𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

thirty-two

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"𝙒𝙀𝙇𝙇 𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙏'𝙎 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝙒𝘼𝙔 𝙊𝙁
𝙒𝙄𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙈𝙀 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙇𝙐𝘾𝙆."

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"𝐎𝐈, 𝐋𝐄𝐖!" Mollie called out as she spotted her cousin walk through the school gates with Cory, Riz and Naveed.

Hearing his name, the brunette boy hung back from his friends slightly and looked around in confusion until he saw Mollie approaching him with an unusually serious expression on his face. "What's up, Mol?"

"I was just wondering if Jordan got to yours' alright last night?" She asked with a low voice, looking around to be sure no one was overhearing. "You know, with Dad kicking him out an' all."

Lewis' lips formed a straight line as he gave the girl a small nod. "Yeah, he did. He wouldn't tell us what happened, though."

Mollie could sense the concern in Lewis' voice, but she really didn't feel like going into the details of the situation that caused her father to kick Jordan out. Shaking her head softly, she looked to the ground. "It doesn't matter what happened, the main thing is that he's safe now."

"Yeah, he's alright." Lewis nodded. Even though he didn't want to push the girl into something that she didn't want to talk about, he deeply cared about her and gave her a sympathetic smile. "What about you and Cory, though? I know I wind you up an' all, but you'll always have a home with me and Dad. You know that, right?"

Letting out a deep breath, Mollie nodded quickly. "Thanks, Lew. Things are...complicated, but we'll sort it."

"'Course you will. You're both tough as nails." He responded, causing Mollie's mouth to tug upwards into the most subtle of smiles. But Lewis quickly cleared his throat, completely unaccustomed to the sentimentality between the two. "Right, can I go back to winding you up now please? I don't like it when we're nice to each other."

"You're not the only one. That felt really weird." Mollie said in agreement, pretending to gag at their momentary harmony.

Chuckling as they approached the school building, the two walked by a group of Year 11 girls and couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"Just look at him. So sexy, ain't he?" Razia Paracha remarked and when Mollie looked over, she noticed that the group of girls were all looking adoringly at Lewis. "He should be in the Vampire Diaries."

"No." Chloe said in disagreement, before a smirk grew on her face. "True Blood."

"I don't care." Razia shrugged. "As long as he's chomping on my blood."

"Razia Paracha!" Hayley exclaimed incredulously, as the group of girls burst out into a fit of laughter. Even Mollie herself couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, despite the fact that they were talking about her cousin. She couldn't deny that Razia had a way with words.

"Sounds like you've got a fan club." Mollie said with a teasing tone, poking Lewis' shoulder.

A sheepish smile grew on his lips as he looked over his shoulders at the girls and smirked at them. His glance was only momentary, but it hadn't gone unnoticed by the girls who only started laughing even more.

Taking it in her stride, Razia's smile grew even bigger as the boy walked away. "Did you see that? He wants feeding!"

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