Follow the River (River of Rain, #1)

by C.E. Ricci

“He’s going to be one helluv an asset to this team. You two keep up the good work. Maybe get to know him on a personal level off the field.” How about biblically, Coach? Sound like something you’d be okay with?

It’ll be nice to have River as a friend after years of being so fucking alone.

“Then let this be it. I don’t associate myself with fucking faggots. Now get the fuck out of my face before I deck you in yours.”

“You gonna call me a faggot again? A queer? A fucking twink? Well, say it all, baby. Give me everything you’ve got. Because there is nothing you can say to me I haven’t heard a hundred times over.”

“I love the way you fight me, baby. It makes the taste of your cum that much fucking sweeter.”

I find myself sitting in Coach’s truck, glaring out the front window at a motherfucking cabin. In the woods. In the mountains. In the middle of nowhere.

This is a bit extreme for college football. Just bench one of them and be done with it

I probably would have lost my mind or cut off my ear like goddamn Van Gogh before the age of twelve.

The melodrama

I just nod, attempting to accept that I am indeed being exiled to this mountain home for five. Fucking. Weeks.

It's giving The Shining vibes

“Look, Grady, it’s simple. If you think you’re lost, just follow the river.”

Because the idea of either one of us actually giving a flying shit about the other is more far fetched than flying pigs on Mars.”

What

The saying might go all good guys are either gay or married, but they forget to mention the sexiest ones are always homophobic assholes.

What

You know, methinks the lad doth protesteth too much and all that.”

This writing is so cringe

And even though I know it’s coming, nothing could prepare me for the moment he slams his cock into me, hard and fast.

Um??? This is literally rape??? HELLO?????

“I knew you’d like it rough,”

This isn't rough it's assault

The fact that I don’t have to look at your face as I pound you into the wall is the best fucking part of playing out your little fantasy.”

Ew

he pulls out suddenly, taking advantage of his already tight grip on my throat to turn me around and force me to my knees.

What the actual fuck

hating myself for letting this happen. For letting it get this far.

Bruh

I never asked for an enemy just like I never wanted to start this game, this battle of wills, with him. And all this because I’m bisexual?

not sparing me a backward glance as he begins washing his softening cock with soap on the other side of the shower.

He's washing his dick like River is the disgusting one. Fuck Rain

Shit, I’m still bleeding. From where, I have no clue. I run a hand across my forehead and shoulder, my fingers coming away bright red.

“I hate you,” I murmur dejectedly, and I don’t know if it’s the harsh truth or the greatest lie I’ve ever spoken. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t let me fuck your tight ass every day of the week and twice on Sundays if I wanted it.”

This went beyond a sexual experience about mutual pleasure. This was vile, sadistic, and just… degrading.

It's spelled r-a-p-e.

I wait until I hear the click of the door latching shut before I curl into myself and sob. Cold, mangled, and defeated.

What the fuck have I done?

Sexual assault

The word rape plays around in the back of my mind, but deep down, I know I could have stopped it if I wanted.

It has nothing to do with stopping it. It's how he started it.

I don’t like guys, let alone want to shove my cock in any of their fucking orifices.

Dude it's really gotten old. Shut up

Besides, when it comes to the usage of Mean Girls references, the limit does not exist.

I'm at my fucking limit with this book

And yeah, does it suck the first time he was inside my body, the first time we had sex, my consent was dubious at best? Yeah, it sucks a whole damn lot. But neither of us can change it at this point. What’s done is done.

Bruh

How can you stare into something so blue and not just drown in its depth?” He pauses and slips away from me, my hands with the painting falling from around his neck and onto my lap. His gaze searches mine for a second before he continues in the softest whisper, searing my heart entirely. “The color…it reminded me of your eyes.”

And I’m done letting my thoughts of you drive me mad. To send me to the brink of becoming the kind of person who…” He doesn’t finish his thought, but he doesn’t need to in order for me to know. Fights people. Hurts people… Rapes people.

“I just wanted to make you shut up by making you fall.” I’m starting to think you have…in more ways than one.

“River and I are also kind of…” Rain trails off, biting the inside of his cheek in search of the correct word. “...together?” “Remove the question mark off the end of that sentence, and yeah, that’s accurate,”

“You’re afraid of love, knowing what it feels like to have what you thought was unconditional love ripped away. Turning your life upside down in the process. River, you’re afraid of loving someone, only for them to not love you enough to stay.”

“You Me At Six’s ‘Loverboy.’”

Okay that song is a fucking bop though. One of my all-time favorite bands

He didn’t get your first kiss. He didn’t get to be the first person to make your heart leap in your chest when you saw him. He didn’t get to be your first love. And he most definitely won’t get a single one of your lasts,”

Worse than Thanos getting all six Infinity Stones bad.

Ugh

But submission isn’t in my nature. Only sometimes, and only ever for him.

My heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of my chest to get to his. If only to let his know mine has never felt so completely whole. I love you.

“You have me. You will always have me. Until every star in the night sky burns out. And maybe even then.”

let alone the guy who became my sworn enemy.

Enough

“Did you lose your mind, Ciaráin Grady?” He gives me a smirk before answering Coach, all the while holding my gaze. “Sure did, Coach. I lost my mind and found my soul.”

Brother eugh

We’re not enemies anymore. We’re something much worse than that. Strangers.

Good. Stay that way