boyfriend doesn't want to intrude when I'm studying with Kelly.”

Her mother caught the hint immediately and smiled. “Well, then.” She said and looked at Arnold “We will just have to wait to have you over again.”

The three of them left the house and went to the car. Her mother got in and started it up and Heather stepped close to Arnold.

“I'll see you in school tomorrow.” Heather said.

“Okay.” Arnold said and started to turn away.

Heather held onto his hand and he stopped and turned back. “You're supposed to kiss me goodbye.”

Arnold nodded and gave her a kiss, exactly like she had shown him, and they stayed like that for several moments. The car horn beeped at them and Heather jumped from the scare, which broke the kiss.

Heather sighed at the interruption. “I guess we should only kiss for a few seconds to say goodbye...” She said, then she leaned in close. “...and when we see each other in the morning.”

“Okay.” Arnold said and climbed into the back passenger seat, the same seat he rode to the house in.

Heather's mother smiled at the interaction between them, backed out of the driveway, then drove Arnold home.