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Her eyebrows go higher. “That’s what you said about Jared Isaacson in high school.”

I can’t help but laugh, because I think she’s right. “Well, this time I mean it.”

“If you say so,” she says with a smirk, then turns back to the game and calls out to Tabby. I join in, and pretty soon we’re the two most obnoxious people on the sidelines, doing the stupid cheers we made up when Tabby first started soccer at age five.

After a while, I look back to see Ben and Annoth walking toward the car. Slightly concerned, I start to go after them, but Mom waylays me and hands me a bottle of water.

“I’m just so happy you’re here, Teddy,” she says in a voice that quivers with emotion.

“Me too, Mom. How’s everything at school?” I ask, keeping my eye on Ben and Annoth before they vanish behind the bathroom building.

“Oh, it’s the same as always,” she tells me, clearly excited that I’m asking. “We’d love to have you back at Sunday Mass and lunch, sweetheart.”

“Yes,” says Dad, who’s sitting in a folding chair with both twinswhile they watch a show on his phone. “It’s important, Teddy, and I know you aren’t getting to Mass down there in the city.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, and I have to fight back a shudder as I imagine his reaction if I told him I can’t even enter a church right now.

“I’ll definitely be there sometime soon,” I reply, then pull my phone out to text Ben. The last thing I need is for Annoth to go too far away and get pulled back into my body while I’m standing next to my parents.

The two of them reappear and come back up to the sidelines, but I swear I feel something weird through the connection Annoth and I share. It’s almost like fear, slowly seeping into my body, like there’s a crack somewhere in a dam, allowing a trickle of water through. I try to block it out, but when Ben explains what happened, I wonder if she really is changing–if I should try giving her the benefit of the doubt, the way I’ve done with Ben these past two weeks.

Toward the end of the game, while Ben is still keeping Molly’s four youngest kids occupied on the empty field beside us, Mom walks over and hugs me tightly. I wrap an arm around her shoulders and squeeze. It’s been too long, and I didn’t even realize how much I’d really missed my family. They might stress me out sometimes, but I know they love me.

“Teddy, I hope you’ll bring Ben over on Sunday sometime too,” Mom says once she lets go. “So good for you to have a nice Catholic roommate.” She taps the little gold saint medallion hanging around her own neck and I realize she must have seen his Saint Jude.

“Uh…maybe. He might have his own plans though.”

“Yeah, like volunteering at a homeless shelter or something,” says Molly, raising an eyebrow at me. I’m taking a sip of water andalmost snort it out my nose.Oh shit. She must have looked him up after he said his full name earlier. Luckily, Mom and Dad don’t seem to catch her comment. I know Molly would never out him, but now I’ll definitely have to tell her some version of the truth sooner or later. I wonder if she found anything connecting him to the priesthood.

“I’ll…I’ll ask him,” I mutter.

“What are you all doing for lunch?” Mom asks. “We’re taking Molly and the kids out.”

“He has a job interview, Mom, didn’t he tell you?” says Molly, clearly trying to rescue me.

“On a Saturday?” Mom asks, looking skeptical.

Luckily, Molly is a quick thinker. “It’s one of those new startups, right, Teddy? You know how they are. Always on the clock.”

“No respect for the five day work week anymore,” Dad grumbles, rolling his eyes. “Don’t they know people fought and–”

“Oh, John,” Mom interrupts. “Well, that’s wonderful, sweetheart! Of course, you get back and have your interview. Let us know how it goes.”

We all turn as a shout erupts from across the park. Ben is running around the goal on the other pitch, crying for help and trying to dodge the four small children, who almost have him cornered inside the net. Mom and Dad move away to grab them and get them ready to leave, but Molly comes to stand beside me and folds her arms.

“Thank God one of us learned how to lie,” I say quietly.

“You owe mebigtime.”

“I’ll take all five of them out for ice cream,” I promise, and I know I have to ask her before it’s too late. “So…you looked Ben up. What exactly did you find?”

“The Pride parade interview,” she says, then takes her phone out and holds it up, “and this.” It’s a brief local news article about Ben resigning from the priesthood, posted just a few weeks after the interview, along with a photo of him in liturgical robes. The reason for his resignation isn’t mentioned, but Molly opens the comment section to show me. There’s almost a hundred of them, every single one about how wonderful ‘Father Ben’ is and how much he’ll be missed.

“You’d better be glad neither of them knows how to use the internet,” Molly says, motioning to our parents as she puts her phone away. “I’d never say anything though, so don’t worry.”

“Thanks, Mol.”

“Teddy, just…promise me you won’t let your fear of what people think get in the way of being happy, alright? You deserve to be happy.”