𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 - 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

eight

"Yeah. 'Cause you're gay." Cory muttered with a roll of his eyes, turning away from the boy and back to the desk.

"Look, I'm not gay. Alright?" After a moment, Riz leaned closer to Cory and spoke with a hushed tone so no one else could hear. "It's just...I'm a virgin and I've never had a girlfriend. I just wanted to know how a lad like you talks to a girl- I mean, girls in general. What you say to 'em and stuff."

Riz bit his lip. What he was saying wasn't exactly wrong, but he was leaving out one key piece of information. He didn't care about getting girls in the plural, but there was one in particular that he always struggled to message and grew flustered around. He knew that Cory was the only person that could help him, but he just couldn't tell him who the girl was. He valued his life far too much.

"Swear down?" The corners of Cory's mouth twitched, his face softening and an expression of amusement replaced his earlier look of annoyance. Reluctantly, Riz nodded,which only made Cory grin even more. "Well, you, my friend, have come to the right man."

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"𝐌𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐏𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐆𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌? I didn't even know we had a rugby team." Mollie asked with wide eyes as Riz recounted his fight with Cory as the two leaned against their lockers. He had, of course, omitted the part where he'd catfished Cory to find out how to talk to girls- he figured Mollie probably didn't need to know that information.

"We do now." Riz sighed, not at all pleased with the idea of being coerced into playing rugby. "I think it's to help us integrate or something. All I know is I'm not looking forward to it."

"Aw, why not?" Mollie smirked, noticing the frown on his face and poking his cheek playfully. "Scared you'll hurt your pretty face?"

"Shut up, you." He batted away he hand and rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the blush that grew on his cheeks as she giggled. But before he could say anything more, he felt a firm hand tap him on his shoulder from behind.

Turning around, he was met with the all too familiar dimpled smirk of Cory Wilson. "Now's your chance, bro."

"What are you on about, mate?" Riz looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"You wanna know how I get all these girls? Well, you're gonna see it for yourself. Straight from the master." He explained, a smug look in his face as he nodded towards two girls in the year below who were approaching- Chloe Voyle and Hayley Booth.

"Cory, that's literally not what I meant at all." Fox muttered as his face turned pale but it seemed that Cory wasn't listening as he eyed the two girls up and ran a hand through his hair.

"Watch and learn, loser." He gave the Nawaz boy one last clap on the shoulder, while Mollie just scoffed at his antics. "Oi, London. You gonna watch the rugby game later?"

"Uh, I can't. I've got detention..I think." Chloe smiled, although she was stammering slightly in nerves. Getting stopped in the hallway by someone in the year above like Cory wasn't quite an everyday occurrence.

"Aw, what's the matter?" He pouted playfully, exchanging a glance with Riz who was simply standing next to him awkwardly. "Don't like watching lads get all sweaty?"

The girl chuckled, a blush creeping onto her cheeks. Seeing this, Cory's face softened. "What you doing tomorrow night after school?"

"Um, not much."

"You wanna go out?" Cory asked seriously, causing both Chloe and Hayley's eyes to widen. Looking at Chloe, Hayley nodded in the least subtle way possible.

"Yeah...okay." Chloe answered quickly with a smile.

"Alright, cool." Cory said, the corners of his mouth tugging into a smile. The two girls started to walk away, arm in arm, when Cory nudged Riz suddenly.

"Come on, man."

"No, Cory, I-"

"Just do it, bro." Cory cut him off, growing impatient.

Reluctantly, Riz sighed. He didn't exactly want to ask anyone out- especially not in front of Mollie- but he'd basically been set up by Cory, who was bound to tell the other boys if he backed out. And as the Wilson boy gave him another nudge, less gentle and a lot more blatant this time, he knew he couldn't get out of this one.

"Hayley." He called after her, biting his lip as the two girls turned back around. "Fancy going out as well?"

"Me?" She furrowed her eyebrows, biting back a smile.

"Yeah." Riz said after another nudge from Cory.

"Yeah alright." She smiled with a shrug, before pulling Chloe away.

Once they were gone, Cory turned to Riz with a grin. "Nice one, man. The student becomes the master, eh?"

Riz halfheartedly fist bumped Cody, forcing a smile onto his face, while Mollie just scoffed in disapproval. For some reason, she felt weird about the whole thing. She was used to Cory trying to chat up any girl in the school with a pulse, but it was somehow strange seeing Riz following his lead. Shaking her head quickly, she dismissed the thought and figured it was probably just her protectiveness towards Hayley taking over and nothing more- she saw the younger Booth girl as a sister, after all. Yeah, that was probably it.

"Swear to God, you'd better take them somewhere nice or I will personally kill you both." She gave them both a suitably threatening glare, before turning around with a flick of her hair and walking off down the hallway.

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hope you enjoyed :) <3