It feels like I can't breath, like I'm suffocating and drowning under water.

I try to scream but I can't seem to get the words out.

He forces me down against the bed pining me down and I can't move. No one can hear me, it's just me and him in this dark scary room.

Tears start falling as I try repeatedly telling him to stop to no avail. He shushes me as he pushes into me, and the pain is unbearable.

"Please stop!" I beg helplessly.

To him it's a game.

"What? Am I too big for you?" Braden replies showing no mercy. I hate how I feel in this moment. I hate what he does to me. The way he treats me makes me want to crawl up in a ball and die.

Every time I try to scream it's just air that comes out. What is happening? Why can't I scream?

Let me out! I hate this let me out! Please I hate this dream let me out!

"STOP LET ME OUT!" I sit up in my bed bawling breathing heavily. I hug my bent legs and bury my face in my knees.

"George? George what's wrong" I hear a faint whisper from beside me.

I pick my head up slightly to look over to my side to see Clay rubbing one of his eyes as he sits up.

Shit I didn't mean to wake him.

"Nothing, go back to bed" I try to sound confident but can't help my shaky voice as I speak.

"It doesn't sound like nothing" he says lowly and reaches over to pull me into his chest which causes me to fully loose it and I can't control the stream of tears that fall down my cheeks. He lies us back down and I grab tightly onto his waist while my head is lying on his bare chest. He starts lightly playing with my hair just letting me let it all out.

"Shh shh, it's okay it was just a dream, you're okay" he repeats softly and it calms me down after awhile.

He continues to run his fingers through my hair as my breathing starts to even out.

"Sorry" I mumble and loosen my grip on him, feeling the embarrassment after having just broke down in front of him.

"Don't be sorry, you're okay" he coos.

I don't know what to respond so I stay silent.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks cautiously.

"It's- it's dumb" I hesitate. He knows it's hard for me to open up about my feelings but I want to try with him.

"I'm sure it's not"

"Um, well I've been having these uh dreams ever since..." I trail off not wanting to say it out loud.

He seems to understand what I am trying to tell him, he nods above me and moves from my hair to the my back, rubbing soothing circles into my skin. It makes me want to open up even more and tell him everything about me. He is being so compassionate and caring, I've never had something like this before.

"He holds me down and I can't breath and he just mocks me while- while he hurts me an- and forces me to do things" My eyes starts watering again when I start speaking about it.

He lifts my chin up with his other hand so I am looking up at him, "I'm sorry you're having these dreams and I'm sorry he ever laid a finger on you, but I promise you he never will again, okay?"

I nod, "okay"

He leans down and kisses my forehead, letting go of my face and I return to my previous position on his chest. "Now try and get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow"

"Clay?"

"George"

"Can I.. Um sleep here?" I ask feeling comfortable in his arms.

"Of course" he says through a small smile and pulls me even closer to him.

"Thank you" I whisper before shutting my eyes.

I wake up to the sound of a blaring alarm sounding obnoxiously loud and Clay groaning above me, stretching his arm out to shut the alarm off.

"Get up, it's showtime!" He says through a yawn.

I roll off his stomach and face the other way, keeping my eyes shut, "five more minutes" I say with my face smooched into my pillow.

"No! No five more minutes we have got to get ready" He argues throwing a pillow at me.

"What the hell? Why do you have so much energy it's like six am" I say through furrowed brows.

He stands up from the bed and starts shadow boxing the air, "cause it's that athlete life and if you're not up for it then you won't make it far in college"

"What are you my dad?" I ask sarcastically, slowly getting up from the bed.

"Woah woah Davidson I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff or else I would have had you calling me daddy last time we fucked" He says boldly and my face immediately heats up.

"You're disgusting" I say shaking my head and pushing past him to get to the shower first.

"Uh no, I was up first so I get the shower first" he chases after me.

"Ugh just let me shower first" I groan running a hand across my face.

"Look if you're really that impatient you can join me" he suggest smirking down at me.

"I hate you" I say rolling my eyes and leaving the washroom.

"Oh come on now" he chuckles.

After we finish getting ready I get a text from Ben asking where I would like to go grab breakfast.

I respond and lie telling him that I was going with Clay instead because he didn't want to be alone. I don't know why I did that but I kind of wanted to be with Clay this morning.

I pocket my phone and continue walking down the street with him, "alright so where do you wanna eat?" I ask.

He shrugs beside me, "Starbucks"

"What type of food can we get there?" I scoff, I thought he wanted to be all healthy.

"I don't know a sandwich or something, I need a coffee to wake me up" He says while pulling the door of the restaurant open and doesn't hold it for me.

"Really" I roll my eyes and swing the door fully open. "You literally have so much energy"

"Still need my coffee"

"That's not very healthy of you"

"Hey where's that friend of yours?" He asks curiously out of the blue. We approach the line and there's only a few other people standing in front of us.

I scratch the back of my neck thinking of a reply, "oh uh he said he wanted to sleep in" I lie through my teeth.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup" I desperately wrack my brain for a different topic of conversation.

"Bullshit" he says through a breathy laugh.

"What?" I ask puzzled snapping my neck in his direction. We are now suddenly at the front of the line which I didn't even realize till Clay started telling the worker his order. He asked me what I wanted and I ordered the same sandwich as him but with a refresher instead of a coffee because I don't want my stomach to hurt before the games today.

Clay pays for me.

"Here how much was it? I'll pay you back" I say rummaging through my wallet.

He waves me off and shakes his head, "I saw you texting him earlier" he says calmly taking a sip of his drink and heading to a nearby table to sit down.

"Stalker" I joke and sit down.

"Why'd you lie?" he cocks his head to the side like he's mocking me. I struggle to maintain eye contact with the look he is giving me so I fumble with my sandwich and start opening it keeping my eyes locked towards it. "Cause you're annoying"

"No why'd you lie to him, I would have gladly gone alone" he says a smile pulling at the sides of his mouth.

I roll my eyes.

"I was hungry and wanted to hurry up and eat" I lie again.

"Whatever you say Davidson" he says unconvinced.

"Why what's the reason you think I lied, enlighten me" I say my voiced laced with annoyance.

"I think, well I know it's because you want to hang out with me" he expresses confidently.

I turn pink. I mean he's not technically wrong I just don't want to admit it.

He laughs and takes a sip of his drink when I don't reply, "don't worry George, I want to hang out with you too" he says and when I look up to meet his glare he gives me a soft smile to which I return.

The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly. After that Clay and I continued our conversation and joked about who out of the other guys we thought would be terrible and dumb game plans we could do to make ourselves look good even though it was likely we wouldn't be put on the same team.

The practices were extremely difficult and we had to pass several endurance tests to prove how in shape we were. The quarterbacks didn't have to do them since they don't run as much as the other people on the field so instead they had to pass some throwing tests to see how far and accurate they were.

After that we played a scrimmage and they divided the group of guys into two teams, Ben and Clay obviously being on opposite teams since they're both playing in the same position and I was on Ben's team since they tried to have us all play with new people we have never played with.

Ben is a good quarterback but I definitely would rather have Clay since he knows how I play and our chemistry on the field is like no other.

After that we went to shower and had dinner again to which we all had to share our favourite part of the practice and then we went back to the rooms.

"Holy fuck I'm tired" I say and lie down with my back flat on the bed.

"Eh, I'm not, we should go out!" Clay responds enthusiastically.

I pick my head up from the bed and prop myself on my elbows, "Please, it's because you didn't have to do any runs, your session was easy. And we can't go out they would kill us." I state firmly.

"Georgeee" he whines and lies down beside me, "why are you so boring?"

I shake my head, "you're an idiot"

He turns to face me, lying on his side. I lie back down still on my back and turn my head to look at him.

"What?" I say nervously. I hate silences.

He reaches up and pushes hair behind my ear, "I have something fun in mind that doesn't require us to go out" he half whispers, his eyes falling to my lips.

I take a deep inhale, "and what would that be?" I ask with false innocence.

"Use that head of yours pretty boy" he smirks.