Mason's Run

by Mellanie Rourke

“Hey, hands off!” she exclaimed, darting back to her seat at the end of the table and slamming the top of her laptop down, hiding the contents from Lee’s suspicious gaze.

  “I am not the one who decided to open the dwarven sarcophagi with runes on them that said, ‘Doom to Any Who Disturb My Rest’,” she answered cheekily, winking at me and shooting a glare over at Kaine.

  “How was I supposed to know?” he groaned. “We need better equipment, and there’s always magical loot in old graves!”

  “Well, we did kinda tell you,” Lee said, patting his brother on the back, “But did you listen? No…”

  Lee jumped back as Kaine’s hand flashed out to playfully punch at him.

  “Watch it, old man. Keep up the ‘I told you so’s’ and we’ll find out who knows better on the mats. I can’t help it if I have a low wisdom score,” Kaine countered, pouting at his brother and pointing to the character sheet for his now-deceased rogue. “Or rather, had.”

  Lee laughed and ducked around his brother, sitting back down in the chair next to me.

  “You want some more?” he asked, looking down at my glass. We’d been drinking home- made Sangria for a couple of hours now, and I was feeling pleasantly buzzed.

  “No, thanks,” I said, “I’m good.”

  My early fear of meeting Lee’s family had dissolved under the relentless friendliness of his parents, and the playful shenanigans of his brothers. Kaine and Lee were a lot alike which surprised me, since Kaine was a lot younger than Lee, probably early- to mid-twenties.

  The twins had called early on and said they had changed their minds and were just going to head home and call it an early night – they were going to have a lot of restocking to do first thing.

  I sat back and just reveled in the feeling of relaxation that washed over me. Usually when I met new people, I was anxious about everything, but not here. I felt more at home in this room than I did in my own apartment. The living room was large, almost the entire width of the first floor. The walls were a warm beige that seemed to glow with the firelight. The furniture was a mix of soft leather and well-worn tapestry cushions. The paintings on the walls and the pictures of the family placed here and there documenting a lifetime of memories.

  I watched as Mama D closed up her laptop, then went over to join Kyra on the couch, reaching out to playfully comfort her partner on her loss. On the front of her laptop were post-it notes with pictures of the whole party – some drawn by me, others by Bishop, who was a pretty decent artist. The post-its had each player’s name on them, and whenever we rolled initiative (the order in which each player would take their turn) she would reorganize them to reflect the new party order.

  The sangria had been delicious, but I realized I might have imbibed a too much when I started giggling as I looked at the names written across the laptop. Lee looked at me, obviously enjoying my state of relaxation, and said “What’s so funny?”

  I giggled again and pointed at the post-its. “Hicks. Bishop. Kaine. All you need is Sigourney and a few space marines, and you’ll have the cast of Aliens.” I giggled again as Lee froze, then rolled his eyes.

  “Yep,” he said in resignation, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Pretty much. Check, and check.”

  He pointed first to himself, then to pictures around the room of his absent siblings. “Rip-Lee.” He emphasized. “My sister, Weaver,” he said, pointing at a photo of a red-haired woman in an Air Force uniform. “Hudson,” he said, point to a picture of one of the twins, then at another. “Hicks.” He paused a moment and peered closely at the pictures then switched their order on the shelf. Then he pointed at a final picture of the whole family together on a boat, the name “Nostromo” written in large letters on its side.

  “Oh my god,” I said, staring at the pictures, my eyes going wide as I looked at him. “You’re ‘Aliens’ freaks.”

  Diana and Kyra laughed from their cuddle spot on the couch where Kyra had settled after her victory dance.

  “…I mean that in the most respectful way possible?” I said, as I realized that either woman could have put me in the hospital twice over. Plus, they’d given me this wonderful sangria. I took another gulp.

  “Just us, sweetie. I think the boys would have gladly changed their names when they were kids,” Diana said.

  “Sonny absolutely freaks out if you call him ‘Hudson’,” Kyra responded. “And Ripley got teased for his name so much when he was younger, he made us call him Lee,” she said, sipping her drink.

  “Diana and I met at one of the first showings of ‘Aliens’ back in ’86. We were the only ones who thought Ripley would make it out alive,” she said, smiling at her partner. “She was an absolutely bad-assed motherfucker.”

  The incongruous picture of such colorful language coming from such a delicate looking woman made me laugh even harder, proof once again that I'd had too much to drink.

  “I’ll never forget hanging out at Chapel Hill Mall afterward, so jazzed over the ending and working up the nerve to ask Di if she wanted to go to the bookstore with me to see if they had the novelization of the movie,” Kyra said. She leaned over and laid a gentle kiss against her partner’s lips. “We’ve been together ever since.”

  “Uh oh,” Lee said. “You might want to cover your eyes,” he whispered in my ear.

  “Here it comes…” Said Kaine and Bishop in unison,

  “Get away from her, you bitch!” the two women yelled in unison, then promptly began kissing passionately.

  “Awww…” I said, sighing at the happy couple. “Love at first sight. That is amazing.”

  “Yeah, we think so, too,” said Lee, his voice low and rumbling, his hand resting along the back of the wooden chair I was in.

  It felt so goddamn nice to have his arm there, that for a minute I just let myself lean into him, feeling the warmth of his skin touching the back of my neck. His arm moved slightly, and I felt his finger tease slightly along my nape. Suddenly I was no longer warm, I was scorching. My skin felt electrified, like tiny little lightning bolts would shoot off anywhere our skin touched. I swallowed a moan as his breath brushed my ear.

  “You okay there, Mason?” He asked, his eyes snagging mine. There was a knowing look on his face, as if he knew exactly the kind of effect he was having on me. I could feel the heat rushing up my face as his eyes bored into mine. I could smell the slight scent of his body wash, mixed with the smells of the pizza and fruity sangria, though the sangria smell had to be me, as Lee hadn’t drunk anything except water or tea for a couple of hours now. My eyes felt snared in his gaze, their green turned a dark mossy color, the firelight reflecting glints in his eyes.

  Blood left my head at a dizzying rate, all of it heading to points south. Oh my God. I was seriously not going to pop a boner in front of Lee’s parents…

  I cleared my throat and sat up, looking away guiltily. Conversation had gone on around us, and no one else seemed to have noticed the interchange.

  Diana and Kyra yawned and stood, announcing they were calling it a night. It was after 2 a.m. and I eyed the clock on my phone in surprise. I couldn’t remember the last time I'd been out this late. I had a couple of texts from both Lizzie and Everett, but nothing looked urgent.

  Despite their protests, we all stayed long enough to help the couple clean up. As we bade our goodbyes, Kyra and Diana refused to stand on ceremony.

  “Once you’ve died on the table, you’re part of the family,” Diana said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and hugging me close. I returned their hugs, hesitantly at first, but with increasing confidence.

  They invited me back the following week, since I would still be in town. I eagerly accepted. I realized as we drove home that, oddly enough, while I usually hated social events, I found I was really looking forward to seeing them and their crazy crew again. I also began plotting how to min/max a character that I could keep alive despite Diana’s machinations.

  With as dark as it was, I didn’t know how Lee knew where to turn in bu
t before long we were pulling up the driveway to his home. We got out of the Jeep, but decided to leave the books and other promotional materials there until tomorrow. I grabbed just my backpack with my laptop in it, and I stood by his side as Lee unlocked the front door. Something made me stop him as he reached for the door handle.

  “Lee,” I said, my hand touching his arm. “Can we… Can we just sit out here, a minute?” I asked, not quite ready for the evening to end.

  He turned and looked at me, his body mostly dark against the bright light of the security light. He seemed surprised at my request, but it was hard to tell when I couldn’t read his features.

  “Sure,” he said, stepping back and taking a seat in one of the rockers.

  I realized as I sat in the other seat that these chairs were the ones he had photos of with the fiancé who had died. I still felt guilty for having inadvertently snooped in his business, but it had been an accident.

  The scents of green growing things, sun-baked rocks and the wildflowers near the drive diffused through the porch.

  “You have an amazing family,” I said, listening to the chorus of insects and other night creatures chirruping around the yard as I relaxed in my rocker.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty lucky,” he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The security light over the garage clicked off, plunging us into darkness.

  “When I think about how much other people have gone through, what a lot of kids go through today, I really feel extremely fortunate to have been born into the family I was.”

  I nodded but realized he couldn’t see me in the dark.

  “I always wanted a big family,” I said. “Hell, I would have been happy for almost any family, really.”

  “You… didn’t have anyone?” Lee asked. “No parents, grandparents…?”

  “Nah. I mean, I had my mom for a while, growing up. Her name was Navi. She was simply… amazing. Magical to me, in so many ways, but she died when I was about eleven. I lived on the streets for a little while, but the cops turned me over to CPS for stealing food from a grocery store, and they forced me to go live with my uncle and his partner.”

  My throat closed around my words, thinking about those early days with Ricky.

  “He… He wasn’t a good man.” I managed to get out, swallowing hard.

  “Wasn’t?” Lee asked, his voice sounding surprised. “Are you still in contact with them?”

  “Fuck no!” I exclaimed, then lowered my voice. “No. Not since… no. My uncle tried to kill me,” I answered, my voice trailing off. I waited for the disbelief. Most people who had heard my story couldn’t seem to get past the concept that my uncle had tried to kill me. Some had accused me of lying. Others said I was just telling the story for attention. I was kind of tense, waiting to see what response I’d get from Lee.

  “Shit…” Lee’s voice trailed off as he absorbed what I’d told him. “Your uncle…? I’m sorry, Mason. Fuck. Somehow saying ‘That sucks’ doesn’t seem to cover it.”

  I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. He believed me. Not everyone I'd shared my story with had.

  “You have people now, though, right?” he continued after a moment. “You’ve mentioned Lizzie, and Everett.”

  “Yeah. I was lucky. I mean, really lucky. Someone… someone saved me, the night my uncle tried to kill me. A literal, fucking knight in shining armor showed up and rescued me,” I said dramatically. I knew the story sounded unbelievable. Hell, it was unbelievable to me, and I’d lived it.

  “Who… who was he?” Lee asked, his own voice sounding oddly strained.

  “No clue. He kinda patched me up, called the cops, and then disappeared. They got me to a hospital. No one seemed to know who he was, and the cops never found out who… um…who he was, either.” I'd started to say “who had killed Ricky” but figured that might be a little too heavy to lay on someone like Lee. I mean, even with all his military experience, I felt sure that Lee’s life had been pretty tame compared to mine. He had no idea what life on the streets was really like, or the things a kid would do for food or money. I didn’t want him to know the things I'd done, or been forced to do, to survive. I’m not sure why his good opinion was so important to me, but it was.

  When I thought about Lee’s relative innocence, I was bit jealous. Though somehow, knowing that there were still people in the world who would have a hard time fathoming the depths of human depravity made me feel better. It was nice to know that somewhere in the world there were people who were untouched by horror.

  “It’s beautiful out here,” I said, feeling the darkness sink into my bones. “I never really thought the dark could be so… peaceful. Beautiful. It’s almost as if it has… texture. Substance. In the city, it’s never really dark,” I continued. “There’s always light of some kind, and the smells and sounds… I’ve always been big on using all five senses in my art,” I shared. “Even though my it is a visual medium, I try to find ways to visually convey sound, smell, texture.”

  “I noticed that about your work,” Lee said. “But if you think this is true dark, I need to take you to somewhere out west. You can’t see the Milky Way here,” Lee said, looking up at the stars.

  “I assume you aren’t talking about the candy bar,” I teased. “You mean, like, with a telescope, right?” I asked questioningly.

  “No… If you get someplace without a lot of light pollution, you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye,” he answered. “I have some photos in the living room I took when I was visiting some friends in Nevada.”

  “Um, I thought those were manipulated images,” I said, glad the darkness hid my burning cheeks. I'd noticed those this morning. “I didn’t think they were real.”

  “Nope, no Photoshop. One-hundred percent real. It’s a pretty amazing sight.”

  “That would be a cool thing to see,” I agreed softly.

  We waited a little bit longer, but the chill had started to sink in, too, so we decided to call it a night. We walked into the darkened house, which Lee made his way through gracefully. Me? I stubbed my toe twice and almost fell over an ottoman in the living room.

  “It’s really not fair that I’m taking your room. I can sleep on the couch,” I offered, feeling guilty for kicking him out of his own bed.

  “No way, dude,” he answered back. “That couch is super comfortable. Plus, my moms would kill me if I let a guest sleep on the couch…” he continued, though suddenly he seemed a little nervous.

  “Just, um, let me get some pajama pants, and my toothbrush, and I’ll get out of your way,” he said, opening the door to the bedroom.

  I set my backpack on the floor of the room, plugged in my phone to charge, then waited as Lee grabbed some clothes and darted into the bathroom.

  Thanking the Universe for the darkened house I surreptitiously pressed the heel of my palm against my cock, willing it to stand down. God, that man’s ass was killing me. He’d turned the light on in the bathroom and was rummaging around in one of the drawers for something. He still wore the dark blue Twin Peeks t-shirt he’d worn earlier but he’d changed into some dark wash skinny jeans when we’d gotten to his parents’ house. Those jeans did some amazing things to his ass, and just seeing him lean over to get something out of the drawer in the bathroom had my dick growing hard.

  As he popped back out of the bathroom, his arms full of clothes and toiletries, his foot caught on the strap of the backpack I’d carelessly dropped, and time seemed to slow. Lee stumbled, and for a moment I thought he was going to recover, but then his hip seemed to give out and he fell forward… squarely on top of me.

  “Shit!” we exclaimed simultaneously as our foreheads cracked together.

  11

  Lee

  “Fuck! Mason, I’m sorry! Are you okay?” I said, as my body came to rest on top of him. When I’d tripped, my fucking hip had locked up at that crucial second, and now I felt like a cartoon character that got hit on the head with a mallet and had little stars and tweetie bird
s circling my head.

  Mason must have been feeling the same, because his hard, lean body lay still under mine. I rested my weight on my elbows as I levered my weight off him, trying to convince my hip to work properly. After giving him a concussion, the least I could do was avoid crushing the life out of him…

  He lay beneath me, his dark hair spread around his head like a curly halo, his eyes closed. There was just a bit of dark scruff shadowing across his upper lip and on his chin. God, I really wanted to find out what that scruff would feel like against my lips, my thighs… Our bodies were pressed together from our chests down. I’d managed to avoid kneeing him in the balls, but one of my legs had ended up between his thighs, and as I sat up our groins rubbing together deliciously, despite the pain our heads had caused.

  “Mason?” I said louder, beginning to worry because he still hadn’t opened his eyes. I saw his throat work as he swallowed, then saw his eyes open slowly. He looked a little dazed at first, his eyes wide. I watched with fascination as the gold ring around his pupils expanded and contracted as his eyes adjusted to the light from the bathroom.

  “Are you okay?” I asked softly, one hand reaching out to stabilize his neck as my fingers cautiously began checking his forehead for damage.

  “Um, yeah, I think so,” he said, his eyes finally seeming to focus on my lips for a moment. His own lips parted and his tongue darted out to moisten them, a deep blush starting on his cheeks.

  “Are you sure? No dizziness, or nausea, or…” I stopped as I leaned forward to get a better look at his forehead, trying to make sure there hadn’t been any major damage. As I moved, I felt him gasp, his breath hitting my neck as I leaned forward. I froze, afraid I’d hurt him somehow, then realized with a start that it hadn’t been a gasp of pain, but of pleasure. Our bodies were still pressed against each other, only now we were both sporting erections that rubbed enticingly as we moved.

  “No…” he said, his voice a bit breathy. “Nothing like that,” he finished, his eyes meeting mine, his blush getting even darker. I was fascinated by that blush. I really wanted to see how far down his body it would go. My own face heated as I moved, realizing this situation was probably freaking him out.