Did you ever leave?

9

Grayson: can I call you?

I glanced at the notification before doing a double take.

Me: what for

Grayson: does it matter

Me: okay

'Hello?'

'Hi.'

'So, I googled you.'

'O...okay.'

'Ethan suggested it...after I said that you're probably not a real dancer.'

'Tasteful.'

I twiddled with my hair and walked around my room slowly as if on a tightrope.

'I know about Anthony.'

'What?' I rasped, coming to a halt.

'I know about the crash.'

'How...'

'I watched a bunch of videos of you guys and wanted to research him. You were really good together.'

I had no words.

'Milo? Are you there?'

'How much did you read?'

'He got T-boned and died on impact. But you survived.'

I licked my lips and lightly traced my shoulder.

'You fucked your shoulder somehow and had a head injury, you were out for weeks. The shoulder...was it the same one from Ve-'

'Yeah,' I cut in.

'Is that why-'

'Yes.'

'Oh.'

'Was that all that you called me for? To tell me that you know about my dead friend? 'Cause I've got other things I could be doing.'

'I was hoping we could talk about him.'

I slumped onto my bed. 'Talk?'

'Yeah.'

'You're sort of the last person I want to talk to.'

'It'll make us better partners? Do it for the show.'

I sighed. 'Fine. What do you want to discuss?'

'Just tell me about him.'

'I can't remember ever not being friends with him. He'd always lived next door, always been right there. He started dancing in my company two years after I did and...we became even more inseparable. It's kind of crazy, actually...that we were so close.'

I took a few sips of water. 'We'd always said that we were soulmates; twins that got lost. We'd spend every waking minute with each other, watching videos of duets and trying to copy them. Eventually, we strayed from getting inspiration from other people and started coming up with our own ideas. His parents paid for him to go to a private dancing school but...'

'But?'

'My mom couldn't afford that sort of thing. I, um, I actually auditioned and got offered a scholarship.'

'So it all worked out?'

'My mom didn't want me surrounded by privileged snobs. I went to high school at the other side of town.'

'Where you met Eden?'

'Yeah. We got along straight away and it was actually really nice to have a friend that was a girl. I started dressing in shorter, tighter clothes and going to parties and drinking. Anthony wasn't a fan of the change and tried to keep me on the right path, reminding me of my talent and what my coach would do to me if she found out. We argued and it sort of put a strain on our friendship but then...we sort of weren't friends anymore. I don't know why it took so long for things to click, and after they did, our dancing got to a whole other level. We were regular shoe ins for first place, but our new kind of relationship made us notorious winners and unbeatable when we were together.'