I own nada.

xxxxx

(Austin's Pov)

A plethora of fireworks lit up the night sky, spinning like firey serpents twining with black velvet. Rockets exploded in a cacophony of sound that heralded the New Year and camouflaged the cheering of the ecstatic fans. I danced across the stage, literally throwing myself into the excitement, feet gliding over the smooth, black surface of the stage. I spun, swayed, and tossed myself in perfect collision with the beat of the song, dancing freely, unchoreographed yet tamed. Twirls and leaps and claps and feet stomps; all of the moves were my own and I just went with it, flowed with it, had fun with it.

My mom taught me how to be a free spirit. To this very day, I still am and always will be. Why fight trivial obstacles when you can just float through life in happy peace? My dancing, my voice, all of it reflects this. Reflects me. And I love every second of it.

The fans ate it up, the majority of the crowd mimicking my moves, the minority clapping along. I smiled. This is where I belong. I threw a cautious glance toward Ally where she idled at the stage's edge-away from the audience's view-, and instantly regretted it. I burst out laughing midsong because Miss Ally D. was doing a silly little jig, flailing her arms about awkwardly in rythmic pulses.

"I love the things you do, it's how you do th- oh, god!" I interrupted my own lyrics more than once to double over and cackle like a doped up hyena, because really... Ally dancing was making me histerical. The audience never minded my sporadic bursts of giggles, they just laughed along with me.

Oh, Ally. I loved that girl. And her odd dancing. I wanted desperately to drag her to the center of the stage and teach her, right there and then in front of everybody, how to shimmy her hips without looking like a retarded washing machine. But she'd most certainly kill me. And I valued my existense in this world way too much to jeapordize it.

And also, Trish had already called her on her the bad dancing. I saw it. I watched, in comical bemusement as Ally shouted "hey!" and chased her friend around with a murderous expression plastered on her face.

"Not a love soooong," I sang, glancing about in search of my best friend, because, I mean, come on- It's New Years! I'm hitting all the right notes, I can dance, Ally's trying to kill Trish- it's a perfect night! But, wait... without Dez, nothing was worth nothing, right?.

...did that make sense?

The song ended in a spectacular falsetto and I hopped off stage, my flighty mood completely debunked. It didn't matter that there were a multitude of people chanting my name and saying such things as "You rock. Austin!" and "I love you, Austin!" and "Holy fucking heck, Austin! Move! Ally's trying to-", oh, wait that was Trish.

The point was, if I'll ever stop having so many shifty thoughts, Dez mattered more, and while I was currently scanning every face around me trying to find him, I felt dread settle in the marrow of my bones, making me cold.

I wanted to see him here. Now. I wanted to watch him dance retardedly and still dance better than Ally. I wanted to see his red hair, his freckled face. The urgency of how much I wanted to see him scared me, because he'd gone missing before, and somehow the concern I'd felt had never risen to the dangerous level it was at now. He should be here with us. With me.

My fans tried to grab me; they waved notepads of various size and color in my face, begging for autographs- well, maybe not begging. Am I sounding full of myself? I really hope not. I shoved past them, running, feeling my head start to spin. Adrenaline pumped blood around my body in torrents, the fear gripping my pounding heart like a vice-

What fear? Why is there fear? Oh, god, what is this? Why am i feeling this?

"Austin!"

Where's Dez?

"Hey, Austin can you sign my-"

Dez. I need Dez.

"Hey, Austin!"

The sounds around me began to fizzle out, my mind running a one way track, much like my legs, to find Dez. My ragged converses caught on cracks in the sidewalk but they couldn't deter me. I kept running and running with a burning ache in my muscles that gave professional racers a run for their money.(ha! "Run" for their money...get it? get?...I'll shut up nowXD)

Sonic Boom? He might be there. I hope he's there.

New Year's fireworks and celebratory shouts and cheers began to fade as I tore like a tidal wave through the store's entrance-and the door had never been so heavy before-, my eyes darting every which way in search of-

Dez.

The world crackled and jumped like bad reception, as my eyes landed on him and my feet shuddered, sliding swiftly to a jerking, whiplashing halt and I stood there, paralyzed, incapable of thought in any capacity, incapable of gleaning what was going on. No, I couldn't think.

I just felt.

I felt my heart drop. I failed to notice, I still held in my hand, the microphone. It dropped in syncracy with my heart, hitting the oak-panneled floor. A mute thud was all thereafter followed, probably because there was a warbling sensation clouding my mind, my ears, my everything and it felt as if I was underwater. Raw, unbridled emotion cascaded into my veins, beating, pounding; there wasn't a name for this emotion. The pulse of this sudden shock created a cocaphonus thud in my ears, the only thing I could hear aside from the erratic clamouring of my breathing. Thump-gasp-thump, thump-gasp-thump-

Thump- Oh.

Thump-My.

Thump-God.

Finally, I reacted and this was the only thing I could do- I unhinged my jaw and screamed.

xxxxx

BAHA! Cliffhanger! I know, I suck. Sorry :) Confused? Well, review, please, even though I know this first chapter couldn've been done better. And I know, I know- I just started my other story but... well I just needed to post something so, even though it sucks... TADA! :D