"Kendall come back here!" Sutton said as she strapped Aubrea in the shopping cart. She watched as her daughter ran deeper into the store and up to a display of banana's. It was Sunday afternoon and Sutton took the girls with her to the grocery store so that Theyer could study for his test he had Monday morning. Sunday's were always the busiest. Families all stopping by to grab lunch or do weekly groceries after church. People milled around, pushing carts and dodging Kendall's obvious movements.
Kendall swirled around and looked back at Sutton, her hair followed behind, "Mom can we have banana's?" She asked picking a few up from the display.
Sutton approached her and grabbed her hand, "Yes, we need banana's but you need to stay with me. It's busy and I can't keep an eye on you twenty-four seven and shop at the same time." She grabbed the banana's and put them in her cart. "Come on. Let's go find food to bring home for daddy." She pushed the cart towards the produce department. It seemed extra crowded this afternoon and Sutton desperately tried to maneuver her cart around the people inspecting apples and bagging oranges. She stopped to grab some pears for Kendall's lunchbox when an older woman in her 70's pushed her away through the crowd unfazed by the people who stood in her way. Some would groan and move their carts and others would kindly step out of the woman's way, but she made her way through, she approached the pears where Sutton stood still holding her daughter's hand. The woman said nothing as she shoved her way into the small space. She pushed against Kendall as if to move her out of the way. The movement caused Kendall to stumble backwards, pulling on Sutton's hand. Sutton looked up at the woman and pulled Kendall back to her side, "Hey do you mind?" She said to the woman.
The older woman looked at Sutton with a glare, "I'm sorry can I help you with something?" Her voice was smug and judgmental like she'd heard some horrible rumor about Sutton but she'd never seen this woman in her life.
"You could have said excuse me instead of pushing my daughter out of the way." Sutton said in a cool and equally smug tone. She tied the bag of pears and placed them in her cart.
She was about to walk away when the woman said something Sutton couldn't help but want to respond to, "You need to keep your child in the shopping cart where she belongs." The woman said. "She doesn't need to be taking up the limited amount of space there is." Sure there wasn't a ton of space between the aisles, but there were other children standing beside there parents while they grabbed their produce. It wasn't like Kendall was making it impossible for others to get in if they needed to.
"My daughter was perfectly fine." She said, "You could have said excuse me."
The woman looked at her, "Look, keep your obnoxious child in the shopping cart where she belongs and you won't have this problem." The woman gathered her pears and started to walk off but not before turning around once more to say one last remark, "I hope you raise her to not make her mother's teenage pregnancy mistakes."
Sutton was taken aback and looked at the woman, "excuse me?" She said. She gripped Kendall's hand tighter in instinct, but let go when she realized she was hurting the wrong person. "Who the hell are you and how do you even know how old I am?"
The older woman looked at her, "Your father was my doctor. Word gets around in a small small town, Sutton. A baby at 17? Is that really what Dr. Mercer would have wanted from his perfect little girl?"
Blood boiled in Sutton's veins just at the sound of her father's name. "You don't know anything about my father or my kids. So you can dislike the fact that I had my daughter when I was 17, but how dare you take it out on the little girl who doesn't understand." She pulled Kendall's hand, "Come on baby. Let's keep going." She turned and gave the woman an ugly look. How dare she? She thought. Sure she wanted to strangle the woman right there in the produce department but what kind of example was fighting going to set for Kendall. She might have been a younger mom, but she still wanted the best for her children.
"We are beginning our descent into Phoenix Airport. Please fasten your seat belts and turn off all electronic devices." A voice over the PA system said. Austin pulled the eye mask off his face and put his seat back in it's upright position. He looked out the window at the dessert landscape of Arizona. It was certainly a different sight than the green pastures of his hometown in Pennsylvania. He looked one last time at the baby in the picture he'd saved to his phone. His heart burst with a thousand feelings. Fear, love, sadness, anxiety, joy. He watched as the photo faded to black as the phone shut off but the image was still evident in his mind. When the plane landed he grabbed his only bag from the overhead compartment and waited in the seemingly endless line to get off the plane.
The airport wasn't very full of people coming or going. His heart pounded as he found the first service station to grab a cab. He sat alone as he waited for the cab to arrive. People filed around him looking at maps and signs trying to find where they were supposed to find their belongings. Austin looked up his old friend's number, "Hey, it's me." He finally said.
"Hey! Are you here already?" His friend said.
"Yeah. I'm waiting on the cab. Have you said anything to her at all?" He said nervously bouncing his leg up and down.
"Who, Sutton? No. I haven't seen much of her. Why? Was I supposed to?" He asked.
Austin looked up as a cab pulled up, he grabbed his bag and headed out the door, "No. I'm actually glad. I need to do this. I just can't believe she lied to me." He said. The driver helped him with his bag and Austin climbed into the back seat. He looked at the driver giving him his friend's address, "Look, I'll be there soon. You are home,right?"
"Yeah. I'm here. See you soon." He said, "But hey, don't do anything too rash. Don't call her or anything."
Austin shook his head, "No I'm not. I'm just pissed she lied to me. Anyways, I'll see you soon."
"Yeah, see you soon." His friend said then ended the call. Austin's phone went back to her instagram. She'd posted a new photo since he last checked. The tiny baby in her car seat. He desperately looked at the little girl. It seemed too early to see any kind of similarities, but still his heart pulled. She said she was getting the abortion, he thought. Did she back out? No! He thought. I told her to do it. But a daughter. He couldn't help but think about her, Aubrea. His Aubrea.
"Grab those bags in the backseat, honey?" Sutton called from the kitchen. She'd just returned from the store and she had more food than she had intended on buying. But that was typical when she had Kendall with her. In one arm, she was weighed down with as many bags as she could carry and Aubrea asleep in her other arm. She dropped the bags in the kitchen and laid Aubrea in her pack and play to sleep while she unpacked the grocery bags. Kendall dragged a few light bags in with Thayer close behind, a large pack of toilet paper under one hand and several other bags in his hand.
He dropped the bags on the floor and looked at Sutton, "Hey," He said kissing her, "Successful shopping trip?"
Sutton placed a box of popsicles in the freezer and looked at Thayer, "Other than the fact that some bitchy woman had to condemn me for having a baby at 17 after she practically knocked Kendall to the ground. Yeah, it was fine."
Thayer looked at her, "Wait, what?"
Sutton sighed, "Oh yeah. Apparently my dad's patients know all about me and Kendall and the fact that I was 17 when she was born and they all seem to have an opinion on it." She felt hot tears pierce her eyes and Thayer pulled her into his arms. "What the hell do they know about me or you or Kendall to have any say on the matter?" the tears slipped down her cheek and splashed on his shoulder.
"Oh sweetheart, they don't have a say. You know that. They can all go away for all I care." he squeezed her a little tighter and she felt the tears fall faster.
"All I want is to just be a good mom. I get it. I know that being a mom at 17 isn't exactly what parents want from there kids, but it wasn't like we planned on this happening. I tried so hard to be a good mom. I tried so hard." She sobbed.
Thayer felt his heart pull. Sutton didn't deserve to be treated like this. How could people just not accept the fact that she's just as much a mother as any of them, "Baby," he said softly, "Baby you are an amazing mother. Kendall is a wonderful little girl. These people are just jealous of us. We have an amazing little family and even though things haven't always been ideal, they are getting better. So what if they disapprove? They don't know anything. Don't let those jealous bitches make you think you are anything less than a wonderful mom." Just as that moment, Kendall wrapped her arms around Sutton and Thayer's legs and Thayer broke the hug to invite their daughter in.
Sutton lifted her daughter and pressed her between herself and Thayer and she looked at her mom, "Mommy why are you upset?" Sheasked.
Sutton shook her head, "Just those things that lady at the grocery store said baby."
Kendall wiped her mom's tears just like Sutton had done so many times to her, "She was talking about me." She stated, "Am I bad girl?"
Sutton's heart pulled, "No sweetie. You're not a bad girl. People like to talk about things they don't understand."
"Like Leila's mommy at school?" She said, "Does she not like you mommy?"
Sutton shook her head, these people were going to make her five year old believe that she was some kind of horrible human being, "No baby. But you know what? They don't know what they are talking about. Leila is a sweet girl and I know she's one of your friends, don't let her mommy's words make you think that you can't be friend's with Leila, okay?"
Kendall looked at her mom, "I'm sorry her mommy doesn't like you." Then she smiled, "But I love you!" She said joyfully.
Her words made Sutton smile, "I love you too, baby girl." She said hugging her daughter. She looked at Thayer. He smiled at her and kissed her, "I love you too, ya know." She said smiling. People were going to talk and Sutton knew that. They've been talking for five years. Criticizing every decision Sutton ever made in regards to her family. But never in five years has someone came out and made comments about it to her face. The nerve of people. She thought. But it didn't matter, she was a mother and she knew she did what was best for her kids and the acceptance and love of her family was more important than the acceptance of the community.
A/N: SO this chapter is kind of mundane and uneventful, but this actually happened to me a few weeks ago. I just embellished a bit for enjoyment. :)