Storms
It becomes habit—born of what, Ryan isn’t sure—to watch for those bruises. It is difficult to measure the birth and death of the stomach bruises, but Alex’s face is typically bruised or scraped—and now, Ryan is unnerved to wonder how many people think, like he did, that Alex gets into fights at school? Even when school is no longer in session?
How many think he is being bullied—at least by someone his own age?
Part of Ryan does not want to admit it, but Alex is correct in one aspect. Ryan is not prone to fighting—Tom tends to do it for him at school, and anyone with a history in martial arts tends to hold off on violence out of discipline in the first place—but he knows enough to appreciate that a black eye is rarely as severe as it looks. And Alex is pale; any bruise looks like
