The River's Pull

Maddox POV

I once read about the salmon that swims back upstream to the river that almost killed it… despite how brutal the current is, they still go. Like they’re pulled there. Like it’s coded in their blood to return. No matter how much it hurts.

Mom…yeah she was that salmon.

And Rusty… he was the river.

The one she couldn’t quit.

Even after everything…the bruises, the apologies, the hollow prom