𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

thirteen

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"𝙄'𝙈 𝙎𝙊𝙍𝙍𝙔."

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"𝐈𝐓'𝐒...𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐍." Candace muttered, her voice shaky as she gripped the handles of the pram for any kind of support for the storm that was about to take place.

"You what?" Jordan shouted, his nostrils flaring in anger. "Kieran?"

Not allowing Candace to reply, Mollie let out a dry laugh and stepped closer to the blonde girl with a glare. "You know what, I've had enough of you. First, you lie to my little brother and try to take advantage of him. And now, as if you ain't caused enough damage, you bring Kieran into this. Do you even realize how dangerous these lies are that you're telling?"

"It's not a lie, Mollie. I swear to ya." Candace insisted. "I'm sorry, I know it's not what you wanna hear, but I promise it's the truth. Tell them, Kieran."

Mollie felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach at Candace's words and a feeling of utter dread took over. She had to be lying. She just had to. There was no other way. Swallowing thickly, she turned to look at Kieran for some sort of reassurance. Clarity. Any kind of answer. But he remained speechless as his eyes darted frantically.

"Well? What is she talking about? What do you need to tell us?" Mollie crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.

"Nothing!" He exclaimed incredulously, throwing his arms in the air. "Course I don't have a bloody kid. You said it yourself, she's lying!"

"It's true, I swear." The blonde persisted once more, biting her lip. "I didn't say owt because it only happened once when we were both a bit drunk. And then when I found out I was pregnant, you'd just gotten together with Mollie and I liked Jordan. I didn't want to mess anything up so I just told myself that Jordan was the dad. Hate me all you want, but just know that I'm telling the truth."

Mollie felt her face fall. She didn't want to believe it. She was trying not to. But as much as it hurt to admit, there was something about the look in Candace's eyes and the vulnerability in her voice that made her believe the girl's words. Looking for answers, she turned her head once more to look at Kieran who was running a hand over his face in disbelief.

"Well? Did ya or didn't ya?" Jordan fired at the boy impatiently.

"I said you shouldn't trust her." He replied, gesturing to Candace.

"Answer the question, Kieran." Mollie said, letting out a shaky breath as her faith in the boy dwindled by the second.

"I..." He began, eyes darting between the three faces and landing on one in particular. The face he loved, the eyes he could get lost in, the lips that he always wanted to bring a smile to. But now, that same face looked broken. Those eyes couldn't even look at him. That smile was just a distant memory to him. And he was the only one to blame.

In that moment, he felt his heart break. She deserved better, and she always had. But above all, she deserved to know the truth. He sucked in a sharp breath, looking down at the ground guiltily before opening his mouth. "Yeah. I did."

"Oh my God." Mollie muttered, closing her eyes tightly and shaking her head as if it would change something. Anything. Everything. "Oh my God."

"I'm gonna kill you." Jordan said through gritted teeth.

"Mol-" He tried to protest, but all she did was shake her head. "You need to leave."

Kieran didn't move, instead giving her a pleading look. "Please, let me explain."

"Explain what? That these past few weeks when you were lying to me about knowing the Murgatroyds, you were also hiding the fact that you slept with Candace and got her pregnant?"

"How was I meant to know it was my baby? As far as I knew it were nothing but a drunken mistake!" He shot back, his voice cracking slightly.

The Wilson girl took a deep breath. She didn't know exactly how she was feeling, but it felt like a whirlwind of emotions had hit her. Anger. Confusion. Hurt. Betrayal.

Her eyes looked to Jordan who looked just as torn up as she did. And then there was Candace, who looked on helplessly, almost frightened of the mess that she'd created. And lastly there was Kieran. The boy that she once thought could do no wrong, but was now wearing an expression of nothing but guilt on his face.

He took a step closer and reached out to grab her hands, but she instantly stepped back from him. She could barely look at him, let alone touch him. He swallowed thickly, hurt by her resistance.

"We weren't together back then, Mollie."

"Oh yeah?" She quirked an eyebrow at his excuse, another dry laugh leaving her mouth instinctively. "Well we aren't now, either. We're over."

"Over?" Kieran choked as he repeated the word, as if he'd been physically winded. "Over?"

"You thick or something? You heard her, and now you need to leave and never come back." It was Jordan this time who responded, stepping closer to Kieran until there was only inches between their faces. He was smaller than Kieran, but that didn't mean he was scared of the older boy one bit as he squared up to him. "You hear that or do you want me to say it again?"

"Jord, stop." Mollie said quietly, trying to limit any further escalation. No doubt the neighbors had heard everything already, and the last thing they needed was a physical fight to really draw attention to themselves. But Jordan didn't back down, his eyes still fixed menacingly on the taller boy.

Kieran looked over to Mollie one last time, and any part of his heart that was still in tact shattered completely. He didn't care about any bruises that Jordan would give him, knowing that he deserved them after everything that had happened. The pain he felt inside was more than enough.

Finally, he drew in a sharp breath and reluctantly nodded. On the verge of tears, he said the only two words that came to him before turning to leave. "I'm sorry."

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hi. I hate this chapter with a passion and I kept putting off writing it bc I had no inspiration/motivation.
but it's out of the way now and I thought it was better to get something out than nothing at all. so sorry for how dreadfully poor it is xx
anyways i kinda know what I wanna happen next, but do let me know if you have any thoughts!!
sorry again and thank you for readingggg!! :)
ps every time i read the start of the chapter my head kept thinking of "it's...Rebekah Vardy" looool