‘Mr Stevens says his son’s very shy,’ she’d said one night over dinner. ‘It might be nice if you kept an eye on him – it’s no fun starting at a new place where you don’t know anyone.’

She’d looked up at James and fixed him with her blue eyes as she said this, and James knew that when she said It might be nice what she really meant was You’d just better get on and do it or I’ll be cross.

James’ gran had met Mr Stevens at their local church. Like all of the parents, she had taken a shine to him. He was charming and polite, and seemed to have no trouble meeting new people.

His son was a different story.

He’d come up to them during that not-so-distant break, a tall and brittle boy with skin that looked like it had never seen the sun, and instead of saying anything he’d just stood there at the edge of their group and stared at them.

James and Matt had mumbled hello and Tom had nodded before going back to his bag of potato wedges. But Gary had stared at Tim with a curled smile on his face. He had that look in his eye he sometimes got before he dead-legged James out of the blue or called him a new nickname for the first time. A sort of hungry look.

‘You alright, mate?’ said Gary. He stared at Tim with false concern on his face, and then glanced around the circle at the rest of them. He shot a wink at Tom and then looked back at Tim, who was staring at him without saying anything.

‘I said are you alright mate?’

For a few long seconds Tim still didn’t say anything, and James had to stare down at the ground to stop from feeling awkward. Finally, Tim shrugged.

‘I’m fine.’

‘Really? Cuz you don’t look fine. You look like you’ve just swallowed a mouthful of piss.’

Gary spluttered laughter. Matt rolled his eyes and Tom shook his head, smiling.

Gary was just warming up. He now had an eager half-grin on his face that James knew all too well: it was the look he got when he was really ripping into James over something, that slightly predatory smile that was half a joke and half something more serious.

‘I mean you really don’t look well, mate,’ said Gary. ‘Maybe you should visit the school nurse or something, have a little sit down. It’s overwhelming coming to a new school, isn’t it? All these new people.’

Gary made his face into an exaggerated pout and looked at Tim, who stared back without saying anything or dropping this gaze.

Gary’s smile faltered slightly.

‘Hey, what the fuck’s your problem, anyway?’ he said. ‘Can’t you talk?’