Kriss Kochanski lay in her bed with her eyes open, wide open. Her head was spinning, so much had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She was exhausted, but yet, she couldn't sleep. Kriss couldn't understand it. She was having thoughts, important thoughts. During the day she had agreed to go on a date with Dave Lister, but he wasn't the one stuck in her head like blue tack to woodchip wallpaper. It was Rimmer, Arnold Judas Rimmer!
Kriss thought about how Arnold had reacted to the 'good news' poor, Arnold it would have been a bit of excitement in his life and he would finally have had more sex than a lettuce. She pondered on a conversation they had recently. It was about their parents and upbringing. They had completely different upbringings and parents but both had resulted in similar problems and the same feelings.
Arnold's parents didn't really want him; his father even had an alibi for his sperm on the night of conception. He was a disappointment he came bottom in every subject and completely failed his Dad's 'No-right-answers-no-food' tests every dinner, in the end he was admitted to hospital with malnutrition. Arnold's parents had realised that they'd rather send their son to boarding school and live on hardly any money than have their son and all the money. He was sent to Io House, the only boarding school that you didn't have to set an entry exam for. He hated it, his teachers and school 'friends' despised him but when he did come home he was ignored and rejected.
Kriss, however was top of her class in everything: music, science, maths, English, even Latin. Because of this she had been sent to Cyber School. They got there at the beginning of term and were strapped in. Kriss' parents had to work all the hours God sent to cover her school fees and boy did they let Kriss know this. She felt really guilty about it and decided that as they were working their fingers to the bone she ought to make the most of it. She worked and slept and did nothing else with her time. She had no friends and didn't want them. Her parents didn't even take her back at Christmas time; they had dumped Kristine Kochanski, their only daughter in Cyber School and disappeared.
Both Arnold and Kriss had been screwed up quite badly by their parents. They both dealt with it in different ways, completely different ways. Kriss threw herself into her work gaining a degree in Space Geography and another in Art and Music. Arnold had sunk into depression, he was in denial. Kriss thought and thought about this but tried to put it out of her mind. She couldn't.
Kriss got up, she had subconsciously decided that she couldn't lie there and think like this about Arnold anymore, she'd have to do something about it. She went to walk out of the room but stopped herself. What was she going to say? She didn't want to make a fool of herself but she needed to know. Did he want to get one over on Dave or did he find her attractive? She just needed to know. She decided that she had nothing to lose and walked out of the room shutting the door quietly behind her so as not to wake Kryten.
As she reached Arnold's quarters she saw that the door was open, this wasn't strange as Dave was Arnold's roommate and he'd sleep through world war three. Just to be on the safe side she crept past Dave's bed and lightly tapped on Arnold's door.
Arnold got straight up and went over to the door; he had a blanket wrapped round the lower half of his body but not much else. He opened the door and rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming.
"What are you doing her Kriss?" he asked puzzled by the sight in front of him.
"I couldn't sleep" she answered, "I need to know"
"Know what?" he asked, "What are you talking about"
"Why did you react in the way you did?" she started "when Cassandra told you what was going to happen?"
"Do you really need to ask that question?" Arnold stated, "you know why!"
"If I knew why, I'd be fast asleep right now!"
"You're bloody gorgeous Kriss, I've always found you attractive, I just didn't know how to tell you" he answered softly "you've always been that prize at the end of the course that I will never win, I don't have the confidence or the charisma to even talk to you sometimes, nothing could ever happen between us, nothing"
Kriss gave him a hug. "You don't know that, Arnold"
He looked up at her, surprised "are you saying what I think you are?" he said with excitement in his voice
"You never know," she answered
"But…" Kriss put her finger to her lips, kissed it and placed it on his.
"That's all you're getting" she said cheekily "maybe one day there'll be more"
With that she left. Arnold was left sitting on his bed, puzzled by what Kriss had said. He decided not to act on it, though
"Just think about this and let it flow," he thought to himself.