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"𝙄 𝙈𝙄𝙎𝙎𝙀𝘿 𝙆𝙄𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙔𝙊𝙐."

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"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐘?" Jordan paced into the living room with a huff, slumping down onto the sofa.

"Milk, you div." Mollie rolled her eyes at the boys obliviousness as she sat on the floor and bounced the baby in her arms. It felt weird to think she was an auntie, but she loved kids and certainly had a soft spot for this blue-eyed baby.

"Like, semi-skimmed?"

Scoffing, Mollie balanced Jamie with one arm while using the other to pick up a pillow and throw it in Jordan's direction. "No, they make this special baby milk formula. I've sent Kieran to the shop to get some, don't worry."

"Really? Thanks, Mol." He said quietly, causing his sister to smile gently at him."I mean it. I don't know what I would've done without you and Kieran today."

"S'alright." She replied with a soft shrug and a smile, looking down at Jamie in her arms. "I mean, it was a lot to comprehend at first, don't get me wrong. But, i can't deny that he's pretty cute."

"Yeah, I guess he is." Jordan muttered, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards ever so slightly into what could only loosely be described as a smile. But as he watched the baby for a moment, his smile faltered and his face dropped. "They ruin your life though, don't they? Kids, I mean. Dad says it all the time."

"He doesn't mean it." Mollie shot back, although she didn't quite believe her own words. And by the scoff that's came from Jordan's mouth, it seemed he didn't believe it either. "Dad loves us, he just struggles sometimes. He's had to raise us all on his own since mum left, it's not easy."

"I know, I just don't wanna be like that with Jamie. I don't wanna mess his life up."

"And you won't, Jord. But first you have to stop running away from it all." She said with a sincere tone, hoping to get through to him. "And that starts with talking to Candace."

"I will. We're meeting up later, actually."

"That's good." Mollie smiled gently. "What time?"

"In about an hour." Jordan muttered, playing with his hands nervously, but was taken aback by the sound of a sudden knock at the door. Raising his eyebrows in surprise, he stood up from the sofa and began walking into the hall. "Shit, maybe that's her."

Mollie took a deep breath in an attempt to compose herself. There was no telling how this conversation would go, but she had a pretty bad feeling about it. But that feeling only grew worse when she heard the voice of the person behind the door.

"Jordan, why did you leave school early today?" Was that...Mr Bell?

"Shit." Mollie muttered, before remembering she was still holding Jamie. "I shouldn't swear around a baby. Shit, sorry Jamie. Shit, I did it again."

As she muttered apologies under her breath to the baby in her arms, trying to stand up quickly. But in her panic, she accidentally bumped into the coffee table, causing it to fall over and everything on it to spill loudly onto the floor. As if the clatter wasn't enough to alert Mr Bell of her presence, Jamie began to cry at the sudden noise. She did her best to quieten him and rub his back soothingly, but when she heard Mr Bell question what the noise was, it was clear that he'd heard.

She turned her back to the door, hoping that maybe if he didn't actually see Jamie then he wouldn't notice him. But it was too late.

"Mollie?" Mr Bell questioned as he entered the living room, his eyes widening when the cries became less muffled and the Wilson girl turned around sheepishly with a baby in her arms. "Oh my god."

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐉𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐑 once he pulled up outside the school gates. Neither Mollie or Jordan had told their older brother about the events of the previous day, or their dad for that matter. Jordan had even managed to swear Mr Bell to secrecy about the situation, who then drove him to see Candace and try to repair the situation.

Waiting until the two boys were definitely gone, Kieran cleared his throat as he shifted in his chair to face Mollie. "You're not mad at me because I didn't tell you I was friends with Reece Murgatroyd, are you?"

"No. What makes you think I'm mad at you?"

"Well firstly, you told me to go home straight after I came back from getting that baby formula from the shop. And secondly, you didn't reply to my goodnight text, which you only ever do when you're mad at me."

Not expecting him to speak so honestly, Mollie pouted and folded her arms across her chest with a huff. "Shut up. Stop knowing me so well."

Kieran chuckled, before his expression softened. "I get it, I should've told you. I'm sorry."

"Kieran, stop." Mollie said, dropping the pout on her face and turning to him with a soft smile. "I was a little mad at you yesterday because I was overthinking. It's stupid, but I guess I thought that if I didn't know something as small as who your friends are, then there might've been other stuff I didn't know about you. Big, important stuff. I started questioning if I even know you."

"Are you serious?"

"It's stupid, I know-"

"It's not stupid, darlin." He said, his voice gentle and understanding as he reached out to stroke her hand with his own. "You can trust me, Mol, wholeheartedly and completely. I'm sorry I made you doubt that."

"You didn't, I promise. I slept on it and realised how ridiculous it was. I mean, you left work to come and help confront the mother of my little brother's child. If that doesn't show I can trust you, I don't really know what does." She shrugged with a laugh, earning a chuckle from Kieran.

"So, we're good?" He asked hopefully, biting his lip as he waited for her answer.

"Yeah, we're good." She nodded assuredly with a smile.

"Good. Because i missed kissing you." He smirked, leaning closer to connect their lips.

"It was, like, twelve hours, babe." She mumbled into the kiss with a smile.

"That's too long." He hummed back, continuing to kiss her. The kiss deepened as their lips moved against each other, and Mollie reached her hands up to cup his chin, the light stubble of his beard tickling her skin.

After a while, they were broken apart by a tap on the window. Nearly jumping out of her skin, Mollie looked to see Miss Keane waving at her and telling her to roll down the window. She did so with a grimacing smile, awkwardly smiling at her teacher. "Morning Miss."

"Morning, Mollie. Sorry to interrupt, but school starts in five minutes, so I just thought you might wanna, you know, wrap this up." She said, gesturing awkwardly between the two, causing Mollie to practically die of embarrassment and sink back into the seat as if it could swallow her up.

"Great. Cheers Miss." She said with a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up, groaning as the teacher walked away. Despite her embarrassment, Kieran only snickered at the girl, which earned him a slap on the shoulder.

"I hate you."

"You love me."

"In your dreams." She rolled her eyes, leaning forward to give him one last kiss. But, much to his annoyance, she swerved at the last minute and only pecked him on the cheek.

Now it was his turn to groan as he watched her undo her seatbelt and grab her bag. "I hate you more."

"Sure you do, babe." She smirked, sufficiently satisfied that she'd annoyed him enough. "See ya later, hun."

Slinging her bag over her shoulders, she gave the boy one last wave before closing the car door and walking towards school. As she entered, she frowned at the sight of Jordan, who was sitting in the Reception area and nervously playing with his hands. She couldn't help but wonder what trouble he was in now.

"Jord, you okay?" She asked as she approached him, eyebrows furrowed.

"Dad knows." He said simply, his voice nearly breaking with panic. Mollie's heart dropped instantly, and she opened her mouth to question him, but was cut off by the sudden presence of Mr Bell.

"You alright, guys?" He asked with a soft tone, eyes shifting between the two siblings. "Why you waiting here?"

"You're a liar." Jordan spat with conviction. Mr Bell gave him a confused look, but the realization dawned on him as Kevin Wilson charged through the door of Mrs Carter's office and paced over to where his children were.

"Up." His glare fixed on Jordan alone, it was clear that he was filled with rage. "Why weren't I called in yesterday?"

"We wanted time to assess the-" Mrs Carter began, trying to diffuse the situation but it was clearly no use when the Wilson father spoke over her.

"Assess what? Dumb kid's fallen for a pack of lies."

"Dad, stop." Mollie spoke up.

"Not you and all, Mollie. I mean, I'd expect it from Jordan, but i didn't have you down for believing stupid stories like this. You're meant to be the smart one."

"It's not a stupid story." She said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

"It's my baby." Jordan asserted, earning a dry laugh from his father.

"Says who? Candice? She tell you that?"

"Yeah, she's right."

Their dad scoffed again and his voice became mocking. "You haven't even got pubes."

"Hey, whoa, enough. Enough now, hey?" Mr Bell interjected and tried to calm the man down, but instead only seemed to put himself in the firing line as the Wilson father narrowed his eyes at him.

"Do you let your staff walk around like that? No wonder he comes home black and blue, he's obviously copying off the teachers."

Mr Bell looked down with a guilty express, before sighing and nodding in Jordan's direction. "Go on, Jordan. You can tell him."

The room was silent for a moment, tensions high as Mrs Carter shot her husband a glare, while Mollie just looked around in confusion. Jordan, however, simply shook his head and looked down. "It's nothing, Dad."

Letting out a breath of relief, Mrs Carter looked at the two students. "Why don't you two head to your form rooms?"

"Alright, thank you, Mrs Carter." Mollie smiled, not even giving Jordan time to respond and she grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the confrontation.

Once they were out of earshot, Jordan let out a shaky breath. "Dad's gonna kill me, isn't he?"

Mollie swallowed thickly, genuinely unsure of what to say. It was hard to be reassuring when there was no bright side to the situation. Chewing down on her lip, all she could do was bring her little brother into a tight hug and squeeze him supportively. "He'll have to go through me and Cory first. Us three till the very end, yeah?"

Pulling back from the hug, she held out her pinky finger. At first, Jordan rolled his eyes at the cringey gesture, but when he saw the care and concern in his sister's eyes, he caved in and met her finger with his own. "Yeah, alright."

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