Saving Rain

by Kelsey Kingsley

“Soldier, wait,” she said gently, preventing me from leaving, and I turned to face her with a tired nonchalance. Last year, I had been shorter than her. This year, I could see the top of her head. “What?” She removed her hand from my arm and sat at the edge of my desk, a look of deep concern creasing a line between her brows. “Is everything okay?” I shrugged and hoisted my heavy backpack onto my shoulder. “Sure. Why?” She didn't look like she believed me. Not at all. And she had every right not to. “Well”—she wet her lips with her tongue, and the act stirred that stupid thing in my pants—“I know things have been difficult … different at home, what with your grandmother passing away earlier this year and you and your mom having to move and all. So … I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.” My fingers tapped erratically against the strap of my backpack at the mention of Gramma dying of cancer. Of moving from the house I’d grown up in to live in the nasty apartment building across from the train tracks. She hadn't mentioned Sully dying or Mom losing another handful of jobs, but I guessed she wouldn't have. She didn't know about that stuff, and I definitely didn't talk about it. But I thought about it now, tacking that stuff onto the long list of heartache I'd been dealt since Grampa had had a heart attack in front of me over two years ago. So, no, I wasn't okay. Far from it. But I wasn't going to tell her that in the event that my not okayness could lead her back to Mo...