Saving Rain

by Kelsey Kingsley

“Oh my God, look at your face! What the hell happened?!” There was panic and affection in her eyes, one I hadn’t seen since I had been small enough to hold her hand when we crossed the street. An unexpected surge of emotion barreled straight through my hardened muscle and into my weary, wounded heart, and I suppressed the need to wrap my arms around her and cry for no other reason than to simply be held by my mom. “I got into a fight,” I answered plainly, like it was nothing. Because, well, it was. I was no stranger to fights these days. But most of them didn’t leave me needing anything more than a few Advil. She looked horrified, like she couldn’t believe I’d do such a thing. Diane Mason had always been a good actress. “A fight?!” I shrugged. “He got me with a broken beer bottle.” “Did they check for rabies? Or tetanus?” The gray-haired nurse setting up the metal tray with the supplies to do my stitches smiled reassuringly without making Mom feel stupid. “It’s unlikely that he contracted rabies from a broken bottle. But we did give him a tetanus shot, just in case.” Mom sighed and sat beside me on the bed. Her hand reached out to grip mine, lacing our fingers together and squeezing tightly. I reminded my heart it meant nothing, that she’d go back to being her usual self the moment we got back home, but, man … I hoped she’d hold on for a while. “How does the other guy look?” “Well, his nose isn’t ever gonna look the same—that’s for damn sure,” I muttered while thinking Set...