The Lae House

Mason sat behind the wheel of his truck and let his head fall back against the head rest. The 19 hour plane ride, the taxi ride to his friends house to snag his truck, and then the two-and-a-half hour drive from there had taken a lot out of him. God, he was tired. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and die. But first, a nice, long, hot shower to get the airport stench off his body.

It took almost all of what little energy he had left to pull the keys from the ignition and grab the duffel bag from the passenger seat. Stepping out of the truck, he slung the bag over his shoulder and slammed the truck door shut. Standing in the driveway he looked up at the house snuggled between two dunes. A soft smile curled at the corner of his mouth. After two long years, he was home.

Well, not really home. He was at the lake house. For as long as he could remember, when spring would hit his parents would close up the house, pack up him and his little sister Gesabel, and head to the lake house for the summer. There, they would stay until just before the new school year would start. That's why he didn't even bother going to the house. He knew no one would be there.

A warm, summer evening breeze drifted down from the dunes and blew his long black hair into his eyes. With a flick of his head he cleared his vision, shifted the bag on his shoulder, and summoning the last of his strength, he trudged up the wooden stairs that lead to the deck and the front door of the lake house.

Quietly he opened the door. It was still pretty early, probably around nine-thirty, and there were a few lights on. But he didn't want to disturb anyone if they were all sleeping. He highly doubted it, but he still didn't want to take a chance.

Stepping into the front hall, he softly closed the door behind him. He peered into the living room and saw that his father was sound asleep on the couch with the TV on. He heard clinking noises coming from the kitchen and followed the sound.

There, he found his mother bustling back and forth, putting away the dinner dishes. Mason leaned against a wall and watched as she moved around, unaware of his presence. She had her headset on and whatever music she was listening to had her hips swaying. She bounced over to a cupboard with two mugs in her hands, but half way there she stopped, raised her full hands above her head and twisted her hips in a way that would have made a seasoned stripper envious. As she turned she caught a glimpse of Mason out of the corner of her eye. Startled, she jumped back. She let go of the mugs and, as they shattered on the ceramic tile floor, let out an ear piercing scream.

"Cathy!" A roar came from the living room followed by the pounding of feet, and Mason had only a split second in which to turn and see a big burly blur coming at him before he too hit the floor. Mason's breath exploded from his lungs as he landed on his back. Dazed, he looked up to see a fist the size of a sledge hammer coming at his face. Mason threw up his arms to block the punch coming at him.

"Dad!" He cried out.

"Michael!" His mother cried. "Michael! Stop! Stop! It's Mason! It's Mason!" Mason waited for the impact to come but it never did. He slowly lowered his arms to see his father sitting on top of him and his mother standing behind his father, pulling on his fist with all her might.

Michael looked down at his son and the cloud of rage cleared from his silver gray eyes as recognition set in. Michael let out a long breath and relaxed his fist. Backing off his son he helped Mason up from the floor.

"Mason! Good to see ya son! How ya been?" he said as he straightened Mason's clothes and then engulfed him in a bear hug. Mason, a little shaken by the near death experience of almost being taken out by his father's fist, his twenty years of living still flashing before his eyes, finally got his breath back.

"Good, Dad. I-I'm good." He ran a shaky hand though his hair, and smiled sheepishly.

"Well, where ya been all this time?" His father asked. Stepping back to take a good long look at the son he hadn't seen in two years. Michael had plenty of questions that he wanted to ask Mason, but he thought it best to wait and see if Mason would come forward on his own without feeling pressured.

"I...uh...started out cross country and ended up in Hawaii for a while." The color was coming back into his face. Cathy stood there looking back and forth between her two men with her mouth hanging open, not believing that these two were carrying on an everyday conversation. She turned to Mason and promptly biffed him on the back of his head and then stomped out of the kitchen.

"OW!" Mason scrunched up his shoulders and his hair flew in his face. Michael let out a low belly roll of a chuckle.

"You'd better go and apologize to your mother for scaring the shit out her." He jerked his head toward the other room where Cathy had stomped off to in a huff. Mason nodded his head in agreement and hurried off to find his mother. She wasn't in the living room as he had thought she would be, but rather, she had gone out on the deck and was leaning on the railing looking down onto the beach.

"Mom!" He called out to her. He was so intent on apologizing to her that he failed to see that the sliding screen door was closed and he ran into it. Mason stumbled back, lost his footing and landed on his butt. Swearing under his breath he stood up rubbing his backside, and cupped the sore spot on his forehead, feeling the burn from when his face met the mesh screen of the sliding door. He slid the door open and stepped through. He stood for a moment looking at his mother. Her shoulders were shaking. Damn! He hadn't meant to scare her.

"Mom," he said softly as he approached her. "Mom, I'm so sorry." For a second her shoulders stopped, and then they started shaking even harder. Mason looked down at the deck feeling like shit. He took another step toward her and placed his hands softly on her shoulders.

"Please, Mom, stop crying. I didn't mean to scare you like that. I..." He was at a loss for words. "I was just so entertained watching you dance I- I...Mom please look at me." Mason pleaded as he turned Cathy around. She was shaking even more, if that were possible. Tears were streaming down her face. Now Mason really felt like shit.

"Aw, Mom! Don't cry." Cathy drew in a shaky breath and opened her mouth.

"Ah-hahahaha!" Mason stared at his mother with his mouth open. She wasn't crying, she was laughing. He looked bewildered.

"Mom?" Cathy looked at Mason's face.

"Oh...Oh Mason!" She gasped out. " You...the screen...BAM!...Ah-hahahahahaha! Oh...Oh...I gotta pee!" She pushed Mason out of the way and ran into the house. He stood there for a moment and then closed his mouth. 'Welcome home, Mace,' he said to himself.

He looked down onto the beach and saw the nightly bonfire blazing high into the night sky. There were people milling around; some were sitting on logs while others were sitting on blankets, and some were dancing. The sounds of laughter and music coming from a radio drifted up toward the house. A little further down the way Mason could see a rag-tag group playing night football.

Mason looked over the crowd again. Most of the people he recognized as the old gang he used to hang with two years ago, but there were a few that he didn't. His eyes scanned the crowd again, but he didn't see the one person he was looking for.

He was exhausted but he still made his way down the deck stairs and up one of the dunes, his eyes diligently searching. Dancing, sitting, football... A lone figure broke away from the football pack racing down the beach; a group of guys were following, whooping and yelling. Suddenly the figure stopped and slammed a football into the sand.

"YEAH! TOUCH DOWN!" The small figure did a little dance and then stopped, turned toward the guys and yelled, "KISS MINE! YEAH!" Mason's heart skipped a beat. There! The one he was looking for. His eyes flashed as he saw her. There she was, his Gesabel, his kid sister. Her cry of triumphant laughter rang out, and swept up the dunes to wash over him.

Mason was about to call out to her when another figure broke away from the group and ran over to Gesabel. The guy grabbed her around her waist, lifted her off the ground and spun her around. Gesabel threw her head back as laughter peeled from her lips and then she wrapped her arms around him.

Mason got a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't recognize the guy from any of the gang from two years back. 'Who the hell is he?' Mason thought. 'What the hell is he doing hugging on my sister?' Mason's eyes smoldered. He'd been gone two years and now some little punk is pushing up on his sister? Mason's body began to tremble with anger.

He took a step forward with every intention of going down there and busting the guy in the face. 'Whoa! Slow down, Tonto.She's your sister. Get a grip.' Mason closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. It took everything within him to turn around and walk back to the lake house, Gesabel's laughter ringing in his ears. Down below, the chant of "GE-SA! GE-SA! GE-SA!" rose up from the crowed.

Mason pulled on the outside sliding door to his bedroom. He thanked God that someone, probably his mother, had thought to unlock it for him. He didn't have the energy to make his way up the deck stairs, go through the living room, and then down the stairs to the lower half of the lake house where he and his sister always slept.

He staggered into his room and wearily looked around. Nothing had changed since he'd been gone. Not that there was much to the room. A desk that held his computer; beside it laid his old sketch pad and various pencils. A small leather love seat with a coffee table. The walls were graced with anime posters and scantily clad women. Mason shook his head. Those will have to go.

A large double platform bed faced the sliding doors. 'Bed, oh beautiful, beautiful bed.' Mason moved forward and immediately tripped over the duffel bag that was sitting on the floor, causing him to stumble forward and land face first on the bed.

"SHIT!!" His breath hissed through his teeth as he rolled over onto his back while holding his already sore forehead. The burning sting made his eyes water and he had to blink several times to clear them. He settled himself more comfortably on the bed, knowing he should be heading for the shower, but his thoughts turned to Gesabel.

They were, for the most part, exact opposites. Mason was tall and lanky, standing at 6' 2", and weighed 185 some odd pounds. His hair was midnight black, with thick black eyebrows that arched over almond shaped silver gray eyes. He had high cheek bones that a model would kill for. Full lips, perfectly straight white teeth and when he flashed a smile, there was a dimple in his left cheek that made people look twice. He didn't really work out and he was never into sports while in school, but he liked to go running. He found his peace in running. He wasn't ripped or anything, but he did sport a nice six pack.

Gesabel, on the other hand, stood 5'5" and weighed 130 pounds soaking wet. Thick, silver blond hair that fell down to her waist, and her eyes were the crystal blue of a glacier lake. A cute little button nose sat atop a pair of plump lips that just begged to nibbled on. She too had the perfect teeth and when she smiled there was that dimple, only hers graced her right cheek.

Where Mason had opted out in sports in school, Gesabel had excelled. If she wasn't on the tennis team, it was the swim team, track and field, soft ball, volley ball, gymnastics. You name it, she was in it. Seeing as how both their parents worked, it had been Mason's job to get Gesabel to and from practice everyday after school.

If he wasn't walking her to basketball practice, he was sitting on the city bus with her going to dance class. On the whole, it hadn't really bothered Mason to do this. He was pretty content to sit up in the bleachers reading or sketching while Gesabel ran around the gym. The sound of her laughter bouncing off the walls always left a tingling feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't put his finger on why, but she did that to him.

There was one incident though, when Gesabel was a sophomore in high school and she was getting ready for a gymnastics competition. She had been working on her floor routine, and thought she had it down.

"Hey, Mace! Check this out!" Mason looked up from his sketch pad to see Gesabel winding up to perform a round off double back handspring lay out. She took off at a dead run and then executed the round off and the first back handspring perfectly. Unfortunately she didn't rotate enough going into the second back handspring and ended up doing a really harsh belly flop on the floor mat. Upon hitting the floor the breath was knocked out of her and left her unconscious. For a split second no one moved.

"HO-LY SHIT! Gesabel!" Mason scrambled down the bleachers and raced across the gym floor. His heart was pounding in his chest. He couldn't get to her fast enough. The coaches on the other side of the gym started running toward Gesabel, but Mason got to her first. Sliding to a stop on his knees he rolled her prone body over and scooped her up in his arms.

"Gesabel!" He cried out desperately. "Gesabel! Oh God, Gesabel!" Her face was pale and her full lips were blue.

"She's not breathing! Dear God, she not breathing!" Panic began to set in. Think, think, THINK! Mason laid her back down on the mat, tipped her head back, and placed his mouth over hers. He blew into her mouth. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her chest expand. Ok, good. He blew a second time and her chest moved again. He blew a third time.

"Breathe, goddamn it, breathe!" As he went to blow a fourth time Gesabel let out a small cough and began to breathe on her own. Words couldn't describe the feeling of relief that flooded Mason's body. She was going to be ok. He gathered Gesabel in his arms and he buried his face in her neck. She was going to be ok.

Gesabel let out a weak moan and Mason pulled back, his eyes roaming frantically, searching her face for a sign that she was going to be ok. The color was slowly coming back and her full lips began to regain their cherry pink tint. The thick, dark lashes that were brushing the tops of her cheeks slowly began to open; sliver gray met glacier blue. Her eyes closed for a second, and then opened them again as they began to focus.

Gesabel looked around to see everyone staring at her, then she looked back at Mason. Her cheeks tinged pink and she gave him a weak smile.

"Oops." She said with a small giggle and began to sit up. It was then that Mason realized that whole time he was holding her, his left hand had been cupping her right breast. As she moved to sit up he loosened his hold and his finger tips brushed against her nipple causing it to harden. He began to shake.

"Aw, Mace. I'm ok." She said as she touched his chest. "I just got the wind knocked out of me. That's all." She had mistaken his trembling for concern.

Mason sat back on his heels and clenched his fists on his thighs. His left palm burned as his brain acknowledged the fact that he'd been cupping Gesabel's breast, and that her nipple had responded to his fingers. He felt his dick twitch in his jeans and he began to shake even more. Dude! Get a grip! She's your sister.

At that point, the coaches took over in helping Gesabel up and insisting, over her protests, that she go see the school nurse. Mason sat stunned on the floor as the crowd slowly began to thin out and the coaches cancelled practice for the rest of the day. Soon he was left alone to gather up all of his and Gesabel's things before heading up to the nurse's office.