Excerpt from A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"No," he said. "We haven't seen Belinda in a while."

What else could I do to find out if she was okay? Instead of going to lunch that day, I stood outside the athletic office and studied the roster of football players. I wanted to figure out which player had saved her. I hadn't seen his face but I remembered his number, which meant it was Lucas Kessler, who I'd never had a class with and didn't know except for his size. I remembered someone once saying he wore size sixteen shoes that he had to special order because no one mass-produced shoes like that.

It wasn't until the end of that day, when a summons to the guidance counselor told me I would no longer wrestle with my guilt in private but would have to discuss it— extensively, with various authorities, as it turned out—that I also learned this: I wasn't alone. Lucas hadn't done anything either.

It took another week to get the whole story, but when I finally did, I could hardly believe it. It turned out Belinda had saved herself.

Excerpted from the book A Step Towards Falling by Cammie McGovern. Copyright © 2015 by Cammie McGovern. Reprinted with permission of HarperCollins.