Saving Rain

by Kelsey Kingsley

my thoughts were blown apart by a bloodcurdling scream not twenty feet away from where I sat. Tammi turned her head abruptly in the direction of where the sound had come from. “Wha—” She couldn’t get her sentence out before I shoved her off my lap. I bolted from the bench and ran toward the scream that had now turned into a girl’s pleading voice, saying, “Stop it! Please, get off of me! Get off!” Her frantic, desperate words crushed my soul, and what I found made my blood boil. A young girl I had never seen before was pinned against a tree by the body of Levi’s buddy, Seth. One of his hands was on her chest while the other was working at getting his fly undone. She was writhing, struggling to get away from him, as she cried and gasped and begged for someone to help her in a field of dozens of people who were ignoring her. But not me. Without a moment of hesitation, I grabbed Seth from behind, gripping his shirt in my fists and pulling him off her with such force that we both fell backward into a couple of other kids. “What the hell, man?!” one of them asked, as if they hadn’t been aware of the girl being violated against her will mere feet away from them. Seth rolled away and out of my grasp. “Get the fuck—” My fist stopped his words from coming out, and a spray of blood hit my face as I broke his nose. “Motherfucker!” he cried in agony, cupping his hands over his face. “You piece of fucking shit!” I began to get to my feet as I turned to the girl, still standing there wi...