Rainfall Part 1

[redkage]

Rainfall
1

“Looks like its raining.” Someone said.

I turned my head towards the window. Sure enough, there was a steady downpour outside the office window. I smiled as I watched the raindrops fall. I’m one of those few, messed up people who just love the rain. Quickly, I finished my work so I could head home before it lets up.

My name is Bryce Summers. I’m twenty four years of age, my ethnicity is white, I have some rather busy eyebrows with a mop of brown on my head that I call hair. I’m six foot even, a hundred and fifty pounds and I work for a magazine company. Sure, it may sound like a great job, but all I do is proofread and buy the donuts.

Oh, and I’m gay and currently single.

Luckily for me all of my work buddies are okay with me being gay and everything. It used to be hard for me to find a job that I could fit in comfortably, but I think I finally found one that suited me just fine. I wrote a few good essays in college, and somehow that lead me to take the path of a writer. I haven’t been able to publish anything, though. My work lacked true passion, a sense of direction…or so my editor tells me.

I finally reach the last page of the article I had been reading. It was very well written, and there had been only three typos and grammatical errors. I stood up and stretched my tired muscles, which, I like to admit, were nice and defined. I used to play a bit of basketball in my high school and ever since then I did my best to keep my body nice and fit.

I took the corrected paper and tossed it into the editor’s box and headed out. I considered going outside without my umbrella to enjoy the fine weather, but my clothes were relatively new so I decided to use it anyways.

Outside, the world seemed to have turned into a large, grey mass. The dark clouds blocked every bit of sunlight from streaming in, and there was a sea of black umbrellas moving at a rapid pace to either get where they were headed in a hurry, or to get out of the rain as soon as possible. Cars whizzed by, their lights flashing and illuminating the raindrops before they crashed against steel, glass or concrete, shattering into a million drops of water and eventually gathering in a giant pool or puddle. Occasionally, thunder rumbled overhead like a large drum being struck by a giant. Lightning would streak across the black clouds, illumination it in shades of purple, violet and grey.

As I opened my bright red umbrella I couldn’t help but smile. How could people possibly call a rain dreary, or a thunderstorm frightening? It was full of all sorts of life, just lurking in the darkness and noise. As I walked into the crowd, I could actually picture my red umbrella shining in the sea of black.

As I walked leisurely, taking my time getting home, I saw a hot dog stand off to the side of the road where the vendor waited sourly. For some reason, the rain always made me hungry so I decided to buy a hot dog. I got a polish sausage, my all time favorite meat sandwiched in a bun. I began to put my condiments on in a strict procedure I have followed for thirteen years. See, the trick of a good dog is to not let the wrong condiment touch each other. The vendor gave me a look as I carefully made sure that the ketchup didn’t go near the onions or the mustard with the relish and sauerkraut. By the time I was done, the hotdog was now twice as high as it had been before. I take a bite and let all of the many flavors mix and merge inside my mouth in the right order, giving me a different taste as I chew.

Enjoying my work of art, I continue on home. As I came to my third stoplight, however, some idiot in a red corvette slammed on the breaks just a little too late. The wheels locked and the entire car slid on the wet asphalt, crashing into a white Toyota Camry, which in turn crashed into a black Buick. And after a whole ten seconds the pedestrians began to ignore it like it was completely normal.

I stood there on the curb and watched as the three drivers jumped out of their respective cars and began yelling at each other. Shaking my head, I decided to take another route home since the walkway was now blocked off by the car wreck. Some people were just so emotionless these days. They had just witnessed a car accident right in front of their eyes and they didn’t even flinch. Even the drivers themselves had been more worried about the state of their cars then to check to see if the other people had been injured.

Personally, I blame those violent television programs.

As I walked while reflecting on society’s lack of caring, I almost didn’t see him until I was almost right on him.

The person I was referring about was a bum sitting in the gutter off to the side of the road. I know that’s not a nice thing to call someone down on his luck, but I don’t know what else to call him. The bum had an old, filthy blanket wrapped around him and his shaggy head hung low. He looked rather bulky underneath that blanket, but I couldn’t say for sure.

Not wanting to make eye contact, I set my face and gaze straight ahead, fully intending to pass him by as quickly as possible. The moment I reached him, however, I heard a low growling sound coming from the bum’s stomach and stopped.

A moment ago I was looking down on those people for being so heartless, and now here I was about to walk by a starving homeless guy while eating a hot dog! Since when did I turn into such a hypocrite?

I forced myself to turn and face the unlucky guy. He acted as if he didn’t to notice me but that growling stomach told me that he knew that my hotdog was right in front of him.

“Here.” I said, crouching down and offering my half eaten hot dog to the guy.

The bum lifted his head and what I saw took me by surprise.

He was so [i]young[i]! Barely a senior in his high school, I guessed. And he was handsome to boot! No, wait. Handsome wasn’t the right word. Sure, he had a pretty face, with a perfectly set nose, square jaw, smooth tan skin and perfectly blue eyes. But that wasn’t what caught me. If anything, this face was…well…innocent.

The kid looked at the hot dog. Then up at me. Then back at the hot dog. I could tell he was itching to take it, and the increased growling told me his stomach wanted it as well.

“Go on kid, take it.” I said, smiling as I moved my hot dog closer to him.

The kid began to move and his hand appeared from behind the blanket. My eyebrows rose in surprise at how big that hand was. It could easily enclose over my own hand completely.

The kid looked a bit uncertain as he held out his hand, as if trying to decide if I was playing with his mind or not. To clear those uncertainties I gave him my best smile and placed my hot dog into his open hand. With that done, I stood up and began walking away.

After I had taken about five steps, I dared to look back. The kid had almost finished eating the hot dog already. His face was so full of happiness, like it was the best thing to ever happen to him. It may have been just the rain, but I could have sworn that a tear fell down his cheek. At that point I felt my heart melt, and I knew I couldn’t just walk away without doing something else for the kid.

Taking a deep breath, I turned myself back around and marched straight for him. The kid notices this and probably thought that I had changed my mind. Instead of running away or protecting it, however, the kid merely holds out what's left of the hot dog towarded me to give it back.

“No, I don’t want it anymore.” I said, touched by his willingness to return what I had given him. “But…would you like to go home with me? You can stay at least until the rain lets up a bit.”

He stared at me as if to determine if I was for real. His hand was literally trembling as his deep blue eyes gazed into my green ones. People always told me I had kind, honest eyes, but I could feel myself getting lost in his. It was so sad that someone like him ended up like this

“Well kid?” I asked. “Are you coming?”

The kid nods and pushes himself up…and up…and up! At full height, I had to bend my neck back to look at his face. Damn, this kid was over seven feet high! The blanket was still draped over his shoulders so I couldn’t see what build the kid had on his frame, but from what I could see the guy wasn’t a skinny rail, that I can say for sure.

I gave a slightly nervous cough. “Well then, shall we be off then?”

The guy nodded, and I led the way to my apartment building three blocks away. It wasn’t much, just an ordinary three storied brick building. We passed through the glass front door and out of habit I jogged up the stairway. It wasn’t until I reached the top floor that I realize that my new friend may not be in top physical condition to keep up with me, so I turned around to check.

And there he was, right behind me. He didn’t seem to have any problems running up the stairs. In fact, he moved with a certain grace that made him look like he was flying up those steps. Well, at least the kid was healthy I guess.

We went down the hallway until we came to my door. After fumbling with the keys a bit, I opened it and invited the kid in. The guy hesitated for a bit, but then went in anyways. He had to duck slightly to make it through the doorway, I noticed.

My apartment was about as ordinary as any other. Medium sized living room with a chair and a couch facing the TV, a small simple kitchen off to the side and two doors at the far end that led to my bedroom and bathroom.

“Go ahead and sit down.” I motioned towards the couch. The kid walked over and sat down a bit nervously, as if expecting something was going to happen to him.

“Don’t worry kid; I’m not some sort of psycho or anything.” I laughed. “Would you like something hot to drink? Coffee maybe?”

The kid nodded. I went over to my kitchen and filled the kettle with water and set it on the stove to boil. As I reentered the living room, I finally remembered that I hadn’t even introduced myself or asked the kid for his name.

“Er, sorry, I completely forgot to tell you my name.” I said a bit awkwardly. “My name is Bryce. Bryce Summers.”

The kid nods his head slightly, but remained silent.

“So…what’s your name?”

The kid remained silent.

“Um…you don’t have to tell me your name if you don’t want to.” I said, feeling a bit more awkward.

The kid shook his head. He opened his mouth, but surprisingly no sound came out. His lips and tongue were moving, I could see that, but no words were being formed.

I frowned. “Wait…it isn’t that you don’t want to tell me your name, it’s that you can’t tell me, am I right?”

The kid nodded strongly.

Did he have Laryngitis maybe? Or perhaps the kid was born a mute? Either way, I didn’t think it would be right to just call him ‘kid’ only. If the kid couldn’t tell me directly, then it meant that I would have to use other means of communications.

I went back into the kitchen and pulled out the pad of paper as well as a pencil from a drawer. I walked back into the living room and held them out to the guy. “Can you write it?”

The kid nodded and accepted the pad and pencil. I found it amusing how the kid was holding the two relatively small objects in those big maws he called hands. He scribbled on the pad a bit and then handed it back to me. I took the pad and looked at the words inscribed.

Hello, my name is Reynard Frost,
But you may address me as Ray.
Thank you so much for your hospitality
And for giving me shelter from the rain.

I was surprised by the kid’s vocabulary and small, tidy handwriting. You really can’t judge a book by it’s cover I thought as I looked back at Ray. I expected more of a scrawl and some poorly phrased words, but this was quite the opposite. It was then I noticed that Ray was still wrapped in that dirty wet blanket.

“How about I get something for you to wear, Ray?” I offered. “You must be soaked to the bone.”

Ray nods and begins to remove his blanket as I turned and headed for my room. I went to my dresser and began rummaging through it for some suitable clothes for Ray to wear. After some digging I was able to produce a large blue t-shirt, some musty grey sweatpants and an old knit sweater that I never wore due to the horrible pattern on it. I felt like I was somehow being a little cheap about this, but this selection was the best I could come up with that I assumed would fit Ray.

I gathered up my findings and went back out. “I’m sorry I don’t have anything better for you to wear, but these should-“

I stopped in my tracks as I came in sight of Ray.

Ray was…huge! He had large, bulging muscles everywhere I looked. Because of his wet clothes, I could see every muscle on Ray as clearly as if he were standing naked. His large pecs stretched the dirty white T-shirt he was wearing, and his abs looked awesome through the fabric. His deltoids and thick neck pushed the collar to the bursting point
His arms filled his sleeves to the max, and his thick forearms were covered in veins and striations. His massive quads showed through his dark slacks, which were a bit loose around that impossibly thin waist even with the belt. As my eyes traveled down, I could see his calves aching to bust out of those pants and his legs ending with a pair of either size 14 or 15 sneakers, I’ve never really been good with shoe sizes.

After a few stunned moments my brain began to function again. “Er…then again, these might be a tight fit for you.” I held out the clothes to him.

Ray looked a bit embarrassed, even ashamed, but he accepted the clothes anyways. I pointed him towards the bathroom and watched him head for it to change. Even his backside was broad and defined. It strongly resembled an anatomy charts from one of my old physiology books. Before he disappeared into the bathroom, I had a chance to sneak a glance at his behind. He had a large bubble butt that curved outwards, screaming to be pinched.

The screech from the kettle made my mind return from my daydreaming. I busied my hands making two mugs of coffee while my mind had time to think. Although Ray’s face seemed young and innocent, his body was more then enough to cause a sexual attraction. I might’ve even made a move on him if I wasn’t such a nice guy.

A gentle knock brought my attention towards my right. Ray had finished changing, as was now standing in the space between the kitchen and the living room. The ugly sweater I gave him was stretched across the chest and was about an inch too short, revealing the tight blue material of the shirt I gave him. Likewise, the sweats were tight around Ray’s quads, but the waist was a better fit. This meant that Ray and I had very similar waist sizes, though his looked much smaller when compared to the rest of his body. Ray had also taken off his shoes and socks, revealing a pair of very large feet that matched the size of his hands, I suppose.

“I would say that they looked good on you,” I said, “But then I would be lying.”

Ray grinned at my little joke. I noticed he had perfectly straight white teeth, another feature that made him just a little bit more perfect. He brought his pad up and scribbled a few words before handing it to me to read.

Bryce,
I cannot express my gratitude for your kindness.
If there is anything I can do to repay it,
Do not hesitate to inform me and I will do it
To the best of my abilities.

I handed the pad back to him and shook my head. “No, there’s no need for you to do anything like that. I am doing this because I want to help. If I ask for something in return, I would be asking for it.”

The kid seemed a bit stunned by my words, though I couldn’t tell exactly why. It was something anyone would say in my place, isn’t it? I finished making the mugs of coffee by then, and I carried it to the table.

“Go on Ray, sit down and drink.” I placed the two mugs down. Ray nods and sits down in the chair opposite of mine. Before I could forget, I went and brought some cream and sugar to add to the coffee.

“How many spoons of sugar do you like Ray?” I asked. Ray held up two thick fingers, so I added two spoons of sugar into his coffee.

“And cream?” I held up the carton.

Ray held up his hand, making a circle with his thumb and forefinger the size of a nickel. Laughing by the improvised sign language, I poured in what I thought was a nickel sized worth of cream. I placed a spoon into the cup and then gently pushed it to Ray before I added one spoon of sugar and a tablespoon of cream to my own coffee.

Ray stirred his coffee for a few seconds, long enough for it to completely blend. Then, e lifted it up to his lips and took a nice, long sip. His eyes closed and I think he was savoring the taste. As he drank Ray’s body seemed to start to relax, and his muscles seemed to be a little less hard. I realize that Ray had probably been a bit tense this whole time.

Ray finished taking his sip and placed the mug back down. I couldn’t help notice how big that forearm was, with those large veins streaking from his bulging bicep all the way down to the hand delicately holding the ceramic handle. The way ray was bending forward made his already large chest seem even bigger, and I could swear that the sweater could rip if he took a deep breath.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m into big muscle guys. Is there anything wrong about that?

Ray wrote something in his pad and passed it to me. It read:

This is the best tasting coffee
I have had in a long time.
Thank You Bryce.

I could feel my cheeks heat up. “It’s nothing special, just regular black Folgers coffee.”

Ray shook his head and scribbled a few more words on his pad. He offered it to me, but I didn’t take it.

“Oh no, I’m not going to listen to any more sweet talk.” To further my point I stuck my fingers into my ears.

Ray took one look and me before his body began to shake. It took me a bit to realize that he was actually laughing, only without the sound. It seemed weird watching someone laugh without the noise, but the happy look on Ray’s face seemed to more then make up for it.

We exchanged small talk while we drank our coffee. Well to be accurate, I talked and he wrote messages on that pad of his. From what I found out from our little conversation, Ray was actually a very intelligent and humorous young man.

So why was someone like him living out on the street?

I wanted to ask him directly but I figured that would probably be rude. Ray had his reasons and it just wouldn’t be right for me to stick my nose into his private business.

It was very late when Ray gave a big, loud yawn.

“Perhaps we should head to bed.” I suggested.

Ray nods a bit drearily. He stands up and gives a nice, long stretch. I couldn’t help notice how all of his muscles flexed and bulged as he did this. All too soon, the stretch was done.

I brought him an extra blanket and pillow from my closet. I offered him my bed, but Ray politely refused and settled for the couch instead. After I made sure he had everything he needed, we ‘said’ my goodnights and I turned off the lights.

As I entered my room, I paused before getting into my bed. I wasn’t that tired yet and there was something on my mind. Ray was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He was tall, handsome and muscular, but also kind, gentle and very intelligent despite his inability to speak.

The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. Ray was the perfect character model for a new story! Before the idea could escape me I sat down in my chair, turned on my computer and began writing. If I do this just right, this may become my very first published book!

[redkage]

Alright, I know that I have a few other stories on hold, but this idea just struck me and completely took me over. I just HAD to write it, otherwise I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else.

I'm trying a different approach in my writing, though it isn't something that can be noticed. However, I'm going to imporve myself further by going for different kinds of ideas and genres. Inner Demon is a horror/action, Men of the Manor is a comedy, and this will be my first real romance.

Hopefully you'll all enjoy reading this, and don't worry, there will be at least 1 muscle growth scene somewhere....I hope.

[arpeejay]

Great first chapter, Redkage, I quite enjoyed it! I'll be interested to see where it goes!

xoxo

Richard

[muscl4life]

You're just happy like a kid in a sandbox aren't you?

First of all... loooooooooved the alliteration. Rainfall.. rain ...Ray - it's becoming your mark i believe.

Then we have this unusual bum. You gotta tell me where exactly dos he live, because I might try my luck Tall, muscular, gentle, and innocent? Oh boy, this is promissing.

I also loved the "story inside a story" strcuture. You are sure challenging your own writing skills, and i'm looking foward to read the results.

Once again, you got me already jumping into your tender romantic enviroments.

Best wishes