The lakehouse and morning after.

The car pulls up a driveway to the house a short time later. It's getting dark as the two of you climb out of the vehicle and walk up toward the building. It's a cozy-looking one-story dwelling with natural-looking wood siding. You follow Junior up the steps onto the small porch that's about 6 foot wide with a guard rail. You can see it circles around the side of the house but don't have time to investigate as you hear the front door unlock. You turn back and see your host stepping inside and follow.

As he turns on the lights, you can see it's really simply decorated. The walls are all covered in dark brown lacquer wood paneling with various paintings hung about. The living room has a leather couch and two chairs each facing a small 40" TV. Junior turns toward you.

"If you follow me, I'll give you a quick tour."

You nod and follow figuring if you keep your mouth shut maybe things will go better in the morning. He takes you quickly through the kitchen, bathroom, and three bedrooms. You leave your bag in the one he says is the guest room and follow him at last to the back porch. It's a lot bigger than the one out front with room for a table and several benches with a beautiful view of the lake. You can see a set of stairs that lead down to a dock with a small motorboat bobbing in the water. He looks over at you.

"As you might guess, this is my parent's vacation home. They only come up here for a few weeks in the summer so I tend to hang out most weekends. The party will be in the basement. We'll check it out in the morning. It's the only place with a decent TV. It was a compromise because dad likes his entertainment and mom wanted a simple place. She avoids it like the plague and dad spends most of his time down there it so turns into a vacation away from each other most of the time," he smirks as he looks out over the water.

"Anyway. Help yourself to anything you like in the kitchen. You know where your room and the bathroom are. Relax and destress. . . until tomorrow at noon anyway. I'll track you down in the morning so we can discuss things," he chuckles as he walks inside and disappears down the hall.

You wait until you hear his door shut before you head back to your room, grab some sweats out of your bag, and hit the shower. Five minutes later you're back out on the porch, smoking a joint and staring out over the water. The weed doesn't calm you down any though, all you can think of is all the crazy, perverted things he might make you do tomorrow afternoon. You walk down the stairs, take one more deep drag and toss it in the water. Then head back inside to check out the one door Junior didn't take you through.

In the back of a storeroom stuffed with shelves of canned goods and booze, there is a heavy oak door. You walk up and twist the knob to find it is locked. Since this is the only place he hadn't brought you, it has to be the basement door. Weird that they hide it back here though. You nose around the room some and find everything from wine to canned ravioli but no key to be found. You play with the door long enough to be sure there was no way you could get around the lock to take a peek inside. You're not sure if he'd locked it to keep you out or if it's just normally like that. Either way, you begin to wonder if you wouldn't have been better off letting Mick take his pound of flesh.

Nothing to be done about it now, you think as you head into the kitchen and grab a beer. You spend another hour sitting on a bench and drinking it. Nature sounds sure beat the ones your noise machine generates for sleeping back at your place. Pretty soon you toss the can in the garbage and head back to bed. It's probably best to be well-rested for tomorrow. You figure you have one shot with Junior before the guys get here to try and set some sort of ground rules. You crawl into bed and open the window, letting the crickets lull you to sleep.

The next morning arrived way too soon. You wake to the sound of a vacuum cleaner right outside your bedroom. After throwing the sweats back on, you wander out of the room to see an older woman running the machine up and down the hallway. You walk down to the kitchen and help yourself to a mug of coffee from the machine someone had been kind enough to make. Once you have that ready, you wander out onto the back porch.

The view is breathtaking. You can see the early morning sun reflecting off the calm waters of the lake and various pleasure boats shuttling vacationers around. As you settle on a bench, Junior walks up the stairs from the dock. He's dressed pretty casually in a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt.

"Nice to see you finally up, Halle" he says as he looks you up and down. "I hope you have something better than that to wear. I never took you for a late sleeper though, it's almost 9:30."

"I'll change when I take my shower," you sigh. "Are we going to chat about this afternoon?"

"Eventually. Just relax for now, we have over two hours to do that, and no need to ruin your morning too early."

You wince. Yes, he definitely has plans he knows you won't like from the sounds of it.

"Sure. What's up for breakfast?"

"There's some microwave stuff in the freezer or you can cook up eggs. There should still be plenty in the 'fridge. I wouldn't wait too long on the shower. The guys won't wander in until after 12 but if the maid starts on the bathroom before you get in there, time could get tight."

With that, he walks inside leaving you to finish your coffee. You spend the next 15 minutes vegging and then head inside. You nuke a frozen breakfast sandwich from the freezer and eat it. Then you wander back out with another glass of coffee and enjoy the scenery until about 10:00 rolls around. At that point, you grab your stuff from your room and hit the shower.

You wash up ditching the sweats and throwing on a pair of tight, short jean shorts and a blue tank top. Then it's time to double braid your hair down your back. If he thinks you're spending all morning on makeup he's nuts, you think as you touch up your face just enough to even out your color a bit. You grab your clothes and toss them in your bag in the bedroom.

Passing the storeroom, you glance inside and see the oak door you were snooping at last night is open. He did say you could see it today so this seems as good a time as any to wander down and see what's up. There are only about a dozen steps until you hit the bottom, then you stick your head out the doorway and glance around.

The room looks to be about 10' wide and 15' long. The floor is covered in a deep, dark blue shag carpet. The walls and ceiling look to be covered in thick white cork panels of some sort with recessed lights set at regular intervals. To your right, there is a blue three section couch and matching recliner facing a huge TV hung on the wall. There is also a long wooden coffee table between the sofa and the TV. On the other side of the room is a pool table with two doors set in the wall beyond it. Junior looks over at you from the TV where he's playing with the settings.

"Welcome to the playroom, Halle. Nice outfit! Come on in and get comfortable. Now seems a good time to discuss how the afternoon and evening will play out."

He offers you a very smug, self-satisfied smile which makes you a bit uncomfortable. A deal is a deal though, so you **** a smile and walk over to the TV side of the room. You take a seat on the edge of the couch ready to see what he has planned and what (if any) say he's going to leave you in all this. After all, it's this or jail. It can't be worse than that can it?