Dedication

Small town, or big, it doesn’t matter. Love is love. Hate is gross and you can be anything you want. Always. Don’t forget it no matter where you go.

PLAYLIST

Something in the Orange

Zach Bryan

Dreams - Acoustic

Andie Case

half of my hometown (feat. Kenny Chesney)

Kelsea Ballerini

Something Just Like This

The Chainsmokers, Coldplay

Love Me Anyway

P!nk (feat. Chris Stapleton)

Sleep On The Floor

The Lumineers

Broken Halos

Chris Stapleton

Cold

Chris Stapleton

Awake My Soul

Mumford and Sons

Rivers and Roads

The Head and The Heart

Ride the Lightning (717 Tapes)

Warren Zeiders

When The Stars Come Out

Chris Stapleton

Home

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Stubborn Love

The Lumineers

1. Camden

ONE

CAMDEN

“Come on, Wells,” I shout as the football spirals through the night sky toward my best friend. Players clash everywhere on the field, and the crowd is loud as hell, but all I see is Kingston Wells. My best friend, the team’s tight end and number thirty-two out on the field.

When he catches it, he doesn’t hesitate. He runs. He’s fast, incredibly fast. And no one can catch him. I know it. He knows it. The crowd knows it as they chant his last name, and he runs it in for the final touchdown, just in time to claim the win.

Garrison Dixon, number twenty-four, wastes no time hoisting me up in the air to celebrate our big win, shouting over the crowd while I tap on his helmet, telling the big dummy to put me down. But he doesn’t.

We’re all on a high.

I see Kingston running toward us, his red helmet in hand. When he shoves Dixon playfully, that’s when my feet finally touch the field below. Then Kingston’s big-ass arms are wrapped around me as we all jump up and down, surrounded by the rest of the school, who’ve rushed the football field to congratulate us.

Hell, the entire damn town is around us, chanting our names and our school. Taunting the other team who just lost, because they’re our biggest rivals. The Big Bend Bears. Eat it, suckers. We won this round.

“We’re the Kensley Panthers. Mighty, mighty, panthers,” the cheerleaders chant, loud and proud. In western Kansas—literally in the middle of nowhere—this is what we do on Friday nights.

The whole town shuts down until after the game, and then we party. It’s all there is to do in this town of nine hundred people. And maybe some days, I can barely stand it, but nights like tonight, I ride the high and bask in the cheers of the crowd. Watching the smile on my best friend’s face, I try my best to enjoy it. To let go of all my responsibilities, if only for the moment.