“Get the fuck out of here.” Logan gives me a shove, and all that does is infuriate me.
“You get the fuck out of here,” I snap, before kicking his leg. “She’s out of her fucking mind right now.”
A few of the other girls come closer, like they want to help. Salem, meanwhile, is slumped in Logan’s arms, her forehead touching his shoulder.
“Hey, come on. Let’s take a walk or something.” I try to help her to her feet along with another girl, but she shoves us both away before turning on me. A bright beam of white light hits her face, and I see her pupils are pinpoints.
“Why don’t you get a life?” she mumbles before giving me a weak push that doesn’t even rock me back on my heels. “Always getting in the way. Nobody asked for your help.” She stumbles off through the crowd, ignoring the cheers and whistles. I look down at Logan, who snarls at me before getting on his feet. For a second, I think he’s going to hit me, but he cuts through the crowd behind Salem.
“Way to go.” I can almost feel Hayes’s breath on my neck. “Sticking your ass in where it doesn’t belong. But that’s what you do best, isn’t it? Or were you jealous and wanting a turn once she was finished?”
“You’re disgusting.”
“No, what’s disgusting is how you act like you’re better than everyone else.” His lips brush my ear. “You know how wet I make you. You’re probably wet now.”
I turn my head away and try to follow Salem’s progress through the crowd, but he won’t let up. “Maybe eventually you’ll learn to mind your own business and stay out of other people’s lives.”
“You know what? You’re right. You already showed me what a mistake it is to give a shit about what somebody is going through. I should have just kept walking that day.”
His eyelids flutter and I know he didn’t expect that. Good. Maybe I can knock him off his game for once. He’s not what I’m concerned about right now. It’s Salem. She could barely stay on her feet. And Logan obviously doesn’t care.
I shouldn’t do it, but if anything happens to her, I will never stop blaming myself. That’s what gets me moving, following the path she took. Everybody has gone back to what they were doing before the amateur porn started, so it’s easier to see. But I can’t find either of them in the crowd.
“Did you see which way Salem went?” I ask a group sitting in a circle. One of them points over his shoulder before taking a joint from the girl sitting next to him. I jog in that direction, getting further and further away from the audience. There’s equipment next to the stage, crates and amps and cables. I make a loop around them, peering into the shadows. Where could they have gone? The parking lot’s the other way.
“No... no! Stop it!”
I can barely hear it, but once I do, I can’t ignore it. I follow the sound of Salem’s voice to where she and Logan are half-hidden between two vans.
At first my brain doesn’t want to accept what I’m seeing.
She’s on her back underneath him, legs kicking, fists pounding Logan’s shoulders and arms. “Stop! Don’t!” she sobs, while his ass moves up and down. “Please, no!”
He’s raping her.
18
I don’t know what I’m thinking. I only know I have to make him stop. I throw myself at him, digging my fingers into his shoulders and trying to pull him off her. “Stop! Somebody help!”
“Bitch!” He swings blindly and misses me. He doesn’t stop, either, driving himself into Salem while she screams and begs him.
“Get off her! You’re hurting her!” I punch his shoulders, his neck, even the back of his head.
This time, when he swings, he doesn’t miss. His arm sweeps back and knocks me off my feet. I land on my back and the air leaves my lungs all at once.
I sit up in time to see a blur rush past me. A blur that reaches out and takes hold of Logan and pulls him off Salem before throwing him against one of the vans. Hayes.
I scramble over to Salem on my hands and knees. She’s sobbing, skirt up around her hips, her panties torn. I gather her up in my arms and she leans against me before I try to straighten her skirt out.
“You son of a bitch!” I look up in time to see Hayes pull back his fist and smash it against Logan’s jaw. A thrill races through me, sick as it is. What he did was sicker, and he deserves this. And much worse.
When Logan slumps against the van, Hayes pulls him up again before landing another punch, this one against his nose. Salem is shaking in my arms, her makeup running down her face, tears dripping onto my shirt.