Carl drank some water and offered it to Ben, who didn’t like to share drinks. It wasn’t that Carl was especially germy, though he didn’t look very healthy either. He was a vegan, which suggested he looked after his body, but then he had confided in Ben that ‘one hundred and five percent of reformed heroin addicts are vegans’, and again Ben felt he was out of his conversational depth.

‘Yeah, so, mon ami, you really want to know what went down?’ Carl said.

Ben made a noncommittal movement. He didn’t know what he really wanted to know.

‘That weak cunt took a shot at me,’ Carl said. ‘I was outside the gate, just minding my own business, waiting for the bell. Doing nothing at all. And then—I don’t know why that piece of shit wasn’t in class, he was loitering with a couple of his boofhead mates—he comes up and starts abusing me. You know, You useless junkie fuck, you piece of shit, my dad’s told me all about you. You know the drill.’

Ben knew a variation of it.

‘The old me would have taken them on, just for the buzz. Some days the only way you can get your hands on strong painkillers is in an emergency ward. But I’m a shadow of my former self, huh. So when they begin crowding in on me, I figure my best chance is to move inside the school grounds. There are things they can’t do inside. So they’re, like, pushing me up against the fence, doing that bully thing, taunting me to take the first shot so they can “retaliate”, and I just pivot on the fence and throw myself over. I end up arse over turkey, but I’m inside. But so then they pile over after me, and I’m shitting myself. Fifty years old and running from the bullies to the principal’s office. Never did that when I was a kid.’

‘He’s bi-curious,’ Ben said.

‘What? Who?’

Ben nodded. ‘Daniel.’

‘Who says?’

‘What?’

‘Who says he’s bi?’

‘Bi-curious. Since I came out, everyone’s been really mean to me, and Daniel’s been sort of leading it. That’s how I got the hint. Then I keep seeing him looking at me. So I went to him in the holidays and said, “Listen, I know how hard it is to keep it to yourself, but I’m just telling you that if you want to talk to anyone I’m here for you.”’

‘Ha. And how did that go for you?’

‘What? Yeah, not good.’