Silence in the moment is also a statement. Somebody was hoping you’d speak.

Staying quiet feels neutral from the inside and rarely reads that way from outside. The person hoping for something heard the absence, and the room drew a conclusion, usually that nobody minded. None of that makes speaking up easy, and freezing does not make you a coward. It only means the silence was not invisible.

Have one short sentence ready so you are not composing under pressure. That is not okay, or let us come back to that. Short is enough, and having the words prepared is most of what makes them possible to say.