𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

fourty-five

"He actually understood what you did?" Nas furrowed her eyebrows, unable to hide her feelings any longer.

"What can I say? I was born to be loved." Missy said, with an unconvincing smile that faltered quickly.

"Missy, look-" Mollie began weakly, but the truth was that she didn't actually know what it was that she wanted to say. It didn't seem to matter, however, as Missy was keen to avoid any more conversation.

"Have a good day at school. I'm gonna exfoliate my feet." Missy picked up the wash basket as she made her way towards the door, leaving the two other girls to simply watch in silence.

✰ ✰ ✰

𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐀𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐃. The recent events had certainly been weighing on her mind, and needless to say, learning about cell division wasn't helping in the slightest.

"I can't be arsed for this anymore. Wanna scrap it and watch Netflix instead?" She looked up hopefully at Riz, who was sat across from her with a textbook in his hands. Judging by the unimpressed look on his face, it was safe to say that he was feeling the same way.

"Thought you'd never ask." He said, leaning his head back in exhaustion and throwing the book onto the bed. "As long as its not another horror film. You know how I felt about the last one."

"Wait, were you scared? There was me thinking you were just using it as an excuse to hold my hand the whole time." Mollie said teasingly, causing Riz to roll his eyes.

While Mollie grabbed her laptop to set it up, Riz gathered up the textbooks they'd been using and leaned down to place them on the floor by the bed. But when he looked down, his eyes shifted towards something that looked like a leaflet that had fallen from Mollie's bedside table.

Studying Mental Health Nursing.

His eyebrows furrowed together for a second in confusion, as it was something that he'd never heard her mention before. While he didn't want to be invasive, he couldn't help but pick it up in curiosity.

"What's that?" Mollie asked as she noticed something in his hands, but it didn't take long for her to realise.

"I wasn't snooping, or anything, I promise. It was just-" Riz stopped defending himself, and looked up to meet Mollie's eyes. "Nursing?"

"Never seen that before. Must've picked it up by accident at the fayre, or something." Mollie replied dismissively, leaning forward to take it from his grasp.

"You're a terrible liar, Mol." Riz chuckled, a light smile gracing his lips. "Is this something you want to do? Honestly?"

"Dunno." Mollie shrugged defensively, before sighing. As guarded as she was, she felt as though it wouldn't hurt to let her walls down slightly. If there was one person she could be completely honest with, Riz had proved that it was him. And plus, she couldn't help but wonder whether it might actually be helpful to have a second opinion on it. "It's just an idea, you know? I've just seen how it's helped my dad, and thought it were something I could do."

Riz nodded intently. "I think that sounds amazing. Honest."

Mollie's lips quirked upwards ever so slightly and she held fleeting eye contact with Riz for a short second, before looking back down at her bed. "It'll probably come to nothing, anyway. Not like I'll get the grades."