Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Has he received a letter, like the one Mum is telling him about, or not?

It strikes Ryan as odd how little he knows. Does Alex even go to school anymore? In fact, has he gone since the day Ryan saw him jump off the bus, over a year ago, in a maroon uniform? Was that his last day, his last exam, his last test? Was that it?

Or does he go, sit in classes as silently as he sits in the rest of the world, and observe the other students with those pale eyes and clicking, clicking mind? Is he clever enough, even? Ryan knows that Alex is shrewd enough to play with life, but is he academically bright at all?

“Do you?” he asks later, when Alex comes over to help with gardening again. “Do you go to sixth form?”

Alex stares at him, for once expressing something on his face: surprise.

“I got my AS results,” Ryan explains, and Alex nods. “Did well, too.”

“Should celebrate, then,” Alex says.

“Yeah? Like how?”