★彡ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ | ᴘᴀᴜʟ ᴍᴄᴄᴀʀᴛɴᴇʏ彡★ ✅

★彡[ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 8]彡★

Mollie, a naturally curious child, had a million questions for her sister on their way home. Her mind was abuzz, and it was all she could do to wait until the man had driven away to begin asking her questions.

She wanted to know who the man was that Abby had been speaking to - because her sister had never mentioned an interest in anybody to her before, and Mollie thought that they told each other everything.

"Who was that man?" She asked. "How do you know each other? How did you meet? Where does he live? Why wouldn't you let me see him?" Mollie opened her mouth to keep asking questions, but Abby cut her off. She had spoke in such quick succession previously that Abby had a hard time remembering everything she had asked.

"His name is Paul, we met a few weeks ago when he bought me some flowers and I don't know where he lives. I didn't let you see him because he's not important. There, satisfied now, Mol?"

Mollie wasn't satisfied, and instead asked another question. "Why did he buy you flowers?"

"He said that every pretty girl should have flowers given to them by a man." Abby led Mollie up the path and used her key to get into the building. Mollie was silent, thinking about how that was quite possibly a bad attitude to have: a woman didn't need a man to give her flowers, did she? Why couldn't she be independent and get her own flowers?

Mollie promised herself that as soon as she was old enough to have her own money, she'd do just that!

Without another word, the two sisters went upstairs and then into their flat.

Knowing that her sister would want a cup of tea - and fancying one herself - Mollie went and refilled the kettle, putting it on immediately. Abby took off her shoes and then went into the kitchen, getting two mugs out and putting a teabag into each.

When the water was boiled, she filled the mugs up and then added a dash of milk into either one. Abby had been shopping the day before because she had been paid. It was so nice to not have to find something to eat when they had barely anything in the cupboards!

The night before last, Abby hadn't eaten at all. There had only been the end of a loaf of bread left in the cupboard, and it was more important to her that Mollie went to bed with as full a stomach as possible - so she had given her sister the bread and insisted that she wasn't hungry.

In fact, she had been starving, but Mollie hadn't needed to know that.

"Did you get any homework today?" Abby asked as she and her sister sat at the small, circular dining table in the middle of the kitchen.

Mollie nodded. "Maths."

Abby fought the urge to groan. Maths was not her strong suit, and she had been very happy when she had left school at the age of sixteen and hadn't had to think about it anymore (beyond adding up money at whatever job she'd been in since then!) but she was very keen about helping Mollie.

"Need help?" Abby asked, hoping that she didn't. Mollie wasn't too good at maths either, but she was a little better than Abby was. Abby was sure that her sister would do better with her homework if she didn't help her.

But Mollie nodded. "Now?"

Abby shrugged. The sooner we get this over with, the better, she thought.

"And then we need to have a chat about today."

What with the meeting with Paul, Mollie had almost forgotten that she had been sent home early from school.

Abby wasn't likely to shout at her for what she had done; Abby wasn't really one to shout... no, instead she would tell her sister how disappointed she was with her and how she expected better.

And that was a thousand times worst.

"Go and get your bag, Mol."

Mollie got up from the table and went to grab her bag, which she had dropped in the hallway as soon as she had walked through the door. She came back to Abby and reached inside, pulling out her worksheets.

Again, Abby had to fight the urge to groan.

That was a lot of work.

"When's this due?"

"Well it's work that we were supposed to be doing in school this afternoon... so tomorrow?"

"For crying out loud, Mol," Abby facepalmed, "why can't you just behave? Y'know I'm not good at math. Now we're both being punished."

"I'm sorry, Abs, I really am. I just... I got angry and I lost control and -"

"You can't just 'lose control', Mollie." Abby stirred her tea, really wishing that their mum was around to reprimand Mollie instead. She hated telling her sister off. "You don't think I ever want to just 'lose control'? That kind of shit will get you arrested when you're older if you're not careful! You have to learn to control it now."

"But you don't know what Margaret was saying -"

"I don't care what she was saying, Mollie, because you're the one who got caught and told off for it... and because people are going to say a lot worst to you, no matter what it was. You've got to be more careful." And now for the bomb, "I expected better from you."

Mollie hung her head, ashamed. She felt hot tears pricking her eyes but she refused to let them fall.

Instead, she let herself take a few seconds and then held her head up high again. "Can we get on with these questions? I want to go to bed."

Abby felt her heart ache. She had done that - made her sister feel so bad that she wanted to go to bed.

Abby looked at the clock (for which she had replaced the batteries) and saw that it was only half past two.

"It's a bit early to go to bed, Mol."

"I just want to be alone." Mollie took a pen from her pencil case and looked at the first question. She read it out loud and looked up at her sister.

Abby felt terrible, but knew that sometimes she had to play the mean role. That's what being a parent was about, wasn't it? And whilst she wasn't Mollie's parent, she was as close as her little sister had, and so it was her role to step into.

But she had made her sister feel badly enough for what had happened.

"Let's get on with this, then." Abby moved to the chair beside Mollie and the two of them bent their heads over the maths questions.