-1Click.

"Hey Maxxie. It's Sid.

Just wanted to say, Where are you??

We missed you today, last day of college, but you've been missing for weeks. Your dad is going mental, his routines are getting insane…poor Taz. But anyway, what I wanted to say was…come back. Or just phone someone, you know? Anyway. Talk to you soon…hopefully!"

Click.

"Maxxie man, where are ya? I've been having some sweet sweet nights…we need to talk man!"

Click.

"Oh, fuck. Dad! Dad! I can't….thanks. Sorry, Max. Come back. Please. I need you. "

Click.

End of messages.

Press 1 to repeat.

Press 3 to hear the-

Messages deleted.

"Mr Oliver? We're ready for you now. Please come through."

My legs are shaking as I take off my jacket. Suddenly I'm aware of the cool chain around my neck, and I'm nervous. Did I wear enough deodorant? Hairspray? Too much?

Everything is shaking, but I get the door handle.

"I need you"

"Max, is it? Don't be shy lad. Come in and take a seat."

"So you think you're good enough to audition for our show?"

"Y-yes. I've done tap, and some ballet, and modern, and street…I'll try anything. And. And I always give 200 percent. And. I've never let anyone down." a sinking sense of dread.

"Very well. What first made you dance?" brilliant.

"It helped. I've been bullied since I was 5. Because my dad dances with dogs, and I'm gay, and it's an escape. It let me escape. I could go anywhere. I want to stamp stars and show them what I can do."

"Stamp stars?"

"you know. It's like magic. I found something in dance that makes me feel so…alive. And when I dance It's like I'm floating up and away from life on earth as I know it, and suddenly I'm up in the sky and I'm flying, and the stars are falling from beneath my feet. Stamping stars." strange exchanges of a look.

"Mr Oliver, we're going to ask you to come back in here in the next half an hour to dance for us. You may leave."

My legs shake again and support me from the room.

"I need you."

"We missed you today"

He tried…couldn't even keep a grip but he tried.

What made me run?

I wanted this. But do I?

Or do I want my friends.

The people who will always be there.

And my dad would be happy.

Fuck my dad, though.

I sit with my jacket on my lap. What should I do?

You have 1 new message. From Tony. Read.

"hop thifngd rea ok. Msss u."

Options, delete. Inbox.

From Anwar.

"come bk maxie man. Chris sez he wants to marry angie man. He's mental."

From Tony.

"max wre r u. I fel a lto betr thnx to u. sid still wont tlk 2 me. Help fr me?"

From Sid.

"Max, I was there wen no1 else waz. What more can I do. He was a dick. Just coz he cant remember now don't mean he wont."

You have 1 new message. From Mum. Options, delete.

You have 1 new message. From Tony. Read.

"pls don let me dwn."

"Mr Oliver, we're ready for you now."

I switch my phone off. It's time. I won't let you down. I walk to the room.

"Do you have music?"

"Just the beat of my own heart."

And I danced, like I'd never danced before. I didn't dance for my best friend Anwar. I didn't dance for the girls I see on the way home from dance practice. I didn't dance because my parents had let me leave college.

I danced for Tony.