In Silence
He doesn’t talk about it.
He gets back to Manchester and doesn’t say a word to his parents about anything unusual having happened at all. Just says that it was nice to see Nan, and he needs to go and hang out with his mates a bit before school starts. They believe him. Why wouldn’t they?
He doesn’t say a word to Tom, when he meets up with the guys four days later in their usual corner of the park, the tableau of cigarettes and lager cans seeming suddenly northern in the fading light.
“You’re quiet,” Tom observes. “S’up?”
Even with that—and for Tom, that is the height of observational skills—Ryan says nothing. He doesn’t mention Alex, he doesn’t mention Appington, and he doesn’t mention clubbing. He doesn’t even make the vaguest of hints towards having gotten drunk and near
