The way she’s fighting for him, fighting for his happiness, when she’s never even met the guy, makes my heart feel like it’s just doubled in size. I stand up and go over to where she’s standing. I lean on the railing and look out at the playground.

“Benny and me,” I say. “We’d run around out there, chasing balls or chasing girls or, half the time, chasing each other. Since high school, it feels like all we’ve done is chase that damn championship football title.”

“That’s a lot of chasing,” she says.

“And here I am, feeling like I should be chasing something and instead all I’m doing is running away from everything.” I shake my head. “Is that messed up or what?”

She touches my arm. I can feel her looking at me. “So stop running. Just stand still for a while, and see what happens.”

I rise, straight and tall, and turn so I’m facing Lauren. She’s right there. I could take her in my arms. I could lean down and kiss her. I could stop running away from my feelings, from my father, from Benny even.

I could.

But I don’t.

Not so much because of my dad or the team or any of that, but because Lauren and I made an agreement. I don’t want to mess this up. How comfortable we are. How easy it is. And maybe, right now, I need a friend more than I need anything else. Who knows — with everything she’s not telling me, maybe she does too.

So I quickly turn and point at our abandoned plates. “Hey, check it out. You’ve hardly eaten any of our pie. Are you trying to tell me something? Does it suck? God, did we sell a bunch of awful pies to people? They’re going to hate us.”

“They’re not going to hate us.”

I reach down, pick up her plate and fork, and hand it to her. She takes a bite. “It’s really good, you know,” she says.

“I’m curious. Do you still like bake sales after all that work?”

“Yep.” She smiles. “Maybe even more than I did before.”

I could say the same thing about my feelings for Lauren. Instead, I eat my pie.

When i get home, Gram and Grandpa are watching the news.

“You just missed it,” Gram says. “They had a short piece on your bake sale today.”

“It sounds like it was a huge success,” Grandpa says. “Sure were a lot of people there when we stopped by.”

I take a seat on the sofa, suddenly realizing how tired I feel. “Yeah, it went really well. Thanks for coming.”

Gram smiles. “Our pleasure. Your dad was there too. Did you see him?”

“Yeah, I did. He said he made a nice-size donation.”

“So Benny will go to Atlanta, then?” Gram asks.

I swallow hard. “Yeah. Not sure when. Soon, I guess.”

Gram stands up. “I’ll get dinner ready.” She looks at me. “I’m proud of you, Colby. We all are. This has been a difficult time, and you’ve really shown the community what a fine young man you are.”

“We’re going to have pie to celebrate, right, Judith?” Grandpa says.

Gram smiles. “You bet. I bought a beautiful berry pie for us to have tonight. Doesn’t that sound good?”

Of all the things she could have bought. It makes me laugh. “Sounds great.”

After dinner, I grab the laptop and go to my room.

I’ve got emails from the teams trying to recruit me, but I delete them, unread.

Coach has sent me a link, with a note:

I click on the link. And then I start reading.

The name of the article is THE POWER OF BELIEVING.

When I woke up yesterday morning and saw the weather report, my first thought was, “It’ll be a good night for some high school football.” But it was my second thought that surprised me: “You should go watch the Willow High Eagles play.” Why did it surprise me? Because it’s a two-hour drive from where I live, and I have my pick of at least a dozen games here in the Greater Portland area on any given Friday night during football season.

But I’d read about the accident that almost killed their guard Benjamin Lewis. And I’d read about how the team keeps fighting, week after week, to keep their playoff dreams alive. And I’d read specifically about Lewis’s best friend, Colby Pynes, and his struggle on and off the field to keep going without his friend by his side.

Something pulled me to Willow last night, and while the thought initially surprised me, I’ve learned to follow those callings. They usually happen for a reason, and I’m often rewarded in ways I don’t expect. And so it was as I found myself sitting in the bleachers at the Willow Eagles football field.