Morbid

“How long are they going to keep us here?” Heather asked her mother as she looked at the clock on the wall after the detective left. It was getting close to ten o'clock at night and they had missed supper.

“I'd guess until either you are thoroughly scared of what can happen to you for being associated with Brad and his friends, or until they decide you've suffered enough with the guilt.” Claire said. “Believe me, if it's the latter, you're going to be suffering for a long time to come.”

Heather thought about arguing with her mother about that, then she sighed and nodded. “Mom, you know I'm sorry about what happened.”

“Yes, and like I said, you will be for a long time.” Claire said. “How could you be so stupid?”

“I explained why I gave him the address.” Heather responded. “What else am I supposed to say besides sorry? Is there anything else I can say?”

“Do you regret it?” Claire asked.

“Of course I do!” Heather said. “I know the problems Arnold and his mom have gone through! Losing their house after all of that is horrible!”

“And it's because of you.” Claire said in a normal tone, despite her need to accuse her daughter.

“No, mom. Brad would have gotten the address eventually anyway.” Heather said as if she heard the accusing tone. “It's not like it was a secret or anything.”

“Heather...”

“Mom, there's nothing I could have done, even if by some twist of fate that I was still dating Brad and he tried to bring me along. It's not like I could fight them to stop them!” Heather said a little excitedly, then she sat back in the chair and crossed her arms under her breasts. “If you think for one second he would let me call you after I learned what he planned to do, you've got another thing coming.”

Claire thought about countering her, then realized her daughter was right. They sat there in silence and waited to see how long they would have to sit there and wait.

*

“I don't think we're going to need to toss the ex-girlfriend into the mix.” Officer Hallman said and waved at the huge transcript. “Most of this stuff they did before Brad started dating her. The bridge happened just before they broke up and the Strickland house break in was afterwards.”

“I agree.” His partner said. “I think we can also recommend Eric for leniency, since he's been goading them along quite nicely for us.”

Officer Hallman chuckled. “Never piss off your friends by humiliating them. It always comes back to bite you in the ass.”

His partner laughed. “He took the girl too, so we know the guy's got balls. You gotta give him that.”

“Agreed.” Officer Hallman said and nodded. “The insurance agent came through with the proposal for the damages as well. Boy, oh boy, did she low-ball the first estimate to get it approved, then she hit the company with the real estimate.”

His partner laughed again. “She must like Ms. Strickland to get it pushed through in only one day.”

“No doubt.” Officer Hallman said. “She's quite the looker.”

“Ha.” His partner punched his arm. “Someone else likes her, too.”

“You saw her.” Officer Hallman said. “Two days without a shower, wearing old clothes, and upset about losing access to her house... and she still looked fantastic.”

“You're just a sucker for a nice ass in a pair of jeans.” His partner joked.

“Hey, don't knock the magic of denim.” Officer Hallman said and punched his shoulder. “Come on. Let's get these yahoos processed properly.” He said and they got the help of a few officers and went into the conference room to handcuff them all, then informed them of the charges being laid against them.

“Oh, shit.” The guy that claimed his father would have him out by tonight said. “We're fucked.”

“Great, just great.” Eric said and he was led away and brought to the separate holding cells they had. Once Eric was out of sight of the others, Officer Hallman put a hand on his shoulder and directed him somewhere else. He brought him all the way back over to the squad room and opened the door to a small office.

“ERIC!” Heather yelled and jumped up from her chair, then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him several times.

“What's going on?” Claire asked.

“Just a bit of role playing.” Officer Hallman said and took the cuffs off of Eric's wrists.

“You're not going to charge me?” Eric asked, completely surprised.

“We're recommending leniency for you, since you weren't actually involved in either felony charge. The rest are misdemeanours and were committed... mostly... while you were underage.”

Heather didn't let Eric go as she looked at the officer. “Thank you.”

“Your man did an excellent job wringing out all the details of the crimes committed by the others.” Officer Hallman said and Heather preened proudly and he handed her back her phone. “We already copied all the data, so you can have this back.” He said. “You're both free to go.”

“Thank you very much.” Claire said as she stood up. “I appreciate this. I really do.”

“Make sure to leave your contact information at the front desk.” Officer Hallman said and looked at Heather and Eric. “You two better keep your noses clean.”

“We promise!” Heather said excitedly and kissed Eric again. “Let's get out of here before he changes his mind!” She let his neck go, took his hand, and led him out of the small office.

“Heather!” Claire said and then sighed. “Goodbye, officer.”

“Ma'am.” Officer Hallman nodded to her and she walked quickly after her retreating daughter.

*

Kenneth was in a bit of a daze as he sat in his den and talked to his wife. He had come home after being thoroughly trounced at golf, which was probably why his boss had invited him along, and he discovered that his daughter had returned home... with a guest. It was the mother of her boyfriend and that wasn't the worst part. She was a great looking blonde woman with a fantastic body and she would be staying with them for the foreseeable future.

He wasn't sure if his mind could handle it.

It was bad enough when his daughter had started to blossom and grew to be more womanly practically every day. He really missed his little girl and he wasn't sure how to properly handle the young woman she had become. He was grateful that she was modest and tried to keep herself covered up for the most part, and that protected his tender sensibilities.

Now Kenneth was going to have a strange woman in his house, that he could potentially walk in on or see in a compromising position. She could also be in various states of dress and undress at any time. He wilted a little inside at the thought of embarrassing himself, his wife, and his daughter, if that ever happened.

“Are you sure that she doesn't have any other family?” Kenneth asked as he tried again to find a reason to save himself from a ton of worry.

“No, and she's already unpacked and settled in her room.” Katheryn said.

“Her room?” Kenneth asked with wide eyes.

“It's hers for as long as she needs it and you are just going to have to accept it.” Katheryn said and pat his hand. “On the plus side, our daughter isn't staying away for the summer! She'll be here in the house most of the time!”

Kenneth didn't have the heart to tell her that he was not looking forward to Kelly wearing smaller shorts and t-shirts. Not even a little bit. Then his mind went to Annie and the tight jeans she currently wore and he couldn't help it when he imagined her wearing tiny shorts and a little t-shirt to show off her body. He closed his eyes and ducked his head in defeat.

“Thank you.” Katheryn said and gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. “Don't worry, I'll keep a look-out and warn you if anything untoward appears that might upset you.”

Kenneth sighed and turned to look at his wife and she kissed him once, then again. His wife's hand rubbed his chest and arm, then his thigh. “Katheryn...”

“The door's locked.” Katheryn said.

“But... we have... a guest.” Kenneth whispered.

“Yes, we do.” Katheryn whispered back and gave him a sexy smile, then kissed him again.

*

After his shower, Arnold only wore a towel for the rest of the evening and eventually closed his dorm room door when he saw that a lot of the girls had as well. A few of them still in the hallway had waved to him when he did and he had waved back. He took off the towel and put on his sleep clothes, then went to bed.

Arnold climbed out of bed when the alarm went off in the morning, made four pieces of toast for breakfast and drank a glass of orange juice, cleaned up, then dressed for work in a different color coordinated suit with appropriate shirt and socks combo to go with it. He hooked his key ring to his pants loop and opened his room door, then all of the activity in the hallway came to a stop.

“Good morning.” One of the young women said.

“Good morning.” Arnold said and had to fight his conditioning of giving a quick kiss as he shut and locked the door.

“Hi, Arnold.” Emily said as she poked her head out of her room.

“Hello.” Arnold said to Emily and walked by her.

“Hi, there!” “Hello.” “Morning!” “Hey, sexy!” “Hi.”

Arnold nodded and said hello to them in return, then made it to the end of the hallway and hit the button for the elevator. He waited for it to arrive and all of the activity in the hallway returned to normal when he stepped into the elevator. Quite a few of the girls waved and he gave them a little wave back as the doors closed.

Arnold knew what was going to happen on the other floors and he stepped to the back of the elevator and waited. It stopped at each floor and a gaggle of girls came in. He couldn't tell if they were the same ones, since he wasn't keeping track of them, not that he could. He didn't know how many were on each floor and all he could do was count how many were in front of him. The elevator reached the ground floor and everyone piled out and he stepped out.

“Hi, Arnold!” Doris said loudly from behind her desk. “Enjoy your day at work!”

“I will.” Arnold said and gave her a huge smile, because he knew it was going to be full of dissections. A hundred and eight dissections for that morning and he would be cleaning them all up afterwards. As far as he was concerned, it was going to be a great day.

Doris was surprised at his bright angelic smile. Even though she was more than twice his age... in fact she was a little older than his own mother... she felt her body react to the attention. She didn't let it show on her face, though. She waved to him as he left the building and she wasn't surprised when a different pile of girls from the day before swarmed her to bombard her with questions about him.

Arnold walked over to Building F and went inside, up the stairs, and went right into the lab to get to work. He had thirty six set-ups to do with the appropriate tools and only a short time to do them. The professor said that he could even put out the specimens if he had the time before the students arrived for class, and he managed to complete the task just as the lab door opened.

Professor Hamil Crenslav was a little disappointed when Arnold hadn't shown up at his office for work. He knew it was probably Arnold's way of protesting not having the afternoon off the day before, so he didn't fault the boy for expressing his displeasure. He let out a sigh at all the work he would be doing by himself that morning, grabbed his teaching materials from his desk, and walked over to the lab.

Hamil opened the door and was pleasantly shocked when he saw Arnold put the last prepped specimen in place. “Good man!” He said and put his teaching materials on his desk. “You even have the displays for the lab workers in the middle of the table as the center pieces. Excellent work.”

The lab door opened again and Amy strode in with Cissily at her side and the other lab workers behind them.

“Professor! You have everything set up already?”

Hamil shook his head and waved at Arnold. “I just arrived here myself.”

Amy's mouth opened a little in surprise and Cissily took the opportunity that presented and stuck her finger in her mouth. Amy gagged a little and Cissily laughed loudly as her hand was pushed away.

“Gah! HEY!” Amy yelled.

“Don't blame me.” Cissily said. “I warned you if you opened your mouth and don't say anything, I'd fill it for you! Ha ha!”

“I didn't think you meant with your goddamn fingers!” Amy protested and Cissily laughed harder.

“All right, places everyone.” Professor Hamil Crenslav said and the six lab workers went to their assigned tables. Amy and Arnold went to the front of the lab and stood on either side of the professor's desk by the wall. They did it just in time, because in the next moment, the room was almost instantly filled with thirty young women and six young men. A lot of them didn't look happy to be there, except for a handful of them.

“Arnold!” A few of them gasped when they saw him.

“Hi, again!”

“Hey, you're working here?”

“We get to live with him and take Tuesday morning labs with him, too!” One said with a laugh. “I knew things were going to be interesting when he stripped for us last night!”

Amy's mouth dropped open and she stared at the girls and then at Arnold.

“Dammit, I'm to far away.” Cissily said and the lab workers laughed.

“Settle down, please.” Hamil said and turned to the white board behind him and underlined the scientific name of the specimen the class was working on today. “I know most of you don't really care what the thing in front of you is actually called.”

A few of the students nodded and a couple of them laughed.

“I'll only require that you remember the common name and for you to perform to the best of your ability.” Hamil said and faced them again. “Each table has a lab worker and a fully prepared specimen. Please use both as much as you need in order to complete the assignment.”

“You only mean asking questions, right?” A guy at Cissily's table asked with a laugh.

“Unless you enjoy the taste of a knuckle sandwich.” Cissily said and nearly everyone laughed.

“Hey, she didn't curse at him!” A girl said from the next table, shocked.

“I'm saving it for the right fucking opportunity.” Cissily said with a grin and that made them all laugh.

Hamil let it go on for a few moments, then cleared his throat. “You have just under an hour. Begin.”

“You heard him, people. Get to work.” Amy said and waited for everyone to start, then she made the rounds to check on them. Both Arnold and the professor stood at the front of the class and observed.