Lodge 4 Ch 01

Note: This story is mainly oriented around setting the story up for later installments, so it will take a while for the sex to get started as a result of getting the story told. Thanks for your co-operation.

*****

"Four threes," James stated slowly, lowering his cup back over his dice, his hand having obscured my view of them.

I looked under my cup. 1, 3, 3, 5, 5. He could easily have a pair of threes himself. I lowered my cup, and declared, "Five threes!"

"Liar!" James lifted his cup, revealing his dice, and I simultaneously lifted mine.

James' dice consisted of 1, 1, 2, 4, 5. No threes at all! I'd been fooled!

"Haha!" James gloated, "Got you that time, you little bastard!" He rolled his 20-sided die over to 14, representing his score.

We had been playing Liar's Dice for the past 20 minutes or so, just after we got into the lodge we were staying at for the weekend. It was a sizeable lodge, enough beds for four people, a rather large living room with an open-walled kitchen and a bath that could actually fit me in (being 6ft 2in, I have difficulty fitting comfortably into the slightly smaller bath at home).

We were only here for two nights, and in between, we had booked ourselves onto some rock climbing and abseiling, and the rest would be filled with walks around the countryside surrounding us.

James and I had been friends since we met nearly 9 years ago in the first year of high school, and shared a lot of interests, most notably video games, card games and archery, both of us members of a local club.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "I'll go," James said, standing up and approaching the door.

I made my way to the kitchen, and opened our food bag. We'd brought some large packs of tortilla chips, salsa and sour cream dips, cheddar cheese (these for combining and making nachos later on), pork pies, cocktail sausages, 2l bottles of pop, a crate of 333ml bottles of cider, a tupperware of pineapple and a few apples.

Just as I opened the cocktail sausages, James called to me from the doorway "Gary! Could you come here a minute?"

"What is it?" I replied, slinking my fingers into the container and slipping out a couple of sausages.

"Just come here,"

I sighed, "Right!" and made my way to the door.

James stood aside and gestured towards the small group of girls gathered at the door. Five of them, each with a backpack, sunglasses perched on her head, and each with magnificent bodies. Two of them were blonde, one brunette, one redhead, and one with jet black hair.

I leant against the doorframe, opposite James, "Hi," I greeted the girls, raising my sausage-free hand as I did so, "What can we do for you?"

The blonde girl at the front replied, seemingly rather cross about something, "You can leave, for a start!"

I glanced at James, confused, shooting him a 'What have you said, man?' expression.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, not understanding what was going on.

"We have this lodge for the weekend. We booked it online a month ago."

"I don't think so. We booked this lodge online a month ago!"

"Uh-uh!" the girl reached into her pocket and withdrew a folded sheet of paper.

I took it from her outstretched hand and unfolded it. It was a print-out of a web-page, showing details of the booking of the lodge. There was a map stapled to it, and the print-out showed a picture of the lodge, the booking number and the date of the print-out, dating back to the start of July.

"Hang on a moment," I tapped James on the arm and beckoned him back with me so I could talk to him privately. He complied.

"Dude, what is that? What did she give you?" he asked in a whisper.

"It's a print-out of a the website form confirming the booking of this lodge for this weekend. Reference number, date of printing, there's even a map to the site!"

I showed him the pages that the girl had given me, and he eyed them over.

"Where's our receipt?"

"In the small backpack, front pouch,"

James took a step over to the foot of the stairs, where we had slung the bags when we arrived, and unzipped the front compartment on the smaller of the three bags. The larger hiking bags contained a change of clothes for each of us, as well as toiletries and spare bags. The smaller one was a shared bag for miscellaneous items, such as packs of cards, dice bags, books and bottles of water for when we were out walking.

James returned with our print-out, and returned to the door.

"Look, here's our booking form," I handed our print-out to the lead girl, and watched her eyes flit across the page. She looked back up at me with a befuddled look on her face.

*****

"Look, I'm sorry, but it seems that Lodge 4 has indeed been double booked," the receptionist turned her monitor towards us so we could see it, "See, what's happening here is that our computers are telling us that Miss Green should have the lodge for this weekend..."

"Yes! I knew it!" Miss Green, the lead girl, thumped the deck with her fist in triumph, smirking at the receptionist's verdict.

The receptionist was sat with a 'do you mind?' look on her face. Calm, but moderately pissed off, "If you'd let me finish...", Miss Green apologised, and the receptionist continued. "The computer shows us on the screen that Miss Green and her four guests should be this weekend's occupants of Lodge 4, however, if we put Mr Lang's booking reference number into the database, it tells us that he did book and pay for Lodge 4 for two nights. If we check when each booking was made, Mr Lang booked at least an hour before you did, Miss Green."

"But when I booked, the lodge was available. If they booked it first, why was I allowed to?"

"I dunno, but looks like someone made a mistake with the booking entry," the receptionist swung the screen back towards her.

Miss Green sighed angrily, "Okay, so who gets the lodge?"

"Well, I go by what I'm told on the screen," the receptionist clicked the mouse a couple of times as she said that, and nudged the screen back towards us, "But the screen tells me two different things. Main screen tells me that you have the lodge, Miss Green, but Mr Lang still has a legitimate booking made just before yours. There is not another lodge available, so you'll have to decide amongst yourselves, or go to a coin toss."

"I think we should talk about this for a while," I suggested, "Both of us have legitimate claims to the lodge, so a coin toss seems a bit unreasonable in making a decision,"

"Agreed," the black haired girl said, before picking up her bag and slinging it on her shoulder, "Let's go back to the lodge and discuss it there,"

Miss Green frowned at her own party siding with my suggestion, but complied, "Okay, we'll do that," she turned to the receptionist, "Thank you for your time,"

"Don't mention it. After you've made a decision, if you come back here, we can set you up at the Bed and Breakfast down the road," the receptionist turned back to her computer screen, and as we left the building, we heard the sound of keys rattling behind us.

*****

"I don't think we can do that," the redhead said, "There are too many of us to fit into a B&B on such short notice!"

"I see where you're coming from, but what about the money we spent on booking this lodge? I doubt it equates to the cost of a B&B for either of our parties, so what about the rest of our money? Do we get it refunded?" James asked, leading to a general murmur of agreement in the room.

"Agreed. I don't think the costs would add up," Miss Green concurred, "And what if we don't get our money back? What then?"

"Look, I say there are more of us, so we could make better use of the lodge than you can," the redhead added. "You two can probably get a single room down at the B&B,"

"Well yeah, but how much does a single B&B room cost versus this?" I gestured around the room, "I'd say we wouldn't be getting our money's worth. Any of us."

"What if we all stay?" the black haired girl suggested, "Everybody stays in the lodge, everybody gets what they paid for. Sorted."

"Yeah, why not?" the second blonde agreed.

"I somehow doubt management would approve of that," I retorted, taking a sip of my cider, "I don't think they'd let seven people cohabit a single lodge, let alone two parties sharing a lodge."

"Fuck them then," the black haired girl dismissed, much to the amusement of her fellows, "I'll go down and tell the clerk you've left, we hide your bags in our bags, and you're sorted. None of us will be back here during the day either, so they won't notice,"

"Well, I'm sure they'd notice us coming and going, despite having 'left' the premises to stay at the B&B down the road," James responded, helping himself to the last cocktail sausage.

"Just go through the back and go round the outside. Or say that since you'd expected to have been here, you planned where to go from here as a central point."

The room fell silent for a moment.

"Nah, doesn't quite work," James said, "Seems a bit suspicious to me,"

"Well have you got a better idea?" the black haired girl asked.

James looked upwards in thought, and pursed his lips. "Okay, you win, let's go with that!"

"Everybody happy with that?"

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, and a gentle mutter of concensus was heard.

"All right, since we're all living together for the next couple of days, we'll need to know names. I'm Cassie," the black haired girl gestured to herself, then went clockwise through the rest of the girls, "This is Alex, Jess, Kate and Beth."

Alex was the redhead, a few freckles dotting her face, her hair just past shoulder-length and slightly wavy, about 5ft 8in tall, wearing skinny jeans and a baggy long sleeved green top, which tapered into a point at her navel. Jess was the brunette, about 6ft tall with back-length straight hair, black skirt and a black vest top showcasing her large breasts magnificently.

Kate and Beth Green were the blondes of the group. Kate was about 5ft 4in tall, with her hair shoulder length and pushed back by a black hair band. She was wearing some skinny jeans and a loose fitting AC/DC t-shirt. Beth sported short jaw-length hair, skinny jeans and a short-sleeved shirt with a tight fitting lilac cardigan.

Cassie had long, black wavy hair which reached the middle of her back, and wore a black knee length skirt, what seemed to be a tight red top underneath, and a black shawl.

"Okay, let's see if I got this right," James said pointing at each girl in turn, "Cassie...Alex...Jess...Kate and Beth?"

"Yup, spot on," Cassie gave him a thumbs up, "Now what are your names?"

"I'm Gary," I gestured to myself, as Cassie had done, "And this is James."

"Okay, simple enough," Alex said. "Gary and James,"

"Right, now the important bit's out the way, I'm gonna go to the reception and check us out, and move the car down the road." I said, standing up and grabbing my coat. "You guys close the curtains and put our bags somewhere safe."

*****

It took me at least an hour to get back to the lodge, at which point I clocked the time at 21:30, approximately. The receptionist from earlier was still on, and I was referred to the B&B down the road, and given a pamphlet about it. No sniff or a whisper of a refund!

When I got back, the door was locked, so I knocked on it, and was let in by Cassie. Everyone was sat around the table, with an empty seat where Cassie had been sitting.

"What's going on, folks?" I asked, curiously.

"Texas Hold'em," Alex replied. "Have you played before?"

"Yeah, of course," I replied. "Deal me in for the next hand,"

"Will do, but we're having a break after I've won this one!" Alex grinned.

"Okay, throwdown, guys!" Beth announced, as everyone left in revealed their hands. Beth looked over the cards and calculated best hands for everyone. "It's close, but James wins with a 5-9 flush! Sorry, Alex!"

"Aaaaw damn! 4-8 flush!" Alex thumped the table in disdain.

"Okay, break time! 10 minutes, go!" Beth dismissed everyone as she collected the cards back up.

I made a beeline for the kitchen and the crate of cider before anyone else got there. I got to the fridge, and found that the cider had been de-crated and stacked on the top shelf of the fridge, with some lager and other beers on the other shelves. In the door sat two 4 pint bottles of milk.

Convenient. I grabbed a bottle off the top shelf, and shut the fridge door. As I turned around to get the bottle opener out of the drawer, I found Cassie blocking my way.

"Hi," she smiled cheerily.

"Hi," I responded, holding up my bottle, "Can I just squeeze past and get the bottle opener?"

"Sure, sorry," she stepped aside, brushing her hair over her shoulder nervously. "So, what brings you here? Holiday?"

"Yeah," I replied, cracking open my cider, and tossing the cap into the bin, "There was gonna be a third one this trip, but he's been having problems with his girlfriend, so had to stay back and sort it out."

"I see," Cassie leant back on the counter, "What kind of girl trouble?"

"The cheating kind," I replied, taking a sip from the bottle. Oooooh nice and cold!

"Oh. Lot of arguments then?"

"Yep," I took another sip.

"You have those types of arguments?"

"Nope. Not had anyone to fight with for a good while."

"And James?"

"Not for a couple of months," I took a slightly bigger sip of my cider, "Yourself?"

"Only once, back in high school," Cassie replied, rather solemnly, "There was this guy who fancied me. A lot. He was incredibly socially awkward, in the sense that he was too forward about it, and wouldn't take 'No' for an answer, and asked me at least three times a day, every day for a month,"

"Wow!" I exclaimed, "That's dedication, if nothing else!"

"Anyway, after what must have been the millionth time he'd asked, I snapped, and told him to stop asking me out or I'd tie his balls to separate teams of sled dogs and tell them 'Mush!',"

I laughed, almost gagging on the mouthful of cider I was in the process of swallowing, must to Cassie's amusement. After regaining my composure, and refraining from laughing until I'd swallowed my cider, I was able to speak again, "Did he stop?"

"Yup," Cassie grinned triumphantly, "However, it was also enough to deter other boys from asking me out. I think they were afraid of receiving the same treatment,"

"Any better since high school?"

"No, I'm sure my friends told some of their friends at college about it, and the story spread around. People I'd never even met before knew about it. It was torture. I dropped out of the college and applied to another one, where I met Kate, Beth, Alex and Jess."

"Wow, sounds rather hectic."

"Yeah. We've just completed our second year, so we saved up and came out for a bit of a girly weekend. Hasn't quite gone to plan so far, but I'm not complaining."

I paused a moment to look at Cassie, "Really? Me neither. This might be fun. Got more people to talk to, new people at that. And more people for card games and what have you."

"Is that really what comes to your mind when you're sharing a lodge with five young women for a weekend?"

I hesitated again, thinking before I answered, trying to be careful not to offend Cassie, "Yes," I sipped my cider again. Well, I say sipped...

"Break's over! Places, everyone!" Beth called out.

"You're a terrible liar," Cassie grinned, and moved back to the table, passing close by me, locking her eyes into mine as she passed. I felt like I'd just looked into Medusa's gaze, and once more, for a brief moment, felt like I'd been turned to stone.

*****

I was woken by the rattle of bottles as the fridge door was opened. My eyes flickered as they opened, readjusting themselves to consciousness.

The lone light of the fridge illuminated the room, glazing the furniture and bench-top kitchen appliances, as well as the silhouetted figure peering into it.

I got up, leaving my blanket on the couch as I rose and made my way to the kitchen, trying not to disturb James, who was slumbering on the area rug beside the couch.

As I approached the kitchen, the figure rose from the fridge, brandishing the bottle of milk and a glass. She used her leg to prop the door open, leaving both hands free to pour herself a glass of milk.

She put the glass down on the counter above the fridge, reaffixed the lid, and replaced the bottle before closing the fridge door.

"Hey," I whispered, causing her to jump in fright, making an audible gasp, before she chuckled.

"Hey," she said, hushed, "How come you're not asleep?"

"I was woken by the fridge light," I explained, "How about you?"

"Couldn't sleep," she explained, "Alex kept rolling on top of me in her sleep. Difficult to drift off when you have someone who can't sleep still sharing a bed with you."

"Ah you're in the double bed?"

"Yep," she replied. In the dim light, I saw her glass of milk rise up to her face and get tilted as she drank. "Me, Alex and Jess sharing. Beth and Kate were least willing to get in the double, so they took the two single beds in the other room,"

James began snoring behind me, and I heard him shuffling about on the rug as he adjusted himself.

"So how is it sharing a bed with two of your friends?"

"I was optimistic about it at first, thought it'd be fun and different, but Alex is a really energetic sleeper. It's ridiculous how much she moves around," Cassie took another drink of her milk.

"Just out of curiosity," I moved a bit closer to Cassie in the darkened kitchen, "Why did you suggest that we all stay here this weekend? You could have easily let myself and James go to the B&B, and you'd have the lodge to yourselves, and have the girly weekend you were here for,"

Cassie was silent for a moment, and downed the remnants of her milk, and put her glass in the sink. She remained hunched over the sink for a good while before turning back towards me, "Because..." she began, stumbling over her words slightly. She took a deep breath before continuing, "If I tell you, will you promise not to tell anyone else?"

I glanced behind me as James snorted and shifted again on the rug. "Yes, I promise."

Cassie took a step towards me, "Okay," she took a deep breath and sighed, "Because I think you're attractive,"

"Really?" I asked, slightly flustered and taken aback by Cassie's revelation, not having expected anyone as good looking as her to be interested in someone like me.

"Really," Cassie affirmed, "and I was hoping that if we spent some time together, maybe you'd like me, too,"

"Well, I'm not afraid of you using sled dogs to pull my balls off," I told her, jokingly, and felt her hand on my shoulder, then feel its way up the nape of my neck to the back of my head.

I then felt Cassie's lips press against mine as she pulled me into a kiss, a slight, gentle kiss, which only lasted a few seconds before she broke it.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thi..." I kissed her before she could finish speaking, a deeper, more passionate kiss, her mouth opening, and mine reacting to match it, our tongues pushing forward into each others' mouths and exploring, snaking, probing each other's mouths for the first time.

Cassie broke the kiss, panting for breath, "Wow!" she gasped, leaning her head forward so our foreheads touched, and we shared chuckle. Cassie shushed us, as not to wake the others, and we laughed noiselessly.

Suddenly, we heard the stairs creak as someone descended them. Hurriedly, Cassie grabbed me and pulled me to the corner of the kitchen, where there was a cupboard housing cleaning products, and pulled us both into the cramped space, pulling the door to behind us.

"Cassie, what are you...?"

"Shh-sh-sh-sh!" Cassie urged, as we sat crouched behind the door as the footsteps of the girl approached. The fridge door opened and the light shone through the slats, illuminating the girl's short blonde hair, and some of Cassie in the cupboard.