Leo was chewing on the side of his thumb. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I suppose sometimes I think…’ He shook his head and then turned to Elsa. ‘Did your parents really say that? It’s dangerous?’

‘They both said it,’ Elsa insisted. ‘I know it seems ridiculous but they’ve got these stupid ideas in their heads and it’s all decided. We’re going and there’s nothing I can say to change their minds.’

Max could feel something welling up inside him. It felt like a rock. A huge, bright red boulder, glowing with fire, pushing on his chest. His eyes stung with tears that were trying to get out but he blinked over and over as hard as he could, trapping them inside.

Boys don’t cry.

That’s what his father always said. He’d said it only a few days ago. A bird had flown at the kitchen window, hitting it so hard that it died instantly. Max had tried to revive it. He couldn’t help the tears falling as he ran his fingers over its broken body.

‘Do not cry over the death of a bird!’ his father had yelled at him. ‘Boys do NOT cry. You hear me?’

Max had rubbed his fists against his eyes and wiped his runny nose on the back of his hand.

‘Be a man,’ his father had growled as he snatched the bird away and threw it in the bin.

Be a man. Be a man. How many times had he heard this from his father? He was not even ten years old yet. How was he meant to be something he wasn’t?

Max sometimes felt that he could spend his whole life trying to be who his father wanted him to be, and he would still fail. No matter what he did, he would always fall short of expectations.

He couldn’t bear the idea of things changing between him, Leo and Elsa. Their friendship was the only part of his life where he didn’t feel on the edge of things. Leo and Elsa were the only people who knew him as well as he knew himself. Being with them was the only place where he felt like he truly belonged. And now that was all going to change.

Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t cry.

Max clenched his fists and drove the tears away.

‘This will be the last time I see you,’ Elsa said. Unlike Max, she wasn’t trying to fight her tears and they flowed freely down her face. That was all right, though. She was a girl. She was allowed to cry. Boys had to be stronger.

‘In that case, this is the last chance to do something,’ Max found himself saying. The words were coming out of his mouth without even asking permission from his brain.

Elsa tilted her head towards him. ‘Do what?’ she asked.