Real drowning is usually quiet. Check on the friend who stopped talking, not just the one who’s loud.

Distress that is loud announces itself and gets attended to. The kind that goes silent reads as fine, or busy, or over it. Someone who has stopped replying, stopped coming to things, stopped making the jokes they used to make is often not settled at all. Going quiet is a signal too, just one that nobody is trained to notice.

Think of whoever has gone a bit silent lately and send one message with no agenda in it. Not a wellbeing check, just contact, something you would have sent before. And if the answer worries you, tell an adult you trust rather than carrying it alone.